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BOOK 20 OF 66 · WISDOM & POETRY · KING JAMES BIBLE

Proverbs 9

Proverbs book home•Chapter 9 of 31•18 verses
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REVIEWED OVERVIEW

Proverbs 9 Overview

Wisdom builds her house and prepares a feast, the fear of the LORD is again named as wisdom's beginning, and the foolish woman offers stolen pleasures whose guests end in death.

ProverbsBook
9Chapter
18Verses
PoetryDivision

Before you read Proverbs 9

Coming from

Proverbs 8 emphasized wisdom calls openly and belongs with god's ordering of creation. Because many proverbs are individual sayings rather than a continuous argument, the chapter-to-chapter connection is thematic rather than narrative.

In this chapter

Wisdom builds her house and prepares a feast, the fear of the LORD is again named as wisdom's beginning, and the foolish woman offers stolen pleasures whose guests end in death.

Leads into

Proverbs 10 turns to the first major collection contrasts righteous and wicked lives, expanding wisdom into another set of choices, contrasts, and observations.

Key understandingExplore deeper

Wisdom and Folly are literary personifications presenting rival ways of life; the chapter calls for discernment between their invitations. Proverbs uses compact wisdom sayings to train judgment. Its normal patterns describe how God’s moral order ordinarily works; they are not mechanical guarantees that remove human freedom, suffering, or providence.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Central truth

Two rival invitations: Wisdom and Folly.

Wisdom truth

In Proverbs 9, wisdom is moral skill under the fear of the LORD, not merely intelligence or practical cleverness.

Choice truth

In Proverbs 9, wisdom repeatedly presents life as a choice between rival paths whose ends differ sharply.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Wisdom connection

James 3:13-18 distinguishes heavenly wisdom from envy-driven earthly wisdom. This connection helps frame Proverbs 9.

Choice connection

Deuteronomy 30:19 sets life and death before Israel and calls for a decisive choice. This connection helps frame Proverbs 9.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Keep wisdom in context

Do not read Proverbs 9 as a set of magic formulas. Proverbs trains wise judgment in the ordinary moral order God established.

Keep choice in context

The two-way contrast in Proverbs 9 teaches moral direction and consequence; it is not a claim that every outcome arrives immediately.

Read Proverbs 9 watching for…

seven pillars.

Wisdom feast.

correct scorner wise.

fear LORD.

stolen waters sweet.

TWBC REVIEW STANDARD

Plain language. Scripture first. Fact distinguished from inference. No filler. No fake certainty. Designed to help you read the Bible itself.

Chapter outline2 sections
1-12Wisdom prepares her feast, calls the simple, and teaches the fear of the LORD13-18The foolish woman also calls the simple, but her guests are in the depths of hell
1

Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars:

2

She hath killed her beasts; she hath mingled her wine; she hath also furnished her table.

3

She hath sent forth her maidens: she crieth upon the highest places of the city,

4

Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him,

5

Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled.

6

Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding.

7

He that reproveth a scorner getteth to himself shame: and he that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a blot.

8

Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee.

9

Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning.

10

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.

11

For by me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life shall be increased.

12

If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself: but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it.

13

A foolish woman is clamorous: she is simple, and knoweth nothing.

14

For she sitteth at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city,

15

To call passengers who go right on their ways:

16

Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: and as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him,

17

Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.

18

But he knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell.