Proverbs 8

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition

8 Does not wisdom call,
    and does not understanding raise her voice?
² On the heights, beside the way,
    at the crossroads she takes her stand;
³ beside the gates in front of the town,
    at the entrance of the portals she cries out:
⁴ ‘To you, O people, I call,
    and my cry is to all that live.
⁵ O simple ones, learn prudence;
    acquire intelligence, you who lack it.
⁶ Hear, for I will speak noble things,
    and from my lips will come what is right;
⁷ for my mouth will utter truth;
    wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
⁸ All the words of my mouth are righteous;
    there is nothing twisted or crooked in them.
⁹ They are all straight to one who understands
    and right to those who find knowledge.
¹⁰ Take my instruction instead of silver,
    and knowledge rather than choice gold;
¹¹ for wisdom is better than jewels,
    and all that you may desire cannot compare with her.
¹² I, wisdom, live with prudence,^[a]
    and I attain knowledge and discretion.
¹³ The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil.
Pride and arrogance and the way of evil
    and perverted speech I hate.
¹⁴ I have good advice and sound wisdom;
    I have insight, I have strength.
¹⁵ By me kings reign,
    and rulers decree what is just;
¹⁶ by me rulers rule,
    and nobles, all who govern rightly.
¹⁷ I love those who love me,
    and those who seek me diligently find me.
¹⁸ Riches and honour are with me,
    enduring wealth and prosperity.
¹⁹ My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold,
    and my yield than choice silver.
²⁰ I walk in the way of righteousness,
    along the paths of justice,
²¹ endowing with wealth those who love me,
    and filling their treasuries.

²² The Lord created me at the beginning^[b] of his work,^[c]
    the first of his acts of long ago.
²³ Ages ago I was set up,
    at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
²⁴ When there were no depths I was brought forth,
    when there were no springs abounding with water.
²⁵ Before the mountains had been shaped,
    before the hills, I was brought forth—
²⁶ when he had not yet made earth and fields,^[d]
    or the world’s first bits of soil.
²⁷ When he established the heavens, I was there,
    when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
²⁸ when he made firm the skies above,
    when he established the fountains of the deep,
²⁹ when he assigned to the sea its limit,
    so that the waters might not transgress his command,
when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
³⁰     then I was beside him, like a master worker;^[e]
and I was daily his^[f] delight,
    rejoicing before him always,
³¹ rejoicing in his inhabited world
    and delighting in the human race.