UST PRO Chapter 9

9 Imagine that everything that is wise is a woman. Imagine that this woman has built her own spacious house

and made seven pillars to support its roof.

2 Imagine that she has prepared a meal for guests.

She has prepared the meat to eat and wine to drink.

She has fully prepared her table for a meal.

3 Imagine that this woman has sent out her maids to invite her dinner guests.

Then she calls out at the highest place in the city where everyone can hear her.

4 She tells those who are not wise,

“Come into my house, all you naive people!

5 Come to me! Eat the food that I have prepared,

and drink the wine that I have prepared.

6 Stop acting naively so that you can live well.

Do what will cause you to learn what you should understand.

7 If you try to teach someone who ridicules other people, that person will ridicule you.

If you correct an evil person, that person will hurt you.

8 So do not correct a person who ridicules other people. If you do so, then that person will hate you.

However, if you correct a wise person, that person will love you for doing so.

9 If you instruct wise people, then they will become even wiser.

If you teach righteous people, then they will learn even more.

10 If you want to be wise, you must start by revering Yahweh,

and only by knowing what is holy will you understand which teachings are wise and true.

11 Surely being wise will cause you to live for many more years.

12 Any wise person benefits himself from being wise,

just as anyone who ridicules other people will personally suffer for doing so.”

13 Foolish women speak loudly,

act naively, and are very ignorant.

14 They sit at the doors of the places where they dwell.

They sit on seats at the highest place in the city where everyone can hear them.

15 They sit there in order to call out to the people who are walking past them.

They call out to those walking down the road, who are only concerned about where they are going.

16 They tell those who are not wise,

“Come into my house, all you naive people!

17 Come to me, because having sex with someone to whom you are not married is as sweet as water that you have stolen.

Indeed, it is as delicious as food that you eat all by yourself.”

18 But men who go to the houses of such women are not aware that the men who have gone there before have died.

They are not aware that the guests of such women are now in the deepest parts of the place where dead people are.