Sirach 24:1-22

Good News Translation

³ I am the word spoken by the Most High.
    I covered the earth like a mist.
^4 (A)I made my home in highest heaven,
    my throne on a pillar of cloud.
⁵ Alone I walked around the circle of the sky
    and walked through the ocean beneath the earth.
⁶ I ruled over^[b] all the earth and the ocean waves,
    over every nation, over every people.
⁷ I looked everywhere for a place to settle,
    some part of the world to make my home.
⁸ Then my Creator, who created the universe,
    told me where I was to live.
Make your home in Israel, he said.
    The descendants of Jacob will be your people.
⁹ He created me in eternity, before time began,
    and I will exist for all eternity to come.
¹⁰ I served him in the Sacred Tent
    and then made my home on Mount Zion.
¹¹ He settled me in the Beloved City
    and gave me authority over Jerusalem.
¹² I put down roots among an honored people
    whom the Lord had chosen as his own.
¹³ I grew tall, like the cedars in Lebanon,
    like the cypresses on Mount Hermon,
¹⁴ like the palm trees of Engedi,^[c]
    like the roses of Jericho,
like beautiful olive trees in the fields,
    like plane trees growing by the water.
¹⁵ My breath was the spicy smell of cinnamon,
    of sweet perfume and finest myrrh,
of stacte, onycha, and galbanum,
    the fragrant incense in the Sacred Tent.
¹⁶ Like an oak I spread out my branches,
    magnificent and graceful.
¹⁷ Like a grapevine I put out lovely shoots;
    my blossoms gave way to rich and glorious fruit.^[d]
19 Come to me, all you that want me,
    and eat your fill of my fruit.
²⁰ You will remember me as sweeter than honey,
    better than honey from the comb.
²¹ Eat me, and you will hunger for more;
    drink me, and you will thirst for more.
²² Obey me, and you will never have cause for embarrassment;
    do as I say, and you will be safe from sin.