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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
1:20-33 First Wisdom Appeal. Wisdom is personified here as a woman and is pictured appealing to simple ones, scoffers, and fools to heed her words. (Other personifications appear in chs. 8-9.) Since wisdom in Proverbs is set out in the prologue as a quality rooted in the fear of the Lord (1:1-7), it should not be surprising that in its personification, Wisdom speaks in a way that evokes the words of the Lord (e.g., "I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you," v. 23). The appeal consists of a description of Wisdom's pursuit and plea (vv. 20-23), a warning about the consequences of refusing to heed her call (vv. 24-31), and the grounds for listening to her (vv. 32-33).
1:28 Wisdom declares that when calamity falls upon the scoffers, they will call upon me, but I will not answer. Although the language is similar to texts such as 1 Sam. 8:18, actual prayer is probably not in view here. Lady Wisdom here is not God but simply a personification (on whether the personification in Prov. 8:22-31 is different, see Introduction: Personified Wisdom and Christ). The meaning is that fools and scoffers, when disaster overtakes them, will frantically seek the wisdom to get out of trouble. But it will be too late for them.
1:29 The content of vv. 24-25 is repeated in vv. 28 and 30 as the foolish refusal to listen to instruction is reflected back to the wayward one in his distress. The effect of this repetition is to highlight the additional comment of v. 29, which warns that the foolish refusal to heed Wisdom's call manifests hatred of knowledge and rejection of the fear of the Lord (see v. 7).
1:31 therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way. Proverbs refers to the way of wisdom and the way of foolishness as sharing this reality: each works according to its nature. A person's actions both manifest the state of the heart and also shape it further in the way a person will walk. The direction of each path indicates the end to which it is headed. Those who refuse to listen to Wisdom's reproof walk in a way that will ultimately produce for their own consumption the very fruit they offered to others: the fruit of calamity, terror, and destruction. For a similar description of the paths and their ends, see Jer. 6:16-19.
