BY TORSTEN SCHWANKE
I
Does not Wisdom call,
And does not prudence make itself heard?
Publicly by the way she stands,
And at the crossroads of the streets;
At the gates at the exit of the city,
And at the entrance of the gate,
She cries out, O men, to you I call,
And lift up my voice to the children of men!
Take heed, ye unwise, to prudence;
And ye foolish, take heed to understanding.
Listen, for I speak what is noble,
And my lips speak what is right.
For my mouth speaketh truth,
And my lips hate that which is ungodly.
All the words of my mouth are righteous;
There is nothing perverse or false in them.
They are all right for those
Who have understanding,
And right for those
Who have found knowledge.
Receive my discipline rather than silver,
And esteem knowledge more highly
Than precious gold.
For Wisdom is better than pearls,
And all that may be desired cannot equal her.
Wisdom dwells with prudence,
And find understanding and good counsel.
The fear of the Lord hateth evil:
I am an enemy to pride, to wickedness,
And to perverse speech.
Mine is both counsel and action;
I have understanding and might.
By me kings reign,
And councillors establish justice.
By me princes rule,
And nobles judge on earth.
I love those who love me,
Ad those who seek me find me.
Wealth and honour are with me,
Lasting goods and righteousness.
My fruit is better than gold and fine gold,
And my produce better than choice silver.
I walk in the way of righteousness,
In the midst of the highway of justice,
That I may supply with goods
Them that love me,
And fill their treasuries.
II
The Lord had me in the beginning of his ways,
Before he created anything,
From the beginning.
I am appointed from everlasting,
In the beginning, before the earth was.
When the deep was not yet, I was born,
When the fountains were not yet,
Which flow with waters.
When the mountains were low,
Before the hills, I was born,
When he had not yet made the earth,
Nor the plains thereof,
Nor the clods of the ground.
When he prepared the heavens,
I was there;
When he drew the circle over the deep;
When he made the clouds above mighty;
When he made the fountains of the deep strong;
When he set the boundary of the sea,
And the waters of the earth
And the sea its border,
And the waters that they should
Not transgress his command;
When he laid the foundations of the earth,
I was continually with him;
I was his delight daily,
And played before him always;
I played upon the circle of his earth,
And had my delight in the sons of men.
Listen therefore to me, my sons!
Blessed are they that keep my ways!
Hearken to the discipline, and be wise,
And do not cast me to the wind.
Blessed is the man that hearkeneth unto me,
That he watcheth at my door daily,
That he keepeth the posts of my gates.
He that findeth me findeth life,
And obtaineth favour of the Lord.
But he who fails me destroys his life;
All who hate me love death.
III
Hear, O Israel, the commandments of life;
Take good heed that ye learn prudence.
How is it, Israel, that you are
In the land of your enemies,
That you grow old in a foreign land,
That you make yourself unclean
Among the dead,
That you are numbered with those
Who are in the underworld?
This is the cause:
Because thou hast forsaken
The fountain of Wisdom.
If thou hadst continued in God's way,
Thou mightest have dwelt always in peace.
So learn now where there is Wisdom,
Efficiency and understanding,
That you may know at the same time
Where there is long life and happiness,
Bright eyes and peace.
Who knows where Wisdom dwells?
Who has come into her treasuries?
Where are the rulers of the nations
And those who rule
Over the beasts of the earth,
Who play with the birds under the sky,
Who amass silver and gold,
In which men put their trust
And of which they can never have enough,
Who work the silver and labour for it,
And whose works are beyond comprehension?
They have disappeared
And gone down to the underworld,
And others have taken their place.
Though the younger saw the light,
And dwelt on the ground,
Yet they found not the way of Wisdom,
And knew not her paths:
Neither did their children comprehend her
And went astray.
In Canaan she was not heard of;
In Teman she was not seen.
Though the children of Hagar
Searched after earthly understanding,
Though the merchants of Midian
And Teman devised fables,
And sought after understanding;
Yet they found not the way to Wisdom,
They had forgotten her paths.
O Israel, how great is the house of God!
How wide is the place which he possesses!
It is great and has no end;
It is immeasurably high.
Giants were born in the days of old,
Men of renown and good warriors;
God did not choose them,
Nor reveal to them the way of Wisdom.
And they perished because
They had not prudence;
They perished because of their folly.
Who went up to heaven
And took Wisdom
And brought her down from the clouds?
Who has gone over the sea and found her,
And brought her for precious gold?
There is no one who knows the way to her,
Nor thinks about the path to her.
But he who knows all things, knows her,
And has prepared her by his understanding,
He who founded the earth for ever and ever,
And hath filled it with many beasts,
Who sends the light, and it goes,
And when he calls it back,
It obeys with trembling.
The stars shone, and kept watch with joy,
And he called them, and they answered,
Here we are, and shone with joy
For him that created them.
