8:1 Does Wisdom not call meanwhile? Does Discernment not lift up her voice?
8:2 On the hilltop, on the road, at the crossways, she takes her stand;
8:3 beside the gates of the city, at the approaches to the gates she cries aloud,
8:4 ‘O men! I am calling to you; my cry goes out to the sons of men.
8:5 You ignorant ones! Study discretion; and you fools, come to your senses!
8:6 Listen, I have serious things to tell you, from my lips come honest words.
8:7 My mouth proclaims the truth, wickedness is hateful to my lips.
8:8 All the words I say are right, nothing twisted in them, nothing false,
8:9 all straightforward to him who understands, honest to those who know what knowledge means.
8:10 Accept my discipline rather than silver, knowledge in preference to pure gold.
8:11 For wisdom is more precious than pearls, and nothing else is so worthy of desire.
Wisdom sings her own praises. Wisdom, the guide of kings
8:12 ‘I, Wisdom, am mistress of discretion, the inventor of lucidity of thought.
8:14 Good advice and sound judgement belong to me, perception to me, strength to me.
8:13 (To fear YAHWEH is to hate evil.) I hate pride and arrogance, wicked behaviour and a lying mouth.
8:17 I love those who love me; those who seek me eagerly shall find me.
8:15 By me monarchs rule and princes issue just laws;
8:16 by me rulers govern, and the great impose justice on the world.
8:18 With me are riches and honour, lasting wealth and justice.
8:19 The fruit I give is better than gold, even the finest, the return I make is better than pure silver.
8:20 I walk in the way of virtue, in the paths of justice,
8:21 enriching those who love me, filling their treasuries.
8:22 ‘YAHWEH created me when his purpose first unfolded, before the oldest of his works.
8:23 From everlasting I was firmly set, from the beginning, before earth came into being.
8:24 The deep[*a] was not, when I was born, there were no springs to gush with water.
8:25 Before the mountains were settled, before the hills, I came to birth;
8:26 before he made the earth, the countryside, or the first grains of the world’s dust.
8:27 When he fixed the heavens firm, I was there, when he drew a ring on the surface of the deep,
8:28 when he thickened the clouds above, when he fixed fast the springs of the deep,
8:29 when he assigned the sea its boundaries-and the waters will not invade the shore-when he laid down the foundations of the earth,
8:30 I was by his side, a master craftsman, delighting him day after day, ever at play in his presence,
8:31 at play everywhere in his world, delighting to be with the sons of men.
8: 32a And now, my sons, listen to me;
8:33 listen to instruction and learn to be wise, do not ignore it.
8:32b Happy those who keep my ways!
8:34 Happy the man who listens to me, who day after day watches at my gates to guard the portals.
8:35 For the man who finds me finds life, he will win favour from Yahweh;
8:36 but he who does injury to me does hurt to his own soul, all who hate me are in love with death
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