Proverbs 1:20

18 But they lie in wait for their own blood,
They lurk secretly for their own lives.

19 ^aSo are the ways of everyone who is greedy for gain;
It takes away the life of its owners.

The Call of Wisdom

20 ^aWisdom calls aloud¹ outside;
She raises her voice in the open squares.

21 She cries out in the¹ chief concourses,
At the openings of the gates in the city
She speaks her words:

22 “How long, you¹ simple ones, will you love simplicity?
For scorners delight in their scorning,
And fools hate knowledge.

23 Turn at my rebuke;
Surely ^aI will pour out my spirit on you;
I will make my words known to you.

24 ^aBecause I have called and you refused,
I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded,

25 Because you ^adisdained all my counsel,
And would have none of my rebuke,

26 ^aI also will laugh at your calamity;
I will mock when your terror comes,

27 When ^ayour terror comes like a storm,
And your destruction comes like a whirlwind,
When distress and anguish come upon you.

28 “Then^a they will call on me, but I will not answer;
They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me.

Commentaries:

Barnes' Notes

<< Proverbs 1:19

Proverbs 1:21 >>

Proverbs 1:20

Wisdom is personified. In the Hebrew the noun is a feminine plural, as though this Wisdom were the queen of all wisdoms, uniting in herself all their excellences. She lifts up her voice, not in solitude, but in the haunts of men "without," i. e., outside the walls, in the streets, at the highest point of all places of concourse, in the open space of the gates where the elders meet and the king sits in judgment, in the heart of the city itself Proverbs 1:21; through sages, lawgivers, teachers, and yet more through life and its experiences, she preaches to mankind. Socrates said that the fields and the trees taught him nothing, but that he found the wisdom he was seeking in his converse with the men whom he met as he walked in the streets and agora of Athens.

Other Barnes' Notes entries containing Proverbs 1:20:

Proverbs 8:2-3
Ecclesiastes 1:1
Ecclesiastes 12:8-14
Isaiah 12:6
Amos 5:10
Micah 5:2

<< Proverbs 1:19

Proverbs 1:21 >>

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The Call of Wisdom

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