Proverbs 9:7-18

⁷If you correct a mocker all you get are insults; if you argue with the wicked all you get is abuse.

⁸So don't argue with mockers or they'll only hate you; argue with the wise and they'll love you.

⁹Educate the wise and they'll become even wiser; teach those who live right and they will increase their learning.

¹⁰Honoring the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; knowledge of the Holy One brings insight.

¹¹Through wisdom you'll have many more days, increasing the years of your life.

¹²If you are wise, you are the one to profit from it; if you scoff, you alone will have to suffer the consequences.

¹³Stupidity is like a loud, ignorant woman who doesn't know anything.

¹⁴She sits at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the town,

¹⁵calling out to those passing by, going about their business,

¹⁶“Everybody who needs to learn, come and see me!” To people who don't have any sense she says,

¹⁷“Stolen water is sweet, and food eaten in secret tastes good!”

¹⁸But they don't know that the dead are there, that those she's invited are in the depths of the grave.