Proverbs 9 · a question people ask
Wisdom offers bread and wine (9:5). Is her feast the Lord's Supper? Is Wisdom here Jesus?
The chapter says who gives the feast and what it is for. "Wisdom has built her house" (9:1); "She has prepared her meat. She has mixed her wine. She has also set her table" (9:2); and her call is "Come, eat some of my bread, Drink some of the wine which I have mixed!" (9:5), and "Leave your simple ways, and live. Walk in the way of understanding" (9:6). It doesn't say more than that about who she is. No New Testament verse quotes Proverbs 9, and none says that Wisdom's feast is the Lord's Supper. Christians read Wisdom's words in chapter 8 in more than one way, and the honest question on Proverbs 8 sets out the main readings, each with its verses, and chooses none. Nothing in chapter 9 settles it, and these notes don't either. The chapter does say where each table leads: Wisdom says "live" (9:6), and the foolish woman's guests "are in the depths of Sheol" (9:18).
The verses
“Wisdom has built her house. She has carved out her seven pillars. She has prepared her meat. She has mixed her wine. She has also set her table. She has sent out her maidens. She cries from the highest places of the city: “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” As for him who is void of understanding, she says to him, “Come, eat some of my bread, Drink some of the wine which I have mixed! Leave your simple ways, and live. Walk in the way of understanding.””
““Stolen water is sweet. Food eaten in secret is pleasant.” But he doesn’t know that the departed spirits are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.”