tion, and other Christian mysteries. The whole may be
divided into three parts. In the first six chapters, the author
admonishes all superiors to love and exercise justice and wisdom. In the
next three, he teacheth that wisdom proceedeth only from God, and is
procured by prayer and a good life. In the other ten chapters, he
sheweth the excellent effects and utility of wisdom and justice.

Wisdom Chapter 1

An exhortation to seek God sincerely, who cannot be deceived, and
desireth not our death.

1:1. Love justice, you that are the judges of the earth. Think of the
Lord in goodness, and seek him in simplicity of heart:

1:2. For he is found by them that tempt him not: and he sheweth himself
to them that have faith in him.

1:3. For perverse thoughts separate from God: and his power, when it is
tried, reproveth the unwise:

1:4. For wisdom will not enter into a malicious soul, nor dwell in a
body subject to sins.

1:5. For the Holy Spirit of discipline will flee from the deceitful, and
will withdraw himself from thoughts that are without understanding, and
he shall not abide when iniquity cometh in.

1:6. For the spirit of wisdom is benevolent, and will not acquit the
evil speaker from his lips: for God is witness of his reins, and he is a
true searcher of his heart, and a hearer of his tongue.

1:7. For the Spirit of the Lord hath filled the whole world: and that
which containeth all things, hath knowledge of the voice.

1:8. Therefore he that speaketh unjust things, cannot be hid, neither
shall the chastising judgment pass him by.

1:9. For inquisition shall be made into the thoughts of the ungodly, and
the hearing of his words shall come to God, to the chastising of his
iniquities.

1:10. For the ear of jealousy heareth all things, and the tumult of
murmuring shall not be hid.

1:11. Keep yourselves, therefore, from murmuring, which profiteth
nothing, and refrain your tongue from detraction, for an obscure speech
shall not go for nought: and the mouth that belieth, killeth the soul.

1:12. Seek not death in the error of your life, neither procure ye
destruction by the works of your hands.

1:13. For God made not death, neither hath he pleasure in the
destruction of the living.

1:14. For he created all things that they might be: and he made the
nations of the earth for health: and there is no poison of destruction
in them, nor kingdom of hell upon the earth.

1:15. For justice is perpetual and i