【Proverbs】Chapter 8 << Last Chapter Next Chapter >>

8:1 Does not Wisdom call, and Understanding raise her voice?

8:2 On the top of the heights along the road, at the crossroads she takes her stand;

8:3 By the gates at the approaches of the city, in the entryways she cries aloud:

8:4 "To you, O men, I call; my appeal is to the children of men.

8:5 You simple ones, gain resource, you fools, gain sense.

8:6 "Give heed! for noble things I speak; honesty opens my lips.

8:7 Yes, the truth my mouth recounts, but the wickedness my lips abhor.

8:8 Sincere are all the words of my mouth, no one of them is wily or crooked;

8:9 All of them are plain to the man of intelligence, and right to those who attain knowledge.

8:10 Receive my instruction in preference to silver, and knowledge rather than choice gold.

8:11 (For Wisdom is better than corals, and no choice possessions can compare with her.)

8:12 "I, Wisdom, dwell with experience, and judicious knowledge I attain.

8:13 (The fear of the LORD is to hate evil;) Pride, arrogance, the evil way, and the perverse mouth I hate.

8:14 Mine are counsel and advice; Mine is strength; I am understanding.

8:15 By me kings reign, and lawgivers establish justice;

8:16 By me princes govern, and nobles; all the rulers of earth.

8:17 "Those who love me I also love, and those who seek me find me.

8:18 With me are riches and honor, enduring wealth and prosperity.

8:19 My fruit is better than gold, yes, than pure gold, and my revenue than choice silver.

8:20 On the way of duty I walk, along the paths of justice,

8:21 Granting wealth to those who love me, and filling their treasuries.

8:22 "The LORD begot me, the first-born of his ways, the forerunner of his prodigies of long ago;

8:23 From of old I was poured forth, at the first, before the earth.

8:24 When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no fountains or springs of water;

8:25 Before the mountains were settled into place, before the hills, I was brought forth;

8:26 While as yet the earth and the fields were not made, nor the first clods of the world.

8:27 "When he established the heavens I was there, when he marked out the vault over the face of the deep;

8:28 When he made firm the skies above, when he fixed fast the foundations of the earth;

8:29 When he set for the sea its limit, so that the waters should not transgress his command;

8:30 Then was I beside him as his craftsman, and I was his delight day by day, Playing before him all the while,

8:31 playing on the surface of his earth; and I found delight in the sons of men.

8:32 "So now, O children, listen to me;

8:33 instruction and wisdom do not reject! Happy the man who obeys me, and happy those who keep my ways,

8:34 Happy the man watching daily at my gates, waiting at my doorposts;

8:35 For he who finds me finds life, and wins favor from the LORD;

8:36 But he who misses me harms himself; all who hate me love death."

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