When I was a son to my father, tender and alone before my mother,

I was almost at utter ruin in the midst of the assembly and congregation."

She took hold of him and kissed him. Her face was impudent, and she said to him,

From eternity, I was set up from [the] first, from the beginning of the earth.

When there were no depths, I was brought forth, when there were no springs of {abounding} water.

Before mountains had been shaped, before hills, I was brought forth.

{when he established} the heavens, there I [was], {when he drew} a circle upon the face of the deep,

I was {beside} him, a master workman, and I was delighting day by day, rejoicing before him {always},

rejoicing in the world of his earth, and my delight [was] with the children of humankind.

"They struck me; I was not hurt. They beat me; I did not know [it]. When I will awake, I will continue; I will seek it again."

and behold, it was overgrown--all of it was covered [with] thorns, its surface with nettles, and {its stone wall} was broken down.