1 - Doth not wisdom cry aloud, and prudence put forth her voice?
2 - Standing in the top of the highest places by the way, in the midst of the paths,
3 - Beside the gates of the city, in the very doors she speaketh, saying:
4 - O ye men, to you I call, and my voice is to the sons of men.
5 - O little ones understand subtlety, and ye unwise, take notice.
6 - Hear, for I will speak of great things: and my lips shall be opened to preach right things.
7 - My mouth shall meditate truth, and my lips shall hate wickedness.
8 - All my words are just, there is nothing wicked, nor perverse in them.
9 - They are right to them that understand, and just to them that find knowledge.
10 - Receive my instruction, and not money: choose knowledge rather than gold.
11 - For wisdom is better than all the most precious things: and whatsoever may be desired cannot be compared to it.
12 - I, wisdom, dwell in counsel, and am present in learned thoughts.
13 - The fear of the Lord hateth evil; I hate arrogance, and pride, and every wicked way, and a mouth with a double tongue.
14 - Counsel and equity is mine, prudence is mine, strength is mine.
15 - By me kings reign, and lawgivers decree just things.
16 - By me princes rule, and the mighty decree justice.
17 - I love them that love me: and they that in the morning early watch for me, shall find me.
18 - With me are riches and glory, glorious riches and justice.
19 - For my fruit is better than gold and the precious stone, and my blossoms than choice silver.
20 - I walk in the way of justice, in the midst of the paths of judgment,
21 - That I may enrich them that love me, and may fill their treasures.
22 - The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his ways, before he made any thing from the beginning.
23 - I was set up from eternity, and of old, before the earth was made.
24 - The depths were not as yet, and I was already conceived, neither had the fountains of waters as yet sprung out.
25 - The mountains, with their huge bulk, had not as yet been established: before the hills, I was brought forth:
26 - He had not yet made the earth, nor the rivers, nor the poles of the world.
27 - When he prepared the heavens, I was present: when with a certain law, and compass, he enclosed the depths:
28 - When he established the sky above, and poised the fountains of waters:
29 - When he compassed the sea with its bounds, and set a law to the waters that they should not pass their limits: when he balanced the foundations of the earth;
30 - I was with him forming all things: and was delighted every day, playing before him at all times;
31 - Playing in the world: and my delights were to be with the children of men.
32 - Now, therefore, ye children, hear me: blessed are they that keep my ways.
33 - Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not.
34 - Blessed is the man that heareth me, and that watcheth daily at my gates, and waiteth at the posts of my doors.
35 - He that shall find me, shall find life, and shall have salvation from the Lord.
36 - But he that shall sin against me shall hurt his own soul. All that hate me love death.
