⁸"Then the Creator of all things gave me a commandment,
and the one who created me assigned a place for my tent.
And he said, `Make your dwelling in Jacob,
and in Israel receive your inheritance.'
⁹From eternity, in the beginning, he created me,
and for eternity I shall not cease to exist.
¹⁰In the holy tabernacle I ministered before him,
and so I was established in Zion.
¹¹In the beloved city likewise he gave me a resting place,
and in Jerusalem was my dominion.
¹²So I took root in an honoured people,
in the portion of the Lord, who is their inheritance.

¹³"I grew tall like a cedar in Lebanon,
and like a cypress on the heights of Hermon.
¹⁴I grew tall like a palm tree in En-gedi,
and like rose plants in Jericho;
like a beautiful olive tree in the field,
and like a plane tree I grew tall.
¹⁵Like cassia and camel's thorn I gave forth the aroma of spices,
and like choice myrrh I spread a pleasant odour,
like galbanum, onycha, and stacte,
and like the fragrance of frankincense in the tabernacle.
¹⁶Like a terebinth I spread out my branches,
and my branches are glorious and graceful.
¹⁷Like a vine I caused loveliness to bud,
and my blossoms became glorious and abundant fruit.

¹⁹"Come to me, you who desire me,
and eat your fill of my produce.
²⁰For the remembrance of me is sweeter than honey,
and my inheritance sweeter than the honeycomb.
²¹Those who eat me will hunger for more,
and those who drink me will thirst for more.
²²Whoever obeys me will not be put to shame,
and those who work with my help will not sin."

Wisdom & the Law.  Sir.24.23-34

²³All this is the book of the covenant of the Most High God,
the law which Moses commanded us
as an inheritance for the congregations of Jacob.
²⁵It fills men with wisdom, like the Pishon,
and like the Tigris at the time of the first fruits.
²⁶It makes them full of understanding, like the Euphrates,
and like the Jordan at harvest time.
²⁷It makes instruction shine forth like light,
like the Gihon at the time of vintage.
²⁸Just as the first man did not know her perfectly,
the last one has not fathomed her;
²⁹for her thought is more abundant than the sea,
and her counsel deeper than the great abyss.
³⁰I went forth like a canal from a river
and like a water channel into a garden.
³¹I said, "I will water my orchard
and drench my garden plot";
and lo, my canal became a river,
and my river became a sea.
³²I will again make instruction shine forth
like the dawn, and I will make it shine afar;
³³I will again pour out teaching like prophecy,
and leave it to all future generations.
³⁴Observe that I have not laboured for myself alone,
but for all who seek instruction.