19. For my fruit is better than gold and precious stones, and my progeny better than choice silver.
20. I walk in the way of justice, in the midst of the paths of judgment,
21. so that I may enrich those who love me, and thus complete their treasures.
22. The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his ways, before he made anything, from the beginning.
23. I was ordained from eternity, and out of antiquity, before the earth was formed.
24. The abyss did not yet exist, and I was already conceived; neither had the fountains of waters yet erupted.
25. The mountains, with their great mass, had not yet been established. Before the hills, I was brought forth.
26. Still he had not made the earth, and the rivers, and the poles of the globe of the earth.
27. I was already present: when he prepared the heavens; when, with a certain law and a circuit, he fortified the abyss;
28. when he made firm the sky above, and set free the fountains of waters;