Bible Browser

¹¹ for wisdom is better than jewels,
   and all that you may desire cannot compare with her.
¹² I, wisdom, live with prudence,^*
   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.

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.