Doesn’t wisdom cry out? Doesn’t understanding raise her voice?
Parallel translations
- KJV Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice?
- BSB Does not wisdom call out, and understanding raise her voice?
- NKJV Does not wisdom cry out, And understanding lift up her voice?
- NASB Does not wisdom call, And understanding raise her voice?
- NLT Listen as Wisdom calls out! Hear as understanding raises her voice!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Wisdom openly calls out and raises her voice. Wisdom is freely offered to all who will listen.
Overview
In sharp contrast to the secretive seductress of chapter 7, wisdom is personified as a woman crying aloud in the open. Her public appeal shows that the way of life is not hidden but freely proclaimed. This personification of wisdom points forward to Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Prov 1:20–21Wisdom calls aloud in the street. She utters her voice in the public squares.
- Matt 3:3For this is he who was spoken of by Isaiah the prophet, saying, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, make ready the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight.”
- John 7:37Now on the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink!
- Acts 1:8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.”
- Prov 9:1–3Wisdom has built her house. She has carved out her seven pillars.
- Isa 55:1–3“Hey! Come, everyone who thirsts, to the waters! Come, he who has no money, buy, and eat! Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
- Rom 15:18–21For I will not dare to speak of any things except those which Christ worked through me, for the obedience of the Gentiles, by word and deed,
- Luke 24:47and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
- Isa 49:1–6Listen, islands, to me. Listen, you peoples, from afar: Yahweh has called me from the womb; from the inside of my mother he has mentioned my name.
- Mark 13:10The Good News must first be preached to all the nations.
- Matt 28:19–20Go, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
- Mark 16:15–16He said to them, “Go into all the world, and preach the Good News to the whole creation.
- Matt 4:17From that time, Jesus began to preach, and to say, “Repent! For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”
- Acts 22:21“He said to me, ‘Depart, for I will send you out far from here to the Gentiles.’”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 8:1 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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