Proverbs

¹⁹So are the ways of everyone who is greedy of gain; such [greed for plunder] takes away the lives of its possessors. [Prov. 15:27; I Tim. 6:10.] ²⁰Wisdom cries aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the markets; ²¹She cries at the head of the noisy intersections [in the chief gathering places]; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks: ²²How long, O simple ones [open to evil], will you love being simple? And the scoffers delight in scoffing and [self-confident] fools hate knowledge? ²³If you will turn (repent) and give heed to my reproof, behold, I [Wisdom] will pour out my spirit upon you, I will make my words known to you. [Isa. 11:2; Eph. 1:17-20.] ²⁴Because I have called and you have refused [to answer], have stretched out my hand and no man has heeded it, [Isa. 65:11, 12; 66:4; Jer. 7:13, 14; Zech. 7:11-13.] ²⁵And you treated as nothing all my counsel and would accept none of my reproof,