Proverbs 8

Tree of Life Version

8 Does not wisdom cry out,
and understanding lift her voice?
² On the topmost heights along the way,
at the crossroads, she takes her stand.
³ Beside the gates leading into the city,
at the entrances, she cries aloud:
⁴ “To you, O men, I call out!
My cry is to all mankind!
⁵ O naïve ones, learn prudence!
Fools, gain understanding!
⁶ Listen, for I speak excellent things,
and my lips utter right things.
⁷ For my mouth speaks truth,
and my lips detest wickedness.
⁸ All the words of my mouth are righteous,
Nothing in them is perverse or crooked.
⁹ All of them are straightforward to the discerning,
and right to those who find knowledge.
¹⁰ Receive my instruction instead of silver
and knowledge rather than choice gold.
¹¹ For wisdom is better than jewels,
nothing you desire compares with her.

²² “Adonai brought me forth,
the first of His way,
before His works of old.
²³ From eternity I was appointed
from the beginning, before the world began.
²⁴ When there were no depths, I was brought forth,
when there were no fountains abounding with water.
²⁵ Before the mountains were shaped,
before the hills, I was brought forth.
²⁶ He had not yet made the land,
the fields, or the first dust of the earth.
²⁷ When He set the heavens in place, I was there.
When He inscribed the horizon on the face of the ocean,
²⁸ when He established the skies above,
when He securely fixed the fountains of the deep,
²⁹ when He set the boundaries for the sea,
so that the waters never transgress His command,
when He laid out earth’s foundations—
³⁰ then I was the craftsman beside Him,
I was His daily delight, always rejoicing before Him,
³¹ rejoicing in His whole world,
    and delighting in mankind.