Proverbs 8:1

THE MESSAGE

Do you hear Lady Wisdom calling? Can you hear Madame Insight raising her voice? She's taken her stand at First and Main, at the busiest intersection. Right in the city square where the traffic is thickest, she shouts, "You—I'm talking to all of you, everyone out here on the streets! Listen, you idiots—learn good sense! You blockheads—shape up! Don't miss a word of this—I'm telling you how to live well, I'm telling you how to live at your best. My mouth chews and savors and relishes truth— I can't stand the taste of evil! You'll only hear true and right words from my mouth; not one syllable will be twisted or skewed. You'll recognize this as true—you with open minds; truth-ready minds will see it at once. Prefer my life-disciplines over chasing after money, and God-knowledge over a lucrative career. For Wisdom is better than all the trappings of wealth; nothing you could wish for holds a candle to her.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Doesn’t wisdom call out?

Hebrew Names Version
Doesn't wisdom cry out? Doesn't understanding raise her voice?

King James Version
Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice?

English Standard Version
Does not wisdom call? Does not understanding raise her voice?

New Century Version
Wisdom calls to you like someone shouting; understanding raises her voice.

New English Translation
Does not wisdom call out? Does not understanding raise her voice?

Amplified Bible
Does not wisdom call, And understanding lift up her voice?

New American Standard Bible
Does not wisdom call, And understanding raise her voice?

World English Bible
Doesn't wisdom cry out? Doesn't understanding raise her voice?

Geneva Bible (1587)
Doeth not wisedome crie? and vnderstanding vtter her voyce?

Legacy Standard Bible
Does not wisdom call,And discernment give forth her voice?

Berean Standard Bible
Does not wisdom call out, and understanding raise her voice?

Contemporary English Version
With great understanding, Wisdom is calling out

Complete Jewish Bible
Wisdom is calling! Understanding is raising her voice!

Darby Translation
Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding give forth her voice?

Easy-to-Read Version
Listen, Wisdom is calling. Yes, Understanding is shouting for us.

George Lamsa Translation
THEREFORE preach wisdom, and understanding will answer you.

Good News Translation
Listen! Wisdom is calling out. Reason is making herself heard.

Lexham English Bible
Does not wisdom call, and understanding raise its voice?

Literal Translation
Does not wisdom call? And does not understanding speak?

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Doth not wysdome crie? doth not vnderstondinge put forth hir voyce?

American Standard Version
Doth not wisdom cry, And understanding put forth her voice?

Bible in Basic English
Is not wisdom crying out, and the voice of knowledge sounding?

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Doth not wisdom call, and understanding put forth her voice?

King James Version (1611)
Doeth not Wisedome crie? & Understanding put foorth her voice?

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Doth not wysdome crye? doth not vnderstanding put foorth her voyce?

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Thou shalt proclaim wisdom, that understanding may be obedient to thee.

English Revised Version
Doth not wisdom cry, and understanding put forth her voice?

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Whether wisdom crieth not ofte; and prudence yyueth his vois?

Update Bible Version
Does not wisdom cry, And understanding put forth her voice?

Webster's Bible Translation
Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice?

New King James Version
Does not wisdom cry out, And understanding lift up her voice?

New Living Translation
Listen as Wisdom calls out! Hear as understanding raises her voice!

New Life Bible
Does not wisdom call? Does not understanding raise her voice?

New Revised Standard
Does not wisdom call, and does not understanding raise her voice?

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Doth not, wisdom, cry aloud? and, understanding, send forth her voice?

Douay-Rheims Bible
Doth not wisdom cry aloud, and prudence put forth her voice?

Revised Standard Version
Does not wisdom call, does not understanding raise her voice?

Young's Literal Translation
Doth not wisdom call? And understanding give forth her voice?

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Does not wisdom call, And understanding lift up her voice?

Contextual Overview

¹ Do you hear Lady Wisdom calling? Can you hear Madame Insight raising her voice? She's taken her stand at First and Main, at the busiest intersection. Right in the city square where the traffic is thickest, she shouts, "You—I'm talking to all of you, everyone out here on the streets! Listen, you idiots—learn good sense! You blockheads—shape up! Don't miss a word of this—I'm telling you how to live well, I'm telling you how to live at your best. My mouth chews and savors and relishes truth— I can't stand the taste of evil! You'll only hear true and right words from my mouth; not one syllable will be twisted or skewed. You'll recognize this as true—you with open minds; truth-ready minds will see it at once. Prefer my life-disciplines over chasing after money, and God-knowledge over a lucrative career. For Wisdom is better than all the trappings of wealth; nothing you could wish for holds a candle to her.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Proverbs 1:20, Proverbs 1:21, Proverbs 9:1-3, Isaiah 49:1-6, Isaiah 55:1-3, Matthew 3:3, Matthew 4:17, Matthew 28:19, Matthew 28:20, Mark 13:10, Mark 16:15, Mark 16:16, Luke 24:47, John 7:37, Acts 1:8, Acts 22:21, Romans 15:18-21

