9 Wisdom has built her house;
she has hewn her seven pillars.
2 She has slaughtered her beasts; she has mixed her wine;
she has also set her table.
3 She has sent out her young women to call
from the highest places in the town,
4 “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!”
To him who lacks sense she says,
5 “Come, eat of my bread
and drink of the wine I have mixed.
6 Leave your simple ways, and live,
and walk in the way of insight.”
This chapter continues the contrast between wisdom and folly. This is the theme that has occupied the writer from the beginning of the book up to this point, and we now have the climax of the appeal that the father makes to his son. The contrast is between 1-6 and 13-18: two rival feats are portrayed, wisdom's and folly's. There is a sense in which we need to read into this chapter the insights of the preceding ones, for what is said here really depends on them. For example what we have seen up to this point is that the appeal of wisdom has been to the mind and the reason, whereas that of folly has been to the emotions and the senses. This is important here, for observe how similar the appeal is in each case, in 4 and 16. Both are saying the same thing. Here is the subtlety of the situation. The idea is two possible roads to the same goal, which is a man to take? Will he not need to have recognised the voices by this time, to know the difference between the two? But this is possible only on the basis of what has already been said in previous chapters. The offer that wisdom makes is life (6): the offer of folly - enjoyment (17). This is in line with the general emphasis of the last eight chapters. We should note also that the metaphor in 1 about building is taken up by Jesus in Matthew 7, in the parable of the wise and foolish builders. In that parable, the outward appearance of the finished products must have been very similar indeed, the difference lay in the foundations, and it was only when the rains came and the winds blew that the fundamental difference was revealed. So it is here. It would be hard to discern any difference between 4 and 16. It is the 'afterwards' in each case that reveals the gulf fixed between the two.