Proverbs 1c

1:20-23.             Wisdom cries out in the street;

                                           in the squares she raises her voice.

At the busiest corner she cries out;

                                           at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:

“How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?

How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing

                                           and fools hate knowledge?

Give heed to my reproof;

I will pour out my thoughts to you;

                                           I will make my words known to you.”

The modern-day equivalent of ‘the street’ or ‘the city gates’ is ‘the internet’. I doubt that today we would make the claim that ‘wisdom cries out on the internet’. Perhaps that is not quite what he meant, though there is an urgency in this message.

Solomon takes a poetic turn by personifying wisdom as a woman. In some contemporary cultures, wisdom was personified as a goddess; for example, the Greek goddess Sophia. We see her presence still in words like Philosophy, which means ‘lover of wisdom’.[1] 

Closer to hand for the Hebrews was the Canaanite god El and his consort Asherah. El, represented by a bull, was the creator and the god of wisdom, while Asherah was the goddess of fertility. Now you see why Canaanite theology was such a threat to the ancient Hebrews.

The Hebrews mostly resisted making wisdom, that is ḥokhmah,[2] a full-fledged goddess or a consort for Yahweh. Wisdom is not the only woman personified in this text, as we shall see in the next chapter. 

The meaning here is that wisdom is available; more than that, personified wisdom will even help the serious seeker to understand. What humans have to do is to respond positively. 

1:24-27.             “Because I have called and you refused,

                                           have stretched out my hand and no one heeded,

and because you have ignored all my counsel

                                           and would have none of my reproof,

I also will laugh at your calamity;

                                           I will mock when panic strikes you,

when panic strikes you like a storm

                                           and your calamity comes like a whirlwind,

                   when distress and anguish come upon you.”     

Solomon wrote this primarily for his son and successor, Rehoboam; but these parental instructions fell on deaf ears. Are you surprised?

After Solomon’s death, Rehoboam went to Shechem to be crowned, sending word to all Israel to come and witness (and thus approve). Jeroboam, the leader of the ten northern tribes, made this impassioned plea: “Your father made our yoke heavy. Now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke that he placed on us, and we will serve you.”

Rehoboam asked the people to come back in three days. In the meantime, he consulted first with “the older men who had attended his father Solomon while he was still alive.” They counselled Rehoboam to “be kind to this people and please them, and speak good words to them, and they will be your servants forever.” Rehoboam may have heard what they said, but he did not listen to their wise advice. 

Instead, Rehoboam “consulted the young men who had grown up with him and now attended him.” Since they had yet to make their mark, the young men advised Rehoboam to respond aggressively: “My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins. Now, whereas my father laid on you a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions” (II Chronicles 10:1-11). 

If you don’t already know, you can guess what happened. This is the historical inflexion point at which the northern 10 tribes separated from the kingdom of David and Solomon. Ten tribes seceded and formed their own nation called Israel. The remaining southern kingdom of Judah was left with less than half the area Solomon had ruled. Things went downhill from there.

1:28-31.             “Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer;

                                          they will seek me diligently but will not find me.

Because they hated knowledge

                                           and did not choose the fear of the Lord,

would have none of my counsel

                                           and despised all my reproof,

therefore, they shall eat the fruit of their way

                                           and be sated with their own devices.”

This passage repeats a phrase from the previous passage: they “would have none of (or ignored) my counsel and despised all my reproof.” Let us reflect for a moment about how aware we are of God’s correction of our thinking and our acting. Of course, we prefer that God bless our projects, but are we ready to abandon them if God corrects us instead? Would we even recognize the hand of God redirecting our ways? Lady Wisdom says:

1:32-33.             “For waywardness kills the simple,

                                           and the complacency of fools destroys them;

but those who listen to me will be secure

                                           and will live at ease without dread of disaster.”

[1] And the word ‘sophomore’ which means ‘wise moron’.

[2] Pronounced ‘chokmah’, also appears as ḥokhmat.