CPDV - Proverbs - 8

8:1  Does not wisdom call out, and prudence bestow her voice?

8:2  At the summits and the tops of exalted places, standing above the ways, in the midst of the paths,

8:3  beside the gates of the city, at the very doors, she speaks, saying:

8:4  “O men, to you I call out, and my voice is to the sons of men.

8:5  O little ones, understand discernment. And you who are unwise, turn your souls.

8:6  Listen, for I will speak about great things, and my lips will be opened, so as to foretell what is right.

8:7  My throat shall practice truth, and my lips shall detest the impious.

8:8  All my words are just. There is no depravity in them, and no perversity.

8:9  They are upright to those who understand, and equitable to those who discover knowledge.

8:10  Accept my discipline, and not money. Choose the doctrine that is greater than gold.

8:11  For wisdom is better than all that is most precious, and everything that is desirable cannot compare to her.

8:12  I, wisdom, dwell in counsel, and I am inside learned thoughts.

8:13  The fear of the Lord hates evil. I detest arrogance, and pride, and every wicked way, and a mouth with a double tongue.

8:14  Counsel is mine, and equity. Prudence is mine. Strength is mine.

8:15  Through me, kings reign and legislators decree just conditions.

8:16  Through me, princes rule and the powerful decree justice.

8:17  I love those who love me. And those who stand watch for me until morning shall discover me.

8:18  With me, are wealth and glory, superb riches and justice.

8:19  For my fruit is better than gold and precious stones, and my progeny better than choice silver.

8:20  I walk in the way of justice, in the midst of the paths of judgment,

8:21  so that I may enrich those who love me, and thus complete their treasures.

8:22  The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his ways, before he made anything, from the beginning.

8:23  I was ordained from eternity, and out of antiquity, before the earth was formed.

8:24  The abyss did not yet exist, and I was already conceived; neither had the fountains of waters yet erupted.

8:25  The mountains, with their great mass, had not yet been established. Before the hills, I was brought forth.

8:26  Still he had not made the earth, and the rivers, and the poles of the globe of the earth.

8:27  I was already present: when he prepared the heavens; when, with a certain law and a circuit, he fortified the abyss;

8:28  when he made firm the sky above, and set free the fountains of waters;

8:29  when he encompassed the sea within its limits, and laid down a law for the waters, lest they transgress their limits; when he weighed the foundations of the earth.

8:30  I was with him in composing all things. And I was delighted, throughout every day, by playing in his sight at all times,

8:31  playing in globe of the earth. And my delight was to be with the sons of men.

8:32  Therefore, sons, hear me now. Blessed are those who preserve my ways.

8:33  Listen to discipline, and become wise, and do not be willing to cast it aside.

8:34  Blessed is the man who listens to me, and who stands watch at my gates every day, and who observes at the posts of my doors.

8:35  He who finds me, finds life, and he will draw salvation from the Lord.

8:36  But he who sins against me will wound his own soul. All who hate me love death.”