Two Tables

The song

Two Tables is built on the closing picture of Proverbs 1–9: two women, two houses, two banquets and one invitation spoken word for word by both. “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here.” Wisdom’s table has wine she has mixed, meat she has prepared and a house built on seven pillars. Folly’s table has stolen water and bread eaten in secret, and her guests are in the depths of the grave. The song makes the listener stand in the street between the two doors and decide where to eat.

The chapter at a glance

Proverbs 9 is the finale of the book’s opening section. Everything in chapters 1–9 comes down to a single choice, pictured as two dinner invitations.

Wisdom’s banquet (vv. 1–6): She builds her house, prepares a feast and sends out her servants to invite the simple: come, eat, leave simpleness behind and live.
The middle teaching (vv. 7–12): Correcting a scoffer gets you insulted; correcting a wise person makes them wiser. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. Your choice is your own.
Folly’s banquet (vv. 13–18): Loud and ignorant, she sits at her door and calls to the same people with the same words. Her stolen water is sweet, but her guests are in the grave.

Walkthrough

9:1–2 — Wisdom builds and cooks

“Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars” (v. 1). Seven in Scripture suggests completeness. Her house is spacious, solid and finished, a place built to welcome guests. Compare the house of the woman in chapter 7, which was a doorway to the grave.

She has slaughtered her meat, mixed her wine and set her table (v. 2). Everything is ready. Wisdom isn’t stingy. She lays out a real feast, at her own cost.

9:3–6 — The invitation

She sends out her young women to call from the highest places in the city (v. 3): “Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither” (v. 4). To the one who lacks sense she says: come, eat my bread and drink the wine I have mixed (v. 5). “Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding” (v. 6).

The invitation goes to exactly the people who need it: the simple, the ones who lack sense. You don’t need to be wise to come to Wisdom’s table. You need to be hungry and willing to leave folly behind. Jesus told parables of the same kind: a king sending servants out to the streets to fill his wedding feast (Matt. 22:1–10; Luke 14:15–24).

9:7–9 — Scoffers and the wise

The middle section shifts from story to sayings. Whoever corrects a scoffer gets shame; whoever rebukes a wicked man gets hurt (v. 7). Don’t rebuke a scoffer, or he’ll hate you; rebuke a wise man, and he’ll love you (v. 8). Give instruction to a wise man and he’ll be wiser still; teach a righteous man and he’ll increase in learning (v. 9).

These verses explain why the two banquets matter. People become what they eat. The one who keeps accepting correction grows wiser. The one who keeps sneering becomes unreachable. The test of wisdom is how you respond when you’re told you’re wrong.

9:10–12 — The foundation, again

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding” (v. 10). This is the key verse, and it echoes 1:7. The opening section of Proverbs is bracketed by this truth at the start and the end. Everything between has been unpacking it.

Through wisdom your days will be multiplied, and years added to your life (v. 11). Then a sobering line: “If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself: but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it” (v. 12). Nobody can make this choice for you, and nobody else will carry the result.

9:13–15 — Folly at her door

Now the other woman. “A foolish woman is clamorous: she is simple, and knoweth nothing” (v. 13). She’s loud, naive and empty. Notice the contrast: Wisdom worked hard, building and cooking and sending servants. Folly just sits at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the town (v. 14). She calls to people passing by who are going straight on their way (v. 15). She targets those who are already on the right path.

9:16–17 — The same words

Then she uses Wisdom’s exact invitation: “Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither” (v. 16). Both tables call the same people with the same words. That’s the danger. Folly doesn’t sound like folly. She sounds like an invitation.

But her menu is different. “Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant” (v. 17). She hasn’t cooked anything. She offers what’s stolen and secret, and sells it on the thrill of the forbidden. The water echoes chapter 5, where the father urged his son to drink from his own well.

9:18 — Who’s at her table

“But he knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell” (v. 18). The guest doesn’t see who else is eating. The room is full, but everyone in it is dead. It is the last line of chapters 1–9, and it leaves the reader in the street, between two doors, with the choice still open.

Living it

You’re always being invited somewhere. Media, friends, habits, ambitions: every one of them is calling “turn in here.” Ask whose table it is.
Folly borrows Wisdom’s words. Bad choices rarely look like bad choices. They use good language. Test the menu, not the sign on the door.
Wisdom costs her something; folly costs you everything. One host prepares and gives. The other offers stolen goods and takes your life.
Watch how you take correction. The scoffer and the wise man are separated mostly by how they respond to rebuke. Be the one who gets wiser.
Start where the book starts. The fear of the LORD is the foundation. Everything practical in the rest of Proverbs is built on it.
Your choice is yours. No one else can come to the table for you, and no one else carries the result.
The feast is open. The invitation is for the simple. If that’s you, you qualify. Come and eat.

Key verse

Proverbs 9:10 — “The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of wisdom; and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” (ASV)

The whole opening of Proverbs comes down to this, and to which table you choose.

Lyrics