Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), Chapter 24

¹Wisdom shall praise herself, and shall glory in the midst of her people. ²In the congregation of the most High shall she open her mouth, and triumph before his power. ³I came out of the mouth of the most High, and covered the earth as a cloud. ⁴I dwelt in high places, and my throne is in a cloudy pillar. ⁵I alone compassed the circuit of heaven, and walked in the bottom of the deep. ⁶In the waves of the sea and in all the earth, and in every people and nation, I got a possession. ⁷With all these I sought rest: and in whose inheritance shall I abide? ⁸So the Creator of all things gave me a commandment, and he that made me caused my tabernacle to rest, and said, Let thy dwelling be in Jacob, and thine inheritance in Israel.

⁹He created me from the beginning before the world, and I shall never fail. ¹⁰In the holy tabernacle I served before him; and so was I established in Sion. ¹¹Likewise in the beloved city he gave me rest, and in Jerusalem was my power. ¹²And I took root in an honourable people, even in the portion of the Lord’s inheritance. ¹³I was exalted like a cedar in Libanus, and as a cypress tree upon the mountains of Hermon. ¹⁴I was exalted like a palm tree in En-gaddi, and as a rose plant in Jericho, as a fair olive tree in a pleasant field, and grew up as a plane tree by the water. ¹⁵I gave a sweet smell like cinnamon and aspalathus, and I yielded a pleasant odour like the best myrrh, as galbanum, and onyx, and sweet storax, and as the fume of frankincense in the tabernacle. ¹⁶As the turpentine tree I stretched out my branches, and my branches are the branches of honour and grace.

¹⁷As the vine brought I forth pleasant savour, and my flowers are the fruit of honour and riches. ¹⁸I am the mother of fair love, and fear, and knowledge, and holy hope: I therefore, being eternal, am given to all my children which are named of him. ¹⁹Come unto me, all ye that be desirous of me, and fill yourselves with my fruits. ²⁰For my memorial is sweeter than honey, and mine inheritance than the honeycomb. ²¹They that eat me shall yet be hungry, and they that drink me shall yet be thirsty. ²²He that obeyeth me shall never be confounded, and they that work by me shall not do amiss. ²³All these things are the book of the covenant of the most high God, even the law which Moses commanded for an heritage unto the congregations of Jacob. ²⁴Faint not to be strong in the Lord; that he may confirm you, cleave unto him: for the Lord Almighty is God alone, and beside him there is no other Saviour.

²⁵He filleth all things with his wisdom, as Phison and as Tigris in the time of the new fruits. ²⁶He maketh the understanding to abound like Euphrates, and as Jordan in the time of the harvest. ²⁷He maketh the doctrine of knowledge appear as the light, and as Geon in the time of vintage. ²⁸The first man knew her not perfectly: no more shall the last find her out. ²⁹For her thoughts are more than the sea, and her counsels profounder than the great deep. ³⁰I also came out as a brook from a river, and as a conduit into a garden. ³¹I said, I will water my best garden, and will water abundantly my garden bed: and, lo, my brook became a river, and my river became a sea. ³²I will yet make doctrine to shine as the morning, and will send forth her light afar off.

³³I will yet pour out doctrine as prophecy, and leave it to all ages for ever. ³⁴Behold that I have not laboured for myself only, but for all them that seek wisdom.