Proverbs 8:1-36
8 Does not wisdom keep calling out,+ and discernment keep giving forth its voice?+
2 On top of the heights,+ by the way, at the crossing of the roadways it has stationed itself.
3 At the side of the gates, at the mouth of the town,+ at the going in of the entrances it keeps crying loudly:+
4 “To YOU, O men,* I am calling, and my voice is to the sons of men.*+
5 O inexperienced ones, understand shrewdness;+ and YOU stupid ones, understand heart.*+
6 Listen, for it is about the foremost things that I speak,+ and the opening of my lips is about uprightness.+
7 For my palate in low tones utters truth itself;+ and wickedness is something detestable to my lips.+
8 All the sayings of my mouth are in righteousness.+ Among them there is nothing twisted or crooked.+
9 All of them are straight to the discerning one, and upright to the ones finding knowledge.+
10 TAKE my discipline and not silver, and knowledge rather than choice gold.+
11 For wisdom is better than corals,+ and all other delights themselves cannot be made equal to it.+
12 “I, wisdom, I have resided with shrewdness+ and I find even the knowledge of thinking abilities.+
13 The fear of Jehovah means the hating of bad.+ Self-exaltation and pride+ and the bad way and the perverse mouth+ I have hated.
14 I have counsel+ and practical wisdom.+ I—understanding;+ I have mightiness.+
15 By me kings themselves keep reigning, and high officials themselves keep decreeing righteousness.+
16 By me princes themselves keep ruling as princes,+ and nobles are all judging in righteousness.+
17 Those loving me* I myself love,+ and those looking for me are the ones that find me.+
18 Riches and glory* are with me,+ hereditary values and righteousness.+
19 My fruitage is better than gold,* even than refined gold, and my produce than choice silver.+
20 In the path of righteousness I walk,+ in the middle of the roadways of judgment,+
21 to cause those loving me to take possession of substance;+ and their storehouses I keep filled.+
22 “Jehovah himself produced me* as the beginning* of his way,+ the earliest of his achievements of long ago.+
23 From time indefinite I was installed,+ from the start,* from times earlier than the earth.+
24 When there were no watery deeps* I was brought forth as with labor pains,+ when there were no springs heavily charged with water.
25 Before the mountains themselves had been settled down,+ ahead of the hills, I was brought forth as with labor pains,
26 when as yet he had not made the earth+ and the open spaces and the first part of the dust masses of the productive land.*+
27 When he prepared the heavens I was there;+ when he decreed a circle upon the face of the watery deep,+
28 when he made firm the cloud masses above,+ when he caused the fountains of the watery deep to be strong,+
29 when he set for the sea his decree that the waters themselves should not pass beyond his order,*+ when he decreed the foundations of the earth,+
30 then I came to be beside him as a master worker,*+ and I came to be the one he* was specially fond+ of day by day, I being glad before him all the time,+
31 being glad at the productive land* of his earth,+ and the things I was fond of were with the sons of men.*+
32 “And now, O sons, listen to me; yes, happy are the ones that keep my very ways.+
33 Listen to discipline and become wise,+ and do not show any neglect.+
34 Happy is the man that is listening to me by keeping awake at my doors day by day, by watching at the posts of my entrances.+
35 For the one finding me will certainly find life,+ and gets goodwill from Jehovah.+
36 But the one missing me is doing violence to his soul;+ all those intensely hating me are the ones that do love death.”+
Footnotes
^ Lit., “earthling man.” Heb., ʼa·dhamʹ.
^ Or, “have good motive.” Heb., ha·viʹnu lev.
^ “Me,” MmarginTLXXSyVg; M, “it (her).”
^ Or, “honor.”
^ “Than gold.” Heb., me·cha·rutsʹ.
^ “Produced me.” Heb., qa·naʹni; TLXX(Gr., eʹkti·senʹ me)Sy, “created me”; Lat., pos·seʹdit me, “possessed me.” See Ge 14:19 ftn.
^ “As the beginning of.” Heb., reʼ·shithʹ; Gr., ar·khenʹ; not bereʼ·shithʹ (Heb.) or en ar·kheiʹ (Gr.) as in Ge 1:1; Sy, “as the first”; TVgc(Lat., in i·niʹti·o), “in the beginning.”
^ Lit., “from the head.” Heb., me·roʼshʹ.
^ “Productive land.” Heb., te·velʹ; Lat., orʹbis terʹrae, “circle of the earth.”
^ Lit., “mouth.”
^ Or, “a fosterling.” Heb., ʼa·mohnʹ; T, “proving faithful”; LXX, “acting suitably”; Vg, “composing all things.”
^ “He,” LXXSy.
^ Lit., “earthling man.” Heb., ʼa·dhamʹ.
^ “At the productive land of.” Heb., bethe·velʹ; LXX, “the inhabited earth.”
