Proverbs 8 (Abby Version)



Wisdom's App

1  Are not Wisdom's notifications turned on?

       Does not Wisdom’s app show a flag?

2  From the cell towers on every hill,

       at every intersection she signals;

3  beside the entrance of every store,

       at the opening of every door, she dings:


4   "To you, O men, I call,

        And my alerts are for every generation.

5   O psychosomatic ones, learn sense;

        O information-drunkards, learn discernment.

6   Hear, for only I map out noble ways,

        and from our communication will come your route,

7   for my programing is done from Heaven;

        misinformation is impossible.


8   "All the advice from my database is apropos;

        there is nothing irrelevant or generic about it.

9   This guidance comes straight to those who know they don't know,

        and right to those whose ears are tuned in.

10  Take my instruction instead of researching more,

        And my knowledge rather than redoubling your own efforts.

11  For Wisdom is better than a self-made man,

        And living a cushy life cannot compare with her.


12  "I, Wisdom, am life's harmonizer,

         and I combine street smarts with graceful actions.

13  Deference to God's authority means having no taste for evil.

         Setting yourself up as an authority

         and veiled speech make me gag.

14  I know what God means and I have his power;

          I have cracked the code; I have youth's pluck.

15  By me, good CEO's oversee,

          and legislature decrees what is right

16  by me judges reside

          and bosses too, anyone justly in charge.


17  "I dance with those who dance with me,

          and lifelong learners find me.

18  Good character and a life lived well are my gifts,

          a pleasant character and nothing wasted.

19  My tutelage is better than a Master's degree, even a PhD,

          and my yield is more than an endless database.

20  I teach where to begin and where to go next

          every day, every hour, every minute,

21  weaving into my legacy those with open hearts,

          and filling their hours with treasures.


22  "The sovereign programmer wrote me before anything else,

         I was the first of his creations.

23  Ages ago he coded me,

         even before people were around to use me.

24  When there was no cyberspace, I was operating

         when there were no libraries.

25  Before the world's religions had evolved,

        before psychology was founded, I already knew,

26  before he landscaped humanity

         or characterized the elements.


27  "When he designed outer space, I was there;

         when he drew ellipses for orbits,

28  when he made the air currents,

         when he mapped out earth's innards with fire and rock,

29  when he assigned science its limits

         so that matter might not transgress his commands

         when he split apart Pangeae,

30  then I was beside him, like a master craftsman,

         and I was daily his hobby,

         always fitting together each new insight,

31  attentively experiencing his inhabited world

         and delighting in the way of living well.


32  "And now, O children, listen to me:

         blessed are those who befriend me.

33  Hear the notifications, tune in to the Spirit

        And do not neglect her.

34  Blessed is the one who gives pause for me,

         watching daily for my signs,

         waiting in the midst of activity.

35  For he who pieces together obedience, solves life’s riddles

         and obtains wholeness from the Lord,

36  but he who never waits for my messages, shoots himself in the foot;

         all who don’t want me sign up for an inner death."


Many of the concepts in this were inspired from Eugene Peterson's As Kingfisher's Catch Fire.

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