a
Proverbs 1
20 Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:
21 She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying,
22 How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?
23 Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.
24 Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;
25 But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:
26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;
27 When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.
28 Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:
29 For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:
30 They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.
31 Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
(8,6,8,6)
In streets, and op’nings of the gates,
where pours the busy crowd,
Thus heav’nly Wisdom lifts her voice,
and cries to men aloud:
How long, ye scorners of the truth,
scornful will ye remain?
How long shall fools their folly love,
and hear my words in vain?
O turn, at last, at my reproof!
and, in that happy hour,
His bless’d effusions on your heart
my Spirit down shall pour.
But since so long, with earnest voice,
to you in vain I call
Since all my counsels and reproofs
thus ineffectual fall;
The time will come, when humbled low,
in Sorrow’s evil day,
Your voice by anguish shall be taught,
but taught too late, to pray.
When, like the whirlwind, o’er the deep
comes Desolation’s blast;
Pray’rs then extorted shall be vain,
the hour of mercy past.
The choice you made has fixed your doom;
for this is Heav’n’s decree,
That with the fruits of what he sowed
the sinner filled shall be.
a