16. Through me, princes rule and the powerful decree justice.
17. I love those who love me. And those who stand watch for me until morning shall discover me.
18. With me, are wealth and glory, superb riches and justice.
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;