Proverbs 8:4-25

⁴O ye men, to you I call, and my voice is to the sons of men.

⁵O little ones, understand subtilty, and ye unwise, take notice.

⁶Hear, for I will speak of great things: and my lips shall be opened to preach right things.

⁷My mouth shall meditate truth, and my lips shall hate wickedness.

⁸All my words are just, there is nothing wicked nor perverse in them.

⁹They are right to them that understand, and just to them that find knowledge.

¹⁰Receive my instruction, and not money: choose knowledge rather than gold.

¹¹For wisdom is better than all the most precious things: and whatsoever may be desired cannot be compared to it.

¹²I wisdom dwell in counsel, and am present in learned thoughts.

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

¹⁴Counsel and equity is mine, prudence is mine, strength is mine.

¹⁵By me kings reign, and lawgivers decree just things,

¹⁶By me princes rule, and the mighty decree justice.

¹⁷I love them that love me: and they that in the morning early watch for me, shall find me.

¹⁸With me are riches and glory, glorious riches and justice.

¹⁹For my fruit is better than gold and the precious stone, and my blossoms than choice silver.

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

²¹That I may enrich them that love me, and may fill their treasures.

²²The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his ways, before he made any thing from the beginning.

²³I was set up from eternity, and of old before the earth was made.

²⁴The depths were not as yet, and I was already conceived. neither had the fountains of waters as yet sprung out:

²⁵The mountains with their huge bulk had not as yet been established: before the hills I was brought forth: