Tale of Two Women

Proverbs 5.1-14; 6.20-29; 7.1-27; 8.1-36; 9.1-18.

Solomon, before launching his collection of wise sayings from Proverbs 10 on, sets the tone by giving significant focus to the ‘tale of two women.’ 

Why does he, and who are these women, or, more pertinently, what do they represent? One is Lady Wisdom, the other, an adulteress. 

Both women call out in the streets to all who will listen, and both make lavish promises; one speaks truth, the other deception, to the point that those who listen, “do not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.” 9.18 

Wisdom and folly are feminized in that they both woo by attraction. Attraction can be either positive, as is the case in those who heed the call of wisdom, or negative, as is the case with those who are tempted by an adulterous voice. 

Both are appealing to something internal, something inherent, even if nascent - either the desire for wisdom or the desire for gratification. 

Wisdom does have its own gratification, but gratification alone lacks any wisdom. If wisdom includes self-discipline and delay, then gratification is instant and demanding; it knows little of patience.

A wise son listens to the voice of his father and mother; an unwise son fails to listen to the voice of his parents, opting for the seductive voice of the illicit, the adulteress. Proverbs 4.

But, as with good and evil, wisdom and folly are not equal yet opposite; two sides of the same coin. Far from it. Wisdom, she, has a stature that folly, the adulterous woman, has no likeness to.

The O.T. scholar, John Goldingay, views ‘Lady Wisdom’ as a personification of God’s creative counsel, purpose, and presence in the world. She, wisdom, represents the order God has fashioned in creation. She was present before the earth existed in the role of helper (rather than a co-creator), demonstrating God’s wisdom in his works. This is an elevated perspective of wisdom, something reiterated in the Book of Job.

Whichever way we view wisdom and its origins, the same sort of accord is not and cannot be attributed to the adulterous woman. She is earthbound; Sheol is her destiny. 

Two women beckon. Who will we choose?