¹ Strongly she reaches from one end of the world to the other and she governs the whole world for its good.

² Wisdom I loved and searched for from my youth; I resolved to have her as my bride, I fell in love with her beauty.

³ She enhances her noble birth by sharing God's life, for the Master of All has always loved her.

⁴ Indeed, she shares the secrets of God's knowledge, and she chooses what he will do.

⁵ If in this life wealth is a desirable possession, what is more wealthy than Wisdom whose work is everywhere?

⁶ Or if it be the intellect that is at work, who, more than she, designs whatever exists?

⁷ Or if it be uprightness you love, why, virtues are the fruit of her labours, since it is she who teaches temperance and prudence, justice and fortitude; nothing in life is more useful for human beings.

⁸ Or if you are eager for wide experience, she knows the past, she forecasts the future; she knows how to turn maxims, and solve riddles; she has foreknowledge of signs and wonders, and of the unfolding of the ages and the times.

⁹ I therefore determined to take her to share my life, knowing that she would be my counsellor in prosperity and comfort me in cares and sorrow.

¹⁰ 'Thanks to her, I shall be admired by the masses and honoured, though young, by the elders.

¹¹ I shall be reckoned shrewd as a judge, and the great will be amazed at me.

¹² They will wait on my silences, and pay attention when I speak; if I speak at some length, they will lay their hand on their lips.

¹³ By means of her, immortality will be mine, I shall leave an everlasting memory to my successors.

¹⁴ I shall govern peoples, and nations will be subject to me;

¹⁵ at the sound of my name fearsome despots will be afraid; I shall show myself kind to the people and valiant in battle.

¹⁶ 'When I go home I shall take my ease with her, for nothing is bitter in her company, when life is shared with her there is no pain, nothing but pleasure and joy.'

¹⁷ Having meditated on all this, and having come to the conclusion that immortality resides in kinship with Wisdom,

¹⁸ noble contentment in her friendship, inexhaustible riches in her activities, understanding in cultivating her society, and renown in conversing with her, I went all ways, seeking how to get her.

¹⁹ I was a boy of happy disposition, I had received a good soul as my lot,

²⁰ or rather, being good, I had entered an undefiled body;

²¹ but, realising that I could never possess Wisdom unless God gave her to me, -a sign of intelligence in itself, to know in whose gift she lay -- I prayed to the Lord and entreated him, and with all my heart I said:

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The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) is a Catholic translation of the Bible published in 1985. The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) has become the most widely used Roman Catholic Bible outside of the United States. It has the imprimatur of Cardinal George Basil Hume.

Like its predecessor, the Jerusalem Bible, the New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) version is translated "directly from the Hebrew, Greek or Aramaic." The 1973 French translation, the Bible de Jerusalem, is followed only "where the text admits to more than one interpretation." Introductions and notes, with some modifications, are taken from the Bible de Jerusalem.

Source: The Very Reverend Dom (Joseph) Henry Wansbrough, OSB, MA (Oxon), STL (Fribourg), LSS (Rome), a monk of Ampleforth Abbey and a biblical scholar. He was General Editor of the New Jerusalem Bible. "New Jerusalem Bible, Regular Edition", pg. v.

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