[ 1 minutes to read ]

She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying,
– Proverbs 1:21

[C]oncourse means noise, such as made by a large crowd of people. Again, wisdom is personified as walking among the crowds in the common places—the gates, in the city, without, and in the streets. So wisdom is shown as having much to do with common life and is not reserved for the pursuit of scholars in towers. Wisdom is not only there but also crying out. The crying and uttering in these passages also give a sense of urgency to heed wisdom’s counsel.

Wisdom is personified in the feminine, chiefly because the Hebrew word is feminine and so naturally gets the feminine pronouns. Lady wisdom is also the counter figure to the foolish woman and the strange woman throughout Proverbs. I’m quite intrigued by the feminine motif throughout Proverbs but don’t have the wisdom to understand it fully.

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