Wisdom has built her house. She has carved out her seven pillars.
Parallel translations
- KJV Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars:
- BSB Wisdom has built her house; she has carved 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 16:18I also tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my assembly, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.
- Rev 3:12He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will go out from there no more. I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God, and my own new name.
- Eph 2:20–22being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone;
- Gal 2:9and when they perceived the grace that was given to me, James and Cephas and John, they who were reputed to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcision.
- 1 Kgs 7:2–3For he built the House of the Forest of Lebanon. Its length was one hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits, on four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams on the pillars.
- 1 Cor 3:9–15For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s farming, God’s building.
- 1 Pet 2:5–6You also, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
- 1 Kgs 7:21He set up the pillars at the porch of the temple. He set up the right pillar, and called its name Jachin; and he set up the left pillar, and called its name Boaz.
- Heb 3:3–6For he has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, because he who built the house has more honor than the house.
- 1 Kgs 7:6He made the porch of pillars. Its length was fifty cubits and its width thirty cubits; with a porch before them, and pillars and a threshold before them.
- 1 Tim 3:15but if I wait long, that you may know how men ought to behave themselves in God’s house, which is the assembly of the living God, the pillar and ground 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.