The Voice in the Street Was There Before the World

The chapter opens with halo, “does not?”, a question that expects the answer yes. The woman of chapter 7 lurked at the corner and spoke in whispers; Wisdom calls out. “Cry” is qara, the verb of 1:20–21, and “understanding” is tevunah.

“Places of the paths” is beit netivot, literally “the house of the paths”, the point where roads meet. The woman of chapter 7 had a house with a bed; Wisdom makes her house at the crossroads, where everyone passes. “High places” are the heights where a voice carries.

“The entry of the city” is literally “the mouth of the town”, qaret, an old poetic word for city found in names like Kiriath. “The doors” are petachim, doorways, the petach of the house the son was told to avoid in 5:8. Wisdom stands at doorways too.

Two words for people stand side by side: ishim, a rare plural of ish, man, perhaps the notable, and benei adam, sons of Adam, humanity at large. Psalm 49:2 uses a similar pair for “both low and high”. The call leaves no class out.

“Understand wisdom” is havinu ormah, “understand shrewdness”, the “subtilty” offered to the simple in 1:4. The simple are to gain the one quality they most lack. “Be ye of an understanding heart” is literally “understand heart”, get some sense.

“Excellent things” is negidim, princely things, from nagid, a leader, the title given to Saul and David (1 Samuel 9:16). “The opening of my lips” is miftach sefatai, lips pictured as a door, a doorway through which only right things pass.

“Speak” is yehgeh, to murmur or meditate, the verb of Psalm 1:2, “in his law doth he meditate day and night”. Truth is what Wisdom mutters to herself. “Abomination” is to’evah (3:32), here something her own lips refuse.

“Froward” is niftal, twisted, from the root of Naphtali’s name, “wrestlings” (Genesis 30:8), and “perverse” is iqqesh (2:15). Moses uses the same pair of Israel in Deuteronomy 32:5, “a perverse and crooked generation”. None of that twist is in her words.

“Plain” is nekhochim, straight ahead, the nokhach of 4:25, where the son’s eyes were to look “right on”. Her words lie directly in front of anyone who looks. “Right” is yesharim, level. The condition is understanding: they are plain to the one who understands.

“Receive my instruction, and not silver” is the Hebrew way of saying rather than. “Choice gold” is charuts nivchar, gold that has been picked, the pick of the gold, from bachar, to choose. Wisdom asks to be chosen over the chosen.

The verse all but repeats 3:15, and Wisdom speaks of herself here in the third person, “wisdom is better”, in the middle of her own speech. Some take it as a line of the father’s teaching quoted into her mouth. “Rubies” are again peninim, probably red coral.

“Dwell” is shachan, to inhabit, as a tenant lives in a house: Wisdom lives in shrewdness, ormah. “Witty inventions” is mezimmot, the planning power of 1:4; in 1611 “witty” meant clever and “invention” meant finding out. She is at home among plans.

The line gives a definition: to fear the LORD is to hate evil, as Psalm 97:10 says, “Ye that love the LORD, hate evil.” “Pride, and arrogancy” is ge’ah vega’on, a sound pair from ga’ah, to rise high. “Froward mouth” is pi tahpukot, the upside down mouth of 2:12.

Counsel, sound wisdom, understanding and strength: etsah, tushiyah, binah and gevurah. Isaiah 11:2 promises the coming king “the spirit of counsel and might”, etsah and gevurah, the same pair, which leads straight into the kings of the next verse.

“Decree” is yechoqqu, to inscribe statutes, from the root meaning to engrave (Psalm 147:19). When Solomon judged between the two mothers, Israel “saw that the wisdom of God was in him, to do judgment” (1 Kings 3:28). The claim is about kings who judge well.

“Nobles” are nedivim, the generous, noble by an open hand; Isaiah 32:8 says “the liberal deviseth liberal things”. Many Hebrew manuscripts read “all the judges of righteousness” where others, followed by the King James, read “all the judges of the earth”.

The consonants of the Hebrew text read “I love those who love her”; the scribes’ reading, which the King James follows, is “those who love me”. “Seek me early” is shachar again, and here, unlike 1:28, the seeking is rewarded.

