Wisdom 8 Good News Translation (GNT)

8 Her great power reaches into every part of the world, and she sets everything in useful order.

Solomon's Love for Wisdom

² Wisdom has been my love. I courted her when I was young and wanted to make her my bride. I fell in love with her beauty. ³ She glorifies her noble origin by living with God, the Lord of all, who loves her. ⁴ She is familiar with God's mysteries and helps determine his course of action.

⁵ Is it good to have riches in this life? Nothing can make you richer than Wisdom, who makes everything function. ⁶ Is knowledge a useful thing to have? Nothing is better than Wisdom, who has given shape to everything that exists. ⁷ Do you love justice? All the virtues are the result of Wisdom's work: justice and courage, self-control and understanding. Life can offer us nothing more valuable than these. ⁸ Do you want to have wide experience? Wisdom knows the lessons of history and can anticipate the future. She knows how to interpret what people say and how to solve problems. She knows the miracles that God will perform, and how the movements of history will develop.

⁹ So I decided to take Wisdom home to live with me, because I knew that she would give me good advice and encourage me in times of trouble and grief. ¹⁰ I thought to myself,

¹⁷ And so I thought it over: to be wedded to Wisdom is to live forever, ¹⁸ to love her is to be perfectly happy, to do her work is to be rich beyond measure, to share her company is to have sound judgment, to converse with her is to be honored. Then I was determined to take Wisdom as my bride. ¹⁹ I had a pleasant personality even as a child. I had been fortunate enough to receive a good soul, or rather, I was given a sound body to live in because I was already good. ²⁰ Still, I realized that I would never receive Wisdom unless God gave her to me—and knowing that only God could give her to me was itself a sign of understanding. So I prayed, begging the Lord with all my heart: