20 Wisdom cries aloud in the street,
in the markets she raises her voice;
21 at the head of the noisy streets she cries out;
at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:
22 “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?
How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing
and fools hate knowledge?
23 If you turn at my reproof,[a]
behold, I will pour out my spirit to you;
I will make my words known to you.
The words used in 22, 23 to convey wisdom's reproof are interesting and revealing. 'Simple' and 'simplicity' are derogative terms: the Hebrew word means someone who is easily gullible, someone who is mentally naive and morally wilful and irresponsible, an easy prey to temptation; one whose instability could be rectified but who prefers not to accept discipline in the school of wisdom. There are many like this; they are not so much bad as irresponsible, and this is where their vulnerability lies. 'Scorner' is a darker word. As Kidner puts it, 'the mischief he does is not the random mischief of the ordinary fool, but the deeper damage of the 'debunker' and deliberate trouble-maker'. The 'fool' is one who is dull and obstinate. It is impressive to see the fine shades of meaning that the Scriptures place upon the various kinds of folly that beguile and betray the hearts of men. This is in line with the basic distinction generally drawn in biblical revelation be- tween those sins attributable to human frailty and those that are more 'spiritual', i.e. those that are 'purely' evil in essence. In fact, most human sin has an admixture of both: and it is when the 'spiritual' more and more predominates over the wayward that the sin becomes more devilish and dangerous, the ultimate issue of this progression being the 'sin unto death', or the 'sin against the Holy Spirit', for which there is no forgiveness. The frightening thing about sin is that, even when it begins as the expression of waywardness and human frailty, it tends inevitably towards the other, more sinister, form when persist- ed in. This is a tendency that no man can control. Sin always becomes the master, once it is committed, and calls the tune.