Wisdom crieth without; she raiseth her voice in the broadways;
Wisdom does not sit in a lecture hall waiting for students; she goes out into the open air and shouts over the noise of a busy city. Two questions follow: who is this voice, and what happens to the crowds who walk past her?
From this first appearance, "wisdom" speaks like a person. One writer notes that the word is plural in form, and that the cry grows into a warning hard to tell apart from the voice of God Himself.
This book personifies "wisdom" from the first chapter, and that fits its contents exactly. As is well known, this rises up to the Person of Christ in Proverbs 8:22-31. Even in this first introduction, though the form of the word is plural, the cry does not fail. It goes on to take on the seriousness of a divine warning of unavoidable judgment. So it is hard to separate it from the voice of God Himself.
Another writer answers the "who is speaking?" question by pointing to the New Testament's own title for Christ:
As to your question, Who is it who speaks? It is plain from 1 Corinthians 1:24 that Christ is the "Wisdom of God," and that He is made to us wisdom (v. 30). (Read Proverbs 8:22-35, and compare with John 1:1-2.)
The places named in the verse are not accidents. Wisdom stays out of the settings where teaching usually happens. (The quote below uses an older translation: "broadways" is the ESV's "markets.")
Here, where Jehovah's law ruled, wisdom was not confined to parental discipline. Still less was it shut up in schools of philosophy. It "cries without." She "raises her voice in the broadways" instead of seeking only the refined and important. She "calls at the head of the noisy places where people gather, at the entry of the gates." She looked for the moral good of those who needed it most, even if culture despises the common person. She does not speak her words in the calm and quiet of the country, but "in the city," where there is far more to attract and distract most people.
The open squares and city gates make the message impossible to miss. One writer links this to Paul's words to King Agrippa:
Does this not mean that wisdom (or the Gospel) is declared everywhere, to wake people up to their deep need to know the grace of God? So the verse points to the open squares, the chief gathering places and the city gates as the areas of this great testimony. It reminds us of Paul's words to King Agrippa: "none of these things" escaped Agrippa's attention, "since this thing was not done in a corner" (Acts 26:26).
The earlier part of the chapter is a parent instructing a son. At verse 20 the setting changes completely, and so does the audience.
Wisdom speaks aloud, with the authority of God: "she utters her voice in the streets."... We have seen the parental care that guards the young from evil. But in the ways of God there is another testimony — the public warning and call to sinners which wisdom sends out among them. She cries out in the crowd of men, to the simple and to the scorner, the guilty yet misled ones, and the open and insulting enemy. She calls them to turn at her reproof.
The crowd includes the "simple." One writer pictures the danger they cannot see.
Think of a log that glides motionless down the stream, unaware how close it is to the waterfall ahead. Think of the light, feathery down of a thistle, carried by the breeze into the fire ahead of it. That is how these "simple ones" drift along. The veil is upon their eyes. The false congratulation of the devil is enough to still their fears.
Commentators differ here. Some treat the passage as ready-made material for preaching:
This appeal of wisdom — the call, the promise, the refusal, and the calamity of the refusal to listen to Him who speaks — provides an excellent theme for preaching the Gospel to the unsaved.
Another writer pushes back, while still allowing its real effect on consciences:
It is plain that Proverbs 1:20-23 is not a Gospel invitation at all. Hence the danger of using Scripture out of its true place and connection... Still, the passage has no doubt often been used to wake souls up to the invitations of the Gospel, with much real effect.
- Voice — Wisdom here is not an idea but a speaker. The book personifies her from this first chapter on, and she rises to the Person of Christ in Proverbs 8.
- Volume — She cries aloud. This is not a whisper for insiders but a public warning that carries the authority of God.
- Venue — Not the school of philosophy, not the quiet countryside. Wisdom stands in the markets and at the city gates, where the distractions and the need are greatest.
- Visibility — Like the facts Paul pressed on King Agrippa, this was never "done in a corner." Wisdom speaks where no one can claim they never heard.
- Verdict — The simple drift past like a log heading for the falls. Wisdom still calls them to turn.
she calleth in the chief [place] of concourse, in the entry of the gates; in the city she uttereth her words
So far Proverbs has shown a father teaching his son at home. Now Wisdom goes out to the noisy streets and the city gates, and the question is who she is and what she wants with the crowd.
The places she picks are not random.
Wisdom was not confined to a parent's teaching at home, still less shut up in schools of philosophy. Instead she "cries aloud in the street." She "raises her voice in the markets," not looking only for the refined and important. She "cries out at the head of the noisy streets, at the entrance of the city gates." She sought hard the moral good of those who needed it most, even if cultured people look down on the common crowd. She is not said to speak her words in the calm and quiet of the country, but "in the city," where there is far more to attract and distract most people.
The chapter has already shown a father guarding his son. This open cry is a second thing, and it carries God's own authority.
Wisdom speaks with the authority of God, and she speaks aloud. We have seen the parental care of the young to keep them from evil. But in the ways of God there is another testimony: the public warning and call to sinners that wisdom sends out among them. "Wisdom cries aloud in the street; in the markets she raises her voice" — in the gathering of men, to the simple and to the scorner, the guilty but misled ones, and the open and insulting enemy.
