18. Riches and honor are with me, enduring wealth and righteousness (uprightness in every area and relation, and right standing with God). [Prov. 3:16; Matt. 6:33.]
19. My fruit is better than gold, yes, than refined gold, and my increase than choice silver.
20. I [Wisdom] walk in the way of righteousness (moral and spiritual rectitude in every area and relation), in the midst of the paths of justice,
21. That I may cause those who love me to inherit [true] riches and that I may fill their treasuries.
22. The Lord formed and brought me [Wisdom] forth at the beginning of His way, before His acts of old.
23. I [Wisdom] was inaugurated and ordained from everlasting, from the beginning, before ever the earth existed. [John 1:1; I Cor. 1:24.]
24. When there were no deeps, I was brought forth, when there were no fountains laden with water.
25. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills, I was brought forth, [Job 15:7, 8.]
26. While as yet He had not made the land or the fields or the first of the dust of the earth.
27. When He prepared the heavens, I [Wisdom] was there; when He drew a circle upon the face of the deep and stretched out the firmament over it,
28. When He made firm the skies above, when He established the fountains of the deep,