| 1 | Wisdom shall praise herself, and shall glory in the midst of her people. |
| 2 | In the congregation of the most High shall she open her mouth, and triumph before his power. |
| 3 | I came out of the mouth of the most High, and covered the earth as a cloud. |
| 4 | I dwelt in high places, and my throne is in a cloudy pillar. |
| 5 | I alone compassed the circuit of heaven, and walked in the bottom of the deep. |
| 6 | In the waves of the sea and in all the earth, and in every people and nation, I got a possession. |
| 7 | With all these I sought rest: and in whose inheritance shall I abide? |
| 8 | So the Creator of all things gave me a commandment, and he that made me caused my tabernacle to rest, and said, Let thy dwelling be in Jacob, and thine inheritance in Israel. |
| 9 | He created me from the beginning before the world, and I shall never fail. |
| 10 | In the holy tabernacle I served before him; and so was I established in Sion. |
| 11 | Likewise in the beloved city he gave me rest, and in Jerusalem was my power. |
| 12 | And I took root in an honourable people, even in the portion of the Lord's inheritance. |
| 13 | I was exalted like a cedar in Libanus, and as a cypress tree upon the mountains of Hermon. |
| 14 | I was exalted like a palm tree in En-gaddi, and as a rose plant in Jericho, as a fair olive tree in a pleasant field, and grew up as a plane tree by the water. |
| 15 | I gave a sweet smell like cinnamon and aspalathus, and I yielded a pleasant odour like the best myrrh, as galbanum, and onyx, and sweet storax, and as the fume of frankincense in the tabernacle. |
| 16 | As the turpentine tree I stretched out my branches, and my branches are the branches of honour and grace. |
| 17 | As the vine brought I forth pleasant savour, and my flowers are the fruit of honour and riches. |
| 18 | I am the mother of fair love, and fear, and knowledge, and holy hope: I therefore, being eternal, am given to all my children which are named of him. |
| 19 | Come unto me, all ye that be desirous of me, and fill yourselves with my fruits. |
| 20 | For my memorial is sweeter than honey, and mine inheritance than the honeycomb. |
| 21 | They that eat me shall yet be hungry, and they that drink me shall yet be thirsty. |
| 22 | He that obeyeth me shall never be confounded, and they that work by me shall not do amiss. |
| 23 | All these things are the book of the covenant of the most high God, even the law which Moses commanded for an heritage unto the congregations of Jacob. |
| 24 | Faint not to be strong in the Lord; that he may confirm you, cleave unto him: for the Lord Almighty is God alone, and beside him there is no other Saviour. |
| 25 | He filleth all things with his wisdom, as Phison and as Tigris in the time of the new fruits. |
| 26 | He maketh the understanding to abound like Euphrates, and as Jordan in the time of the harvest. |
| 27 | He maketh the doctrine of knowledge appear as the light, and as Geon in the time of vintage. |
| 28 | The first man knew her not perfectly: no more shall the last find her out. |
| 29 | For her thoughts are more than the sea, and her counsels profounder than the great deep. |
| 30 | I also came out as a brook from a river, and as a conduit into a garden. |
| 31 | I said, I will water my best garden, and will water abundantly my garden bed: and, lo, my brook became a river, and my river became a sea. |
| 32 | I will yet make doctrine to shine as the morning, and will send forth her light afar off. |
| 33 | I will yet pour out doctrine as prophecy, and leave it to all ages for ever. |
| 34 | Behold that I have not laboured for myself only, but for all them that seek wisdom. |