Even though the price one has to pay for wisdom (i.e., life within the will of God) includes submitting to God's discipline (vv. 11-12), it is worth it (vv. 13-20).
"Loath"(v. 11b) means to shrink back from (cf. Heb. 12:5-6). Rejecting with the will and recoiling emotionally are opposite actions from trusting (v. 5). God's discipline may not produce all God desires if we respond to it improperly. Long life, riches, and honor (v. 16) were the rewards God promised the godly under the Old Covenant. The tree of life figure (v. 18) implies that wisdom is the source and sustainer of a long and beneficial life (cf. v. 16).52The point is that by pursuing the way of wisdom a person can obtain the best things God has to offer him or her.
"It's good to have the things money can buy, provided you don't lose the things money can't buy. What good is an expensive house if there's no happy home within it? Happiness, pleasantness, and peace aren't the guaranteed by-products of financial success, but they are guaranteed to the person who lives by God's wisdom. Wisdom becomes a tree of life' to the believer who takes hold of her, and this is a foretaste of heaven (Rev. 22:1-2)."53
