Proverbs 1:21

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

Ver. 21. In the chief place of concourse.] Veritas non quaerit angulos. Christ, as his manner was, preached in the synagogues; Paul disputed in the market with whomsoever he met, and preached in the midst of Mars hill. {Act 17:17-22} And at Rome his "bonds in Christ were manifest in all Caesar’s court, and in all other places." {Php 1:13}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Pro 1:21. She crieth in the chief place of concourse — Where there is most probability of success. The LXX. render it, επ’ ακρων τειχεων κηρυσσεται, she preacheth upon the tops of the walls, or houses, a translation which Houbigant approves. Schultens, not improperly, renders the Hebrew, בראשׁ המיות, at the head, or beginning, of the most frequented streets. In the opening of the gates — Where magistrates sit in judgment, and people are assembled. So she crieth, both to the wise and to the unwise, as Paul preached, Rom 1:14. In the city she uttereth her words — Not only in the gate, but in every part of the city. Or, in the cities, the singular number being put for the plural.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The publicity further indicated by terms designating places of most common resort.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(21) Crieth.—She cannot bear to see sinners rushing madly on their doom. (Comp. Christ’s weeping over Jerusalem, Luk_19:41; and Rom_9:2, sqq; Php_3:18, sqq.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

21. in the chief place of concourse] Lit. at the head of the noisy places (turbarum, Vulg.). The expression head of the streets occurs Isa_51:20; Lam_2:19. Comp. at every head of the ways, Eze_16:25; the place where the street branches off and so has its head or beginning. The LXX. (with a slightly different Heb. reading) ἐπʼ ἄκρων τειχέων, on the top of the walls.

openings] Rather, entering in. Just within the gate of an oriental city was the principal square, or open space, where public business was transacted and courts were held. See, for example, 1Ki_22:10; Rth_4:1.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

She crieth in the chief place of concourse,.... Where a multitude of people meet together; the Targum is,

"on the top of palaces;''

but rather it is to be understood of the synagogues of the Jews, where Christ frequently preached; and which, from hence, they build in the highest part of the city (c); and best of all the temple, whither the tribes of Israel went up to worship in great bodies, and to which the Jews daily resorted; here Christ taught publicly, as he himself says, Joh 18:20;

in the opening of the gates; either of the city, at which people went in and out in great numbers; or of the temple, where they passed and repassed continually on account of worship; see Joh 10:23; in allusion hereunto the public worship of God's house is signified by the gates of Zion, and also of Wisdom, Psa 87:2;

in the city she uttereth her words; the doctrines of the Gospel; even in the city of Jerusalem literally, and in other cities of Judea and Galilee, the singular being put for the plural; and figuratively in the church of God, often compared to a city; and so all these expressions of "without", in the "streets", in the "chief place of concourse", "the opening of the gates", and "the city", may denote in general the openness and publicness of the Gospel ministry, both by Christ in his apostles, in Judea, and in the Gentile world; more especially the former;

saying, as follows.

(c) Maimon. Hilchot Tephillah, c. 11. s. 2.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The chief place of concourse; where there is probability of most success.

The opening of the gates; where magistrates sit in judgment, and people are assembled. So it crieth both to the wise and to the unwise, as Paul preached, Rom 1:14.

In the city; not only in the gate, but in every part of the city. Or, in the cities, the singular number being put for the plural.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

She crieth in the chief place of concourse. The chief place is literally the head (vaOr, rosh); here used figuratively for the place where streets or roads branch off in different directions, as in Eze_16:25, "the beginning of streets," or "the head of the way;" comp. Gen_2:10, where it is used of the point at which the four streams branched off; and the corresponding expression in Pro_8:2, "She staudeth in the top (rosh) of high places." Of concourse; twOYmiho (homiyyoth) is the plural of the adjective, ymiwh (homi): literally, "those who are making a noise," or "the tumultuous;" here, as in Isa_22:2 and 1Ki_1:41, used substantively for "boisterous, noisy places" (compare the Vulgate, in capite turbaram). The variation in the LXX, "on high walls," or "on the tops of the walls" (ep akrwn de teicewn , super summos muros), which is adopted also in the Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic Versions, arises from reading twOmwOj (khomoth), "walls," for the Masoretic Homiyyoth. in the openings of the gates. The opening (jtp, pethakh) is the opening of the gate, or the entrance by the gate (rv, shaar), i.e. of the city, the introitus portae of the Chaldee and Syriac Versions. The openings of the gates would be thronged, as courts of justice were held at the gates; (Deu_16:18 2Sa_15:2) business was carried on there, as the selling and redemption of land; (Gen_23:10-16 Rth_4:1) markets were also held there; (2Ki_7:1-18) and the same localities were used for the councils of the state and conferences. (Gen_34:20 2Sa_3:27 2Ch_18:9 Jer_17:19; comp. Pro_31:3, "Her husband is known in the gates In place of the expression, "in the openings of the gates," the LXX reads, Epi de pulaiv dunastwn paredreuei , "And at the gates of the mighty she sits an interpolation which only partially represents the sense of the original, and which is adopted in the Arabic. In the next clause, for "in the city" is substituted epi de pulaiv polewv , "at the gates of the city." The Vulgate combines the separate clauses of the original in one in foribus portarum urbis, "in the entrances and openings of the gates of the city." In the city (ryib, bair); i.e. in the city itself (so Aben Ezra, ap. Gejerus), as opposed to the entrance by the gates, and so used antithetically (as Umbreit, Bertheau, Hitzig). The publicity of the teaching of Wisdom, observable in the places she selects for that purpose, also marked the public ministry of our Lord and his disciples, and finds an illustration in his command, "What ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops"; (Mat_10:27) i.e. give it all the publicity possible. The spirit of Wisdom, like that of Christianity, is aggressive (see Wardlaw, "Lectures on Proverbs 4.," vol. 1. pp. 40, 41).

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Gates - Where magistrates sit in judgment, and people are assembled. The city - Not only in the gate, but in every part of the city.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

המיּות (plur. of הומי, the ground-form of הומה, from המי = המה), "they who are making noise;" for the epithet is poetically used (Isa 22:2) as a substantive, crowded noisy streets or places. ראשׁ is the place from which on several sides streets go forth: cf. ras el-ain, the place where the well breaks forth; ras en-nahr, the place from which the stream divides itself; the sing. is meant distributively as little as at Pro 8:2. פּתח, if distinguished from שׁער (which also signifies cleft, breach), is the opening of the gate, the entrance by the gate. Four times the poet says that Wisdom goes forth preaching, and four times that she preaches publicly; the בּעיר used in five places implies that Wisdom preaches not in the field, before the few who there are met with, but in the city, which is full of people.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

She calls at the head of the noisy streets In the place where she is heard and called [and proclaimed Vilna, Warsaw ed.] there she calls out and makes the following statement. “How long will you naive ones, etc?”

at the entrances of the gates They are the place where the elders sit.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.