Ecclesiasticus 24

¹Wisdom shall praise her soul, & shall be honoured in God, and shall glory in the midst of her people,

²and shall open her mouth in the churches of the Highest, and shall glory in the sight of his power,

³and in the midst of her people she shall be exalted, and in the holy assembly she shall be admired,

⁴and in the multitude of the elect she shall have praise, and among the blessed she shall be blessed, saying:

⁵I came forth from the mouth of the Highest, the first begotten before all creatures.

⁶I made that in the heavens, there should rise light that faileth not, and as a cloud I covered all the earth.

⁷I dwelt in the highest places, and my throne is in the pillar of a cloud.

⁸I alone have gone round about the compass of heaven, and have penetrated into the bottom of the depth, and have walked in the waves of the sea,

⁹and stood in all the earth: and in all people.

¹⁰and in every nation I have had the primacy:

¹¹and I have by strength trodden down the hearts of all the excellent, and the base; and in all these things I sought rest, & I shall abide in the inheritance of our Lord.

¹²Then the creator of all commanded, and said to me: & he that created me, rested in my tabernacle,

¹³and he said to me: Inhabit in Jacob, and inherit in Israel, and take root in mine elect.

¹⁴From the beginning and before the worlds was I created, and unto the world to come I shall not cease, and in the holy habitation I have ministered before him.

¹⁵And so in Sion was I established, and in the sanctified city likewise I rested, and my power was in Jerusalem.

¹⁶And I took root in an honourable people, and in the portion of my God his inheritance, and my abiding is in the full assembly of saints.

¹⁷I am exalted as a cedar in Libanus, and as a cypress tree in mount Sion.

¹⁸As a palm tree in Cades am I exalted, and as a rose plant in Jericho:

¹⁹As a fair olive tree in the fields, and as a plane tree by the water in the streets am I exalted.

²⁰I gave an odour as cinnamon, & aromatical balm: as chosen myrrh have I given the sweetness of odour:

²¹and as storax, and galbanum, and onyx, and aloes, and as Libanus not cut, have I perfumed mine habitation, and mine odour is as balm not mingled.

²²I have spread out my boughs as the terebinth, and my boughs are of honour & grace.

²³I as a vine have fructified sweetness of odour: and my flowers are fruit of honour and honesty.

²⁴I am the mother of beautiful love, and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope.

²⁵In me is all grace of way and truth, in me all hope of life and virtue.

²⁶Pass to me all ye that desire me, and be filled of my generations.

²⁷For my spirit is sweet above honey, and mine inheritance above honey and the honey comb.

²⁸My memory is unto generations of worlds.

²⁹They that eat me, shall yet hunger: and they that drink me, shall yet thirst.

³⁰He that heareth me, shall not be confounded: and they that work in me, shall not sin.

³¹They that explicate me, shall have life everlasting.

³²All these things are the book of life, and the testament of the Highest, & the knowledge of truth.

³³Moyses commanded a law in the precepts of justices, and an inheritance to the house of Jacob, and the promises to Israel.

³⁴He appointed to David his servant for to raise up a king of him most strong, and sitting in the throne of honour for ever.

³⁵Who filleth wisdom as Phison, and as Tigris in the days of new fruits.

³⁶Who replenisheth understanding as Euphrates, who multiplieth it as Jordan in the time of harvest.

³⁷Who sendeth discipline as the light, and assisting as Gehon in the day of vintage.

³⁸Who first hath perfect knowledge of it, & a weaker shall not search it out.

³⁹For her cogitation shall abound above the sea, and her counsels above the great depth.

⁴⁰I wisdom have poured out rivers.

⁴¹I as a sluse of a mighty water out of the river, I as the river Dioryx, & as a water conduit I came out of paradise.

⁴²I said: I will water my garden of plants, and will inebriate the fruit of my meadow.

⁴³And behold my sluse was made aboundant, and my river came near to a sea.

⁴⁴Because I illuminated doctrine to all as the morning light, & I will declare it far.

⁴⁵I will penetrate all the inferior parts of the earth, and will behold all that sleep, and will illuminate all that hope in our Lord.

⁴⁶I will yet pour out doctrine as prophecy, and will leave it to them that seek wisdom, and will not cease unto their progenies even to the holy age.

⁴⁷See ye that I have not laboured for myself only, but for all that seek out the truth.