잠언 8

Wisdom calls to everyone

¹Listen! Is that not Wisdom calling, \q Understanding raising her voice? ²On the high places by the road, \q where the paths cross, she takes her stand; ³beside the gates where the town is entered, \q at the doorways, she calls aloud: ⁴“To you, all people, I am calling; \q my voice goes out to everyone on earth. ⁵You who are naive, learn to be shrewd; \q you fools, get some sense. ⁶Listen, for what I say is worthy of a prince, \q and right is what my lips bring out. ⁷For my mouth speaks the truth; \q my lips cannot stand wickedness. ⁸Every word from my mouth is right; \q there is nothing twisted or crooked in any of them. ⁹They are all plain to anyone with understanding, \q and right to those who have found knowledge. ¹⁰Choose my discipline instead of silver, \q and knowledge over the finest gold. ¹¹For wisdom is worth more than red coral; \q nothing you could want comes close to her. ¹²I, Wisdom, share my home with Prudence, \q and I find knowledge and good planning. ¹³To fear the LORD is to hate evil. \q Pride, arrogance, evil conduct and twisted talk are what I hate. ¹⁴Counsel and sound judgment belong to me; \q I am Understanding, and I have strength. ¹⁵Through me kings rule, \q and rulers make just laws. ¹⁶Through me princes govern, \q and nobles, all who judge rightly.^{a 17}Those who love me I love in return, \q and those who search hard for me will find me. ¹⁸Riches and honor are mine to give, \q lasting wealth and righteousness. ¹⁹What I produce is better than gold, the purest gold, \q and what I yield beats the finest silver. ²⁰I walk on the road of righteousness, \q right along the paths of justice, ²¹giving those who love me real wealth as their inheritance \q and filling their storehouses.

Wisdom at the creation

²²The LORD brought me into being as the first of his ways, \q before his works of long ago.^{b 23}Long ages ago I was set in place, at the very first, \q before the earth began. ²⁴Before there were any oceans I was born, \q before there were springs full of water. ²⁵Before the mountains were set on their foundations, \q before the hills, I was born, ²⁶before he had made the land and the open country, \q or the first specks of the world’s soil. ²⁷I was there when he set the heavens in place, \q when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, ²⁸when he fixed the clouds overhead \q and made the springs of the deep flow strong, ²⁹when he gave the sea its boundary \q so that the waters would not go beyond his command, \q when he laid out the foundations of the earth, ³⁰I was right beside him, a master worker, \q and I was his delight day after day, \q always at play in his presence,^{c 31}playing over the whole world he had made, \q and delighting in the human race.

Listen and live

³²So now, children, listen to me: \q how blessed are those who keep to my ways! ³³Listen to correction and become wise; do not brush it aside. ³⁴How blessed is the one who hears me, \q who keeps watch at my doors every day \q and waits by my doorposts. ³⁵For the one who finds me has found life \q and wins the favor of the LORD. ³⁶But whoever fails to find me does violence to their own life; \q all who hate me are in love with death.”