The Highest Point of the City

Wisdom has built her house;  she has set up its seven pillars. She has prepared her meat and mixed her wine; she has also set her table. She has sent out her servants, and she calls from the highest point of the city, "Let all who are simple come to my house!" To those who have no sense she says, "Come, eat my food and drink the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways and you will live; walk in the way of insight."  Folly is an unruly woman; she is simple and knows nothing. She sits at the door of her house, on a seat at the highest point of the city, calling out to those who pass by, who go straight on their way, "Let all who are simple come to my house!" To those who have no sense she says, "Stolen water is sweet; food eaten in secret is delicious!" But little do they know that the dead are there, that her guests are deep in the realm of the dead. (Proverbs 9:1-6, 13-18 NIV)

There seems to be a thin line between many antonym's: love, hate; bad, good (in some circumstances); humility, pride; and finally, wisdom and folly. In the above passage wisdom and folly happen to be women in a very influential position; namely, the high point of the city.  When I was reading it I wondered whether the author pictured them being in the same city, or maybe even sisters in the same house! They both wake up with the same quest: to attract people to the house and to themselves. Lady Wisdom, before calling them, prepares a table decked out with the finest wine, meats and cheeses. Lady Folly goes and sits outside. When Wisdom has finished her preparation she has her servants invite people from far and wide, and she herself beckons them from the highest part of the city. Folly, on the other hand, see's that Wisdom has finished her preparation and she see's an easy opportunity to gain without effort. So perhaps she goes to the backdoor and calls people passing by to come and eat stolen food, and drink stolen wine. The one, wisdom, calls simpletons to be insightful, and preparative. The other, folly, invites them to live a life of ease and to eat the hard work of others. Wisdom's call comes with sacrfice and discipline, "Leave your simple ways." Folly's comes with deception and quick reward. One beckons to life, the other to death. Wisdom and Folly, the good looking twins at the highest point of the city. Be careful whose invite you accept.