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My fruit is p better than q gold, even fine gold, and my yield than r choice silver. 20 I walk in the way of righteousness, in the paths of justice, 21 granting an inheritance to those who love me, and filling their treasuries. 22[^] [†] s “The LORD t possessed [2] me at the beginning of his work, [3] the first of his acts u of old. 23 Ages ago I was v set up, at the first, w before the beginning of the earth. 24 When there were no x depths I was y brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water. 25 Before the mountains z had been shaped, a before the hills, I was brought forth, 26 before he had made the earth with its fields, or the first of the dust of the world. 27 When he b established the heavens, I was there; when he drew c a circle on the face of the deep, 28 when he d made firm the skies above, when he established [4] the fountains of the deep, 29 when he e assigned to the sea its f limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out g the foundations of the earth, 30 then h I was beside him, like a master workman, and I was daily his [5] i delight, rejoicing before him always, 31 j rejoicing in his k inhabited world and delighting in the children of man.
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