Paragraph 8:4–11

In this paragraph, personified Wisdom invites all mankind to become shrewd and intelligent (4–5). She then describes the good qualities of her words as motivation to heed her invitation (6–9). She ends with another appeal that is based on her high value (10–11).

8:4

Notice the parallel parts that are similar in meaning. They form a chiasm. The parts in 8:4a occur in the opposite order from the parallel parts in 8:4b.

4a
To you, O men, I call out,

4b
and my cry is to the sons of men.

If a chiasm is not natural in your language, you may need to reorder the parallel parts. For example, 8:4a could be reordered:

4a
I call out to you, O men.

Another option would be to reorder 8:4b. For example:

4b
To the sons of men I cry out.

8:4a–b

To you, O men, I call out, and my cry is to the sons of men: The word men means “everyone” or “all people.” When this word is used together with the phrase to the sons of men, it refers to all classes of humanity, without distinction. The position of the first phrase, To you, gives special emphasis to Wisdom’s audience. The New Living Translation (2004) conveys this emphasis by saying:

I call to you, to all of you! I raise my voice to all people. (New Living Translation (2004))

I call out…my cry: For call out, see 2:3a. The phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as my cry is literally “my voice.”

General Comment on 8:4a–b

In some languages, it may be more natural to combine and/or reorder the parallel lines. See the Display for 8:4a–b (combined/reordered).

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