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;
29. when he encompassed the sea within its limits, and laid down a law for the waters, lest they transgress their limits; when he weighed the foundations of the earth.
30. I was with him in composing all things. And I was delighted, throughout every day, by playing in his sight at all times,