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9Listen, O Israel, to the commandments of life;
pay attention, that you may learn wisdom.
10How did it happen, O Israel,
that you are in the land of your enemies,
that you have grown old in a foreign country?
11You are defiled with the dead;
you are counted among those who have gone to the grave.
12It is because you have abandoned the fountain of wisdom.
13If you had walked in the way of God,
you would have lived in peace forever.
14Learn where understanding resides,
where to find strength and insight.
Then you will know where to find a long life—
and life itself.
You will know what makes the eyes shine
and where to find peace.
15Who has discovered wisdom’s dwelling place?
Who has gone into the place where wisdom is stored?
16Where are the leaders of the nations?
Where are those who rule over the animals on earth
17and entertain themselves with birds?
Where are those who hoard silver and gold?
They place their trust in such things,
yet they have no end to their wants.
18Where are the careful craftsmen of silver?
There is no trace of their works.
19They have vanished into the place of the dead,[#3:19 Greek into Hades.]
and others have risen up in their place.
20Generations have seen the light of day
and inhabited the earth,
but they have not learned the way to knowledge.
21They do not know the path,
so their children have strayed from the truth.
22Wisdom has not been heard of in Canaan;
neither has she been seen in Teman.
23The descendants of Hagar search after worldly wisdom,
as do the merchants of Merran and Teman,
the storytellers, and the philosophers.
None have found the way to wisdom;
neither have they discovered her paths.
24O Israel, how great is the world God created;
how vast is his domain!
25It is great and has no end;
it is high and immeasurable.
26In it were born giants,
men renowned from the beginning,
great in stature, expert in war.
27Yet God did not choose them,
neither did they find the paths of knowledge.
28And because they did not have wisdom,
they perished through their own foolishness.
29Who has gone up into heaven and seized wisdom?
Who has brought her down from the clouds?
30Who has sailed across the sea and found her?
Who could buy her for gold?
31No one can know the way to wisdom
nor search out the paths she takes.
32But God, who knows all, knows her;
he has mastered her by his own intelligence.
God is the one who constructed the earth for all time
and filled it with four-footed animals.
33He sends forth the light, and it speeds away.
He recalls it, and it obeys trembling.
34The stars shine joyfully in their appointed places.
35When he calls to them, they reply: “Here we are!”
And they cheerfully shine for their Creator.
36This is our God,
and no one else can be compared to him.
37He who holds all knowledge
has given her to his servant Jacob
and to Israel, whom he loved.
38Then wisdom came to earth
and lived among people.