Wisdom has built her house; she has carved out her seven pillars.
Parallel translations
- WEB Wisdom has built her house. She has carved out her seven pillars.
- KJV Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars:
- NKJV Wisdom has built her house, She has hewn out her seven pillars;
- NASB Wisdom has built her house, She has carved out her seven pillars;
- NLT Wisdom has built her house; she has carved its seven columns.
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 has built her house and set up its seven pillars. Wisdom prepares a stable, gracious place and invites people in.
Overview
This opens a contrast between Lady Wisdom and Lady Folly, both of whom issue invitations. Wisdom's well-built house with seven pillars suggests completeness, stability, and generous hospitality. Her gracious feast and call foreshadow the gospel invitation, where Christ, the wisdom of God, prepares a place and bids sinners come (John 14:2-3).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Matt 16:18And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.
- Rev 3:12The one who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will never again leave it. Upon him I will write the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God (the new Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven from My God), and My new name.
- Eph 2:20–22built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone.
- Gal 2:9And recognizing the grace that I had been given, James, Cephas, and John—those reputed to be pillars—gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, so that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised.
- 1 Kgs 7:2–3He built the House of the Forest of Lebanon a hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high, with four rows of cedar pillars supporting the cedar beams.
- 1 Cor 3:9–15For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.
- 1 Pet 2:5–6you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
- 1 Kgs 7:21Thus he set up the pillars at the portico of the temple. The pillar to the south he named Jachin, and the pillar to the north he named Boaz.
- Heb 3:3–6For Jesus has been counted worthy of greater glory than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself.
- 1 Kgs 7:6Solomon made his colonnade fifty cubits long and thirty cubits wide, with a portico in front of it and a canopy with pillars in front of the portico.
- 1 Tim 3:15in case I am delayed, so that you will know how each one must conduct himself in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.
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 9:1 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
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.