Proverbes 8

¹ Doth not wisdom cry aloud, and prudence put forth her voice? ² Standing in the top of the highest places by the way, in the midst of the paths. ³ Beside the gates of the city, in the very doors she speaketh, saying: ⁴ O ye men, to you I call, and my voice is to the sons of men. ⁵ O little ones, understand subtilty, and ye unwise, take notice. ⁶ Hear, for I will speak of great things: and my lips shall be opened to preach right things. ⁷ My mouth shall meditate truth, and my lips shall hate wickedness. ⁸ All my words are just, there is nothing wicked nor perverse in them. ⁹ They are right to them that understand, and just to them that find knowledge. ¹⁰ Receive my instruction, and not money: choose knowledge rather than gold. ¹¹ For wisdom is better than all the most precious things: and whatsoever may be desired cannot be compared to it. ¹² I wisdom dwell in counsel, and am present in learned thoughts. ¹³ The fear of the Lord hateth evil: I hate arrogance, and pride, and every wicked way, and a mouth with a double tongue. ¹⁴ Counsel and equity is mine, prudence is mine, strength is mine. ¹⁵ By me kings reign, and lawgivers decree just things, ¹⁶ By me princes rule, and the mighty decree justice. ¹⁷ I love them that love me: and they that in the morning early watch for me, shall find me. ¹⁸ With me are riches and glory, glorious riches and justice. ¹⁹ For my fruit is better than gold and the precious stone, and my blossoms than choice silver. ²⁰ I walk in the way of justice, in the midst of the paths of judgment, ²¹ That I may enrich them that love me, and may fill their treasures. ²² The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his ways, before he made any thing from the beginning. ²³ I was set up from eternity, and of old before the earth was made. ²⁴ The depths were not as yet, and I was already conceived. neither had the fountains of waters as yet sprung out: ²⁵ The mountains with their huge bulk had not as yet been established: before the hills I was brought forth: ²⁶ He had not yet made the earth, nor the rivers, nor the poles of the world. ²⁷ When he prepared the heavens, I was present: when with a certain law and compass he enclosed the depths: ²⁸ When he established the sky above, and poised the fountains of waters: ²⁹ When he compassed the sea with its bounds, and set a law to the waters that they should not pass their limits: when be balanced the foundations of the earth; ³⁰ I was with him forming all things: and was delighted every day, playing before him at all times; ³¹ Playing in the world: and my delights were to be with the children of men. ³² Now therefore, ye children, hear me: Blessed are they that keep my ways. ³³ Hear instruction and be wise, and refuse it not. ³⁴ Blessed is the man that heareth me, and that watcheth daily at my gates, and waiteth at the posts of my doors. ³⁵ He that shall find me, shall find life, and shall have salvation from the Lord: ³⁶ But he that shall sin against me, shall hurt his own soul. All that hate me love death.