This is our God, and there is none like Him.
He prepared every way of Wisdom,
And showed her to Jacob his servant,
To Israel his beloved.
After that it appeared on the earth
And dwelt with men.
IV
Wisdom praises herself
And in the midst of her people she boasts.
In the assembly of the Most High
She opens her mouth
And in the presence of his power she boasts:
I went forth from the mouth of the Most High
And like mist I enveloped the earth.
I pitched my tent in the heights
And my throne was on a pillar of cloud.
The circle of the heavens I compassed alone
And in the depths of the abysses I walked.
On the waves of the sea and on all the earth,
In every people and nation I had possession.
With all these I sought rest
And in whose inheritance I might dwell.
Then the Creator of the universe,
Who made me, commanded me
To let my tent find a resting place.
He said, In Jacob pitch thy tent,
And in Israel be thine inheritance.
Before eternity, from the beginning,
He created me,
And to eternity I shall not perish.
In the holy tent I served before him,
So was I established on Zion.
In the city which he likewise loved
He made me find rest,
In Jerusalem is my sphere of power,
I took root in a glorious people,
In the portion of the Lord‘s inheritance.
Like a cedar in Lebanon I grew up
And like a cypress on Mount Hermon,
Like a palm tree in En-Gedi I grew up
And like rose bush in Jericho,
Like a stately olive tree in a plain,
I grew up like a sycamore tree.
Like a cinnamon bush and a fragrant thorn,
Like a choice myrrh I gave off fragrance;
Like galbanum, onyx, and staves,
And like the fragrance of incense in the tent.
I spread out my branches like a terebinth,
And my branches are branches
Of glory and grace.
Like a vine I caused grace to sprout,
My blossoms are fruit of glory and riches.
I am the Mother of beautiful love and fear of God,
Of knowledge and holy hope;
Yet I am given to all my children
Forever according to his word.
Come to me, you who desire me,
And satisfy yourselves with my fruit!
For the remembrance of me
Is sweeter than honey
And my inheritance better than a honeycomb.
Those who eat me will still hunger,
Those who drink me will still be thirsty.
Those who obey me will not be put to shame,
And those who labour for me will not sin.
All this is the book of the covenant
Of the Most High God,
The law which Moses gave us,
Inheritance for the congregations of Jacob.
Do not grow weary of being strong in the Lord,
Join yourselves to him,
That he may make you strong!
The Lord, the All-Ruler, alone is God
And there is no saviour apart from him.
The Law is full of Wisdom like the Pishon
And like the Tigris in the days of the first ears.
She fills like the Eufrat with a sight
And like the Jordan in the days of harvest.
She radiates education like light,
Like the Gihon in the days of harvest.
The first did not come to the end to know her,
Neither did the last fathom her.
Like the sea is her fullness of thought
And her counsel is abysmal.
I myself was like a ditch from a river
And like a moat I flowed
Into a garden of paradise.
I said: I will water my garden,
I will abundantly water my bed.
But behold! The ditch became a river to me
And my river became a sea.
So I will continue to make education
Shine like the dawn
And I will radiate this far away.
Teaching I will pour out like prophets' words
And I will leave them to the farthest generations.
Behold! Not for myself alone
Have I laboured, but for all who seek her.
V
When I was young,
Before I went wandering,
I sought Wisdom openly in my praying.
At the temple I sought her
And to the last I will seek her.
As in the blossom so in the ripening grape
My heart delighted in her.
My foot went the straight way,
From my youth I traced after her.
A little I inclined my ear and received
And found for myself much learning.
I grew by her;
To him who gives me Wisdom
I will give the glory.
I was careful to act on her,
I zealously sought the good
And will never be put to shame.
My soul wrestled with her
And carefully executed the law.
I stretched out my hands on high
And pitied ignorance for her.
I directed my soul towards her
And in purity I found her.
An understanding heart I acquired
With her from the beginning;
Therefore I am never forsaken.
My inmost being was stirred up
To search her out;
Therefore I have acquired a good possession.
The Lord gave me a tongue for a reward
And with it I will praise him.
Come to me, you uneducated,
And spend the night in the house of learning!
Why do you say that you lack it,
And why do your souls thirst so much?
I have opened my mouth and said,
Acquire for yourselves without silver!
Bow your neck under the yoke,
Let your soul take education!
She is near, so that she may be found.
See with your eyes that I have laboured a little
And have found much rest for myself.
Acquire education by a great amount of silver
And acquire much gold by it
Rejoice in his mercy
And do not be ashamed to praise him!
Do your work before the time
And he will give you the reward in his time!
VI
I too am a mortal man like all others,
Descendant of the first man formed from earth.
In the womb of the mother
I was formed into flesh,
In ten months solidified in blood
From the seed of a man after lustful coitus.