Wisdom here is not an idea or a quality.
Wisdom now speaks, and wisdom in this first section of Proverbs is a person, a divine person. The eighth chapter gives us a wonderful vision of that Person, the Son of God, who is the Wisdom. First stands the call of Wisdom. The call may be answered or rejected.
The cry also carries a promise. Commentators differ over how far it reaches. One reads it as real blessing for God's people all along, but stops short of Pentecost:
It is an error, which goes beyond the purpose of the verse, to think that the gift of the Holy Spirit is promised here. An inward blessing is certainly promised here, and it always comes by the Spirit, together with an understanding of wisdom's words. This is much, and the LORD made it true from the time the book was written. But there are two dangers. One is to exaggerate what God always was to His people. The other is to make too little of the privileges that waited for redemption through our Lord Jesus. The Holy Spirit was not poured out as at Pentecost until Christ was glorified.
Another sees the verse pointing straight ahead to Pentecost, the day the Spirit came on the first believers in Jerusalem:
And Wisdom is aggressive. Right out into the open streets Her voice cries to men, "Turn at My reproof; behold, I will pour out My Spirit to you; I will make My words known to you" (Prov. 1:23). This clearly pointed forward to Pentecost. Peter then said of his ascended and glorified Lord, "Having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing"; and about three thousand gladly received the word.
Preachers often use these verses in the open air. Writers weigh that differently. One warns against lifting the passage out of its setting:
It is plain that Prov. 1:20-23 is not a Gospel invitation at all. So there is danger in using Scripture out of its true place and connection… Still, the passage has no doubt often woken souls up to the invitations of the Gospel, with much real effect.
Another commends it for exactly that purpose:
This appeal of wisdom gives an excellent theme for preaching the Gospel to the unsaved. It has the call, the promise, the refusal, and the disaster that follows a refusal to listen to Him who speaks.
The setting is God's government of people on earth.
Here it is not the gospel that is shown, but the call of God in the government of man on the earth. So it does not go beyond the judgment of the day that is coming here below. But if He came as the Son of man in grace to the lost, He will surely return as the Son of man in judgment of all who despise Him, whether alive or dead.
- Called — Wisdom does not wait to be asked. She goes to the noisy streets and the city gates, where distraction and need are greatest.
- Called by a Person — the voice is a divine Person, the One chapter 8 shows as the Son of God. Refusing the cry is refusing Him.
- Called in public — beyond a father's teaching at home, God warns every hearer: the simple, the scorner, the open enemy.
- Called with a promise — turning at the reproof brings the Spirit and God's own words. Commentators differ over whether this reaches as far as Pentecost.
- Called before the calamity — this call belongs to God's government on earth. What you do with it today decides what the coming day holds.
How long, simple ones, will ye love simpleness, and scorners take pleasure in their scorning, and the foolish hate knowledge?
Wisdom is pictured as a woman shouting in the busiest public places, to people who are not looking for her. Her first words are a question for three kinds of listener, and commentators ask two things about it: what separates the simple, the scorner and the fool, and how long God's patience lasts.
Wisdom does not wait in a lecture hall. She goes to the noisiest public places in the city.
Wisdom cries aloud in the street (v. 20). Does this not mean that wisdom (or the gospel) is proclaimed everywhere? It is proclaimed to wake people up to their deep need to know the grace of God. So the open squares, the main crossroads and the city gates stand out as the places of this great testimony. Paul told King Agrippa that "none of these things" had escaped him, "since this thing was not done in a corner" (Acts 26:26).
The verse names simple ones, scoffers and fools. One writer reads them as steps in a descent.
reason: non-ESV re-quote of the featured verse; two very hard sentences split It is an ever-growing moral disease, never so common as in these last days. The fools that hate knowledge may be more godless still, and become openly atheist, as Scripture shows.
Another writer draws the same three out of a single starting division of the human race.
The world, the entire community by which the earth is peopled, is divided by God into two great classes, the saved and the unsaved; or, the "children of God," and the "children of wrath." But the second class, that of the unsaved, is subdivided into three smaller classes.
Simplicity here means something the simple choose.
Verse 22 asks how long the simple ones will love being simple. This simplicity means ignorance. Sadly, the ungodly prefer it to the wisdom of true faith in the Lord Jesus. They think that showing scorn for the truth will get rid of it, as though their foolish words carried authority. Because they hate knowledge, they delight in scorning.
Day to day, this looks like a quiet life with no worry about the future.
Those who make up this class live in a region of moral and spiritual quiet. The great question of judgment to come does not trouble them. They take for granted that with them all is right and well. They follow the religion of their ancestors... There may be times of unease, but the relapse comes, and the sluggard's plea lulls the conscience: "A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest." So all is quiet again, all is peaceful, all is silent — but it is the silence of death.
The second group is not drowsy. They think hard, and their thinking feeds their contempt.
They set their brains to work. Proud of the "infallibility of logic" and the "accuracy of reason," they find, to their own satisfaction, what seems unreasonable in the revelation — the Word of God. They cannot allow that this revelation belongs to faith and lies outside reason altogether. So they work by reason instead of faith, and claim to find inconsistency and contradiction. Hence their contempt, their pride, their scorn.
