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.”
Let us pursue the building metaphor a little further. Foundation-laying is never so exciting as the actual putting up of the building; and the building of character is very mundane compared with the excitement of emotional and highly-charged experience. This is the real point at issue; some actually prefer the latter to the former, and their preference is based on the appeal to the feelings and the instincts rather than to mind or reason. But wisdom's appeal is ever to the reason, as we see again in 1ff. Observe what is implied in these verses: what wisdom builds is spacious and enduring. The picture is of a Greek or oriental portico, with strength, massiveness and elegance the keynotes. There is nothing meretricious about this building, it is something that will last, without the risk of a vacation order being passed upon it for faulty workmanship.
We should also note the echoes of this passage in our Lord's parable of the marriage of the king's son in Matthew 22:1ff. The picture there, as here, is of the kingdom of God as an open house, with the offer of a great feast to all who are invited, the guests deficiency, as Kidner graphically puts it, their only qualification (4). No one is sure of the meaning of the 'seven pillars', and much ingenuity has been expended on necessarily inconclusive conjecture. What about Knowledge, Discretion, Sound Wisdom, Prudence, Counsel, Instruction, Understanding, prominent and familiar words in Proverbs - as a suggestion? With regard to the choice between wisdom and folly, compare Moses in Hebrews 11:23ff, who refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. How to make this estimation? If a man does not see this, nothing can be done to persuade him. But one of the ways it can be seen is to learn the lessons of the previous chapters. This leads us naturally to the message in 7-12, to which we next turn.