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Proverbs 8
Wisdom again personified
1 Does Wisdom not call meanwhile? Does Discernment not lift up her voice?
2 On the hilltop, on the road, at the crossways, she takes her stand;
3 beside the gates of the city, at the approaches to the gates she cries aloud,
4 ‘O men! I am calling to you; my cry goes out to the sons of men.
5 You ignorant ones! Study discretion; and you fools, come to your senses!
6 Listen, I have serious things to tell you, from my lips come honest words.
7 My mouth proclaims the truth, wickedness is hateful to my lips.
8 All the words I say are right, nothing twisted in them, nothing false,
9 all straightforward to him who understands, honest to those who know what knowledge means.
10 Accept my discipline rather than silver, knowledge in preference to pure gold.
11 For wisdom is more precious than pearls, and nothing else is so worthy of desire.
Wisdom sings her own praises. Wisdom, the guide of kings
12 ‘I, Wisdom, am mistress of discretion, the inventor of lucidity of thought.
14 Good advice and sound judgement belong to me, perception to me, strength to me.
13 (To fear Yahweh is to hate evil.) I hate pride and arrogance, wicked behaviour and a lying mouth.
17 I love those who love me; those who seek me eagerly shall find me.
15 By me monarchs rule and princes issue just laws;
16 by me rulers govern, and the great impose justice on the world.
18 With me are riches and honour, lasting wealth and justice.
19 The fruit I give is better than gold, even the finest, the return I make is better than pure silver.
20 I walk in the way of virtue, in the paths of justice,
21 enriching those who love me, filling their treasuries.
Wisdom as creator
22 ‘Yahweh created me when his purpose first unfolded, before the oldest of his works.
23 From everlasting I was firmly set, from the beginning, before earth came into being.
24 The deep[*a] was not, when I was born, there were no springs to gush with water.
25 Before the mountains were settled, before the hills, I came to birth;
26 before he made the earth, the countryside, or the first grains of the world’s dust.
27 When he fixed the heavens firm, I was there, when he drew a ring on the surface of the deep,
28 when he thickened the clouds above, when he fixed fast the springs of the deep,
29 when he assigned the sea its boundaries-and the waters will not invade the shore-when he laid down the foundations of the earth,
30 I was by his side, a master craftsman, delighting him day after day, ever at play in his presence,
31 at play everywhere in his world, delighting to be with the sons of men.
8:32a And now, my sons, listen to me;
33 listen to instruction and learn to be wise, do not ignore it.
8:32b Happy those who keep my ways!
34 Happy the man who listens to me, who day after day watches at my gates to guard the portals.
35 For the man who finds me finds life, he will win favour from Yahweh;
36 but he who does injury to me does hurt to his own soul, all who hate me are in love with death.’