Ben Sira - Chapter 24

24: 1-17, 19-34 (translated by Edgar Goodspeed)
Wisdom is her own recommendation, and exults in the midst of her people.  She opens her mouth in the assembly of the Most High, and in the presence of His might she utters her boast: "I issued from the mouth of the Most High, and covered the earth like a mist.  I lived on the heights, and my throne was on the pillar of cloud.  I alone compassed the circuit of heaven, and I walked in the depths of the abyss.  I owned the waves of the sea and the whole earth and every people and nation.  Among all these I sought a resting-place; in whose possession should I lodge?
Then the Creator of all gave me His command; and He who created me made my tent rest, and said 'Pitch your tent in Jacob, and find your inheritance in Israel.'  He created me from the beginning, before the world, and I shall never cease.  I ministered before Him in Zion.  He made me rest likewise in the beloved city, and I had authority over Jerusalem.  I took root in the glorified people, in the portion of the Lord, and of His inheritance.  I was exalted like a cedar in the Lebanon, or a cypress in the mountains of Hermon; I was exalted like a palm tree in Engadi/En Geddi, or like the rose bushes in Jericho; like a fine olive tree in the field; I was exalted like a plane tree.  I gave forth a perfume like cinnamon and camel's thorn, and I spread fragrance like choice myrrh; like galbanum, onycha, and stacte, and like the smoke of frankincense in the tent.  I stretched out my branches like a terebinth, my branches were glorious, graceful branches.  I made grace grow like a vine, and my blossoms produced fame and wealth.
Come to me, you who desire me, and fill yourselves with my produce.  For the memory of me is sweeter than honey, and the possession of me, than the honeycomb.  Those who eat me will still be hungry, and those who drink me will still be thirsty.  He who obeys me will not be put to shame, and those who work with me will commit no sin/never fail."
All this is the book of the agreement of the Most High God, the Law which Moses ordained for us as an inheritance for the congregations of Jacob; which fills humans with wisdom like the Pishon, and like the Tigris in the days of the new wheat; which overflows with understanding like the Euphrates, and like the Jordan in harvest time; which makes instruction shine forth like light, like the Gihon in the days of the vintage.  Just as the first man (ADAM) did not know her perfectly, the last one will not track her out.  For her thinking is fuller than the sea, and her counsel than the great deep.  I came out like a canal from the river, and like a watercourse in a garden.  I said, "I will water my garden, and drench my flower bed."  And behold, my canal became a river, and my river became a sea.  I will again make instruction dawn like the daybreak, and make it shine forth afar.  I will pour out teaching again like prophecy, and leave it behind for endless generations.  Observe that I have not labored for myself only, but for all who seek her out.