¹Lord Almighty, God of Israel, a soul under great stress and a wearied spirit cry out to you.

²Lord, listen and have mercy, because we’ve sinned in your presence,

³because you are enthroned for all time, and we are perishing for all time.

⁴Lord Almighty, God of Israel, listen now to the prayers of those who have died in Israel and the prayers of the children of those who kept sinning before you, who didn’t listen to the Lord their God. Horrible things continue to trouble us.

⁵Don’t remember our ancestors’ unjust actions, but remember your power and your reputation at this time,

⁶because you, Lord, are our God, and we’ll praise you.

⁷You have planted respect for you in our hearts so that we’ll call on your name. We’ll praise you in this land far from home, for we have put away from our hearts all the injustice of our fathers who sinned before you.

⁸Today we are far from home, where you have scattered us as an insult, a curse, and a penalty due to all the unjust actions of our ancestors, who deserted the Lord our God.

The glory of wisdom

⁹Hear, Israel, the commandments of life.

Listen carefully, and you’ll come to know Wisdom.

¹⁰Why is it, Israel, that you are in the enemies’ land,

growing old in a foreign land,

¹¹polluted by the dead,

and counted as people

already in the grave?

¹²You have abandoned the fountain

from which wisdom flows.

¹³If you had walked in the way of God,

you would be living in peace forever.

¹⁴Learn where there are wisdom, strength, and understanding

so that you may know at the same time

where there are longevity, life, understanding, and peace.

¹⁵Who has found her place of residence,[#3.15 Gk lacks]

and who has entered

her storehouses?

¹⁶Where are the leading officials

of the nations

and the masters of the animals

that are on the earth?

¹⁷Where are those who entrap

the birds in the sky,

and those who store up silver and gold, in which humans have trusted?

There is no end to their attempts

to acquire more.

¹⁸Where are those who anxiously schemed to acquire silver?

There is no trace of their actions.

¹⁹They have all vanished

and gone to the grave,

and others have risen up in their place.

²⁰New generations have seen the light

and lived on the earth,

but they didn’t know

the way of knowledge.

²¹They didn’t understand her paths

or take hold of her.

Their children also went far off course.

²²She hadn’t been heard of in Canaan

or seen in Teman.

²³Hagar’s children,

who seek earthly understanding,

²⁴Israel, how great is God’s house

and spacious is God’s domain!

²⁵It is great and has no end;

it is high and immeasurable!

²⁶The giants were born there,

the famous ones

from the beginning of time,

who were very large

and experts in war.

²⁷God didn’t select them or give them

the way of true knowledge.

²⁸So they perished

because they didn’t have Wisdom;

they perished

through their carelessness.

²⁹Who went into heaven, took Wisdom,

and brought her down from the clouds?

³⁰Who crossed over to the other side of the sea and found her,

and who will bring her back

with choice gold?

³¹No one knows the road she takes

or thinks much about

the path she travels.

³²But the one who knows all things

knows her;

God found her by his understanding;

the one who made the earth

for time eternal,

and filled it with four-footed animals;

³³the one who sends the light

³⁴The stars shone at their appointed posts and were delighted.

God called them,

and the stars said, “Here we are.”

They shone joyfully

for the one who made them.

³⁵This is our God.

No other will be compared to him.

³⁶God discovered every way of knowledge

and gave her to his child Jacob,

to Israel, whom he loved.

³⁷After this, she appeared on the earth

and lived among humans.