Reciprocal: Proverbs 9:3 - she crieth Isaiah 45:19 - spoken Isaiah 46:12 - Hearken Jeremiah 2:2 - cry Jeremiah 17:19 - General Matthew 10:27 - that preach Matthew 22:9 - General Luke 8:8 - He that Luke 11:49 - the wisdom Luke 14:7 - put John 6:59 - in the John 12:44 - cried Acts 17:17 - daily 1 Corinthians 1:24 - the wisdom

Cross-References

Genesis 8:7
He sent out a raven; it flew back and forth waiting for the floodwaters to dry up. Then he sent a dove to check on the flood conditions, but it couldn't even find a place to perch—water still covered the Earth. Noah reached out and caught it, brought it back into the ship.

Genesis 8:20
Noah built an altar to God . He selected clean animals and birds from every species and offered them as burnt offerings on the altar. God smelled the sweet fragrance and thought to himself, "I'll never again curse the ground because of people. I know they have this bent toward evil from an early age, but I'll never again kill off everything living as I've just done.

Genesis 8:22
For as long as Earth lasts, planting and harvest, cold and heat, Summer and winter, day and night will never stop."

Genesis 19:29
And that's the story: When God destroyed the Cities of the Plain, he was mindful of Abraham and first got Lot out of there before he blasted those cities off the face of the Earth.

Genesis 30:22
And then God remembered Rachel. God listened to her and opened her womb. She became pregnant and had a son. She said, "God has taken away my humiliation." She named him Joseph (Add), praying, "May God add yet another son to me."

Exodus 2:24
God listened to their groanings. God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

Exodus 14:21
Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and God , with a terrific east wind all night long, made the sea go back. He made the sea dry ground. The seawaters split.

Numbers 22:32
God 's angel said to him: "Why have you beaten your poor donkey these three times? I have come here to block your way because you're getting way ahead of yourself. The donkey saw me and turned away from me these three times. If she hadn't, I would have killed you by this time, but not the donkey. I would have let her off."

1 Samuel 1:19
Up before dawn, they worshiped God and returned home to Ramah. Elkanah slept with Hannah his wife, and God began making the necessary arrangements in response to what she had asked.

Nehemiah 13:14
Remember me, O my God, for this. Don't ever forget the devoted work I have done for The Temple of God and its worship.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Doth not wisdom cry?.... Christ, who is the Wisdom of God;

:-; and which clearly appears from his subsistence with the Father, his eternal existence, and from many personal properties, characters, and actions ascribed to him throughout the whole of this chapter, and in the following. "Crying" is here attributed to him, which signifies proclaiming, publishing, preaching the everlasting Gospel, which directs men in the right way of enjoying peace, comfort, honour, and eternal happiness; the allusion is to an herald that this up his voice aloud at noon day in the public streets when he proclaims; and is opposed to the whispers of a harlot, at night, in a corner; truth seeks no corner, its voice is heard at noon day, it will bear the light. Now, "does not" or "shall not Wisdom cry", or Christ preach; verily he does or will, in his word, by his prophets under the former dispensation; in his own person, and by his apostles and ministers, under the present; who then would hearken to the alluring voice of a harlot, or hear Jezebel the wicked prophetess teach, when Christ himself preaches, or however by his faithful ministers?

and understanding put forth her voice? the same with Wisdom, or Christ, see Proverbs 8:14; by whose voice the Gospel is meant, which is the voice of Christ, which is heard and followed by the sheep of Christ, and not the voice of a stranger; and "putting it forth", giving or uttering it, signifies the publication of it.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

A companion picture to that in Proverbs 7:0, and serving in some measure to generalize and idealize it. Wisdom also calls Proverbs 8:5 to the “simple” and the “fools,” and they have to choose between her voice and that of the temptress.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

CHAPTER VIII

The fame and excellence of wisdom, and its manner of teaching,

1-4;

the matter of its exhortations, 5-12;

its influence among men, 13-21;

its antiquity, 22-31;

the blessedness of attending to its counsels, 32-35;

the misery of those who do not, 36.

NOTES ON CHAP. VIII.

Verse Proverbs 8:1. Doth not wisdom cry? — Here wisdom is again personified; but the prosopopoeia is carried on to a greater length than before, and with much more variety. It is represented in this chapter in a twofold point of view:

1. Wisdom, the power of judging rightly, implying the knowledge of Divine and human things.

2. As an attribute of God, particularly displayed in the various and astonishing works of creation.

Nor has it any other meaning in this whole chapter, whatever some of the fathers may have dreamed, who find allegorical meanings every where. The wise man seems as if suddenly awakened from the distressful contemplation which he had before him,-of the ruin of young persons in both worlds by means of debauchery,-by the voice of wisdom, who has lifted up her voice in the most public places, where was the greatest concourse of the people, to warn the yet unsnared, that they might avoid the way of seduction and sin; and cause those who love her to inherit substance, and to have their treasuries filled with durable riches.