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8:1  Does not Wisdom call, and Understanding raise her voice?
8:2  On the top of the heights along the road, at the crossroads she takes her stand;
8:3  By the gates at the approaches of the city, in the entryways she cries aloud:
8:4  “To you, O people, I call; my appeal is to you mortals.
8:5  You naive ones, gain prudence, you fools, gain sense.
8:6  Listen! for noble things I speak; my lips proclaim honest words.
8:7  Indeed, my mouth utters truth, and my lips abhor wickedness.
8:8  All the words of my mouth are sincere, none of them wily or crooked;
8:9  All of them are straightforward to the intelligent, and right to those who attain knowledge.
8:10  Take my instruction instead of silver, and knowledge rather than choice gold.
8:11  [For Wisdom is better than corals, and no treasures can compare with her.]
8:12  I, Wisdom, dwell with prudence, and useful knowledge I have.
8:13  [The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil;] Pride, arrogance, the evil way, and the perverse mouth I hate.
8:14  Mine are counsel and advice; Mine is strength; I am understanding.
8:15  By me kings reign, and rulers enact justice;
8:16  By me princes govern, and nobles, all the judges of the earth.
8:17  Those who love me I also love, and those who seek me find me.
8:18  With me are riches and honor, wealth that endures, and righteousness.
8:19  My fruit is better than gold, even pure gold, and my yield than choice silver.
8:20  On the way of righteousness I walk, along the paths of justice,
8:21  Granting wealth to those who love me, and filling their treasuries.
8:22  “The Lord begot me, the beginning of his works, the forerunner of his deeds of long ago;
8:23  From of old I was formed, at the first, before the earth.
8:24  When there were no deeps I was brought forth, when there were no fountains or springs of water;
8:25  Before the mountains were settled into place, before the hills, I was brought forth;
8:26  When the earth and the fields were not yet made, nor the first clods of the world.
8:27  When he established the heavens, there was I, when he marked out the vault over the face of the deep;
8:28  When he made firm the skies above, when he fixed fast the springs of the deep;
8:29  When he set for the sea its limit, so that the waters should not transgress his command; When he fixed the foundations of earth,
8:30  then was I beside him as artisan; I was his delight day by day, playing before him all the while,
8:31  Playing over the whole of his earth, having my delight with human beings.
8:32  Now, children, listen to me; happy are they who keep my ways.
8:33  Listen to instruction and grow wise, do not reject it!
8:34  Happy the one who listens to me, attending daily at my gates, keeping watch at my doorposts;
8:35  For whoever finds me finds life, and wins favor from the Lord;
8:36  But those who pass me by do violence to themselves; all who hate me love death.”