| 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. | |