A scorner shows what he is by what he does with correction.
A scorner is a bolder sinner against God and his own soul. He does not like to be reproved; "he will not go to the wise." Self is his aim and in practice his God. Folly is his life, and so he refuses all wisdom from above with contempt.
The fool's hatred has a cause. Knowledge threatens the way he lives.
reason: broken plural/singular grammar around ESV John 3:20; long sentence split
God's patience with the scorner has a limit.
You may have your own way now. Grace may bear with you long, but not for ever. God will take you in hand one day, and, believe me, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
The next verse gives the way out.
Then the Lord tells them plainly to turn at His reproof (v. 23). Turning involves real repentance, for it means a radical change of mind. When this is truly worked in the soul, God promises to pour out His Spirit and make His words known.
- Called — Wisdom shouts in the open squares and city gates, not in a corner. Nobody can say the message was hidden.
- Loved — The simple do not just lack knowledge. They love their ignorance, because it keeps life quiet — and that quiet is the silence of death.
- Scorned — The scorner has moved from indifference to contempt. He trusts reason over revelation and refuses every correction.
- Hated — The fool hates knowledge to protect himself. Light would expose his deeds, so he keeps away from it.
- Turn — The three form one downward slope. The way out at every stage is the same: repentance, a real change of mind. God answers it by pouring out His Spirit and making His words known.
Turn you at my reproof behold, I will pour forth my spirit unto you, I will make known to you my words.
Proverbs 1 opens with a father's advice to his son. Then the tone changes: Wisdom herself steps into the street and calls out to the crowd. Verse 23 is the turning point of her appeal — one command, and then a promise that commentators have long argued over.
Wisdom does not wait to be asked. She goes where the crowds are.
Wisdom was not limited to a parent's teaching. Still less was she locked up in the schools of philosophers. She "cries out in the street." She "raises her voice in the broad streets" instead of looking only for the refined and important. She "calls at the head of the noisy places where crowds gather, at the entry of the gates." She looked hard for moral good among those who needed it most, even though refined culture looks down on ordinary people. We are not told that she speaks her words in the calm and quiet of the countryside. She speaks "in the city," where there is far more to attract and distract most people.
Verse 23 calls the people described just before it. Their trouble is not what they lack. It is what they love.
Here simplicity means ignorance. Sadly, people without God prefer it to the wisdom of true faith in the Lord Jesus. They think that scorning the truth will make it go away, as if their foolish words carried real authority. Because they hate knowledge, they delight in scorning.
The common excuse is that there is no time for such things. It does not hold.
Do not say, "We have no time, no leisure, no opportunity, no ability." You have time for the things of this world. You have leisure for your pleasure, opportunity for your business, and ability for the demands of this life. "You love simplicity." You love that state of indifference to the truth. It keeps you on good terms with the world and its ways. You do not care to clash with your old companions and friends. Going with the stream is easier than going against it.
The word is short. What it asks for is not small.
Then the Lord directly advises them, "Turn at my rebuke" (v. 23). Turning involves some reality of repentance, for it means a radical change of mind. When that change is real in the soul, God promises to pour out His Spirit and to make His words known.
Commentators differ here. One reads a real but measured promise, and warns against reading Pentecost back into the verse.
It is a mistake, and it goes beyond the purpose of the verse, to think that the gift of the Holy Spirit is promised here. The verse does promise a real inward blessing, always by the Spirit, and an understanding of wisdom's words. That is much, and the Lord made it true from the time the book was written. But two dangers lie close by. One is to exaggerate what God always was to His people. The other is to undervalue the privileges that had to wait for redemption through our Lord Jesus. The Holy Spirit was not poured out as at Pentecost until Christ was glorified.
Another writer hears the same words reaching forward to Pentecost.
And Wisdom is bold. Right out into the broad streets Her voice cries to men, "If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you." This clearly pointed forward to Pentecost. There Peter said of his ascended and glorified Lord, "Having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing." About three thousand gladly received the word.
The offer is real. So is the warning that follows it.
One day they will reap the fruit of the folly they sowed, under God's government of this world. Then, in their fear and trouble, they will call on Wisdom to guide them. But she will not hear them. By then it will be too late to learn Wisdom's ways. Wisdom will laugh at them, so to speak — it is a figure of speech — at what they suffer. They had treated Wisdom's counsel and reproof as nothing when she cried to them to learn her ways.
- Called. Wisdom cries in the open street, at the city gates, among the crowds. She does not stay in the quiet countryside or in the schools of the refined.
- Refusing. Her hearers are simple, scornful, and hate knowledge. The problem is not lack of time. They have time for business and pleasure. They prefer their own way.
- Turning. "Turn" means repentance, a radical change of mind. It is the one condition on everything that follows.
- Given. The promise is inward blessing by the Spirit, and an understanding of Wisdom's words. Commentators differ over whether it reaches as far as Pentecost.
- Too late. Those who brush the reproof aside will one day call and get no answer. The voice that pleaded in the street is the one they will want and not find.