Born, I too breathed the common air,
I fell to the earth,
Which endures the same from all,
And weeping was my first sound as with all.
In swaddling clothes
And with sorrows I was brought up;
No king entered into existence differently.
All have the same entrance to life,
The same is also the exit.
Therefore I prayed and Wisdom was given to me;
I pleaded and the spirit of Wisdom came to me.
I preferred her to sceptres and thrones,
Wealth I regarded as nothing
In comparison with her.
A priceless gem I did not put on a par with her;
For all gold seems like a little sand next to her
And silver is as much as clay compared to her.
More than health and beauty I loved her
And preferred her possessions to light;
For never does the radiance
That radiates from her go out.
At the same time all good things came to me,
Uncountable riches were in her hands.
I rejoiced over them all,
Because Wisdom teaches to use them rightly,
But I did not know that she is also their source.
Unselfishly I learn and enviously I pass on;
Her wealth I do not hide with me.
An inexhaustible treasure she is for men;
Those who acquire her gain the friendship of God.
They are commended by the gifts of learning.
But to me God grant to speak
According to my understanding
And to think as the gifts received are worthy;
For he is the guide of Wisdom
And keeps the wise on the right path.
We and our words are in his hand,
Even all Wisdom and practical experience.
He gave me unerring knowledge of things,
To understand the structure of the world
And the workings of the elements,
The beginning and end and middle of times,
The succession of solstices
And the change of seasons,
The cycle of years and the positions of the stars,
The nature of animals
And the ferocity of beasts of prey,
The violence of spirits and the thoughts of men,
The diversity of plants and the powers of roots.
All things that are hidden
And all things that are made manifest
Have I known: for Wisdom,
The mistress of all things, hath taught me.
For in her is a spirit, rational, holy,
Unique, manifold, tender,
Moving, penetrating, undefiled,
Clear, inviolable, loving good, sharp,
Not to be restrained, beneficent, philanthropic,
Firm, sure, without care, all capable, all overlooking
And penetrating all spirits,
The thoughtful, pure and tenderest.
Wisdom is more agile than all movement;
In her purity she pervades
And shepherds everything.
She is a breath of God's power
And pure outflow of the glory of the All-Ruler;
Therefore nothing defiled enters her.
She is the reflection of the eternal light,
The unclouded mirror of God's power,
The image of his goodness.
She is only one and yet she is able to do everything;
Without changing, she renews everything.
From generation to generation
She enters holy souls
And creates friends of God and prophets,
For God loves only those who dwell with Wisdom.
She is more beautiful than the sun
And surpasses every constellation.
She is more radiant than light,
For night follows it,
But Wisdom is not overcome by wickedness.
VII
She unfolds her power
From one end to the other
And, full of goodness, she manages the universe.
I have loved her
And sought her from my youth,
I sought to bring her home as a bride
And became a lover of her beauty.
In her dealings with God
She proves her nobility,
The Lord over the universe won her love.
Initiated into the knowledge of God,
She determined his works.
If wealth is a desirable possession in life,
What is richer than the Wisdom
That works in everything?
If prudence is effective,
Who of all that exists is a greater master
Of works than she?
If someone loves justice,
In her labours he finds the virtues.
For she teaches measure and prudence,
Justice and temprance,
More useful than these
There is not in the life of men.
If anyone aspires to rich experience:
She knows the past and guesses the coming,
She knows how to shape words beautifully
And how to solve riddles;
She knows in advance signs and wonders
And knows the outcome of periods and times.
So I decided to take her home
As a companion in life;
For I knew that she would give me good advice
And encouragement in sorrow and suffering.
With her I shall have fame among the people
And in spite of my youth be honoured by age.
I shall be known as an astute judge
And arouse wonder in the eyes of the mighty.
If I am silent, they wait;
If I speak, they take notice;
If I speak longer,
They put their hand on their mouth.
With her I shall attain immortality
And leave eternal fame among posterity.
Peoples I shall rule
And nations shall be subject to me.
Terrible tyrants will fear me
When they hear of me;
In the assembly of the people
I will prove myself capable,
And in war I will prove myself valiant.
When I come home,
Then I will rest with her;
For there is nothing bitter in dealing with her,
Life with her knows no pain,
But only cheerfulness and joy.
When I considered this in my mind
And pondered in my heart
That kinship with Wisdom brings immortality,
Friendship with her brings pure joy
And the toil of her hands inexhaustible wealth,
That constant practice of intercourse with her
Brings knowledge
And dialogue with her brings glory,
Then I went in search of her
To lead her home.
I was a gifted child
And had received a good soul
Or rather: Good as I was,
I came into an uncorrupted body.
But I realised that I could only receive Wisdom
As a gift from God
And already here it was Wisdom
That made me realise whose gift she is.