1 Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn her seven pillars.
She has slaughtered her beasts; she has mixed her wine; she has also set her table. She has sent out her young women to call from the highest places in the town,
“Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” To him who lacks sense she says,
“Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed.
Leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight.”…..
9 Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. For by me your days will be multiplied, and years will be added to your life.
If you are wise, you are wise for yourself.
Comment: You can see that I have missed out verses 7&8. This is because those two verses fit in with the rest of the Proverb (see tomorrow’s devotion). Seven is seen as the perfect number in the Bible – maybe because the Bible records the earth as having been built in seven days (?seven periods of time. The word translated ‘day’ in the first chapters of Genesis is a different Hebrew word from the one used commonly for ‘day’ in the rest of the Hebrew Bible). At any rate Wisdom’s house is built on a very solid foundation! She has sent many messengers out to call both the simple and those lacking sense to come and feast at her table. Food and wine is I take it a figurative way of her saying chewing over the wisdom she offers. But then in verse 9 she goes on to say that, even if you are wise, you can become wiser and increase in knowledge 0f ‘The Holy One’. Which is a very reverential name given to Jehovah God! There is a lot in a name! She quotes again that basic statement of the Proverbs – ‘ The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom‘. And don’t forget that wisdom, maybe good for society but at the core it benefits you!
Prayer: Help me to acknowledge my lack of wisdom and seek it, where You have stored it – in Your Word!
As I read it! 