Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) 24

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¹Wisdom shall praise his soul, and he shall be honoured in God; and he shall have glory in the midst of his people.

²And he shall open his mouth in the churches of the Highest; and he shall have glory in the sight of his virtue. And he shall be enhanced in the midst of his people; and he shall much wonder in holy fullness, either plenty. And in the multitude of chosen men he shall have praising; and among blessed men he shall be blessed, and say,

³I, the first engendered or begotten before each creature, came forth from the mouth of the Highest. I was made in heavens, that light never failing rose up, and as a cloud I covered all earth,

⁴I dwelled in highest things, and my throne in a pillar of a cloud.

⁵I alone went about the compass or the circle of heaven, and I pierced the depth of the sea;

⁶and I went in the waves of the sea, and I stood in all the land or all the earth. And I had the first dignity in each people, and in each folk; and I trod by virtue on the necks of all excellent men and meek;

⁷and in all these men I sought rest, and I shall dwell in the heritage of the Lord.

⁸Then the Creator of all or the Former of all things commanded, and said to me; and he that formed me, rested in my tabernacle; and he said to me, Dwell thou in Jacob, and take thou heritage in Israel, and send thou roots into my chosen men or in my chosen.

⁹I was engendered or formed from the beginning and before worlds, and I shall not fail unto the world to coming or unto the world to come I shall not cease to be;

¹⁰and I ministered or served in an holy dwelling before him. And so I was made steadfast in Zion,

¹¹and in like manner I rested in a city hallowed, and my power was in Jerusalem.

¹²And I rooted in a people honoured; and the heritage thereof into the parts of my God, and my withholding in the plenty or the fullness of saints.

¹³I was enhanced as a cedar in Lebanon, and as a cypress tree in the hill of Zion.

¹⁴I was enhanced as a palm tree in Cades or Engedi, and as the planting of a rose in Jericho. And as a fair olive tree in fields; and I was enhanced as a plane or platanus tree beside the water in streets.

¹⁵As canel and balm giving great smell, I gave odour; as chosen myrrh I gave the sweetness of odour. And as storax, and galbanum, and ungulam, and gum, and as Lebanon not cut down, I made hot or smoked my dwelling place; and mine odour as balm not meddled, or as balsam not mingled, is my smell.

¹⁶I as terebinth stretched forth my boughs or straightened out my branches; and my boughs or branches be boughs of honour, and of glory.

¹⁷I as a vine made fruit the sweet-ness of odour; and my flowers be the fruits of honour, and of honesty or riches.

¹⁸I am a mother of fair love, and of dread, and of knowing, and of holy hope. In me is all grace of way, and of truth; in me is all hope of life and of virtue.

¹⁹All ye that covet me, pass or come to me; and be ye filled of my generations.

²⁰For why my spirit is sweet above honey; and mine heritage is above honey, and honeycomb. My mind is into the generation of worlds.

²¹They that eat me, shall hunger yet; and they that drink me, shall thirst yet.

²²He that heareth me, shall not be shamed or confounded; and they that work in me, shall not do sin; and they that declare me, shall have ever-lasting life.

²³All these things is the book of life, and the testament of the Highest, and the knowing or acknowledging of truth. Moses commanded a law in the commandments of rightfulnesses or rightwisenesses, and for an heri-tage to the house of Jacob, and promises to Israel.

²⁴He setted, that is, ordained, either promised, to David, his child or servant, to raise up of him a king most strong, and sitting without end in the throne of honour.

²⁵Which king filleth wisdom, as Pishon sheddeth out water; and as Tigris in the days of new things.

²⁶Which, as Euphrates, full-filleth wit; which multiplieth, as Jordan in the time of harvest or reaping.

²⁷Which sendeth teaching or doctrine as light; and is nigh all men, as Gihon in the day of vintage.

²⁸Which maketh perfectly first to know that wisdom; and a feebler man shall not ensearch it.

²⁹For why the thoughts thereof shall be as plenteous of or as the sea, that is, his knowing is more plenteous than the sea; and his counsel in the great ocean or the great deepness is uncomprehensible. I wisdom shedded or poured out floods; I as a way, that is, a strong running, of full great water or water without measure of the flood.

³⁰I as the flood Dorix, and as a water conduit I went out of or from paradise.

³¹I said, I shall water my garden of plantings; and I shall greatly fill the fruit of my child-bearing. And lo! a plenteous way of water is made to me; and my flood nighed to the sea.

³²For I enlighten teaching as the clear morrowtide to all men; and I shall tell out it unto a far. I shall pierce all the lower or nether parts of the earth, and I shall behold all that sleep; and I shall enlighten all that hope in the Lord.

³³Yet I shall shed or pour out teaching or doctrine as prophecy, and I shall leave it to them that seek wisdom; and I shall not fail into the generations of them, till into the holy world.

³⁴See ye, that I travailed not to me alone, but to all that seek out truth.