Bible Strands
Proverbs 9:1
Wisdom has built her house; she has carved out her seven pillars.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Wisdom addresses the reader as the opening voice of a wisdom discourse, introducing her invitation before the context of Proverbs 9:2 details a prepared feast.
The words — חָכְמוֹת (ḥāḵmōt) appears as a plural noun for "wisdom," while בָּנְתָה (bānṯāh) and חָצְבָה (ḥāṣḇāh) describe the active processes of building and hewing stone. עַמּוּדֶיהָ (ʿammūḏêhā) and שִׁבְעָה (šibʿāh) explicitly name the structure's "her pillars" and "seven" count.
The thread — The architectural motif continues in Matthew 16:18, Revelation 3:12, and 1 Kings 7:2, which records the measurements of the House of the Forest of Lebanon rather than Solomon's temple.
Why it lands — The text presents wisdom as an active architect who constructs a defined space, requiring the reader to recognize a deliberate invitation before any interpretation of the subsequent feast. It demands a practical response to a prepared structure rather than passive contemplation.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars:
Cross-references
- Matthew 16:18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.
- Revelation 3:12 The one who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will never again leave it. Upon him I will write the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God (the new Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven from My God), and My new name.
- 1 Kings 7:2 He built the House of the Forest of Lebanon a hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high, with four rows of cedar pillars supporting the cedar beams.
- 1 Corinthians 3:9 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.
- Galatians 2:9 And recognizing the grace that I had been given, James, Cephas, and John—those reputed to be pillars—gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, so that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised.
- Ephesians 2:20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone.
- 1 Peter 2:5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
- 1 Kings 7:21 Thus he set up the pillars at the portico of the temple. The pillar to the south he named Jachin, and the pillar to the north he named Boaz.
- Hebrews 3:3 For Jesus has been counted worthy of greater glory than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself.
- 1 Kings 7:6 Solomon made his colonnade fifty cubits long and thirty cubits wide, with a portico in front of it and a canopy with pillars in front of the portico.