Study Desk

Wisedome crieth without, she vttereth her voice in the streets:

Shee crieth in the chiefe place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she vttereth her words, saying,

How long, ye simple ones, will ye loue simplicitie? And the scorners delight in their scorning, and fooles hate knowledge?

Turne you at my reproofe: behold, I will powre out my spirit vnto you, I will make knowen my wordes vnto you.

Because I haue called, and yee refused, I haue stretched out my hand, and no man regarded:

But ye haue set at nought all my counsell, & would none of my reproofe:

I also will laugh at your calamitie, I wil mocke when your feare commeth.

When your feare commeth as desolation, and your destruction commeth as a whirlewinde; when distresse and anguish commeth vpon you:

Then shall they call vpon mee, but I will not answere; they shall seeke me early, but they shall not finde me:

For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the feare of the Lord.

They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproofe.

Therefore shall they eate of the fruite of their owne way, and be filled with their owne deuices.

For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fooles shall destroy them.

But who so hearkneth vnto mee, shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from feare of euill.

A foolish woman is clamorous: she is simple, & knoweth nothing.

For she sitteth at the doore of her house on a seate, in the high places of the Citie:

To call passengers who go right on their wayes:

Who so is simple, let him turne in hither: and as for him that wanteth vnderstanding, she saith to him;

Stollen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.

But hee knoweth not that the dead are there, and that her guests are in the depths of hell.