The Call of Wisdom

20 oWisdom calls aloud 8outside;

She raises her voice in the open squares.

21 She cries out in the 9chief concourses,

At the openings of the gates in the city

She speaks her words:

22 “How long, you 1simple ones, will you love 2simplicity?

For scorners delight in their scorning,

And fools hate knowledge.

23 Turn at my rebuke;

Surely pI will pour out my spirit on you;

I will make my words known to you.

24 qBecause I have called and you refused,

I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded,

25 Because you rdisdained all my counsel,

And would have none of my rebuke,

26 sI also will laugh at your calamity;

I will mock when your terror comes,

27 When tyour terror comes like a storm,

And your destruction comes like a whirlwind,

When distress and anguish come upon you.

28 “Then uthey will call on me, but I will not answer;

They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me.

29 Because they vhated knowledge

And did not wchoose the fear of the Lord,

30 xThey would have none of my counsel

And despised my every rebuke.

31 Therefore ythey shall eat the fruit of their own way,

And be filled to the full with their own fancies.

32 For the 3turning away of the simple will slay them,

And the complacency of fools will destroy them;

33 But whoever listens to me will dwell zsafely,

And awill be 4secure, without fear of evil.”