Proverbs 1:20-33 (Vespers, 2nd reading)
- 20
- Wisdom calls aloud outside; She raises her voice in the open squares.
- 21
- She cries out in the chief concourses, At the openings of the gates in the city She speaks her words:
- 22
- “How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? For scorners delight in their scorning, And fools hate knowledge.
- 23
- Turn at my rebuke; Surely I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you.
- 24
- Because I have called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded,
- 25
- Because you disdained all my counsel, And would have none of my rebuke,
- 26
- I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your terror comes,
- 27
- When your terror comes like a storm, And your destruction comes like a whirlwind, When distress and anguish come upon you.
- 28
- “Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me.
- 29
- Because they hated knowledge And did not choose the fear of the Lord,
- 30
- They would have none of my counsel And despised my every rebuke.
- 31
- Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, And be filled to the full with their own fancies.
- 32
- For the turning away of the simple will slay them, And the complacency of fools will destroy them;
- 33
- But whoever listens to me will dwell safely, And will be secure, without fear of evil.”