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The Gifts of Wisdom

8Does not wisdom call,
   and does not understanding raise her voice?

Wisdom’s Part in Creation

²² The Lord created me at the beginning^* of his work,^*
   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,^*
   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;^*
and I was daily his^* delight,
   rejoicing before him always,
³¹ rejoicing in his inhabited world
   and delighting in the human race.

⁵ The Lord, God of hosts,
he who touches the earth and it melts,
   and all who live in it mourn,
and all of it rises like the Nile,
   and sinks again, like the Nile of Egypt;
⁶ who builds his upper chambers in the heavens,
   and founds his vault upon the earth;
who calls for the waters of the sea,
   and pours them out upon the surface of the earth—
the Lord is his name.

⁷ Are you not like the Ethiopians^* to me,
   O people of Israel? says the Lord.
Did I not bring Israel up from the land of Egypt,
   and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir?
⁸ The eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom,
   and I will destroy it from the face of the earth
   —except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,

says the Lord.

⁹ For lo, I will command,
   and shake the house of Israel among all the nations
as one shakes with a sieve,
   but no pebble shall fall to the ground.
¹⁰ All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword,
   who say, ‘Evil shall not overtake or meet us.’

The Restoration of David’s Kingdom

¹¹ On that day I will raise up
   the booth of David that is fallen,
and repair its^* breaches,
   and raise up its^* ruins,
   and rebuild it as in the days of old;
¹² in order that they may possess the remnant of Edom
   and all the nations who are called by my name,
   says the Lord who does this.

¹³ The time is surely coming, says the Lord,
   when the one who ploughs shall overtake the one who reaps,
   and the treader of grapes the one who sows the seed;
the mountains shall drip sweet wine,
   and all the hills shall flow with it.
¹⁴ I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel,
   and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them;
they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine,
   and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit.
¹⁵ I will plant them upon their land,
   and they shall never again be plucked up
   out of the land that I have given them,

says the Lord your God.