Proverbs 8

1Listen! Is that not Wisdom calling, Understanding raising her voice? 2On the high places by the road, where the paths cross, she takes her stand; 3beside the gates where the town is entered, at the doorways, she calls aloud: 4“To you, all people, I am calling; my voice goes out to everyone on earth. 5You who are naive, learn to be shrewd; you fools, get some sense. 6Listen, for what I say is worthy of a prince, and right is what my lips bring out. 7For my mouth speaks the truth; my lips cannot stand wickedness. 8Every word from my mouth is right; there is nothing twisted or crooked in any of them. 9They are all plain to anyone with understanding, and right to those who have found knowledge. 10Choose my discipline instead of silver, and knowledge over the finest gold. 11For wisdom is worth more than red coral; nothing you could want comes close to her. 12I, Wisdom, share my home with Prudence, and I find knowledge and good planning. 13To fear the LORD is to hate evil. Pride, arrogance, evil conduct and twisted talk are what I hate. 14Counsel and sound judgment belong to me; I am Understanding, and I have strength. 15Through me kings rule, and rulers make just laws. 16Through me princes govern, and nobles, all who judge rightly. 17Those who love me I love in return, and those who search hard for me will find me. 18Riches and honor are mine to give, lasting wealth and righteousness. 19What I produce is better than gold, the purest gold, and what I yield beats the finest silver. 20I walk on the road of righteousness, right along the paths of justice, 21giving those who love me real wealth as their inheritance and filling their storehouses.

22The LORD brought me into being as the first of his ways, before his works of long ago. 23Long ages ago I was set in place, at the very first, before the earth began. 24Before there were any oceans I was born, before there were springs full of water. 25Before the mountains were set on their foundations, before the hills, I was born, 26before he had made the land and the open country, or the first specks of the world’s soil. 27I was there when he set the heavens in place, when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, 28when he fixed the clouds overhead and made the springs of the deep flow strong, 29when he gave the sea its boundary so that the waters would not go beyond his command, when he laid out the foundations of the earth, 30I was right beside him, a master worker, and I was his delight day after day, always at play in his presence, 31playing over the whole world he had made, and delighting in the human race.

32So now, children, listen to me: how blessed are those who keep to my ways! 33Listen to correction and become wise; do not brush it aside. 34How blessed is the one who hears me, who keeps watch at my doors every day and waits by my doorposts. 35For the one who finds me has found life and wins the favor of the LORD. 36But whoever fails to find me does violence to their own life; all who hate me are in love with death.”