箴言 第 8 章

You shall proclaim wisdom, that prudence may obey you;

For she is on the lofty heights, and stands in the midst of the paths;

For she takes her place beside the gates of the mighty, and at the entrances she is hymned:

"You, O people, I exhort, and I send forth my voice to the sons of men.

O innocent ones, understand shrewdness; and you untaught, put a heart in yourselves.

Listen to me, for I will speak solemn things, and I will bring forth what is right from my lips;

For my throat will meditate on truth, and lying lips are abominable before me."

All the words of my mouth are with righteousness; there is nothing crooked or tangled in them.

They are all plain to those who understand, and upright to those who find knowledge.

Receive instruction and not silver, and knowledge rather than tested gold; and choose perception in preference to pure gold.

For wisdom is better than costly stones, and nothing precious is worth as much as she.

I, wisdom, made counsel my dwelling; and knowledge and reflection I have called upon.

The fear of the Lord hates unrighteousness, and insolence and arrogance and the ways of wicked men; and I have hated the perverted ways of evil men.

Counsel and safety are mine, understanding is mine, and strength is mine.

By me kings reign, and rulers decree righteousness.

By me great men are magnified, and by me sovereigns hold the earth.

I love those who love me, and those who seek me will find me.

Wealth and glory belong to me, and the possession of many things, and righteousness.

To gather fruit from me is better than gold and precious stone, and my produce is better than choice silver.

I walk in the ways of righteousness, and I move about among the paths of justice.

that I may distribute substance to those who love me, and fill their treasuries with good things. If I declare to you the things that happen day by day, I will remember to recount the things from of old.

The Lord created me as the beginning of his ways, for his works.

Before the age he founded me, in the beginning.

before he made the earth, and before he made the deeps, before the springs of the waters came forth,

before the mountains were set firm, and before all the hills, he begets me.

The Lord made the countrysides and the uninhabited places, and the inhabited extremities of the region under heaven.

When he was preparing the heaven, I was present with him; and when he was marking off his own throne upon the winds.

When he was making the clouds above strong, and was setting the springs under heaven secure,

and when he was making the foundations of the earth strong.

I was beside him, fitting all things together; I was the one in whom he delighted; and day by day I rejoiced before his face at every season,

when he rejoiced, having completed the inhabited world, and delighted in the sons of men.

Now therefore, son, listen to me.

Blessed is the man who will listen to me, and the person who will keep my ways, keeping watch daily at my doors, guarding the posts of my entrances.

For my goings out are goings out of life, and favour is prepared from the Lord.

But those who sin against me act impiously toward their own souls, and those who hate me love death.