But little do they know that the dead are there. Her guests are in the depths of the grave.
Parallel translations
- WEB But he doesn’t know that the departed spirits are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.
- KJV But he knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell.
- BSB But they do not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.
- NKJV But he does not know that the dead are there, That her guests are in the depths of hell.
- NASB But he does not know that the dead are there, That her guests are in the depths of Sheol.
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
Folly's victims do not know that the dead are there and her guests are in the depths of Sheol. The path of folly ends in death.
Overview
The chapter closes by unmasking folly's true destination: her house is the realm of the dead. What seemed sweet and secret leads to Sheol, the grave. This stark warning completes the two-ways theme, urging hearers to choose Wisdom's feast of life over Folly's banquet of death, a choice answered finally in Christ, who alone gives life (John 5:24).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Prov 7:27Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the rooms of death.
- Prov 2:18–19for her house leads down to death, her paths to the departed spirits.
- Prov 5:5Her feet go down to death. Her steps lead straight to Sheol.
- Prov 6:26For a prostitute reduces you to a piece of bread. The adulteress hunts for your precious life.
- Prov 1:7The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge; but the foolish despise wisdom and instruction.
- Ps 82:5They don’t know, neither do they understand. They walk back and forth in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are shaken.
- 2 Pet 3:5For this they willfully forget, that there were heavens from of old, and an earth formed out of water and amid water, by the word of God;
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 9:18 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.