The Excellence of Wisdom

1Shall not wisdom call, and understanding give her voice?

2She stood upon the head of the heights, upon the way of the house of the beaten paths.

3At the hand of the gates, at the mouth of the city from the coming in of the doors she will cry:

4To you, ye men, I shall call, and my voice is to the sons of man.

5Understand craftiness, ye simple: and ye foolish, understand the heart.

6Hear ye, for I will speak dear things; and the openings of my lips uprightnesses.

7For my palate shall meditate the truth, and evil is the abomination of my lips.

8In justice are all the sayings of my mouth; nothing in them crooked and perverse.

9All of them straight to him understanding, and right to those finding knowledge.

10Receive my instruction and not silver and knowledge above tried gold.

11For wisdom is good above pearls, and all delights shall not be made equal with her.

12I wisdom dwelt with prudence, and I shall find the knowledge of machinations.

13The fear of Jehovah hates evil: pride and haughtiness, and the evil way, and the mouth of perverseness I hated.

14To me counsel and wisdom: I am understanding; to me is strength.

15By me kings shall reign, and princes shall decree justice.

16By me chiefs shall have dominion, and nobles all judging the earth.

17I loved those loving me: and they seeking me shall find me.

18Riches and honor are with me; splendid riches and justice.

19My fruit is good above gold, and above pure gold; and my gain above tried silver.

20I shall go in the way of justice, in the midst of the beaten paths of judgment:

21To cause those loving me to inherit existence: and I will fill their treasures.

22Jehovah set me up the beginning of his way, before his works from ancient time.

23From forever I was knit together, from the beginning, from the first of the earth.

24In no depths was I begun; in no fountains abundant in waters.

25Before the mountains were settled; before the hills I had a beginning:

26Yet he made not the earth and the fields, and the head of the clods of the habitable globe.

27In his preparing the heavens I was there: in his inscribing a circle upon the face of the deep:

28In his making firm the clouds from above: in his strengthening the fountains of the deep:

29In his setting his law to the sea, and the waters shall not pass by his mouth; in his making firm the foundations of the earth:

30And I shall be near him the builder, and I shall be a delight of day, day, smiling before him in all time.

31Smiling in the habitable globe of his earth; and my delight with the sons of man.

32And now ye sons, hear to me: and the happy shall watch my ways.

33Hear ye instructions, and be wise, and ye shall not reject it.

34Happy the man hearing to me, to watch at my doors day, day; to watch the door posts of my entrances.

35For he finding me, the finding of life, and he shall bring forth acceptance from Jehovah.

36And he sinning against me did violence to his soul: all hating me loved death.