8 Does not wisdom cry, and understanding utter her voice?

² She stands in the top of the high places; by the way, in the place of the paths.

³ She cries at the gates, before the city, at the entry of the doors,

⁴ “O men, I call to you; and my voice to the children of man.

²² “The LORD has possessed me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old.

²³ “I was set up from everlasting; from the beginning, before the Earth.

²⁴ “I was begotten when there were no depths; when there were no fountains abounding with water;

²⁵ “before the mountains were settled. Before the hills, was I begotten.

²⁶ “He had not yet made the Earth, nor the open places, nor the height of the dust in the world.

²⁷ “I was there when He prepared the heavens; when He set the compass upon the deep;

²⁸ “when He established the clouds above; when He confirmed the fountains of the deep;

²⁹ “when He gave His Decree to the sea that the waters should not pass His Commandment; when He appointed the foundations of the Earth.

³⁰ “Then I was with Him, a nourisher. And I was His daily delight, rejoicing always before Him;

³¹ “and took my solace in the compass of His Earth, and my delight with the children of man.