1 Is wisdom not calling? Is understanding not lifting up her voice?
2 At the top of the high places along the road, where the paths cross, she has taken her stand;
3 beside the gates at the entrance of the town, at the doorways, she cries out:
4 "To you, men, I am calling; my voice goes out to the sons of man.
5 You simple, gain shrewdness; you fools, get a heart of understanding.
6 Hear, for I speak of noble things, and my lips open to say what is right;
7 for my mouth will speak truth, and wickedness is loathsome to my lips.
8 Every saying of my mouth is righteous; nothing in them is twisted or perverse.
9 To one who understands they are all straightforward, and right to those who have found knowledge.
10 Choose my discipline instead of silver, and knowledge in place of fine gold;
11 for wisdom is better than pearls, and no treasure you could wish for can match her.
12 I, wisdom, make my home with shrewdness, and I discover knowledge and discretion.
13 To fear the LORD is to hate evil. Pride and arrogance, the evil way and the twisted mouth, I hate.
14 Counsel belongs to me, and sound wisdom; I am understanding; I have strength.
15 Through me kings rule, and rulers decree justice;
16 through me princes govern, and nobles, all who judge in righteousness.
17 I love those who love me, and those who seek me early find me.
18 With me are riches and honor, lasting wealth and righteousness.
19 My fruit is better than gold, than pure gold, and what I yield surpasses choice silver.
20 I walk along the way of righteousness, along the paths of justice,
21 giving those who love me wealth as their inheritance and filling their storehouses.
22 The LORD possessed me as the first of his way, before his deeds of long ago.
23 I was set up from eternity, from the start, before the earth began.
24 When there were no depths I was born, when there were no fountains heavy with water.
25 Before the mountains were sunk in place, ahead of the hills, I was born,
26 before he had made the land and its fields, or the first specks of the world's dust.
27 When he set the heavens in place, I was there; when he traced a circle over the face of the deep,
28 when he made the clouds above firm, when the springs of the deep gushed out,
29 when he fixed its boundary for the sea, so that the waters would not overstep his word, when he laid out the foundations of the earth,
30 then I was at his side as a master workman, and I was his delight every day, playing before him at all times,
31 playing in his inhabited world, and delighting in the sons of man.
32 So now, sons, hear me: happy are those who keep my ways.
33 Listen to discipline and grow wise; do not cast it aside.
34 Happy is the man who listens to me, keeping watch at my doors day after day, waiting beside my doorposts.
35 For whoever finds me has found life and wins favor from the LORD;
36 but whoever misses me does harm to his own soul; all who hate me are in love with death."