¹Does not wisdom call, and understanding give forth her voice?

²At the top of the heights, on the way, in the place of the paths, she takes her stand.

³At the side of the gates, at the mouth of the town, at the entrance of the doors, she cries aloud:

⁴To you, men, I call, and my voice is to the children of mankind.

⁵Understand prudence, you naive ones; and you fools, become discerning in heart.

⁶Listen, for I will speak of honorable things, and the utterance of my lips will be uprightness.

⁷For my palate utters truth, and wickedness is an abomination to my lips.

⁸All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing twisted or perverse in them.

⁹All of them are right to the one who discerns, and upright to those who find knowledge.

¹⁰Take my discipline and not silver, and knowledge rather than choice gold.

¹¹For wisdom is better than corals, and all delights cannot be like her.

¹²I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and I find knowledge of discretion.

¹³The fear of Yahweh is to hate evil; pride and arrogance, and the evil way, and the mouth of perversities I hate.

¹⁴Counsel and sound wisdom are mine; I am understanding; might is mine.

¹⁵By me kings reign, and commanders decree righteousness.

¹⁶By me princes rule, and nobles, all judges of righteousness.

¹⁷I love those who love me, and those who diligently seek me will find me.

¹⁸Riches and weightiness are with me, valued wealth and righteousness.

¹⁹My fruit is better than gold, even than fine gold, and my yield than choice silver.

²⁰I walk in the path of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of justice.

²¹to cause those who love me to inherit substance, and their treasuries I fill.

²²Yahweh acquired me, the beginning of his way, before his works of old.

²³From forever I was poured out, from the beginning, from the earliest times of the land.

²⁴When there were no deeps I was brought forth, when there were no springs heavy with water.

²⁵Before the mountains sank, before the hills I was brought forth.

²⁶While he had not yet made the land and the outdoors, and the beginning of the dust of the world.

²⁷When he established the skies, I was there; when he marked out a vault over the face of the deep,

²⁸when he made firm the clouds above, when the springs of the deep grew strong,

²⁹when he set a limit for the sea, so that the waters would not pass beyond his mouth, when he marked out the foundations of the land,

³⁰And I was beside him, a master workman, and I was delight day by day, playing in his presence at all times;

³¹playing in the world of his land, and my delights were with the children of mankind.

³²And now, children, hear me; blessed are those who keep my ways.

³³Hear discipline and be wise, and do not neglect it.

³⁴Blessed is the man who hears me, watching at my doors day by day, keeping the doorposts of my doorways.

³⁵For the one who finds me finds life, and obtains favor from Yahweh.

³⁶And the one who misses me does wrong to his being; all those who hate me loved death.