Songs 13

¹Keep silence, all ye sons of men,

and hear with rev’rence due;

Eternal Wisdom from above

thus lifts her voice to you:

²I was th’ Almighty’s chief delight

from everlasting days,

Ere yet his arm was stretched forth

the heav’ns and earth to raise.

³Before the sea began to flow,

and leave the solid land,

Before the hills and mountains rose,

I dwelt at his right hand.

⁴When first he rear’d the arch of heav’n,

and spread the clouds on air,

When first the fountains of the deep

he open’d, I was there.

⁵There I was with him, when he stretch’d

his compass o’er the deep,

And charg’d the ocean’s swelling waves

within their bounds to keep.

⁶With joy I saw th’ abode prepar’d

which men were soon to fill:

Them from the first of days I lov’d,

unchang’d, I love them still.

⁷Now therefore hearken to my words,

ye children, and be wise:

Happy the man that keeps my ways;

the man that shuns them dies.

⁸Where dubious paths perplex the mind,

direction I afford;

Life shall be his that follows me,

and favour from the Lord.

⁹But he who scorns my sacred laws

shall deeply wound his heart,

He courts destruction who contemns

the counsel I impart.