English Bible
Sirach 24
Big screen- 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 lived 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 your dwelling be in Jacob, and your 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 honorable 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 honor and grace.
- 17As the vine brought I forth pleasant savor, and my flowers are the fruit of honor 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 to me, all you° that be desirous of me, and fill yourselves with my fruits.
- 20For my memorial is sweeter than honey, and my inheritance than the honeycomb.
- 21They that eat me shall yet be hungry, and they that drink me shall yet be thirsty.
- 22He that obeys 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 to the congregations of Jacob.
- 24Faint not to be strong in the Lord; that he may confirm you, cleave to him: for the Lord Almighty is God alone, and beside him there is no other Saviour.
- 25He fills all things with his wisdom, as Phison and as Tigris in the time of the new fruits.
- 26He makes the understanding to abound like Euphrates, and as Jordan in the time of the harvest.
- 27He makes 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, behold, 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.