Proverbs 9:16

Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: and as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him,
– Proverbs 9:16

Folly’s invitation is like wisdom’s in the beginning of the chapter. This is deliberate and deceptive. The simple are gullible and easily led astray (Romans 16:18). She targets the simple and uninformed as a prey. Wisdom appeals to them to help them. The invitation is to turn in, and so leave one path for another. It is wise to recognize that many voices call out and commend their own way, but there is only one way that leads to life and peace (John 14:6).

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Proverbs 9:15

To call passengers who go right on their ways:
– Proverbs 9:15

The foolish woman sits in a prominent place so as to call to all who pass by, as passengers signifies. She spreads her net wide and indiscriminately to catch all she can. The word for right means straight and some have supposed the intent is to speak of moral straightness. This would mean folly is particularly looking to ensnare those who are in a good way. That idea artificially limits the scope and does not agree with the next verse, which describes them as simple and wanting understanding. The meaning is that the passersby are going about their own business and not looking for folly’s feast, but she tries to entice and catch them. Wisdom would teach us to be wary.

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Proverbs 9:14

For she sitteth at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city.
– Proverbs 9:14

Folly imitates wisdom and the unwary discern little difference. Everything about wisdom was high and noble, from her seven-pillared house to her maidens to her expertly prepared feast. Everything about folly is common and ill-prepared. There is nothing about her preparations for a feast, which fits with the character of fools and their empty talk (Proverbs 14:23). She sits and calls whereas wisdom stands (Proverbs 8:2).

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Proverbs 5:22

His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.
– Proverbs 5:22

The man who falls after the strange woman will be caught and bound with his own sin. Such women are “snares and nets” (Ecclesiastes 7:29). The summary teaching of Proverbs is that folly brings its own judgment (Proverbs 1:18, 31; 11:3, 5). The evil imaginations and schemes of the wicked are their own undoing. It is also so with the man who will not delight in his wife, but rather seek out another.

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Proverbs 1:31

Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
– Proverbs 1:31

Wisdom is not natural with us. We have to receive it. Folly is natural to us. We have to refuse it. The judgment that comes on those who continually refuse wisdom is that they are allowed to go their own way to the end. In other words, fools plant a crop of folly and come to eat their own harvest in the end. Paul taught that we reap what we sow (Galatians 6:7-8). When we refuse wisdom, we are given our folly to the full and the consequences thereof. When we thus suffer at our own hands, we have none else to blame.

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