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