Praise of Wisdom

¹Wisdom will praise herself,

and she will boast in the midst of her people.

²In the assembly of the Most High,

she will open her mouth,

and in the presence of

his heavenly forces, she will boast:

³“I came forth from the mouth

of the Most High,

and I covered the earth like a mist.

⁴I lived in the heights,

and my throne was in a pillar of cloud.

⁵I alone encircled the vault of heaven

and walked in the depths of abysses.

⁶In the waves of the sea and in every land,

and among every people and nation,

I led the way.

⁷I sought a resting place

among all of these.

In whose allotted territory

should I make my home?

⁸“Then the creator of all things

gave me a command;

the one who created me pitched my tent

and said, ‘Make your dwelling in Jacob,

and let Israel receive your inheritance.’

⁹Before the ages, from the beginning,

he created me,

and till eternity I will never fail.

¹⁰I ministered before him in the holy tent,

and so I was established in Zion.

¹¹In the same way, he made

the dearly loved city my resting place

and established my authority

in Jerusalem.

¹²I took root in a glorified people;

among the people the Lord chose

for his inheritance.

¹³‘I rose high like a cedar in Lebanon,

like a cypress on Mount Hermon.

¹⁴I rose high like a palm in En-geddi,

and like rosebushes in Jericho,

like a fair olive tree in a field.

I rose high like a plane tree.

¹⁵Like cinnamon and camel’s thorn

used for spices,

I gave off a fine aroma.

like galbanum, onycha, and stacte,

and like the smell of frankincense

in the tent.

¹⁶Like a terebinth oak

I spread out my branches,

and my branches were glorious

and graceful.

¹⁷Gracious favor was the leaf

that I put forth like a vine,

and honor and wealth

were the fruit that my blossoms bore.

¹⁹“Come to me, you who desire me,

and take your fill of my produce.

²⁰Calling me to mind is sweeter

than honey,

and possessing me

is better than a dripping honeycomb.

²¹Those who eat of me will hunger

for more,

and those who drink of me

will thirst for more.

²²Whoever obeys me won’t be ashamed,

and those who work with me

won’t sin.”

Wisdom and the Law

²³All these things are in the covenant scroll of the Most High God,

the Law that Moses commanded us,

the inheritance of the congregations

of Jacob.

²⁵God supplies Wisdom comparable

to the fullness of the Pishon River,

even like the Tigris River

in the springtime.

²⁶God provides understanding

as deep as the Euphrates,

or like the Jordan at the time

of the harvest.

²⁷God pours forth understanding like light,

as does the Gihon Spring

at the time of the grape harvest.

²⁸The first human

didn’t know Wisdom completely,

and so the last won’t probe her fully.

²⁹Her thoughts are more plentiful

than the sea;

her counsel is deeper

than the great abyss.

³⁰Like a canal from a river,

like an irrigation channel,

I went out into a garden.

³¹I said, “I’ll water my garden,

and I’ll drench my flower bed.

And look! The canal

turned into a river for me,

and my river turned into a sea.

³²I’ll continue to make instruction

shine forth like the dawn,

and I’ll make things clear

to those who are far off.

³³I’ll continue to pour out teaching

like prophecy,

and I’ll leave it behind

for future generations.

³⁴See, I’ve not labored for myself alone,

but for all those who seek her.”