1. Wisdom has built her spacious house with seven pillars.
2. She has prepared a great banquet, mixed the wines, and set the table.
3. She has sent her servants to invite everyone to come. She calls out from the heights overlooking the city.
4. "Come home with me," she urges the simple. To those without good judgment, she says,
5. "Come, eat my food, and drink the wine I have mixed.
6. Leave your foolish ways behind, and begin to live; learn how to be wise."
7. Anyone who rebukes a mocker will get a smart retort. Anyone who rebukes the wicked will get hurt.
8. So don't bother rebuking mockers; they will only hate you. But the wise, when rebuked, will love you all the more.
9. Teach the wise, and they will be wiser. Teach the righteous, and they will learn more.
10. Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Knowledge of the Holy One results in understanding.
11. Wisdom will multiply your days and add years to your life.
12. If you become wise, you will be the one to benefit. If you scorn wisdom, you will be the one to suffer.
13. The woman named Folly is loud and brash. She is ignorant and doesn't even know it.
14. She sits in her doorway on the heights overlooking the city.
15. She calls out to men going by who are minding their own business.
16. "Come home with me," she urges the simple. To those without good judgment, she says,
17. "Stolen water is refreshing; food eaten in secret tastes the best!"
18. But the men don't realize that her former guests are now in the grave.