⁹ Give your servant, therefore, an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil, for who can govern this great people of yours?”^(A)

Fame of Solomon’s Wisdom

²⁹ God gave Solomon very great wisdom, discernment, and breadth of understanding as vast as the sand on the seashore,^(A)

The Prologue

¹ Many great teachings have been given to us through the Law and the Prophets ² and the others^[a] that followed them, ³ and for these we should praise Israel for instruction and wisdom. ⁴ Now those who read them must not only themselves understand them ⁵ but must also as lovers of learning be able through ⁶ both speaking and writing to help the outsiders. ⁷ So my grandfather Jesus, who had devoted himself especially ⁸ to the reading of the Law ⁹ and the Prophets ¹⁰ and the other books of our ancestors ¹¹ and had acquired considerable proficiency in them, ¹² was himself also led to write something pertaining to instruction and wisdom, ¹³ so that by becoming familiar also with his book^[b] those who love learning ¹⁴ might make even greater progress in living according to the law.

¹⁵ You are invited, therefore, ¹⁷ to read it ¹⁶ with goodwill and attention ¹⁸ and to be indulgent ¹⁹ in cases where we may seem ²⁰ to have rendered some phrases imperfectly, despite our diligent labor in translating. ^21–22 For what was originally expressed in Hebrew does not have exactly the same effect when translated into another language. ²³ Not only this book, ²⁴ but even the Law itself, the Prophets,^{[c] 25} and the rest of the books ²⁶ differ not a little when read in the original.

²⁷ In the thirty-eighth year of the reign of Euergetes, ²⁸ when I came to Egypt and stayed for some time, ²⁹ I found a copy affording^[d] no little instruction. ³⁰ It seemed highly necessary that I should myself devote some diligence and labor to the translation of this book. ^31–32 During that time I have applied my skill day and night ³³ to complete and publish the book ³⁴ for those living abroad who wish to gain learning and are ³⁵ preparing ³⁶ to live according to the law.^(A)

In Praise of Wisdom