The Praise of Wisdom

¹Wisdom praises herself

and proclaims her glory in the midst of her people.

²In the assembly of the Most High she speaks,

and before his heavenly armies she declares her glory.

³“I came forth when the Most High spoke,

and I covered the earth like a mist.

⁴I lived in the highest places,

and my throne was in a pillar of clouds.

⁵I alone have traveled across the heavens

and have walked on the bottom of the watery depths.

⁶Over the waves of the sea, over the whole earth,

and over every people and nation I have held power.

⁷Among all these I looked for a place to rest.

I wondered, ‘In whose territory should I settle?’

⁸“Then the Creator of all things gave me a command.

My Creator chose the place for me to live.

He said, ‘Live among Jacob’s descendants,

and make Israel the permanent home of your family.’

⁹Before the dawn of time and creation, the Lord created me,

and I will never cease to exist.

¹⁰In the holy Tabernacle I ministered before him,

and so I was established in the Temple on Mount Zion.

¹¹Therefore, the Lord gave me a resting place in the beloved city.

In Jerusalem I held authority.

¹²I took root among an honored people

and in the portion of the Lord, his special possession.

¹³“I grew tall like a cedar in Lebanon

and like a cypress on Mount Hermon.

¹⁴I grew tall like a palm tree in En-gedi

and like a rosebush in Jericho.

Like a beautiful olive tree in a field

or a plane tree beside water, I grew tall.

¹⁵I gave off a pleasant aroma like cinnamon and camel’s thorn.

I yielded a fragrance like the finest myrrh.

My aroma was like galbanum, mollusk scent, and resin droplets

and like the incense of the Tabernacle.

¹⁶I stretch out my branches like a tree

and my branches are splendid and graceful.

¹⁷Like a vine I put forth pleasant buds,

and my blossoms become splendid and abundant fruit.

¹⁹“Come to me, all you who desire me,

and eat as many of my fruits as you wish.

²⁰For remembering me is sweeter than honey,

and possessing me is sweeter than the honeycomb.

²¹Those who eat me will hunger for more,

and those who drink me will thirst for more.

²²Those who obey me will not be ashamed,

and those who work with me will not sin.”

Wisdom Flows from the Law

²³All this is the Book of the Covenant of the Most High God,

the law that Moses commanded us

as an inheritance for the congregations of Israel.

²⁵Wisdom overflows like the Pishon River

and like the Tigris during the season of the first crops.

²⁶Like the Euphrates, it runs over with understanding,

and like the Jordan at harvesttime.

²⁷Like the Nile, it pours out knowledge.[#24:27 As in Syriac; Greek reads Like light.]

It is like the Gihon at the time of the grape harvest.

²⁸The first man did not know wisdom fully,

nor will the last one understand.

²⁹For her thoughts are more vast than the sea,

and her counsel deeper than the great abyss.

³⁰As for me, I was like a canal from a river,

and an irrigation ditch into a garden.

³¹I said, “I will water my garden

and irrigate my flower beds.”

Then my canal became a river,

and my river became a sea.

³²I will make teaching shine like the dawn,

and it will be clearly visible from far away.

³³Once again I will pour out teaching like prophecy

and leave it for all future generations.

³⁴Take note that I have not labored for myself alone

but for all who seek wisdom.