“Durable riches” is hon ateq, wealth that lasts, from a word for what is old and venerable; Isaiah 23:18 uses it for “durable clothing”. Wealth and righteousness, tsedaqah, stand side by side as two goods she carries together.

“Revenue” is tevu’ah, a crop’s yield, the “gain” of 3:14; “fine gold” here is paz, refined gold. 16:16 makes the same comparison in plain prose: “How much better is it to get wisdom than gold!” Her fruit is a harvest, not a mine.

“I lead” is ahallech, literally “I walk”: Wisdom goes along the road herself, not only pointing it out. “In the midst of” is betoch, the centre of the path, well away from the edges where one might stray.

“Substance” is yesh, a word that usually means simply “there is”; used as a noun it means being, reality, what truly exists. The last line of the Mishnah (Uktzin 3:12) reads the word as a number and promises each righteous man three hundred and ten worlds.

“The beginning of his way” is reshit darko, a phrase Job 40:19 uses of Behemoth, “the chief of the ways of God”. The Greek translation rendered the verb “created me”, and in the fourth century Arius and Athanasius fought over that Greek word when arguing about Christ.

“Set up” is nissakhti, installed, the verb of Psalm 2:6, “Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion”, the anointing of a king. Some derive it instead from a verb meaning to weave, as in Psalm 139:13, “thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb”.

“Brought forth” is cholalti, from the verb for writhing in childbirth, the language of labour. The depths are tehomot, the deeps of Genesis 1:2 and Psalm 148:7. “Abounding” is literally “heavy with water”, springs laden before any spring existed.

Psalm 90:2 is the twin of the verse: “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth”, using the same birth verb. “Settled” is hotba’u, sunk in place, the word Job 38:6 uses of the earth’s foundations “fastened” in their sockets.

“The highest part of the dust” is rosh afrot tevel, the first of the clods of the world, perhaps the first grain of soil. Dust, afar, is what the man was formed from in Genesis 2:7; Wisdom was present before there was any of it.

“Set a compass” is chuqo chug, drew a circle; in 1611 a compass meant a circle, not the drawing instrument. Job 26:10 says God “hath compassed the waters with bounds”, and Isaiah 40:22 speaks of “the circle of the earth”.

“Clouds above” is shechaqim, the skies of 3:20 that drop the dew. “Strengthened” is ba’azoz, when the springs of the deep grew strong, the sources of the flood of Genesis 7:11 fixed in place. What once broke out was first made firm.

“Pass his commandment” is literally “transgress his mouth”: the sea is told where to stop, as in Job 38:11, “Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed.” “Appointed” is again the engraving verb, a limit cut into the world.

“Delight” is sha’ashu’im, play or plaything, and “rejoicing” is mesacheqet, laughing or playing, a verb related to the one in Isaac’s name, used of David dancing before the ark (2 Samuel 6:21). Wisdom is pictured at play in God’s presence while the world is being made.

The playing verb comes again, as in Psalm 104:26, where God made leviathan “to play therein”. “Habitable part” is tevel, the inhabited world. God delighted in Wisdom in verse 30; her delights, the same word, are with the sons of Adam.

“Now therefore” is ve’attah, the father’s turning phrase of 5:7 and 7:24, now spoken by Wisdom herself; she has borrowed the teacher’s formula. “Blessed” is ashrei, and the beatitude comes twice in three verses, here and in verse 34.

“Refuse it not” is al tifra’u, from para, to let loose or neglect, the verb of 1:25, where fools “set at nought” her counsel, and of 4:15, “avoid it”. The same word in three places marks what can be let go and what cannot.

“Watching” is shaqad, keeping wakeful watch, the verb of Jeremiah 1:12, “I will hasten my word”, a pun on the almond tree. “Posts” are mezuzot, doorposts, the place where the Shema was to be written (Deuteronomy 6:9). The disciple waits at the door like a household servant.

Almost the same words return in 18:22: “Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the LORD.” “Obtain” is yafeq, the verb of “getteth” in 3:13. Finding Wisdom and finding a wife are described in one vocabulary.

“Sinneth against me” is chat’i, from chata, which means to miss the mark; the left-handed slingers of Judges 20:16 could “sling stones at an hair breadth, and not miss”. “Wrongeth” is chomes, does violence to, from chamas: missing Wisdom is violence done to oneself.