Wisdom of Old

²² “The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his work,    the first of his acts of old.²³ Ages ago I was set up,    at the first, before the beginning of the earth.²⁴ When there were no depths I was brought forth,    when there were no springs abounding with water.²⁵ Before the mountains had been shaped,    before the hills, I was brought forth,²⁶ before he had made the earth with its fields,    or the first of the dust of the world.²⁷ When he established the heavens, I was there;    when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,²⁸ when he made firm the skies above,    when he established the fountains of the deep,²⁹ when he assigned to the sea its limit,    so that the waters might not transgress his command,when he marked out the foundations of the earth,    ³⁰  then I was beside him, like a master workman,and I was daily his delight,    rejoicing before him always,³¹ rejoicing in his inhabited world    and delighting in the children of man.