For when I myself was my father's dear son, and tenderly beloved of my mother,

Wherefore was not I obedient unto the voice of my teachers, and hearken not unto them that informed me?

And behold, there met him a woman with open tokens of a harlot. Only her heart was hid.

She was full of loud words and ready to dally: whose feet could not abide in the house.

She caught the young man, kissed him, and was not ashamed, saying,

I have been ordained from everlasting, and from the beginning before the earth was made.

When I was born, there were neither depths nor springs of water.

Before the foundations of the mountains were laid, yea before all hills was I born.

The earth and all that is upon the earth was not yet made, no not the ground itself.

For when he made the heavens, I was present; when he set up the depths in order;

I was with him, ordering all things, delighting daily, and rejoicing always before him.

The robberies of the ungodly shall be their own destruction; for they would not do the thing that was right.

And lo, it was all covered with nettles, and stood full of thistles, and the stone wall was broken down.