---
title: "Proverbs 8 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/proverbs/8/
description: "The preaching of wisdom. Her excellence. Proverbs 8 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Proverbs 8

Proverbs 8 is chapter 8 of 31 in the Book of Proverbs. Here are all 36 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> The preaching of wisdom. Her excellence.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Proverbs 8 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. Does not wisdom call out, and prudence bestow her voice?
2. At the summits and the tops of exalted places, standing above the ways, in the midst of the paths,
3. beside the gates of the city, at the very doors, she speaks, saying:
4. “O men, to you I call out, and my voice is to the sons of men.
5. O little ones, understand discernment. And you who are unwise, turn your souls.
6. Listen, for I will speak about great things, and my lips will be opened, so as to foretell what is right.
7. My throat shall practice truth, and my lips shall detest the impious.
8. All my words are just. There is no depravity in them, and no perversity.
9. They are upright to those who understand, and equitable to those who discover knowledge.
10. Accept my discipline, and not money. Choose the doctrine that is greater than gold.
11. For wisdom is better than all that is most precious, and everything that is desirable cannot compare to her.
12. I, wisdom, dwell in counsel, and I am inside learned thoughts.
13. The fear of the Lord hates evil. I detest arrogance, and pride, and every wicked way, and a mouth with a double tongue.
14. Counsel is mine, and equity. Prudence is mine. Strength is mine.
15. Through me, kings reign and legislators decree just conditions.
16. Through me, princes rule and the powerful decree justice.
17. I love those who love me. And those who stand watch for me until morning shall discover me.
18. With me, are wealth and glory, superb riches and justice.
19. For my fruit is better than gold and precious stones, and my progeny better than choice silver.
20. I walk in the way of justice, in the midst of the paths of judgment,
21. so that I may enrich those who love me, and thus complete their treasures.
22. The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his ways, before he made anything, from the beginning.
23. I was ordained from eternity, and out of antiquity, before the earth was formed.
24. The abyss did not yet exist, and I was already conceived; neither had the fountains of waters yet erupted.
25. The mountains, with their great mass, had not yet been established. Before the hills, I was brought forth.
26. Still he had not made the earth, and the rivers, and the poles of the globe of the earth.
27. I was already present: when he prepared the heavens; when, with a certain law and a circuit, he fortified the abyss;
28. when he made firm the sky above, and set free the fountains of waters;
29. when he encompassed the sea within its limits, and laid down a law for the waters, lest they transgress their limits; when he weighed the foundations of the earth.
30. I was with him in composing all things. And I was delighted, throughout every day, by playing in his sight at all times,
31. playing in globe of the earth. And my delight was to be with the sons of men.
32. Therefore, sons, hear me now. Blessed are those who preserve my ways.
33. Listen to discipline, and become wise, and do not be willing to cast it aside.
34. Blessed is the man who listens to me, and who stands watch at my gates every day, and who observes at the posts of my doors.
35. He who finds me, finds life, and he will draw salvation from the Lord.
36. But he who sins against me will wound his own soul. All who hate me love death.”

## Proverbs 8 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Numquid non sapientia clamitat, et prudentia dat vocem suam?
2. In summis excelsisque verticibus supra viam, in mediis semitis stans,
3. juxta portas civitatis, in ipsis foribus loquitur, dicens:
4. O viri, ad vos clamito, et vox mea ad filios hominum.
5. Intelligite, parvuli, astutiam, et insipientes, animadvertite.
6. Audite, quoniam de rebus magnis locutura sum, et aperientur labia mea ut recta prædicent.
7. Veritatem meditabitur guttur meum, et labia mea detestabuntur impium.
8. Justi sunt omnes sermones mei: non est in eis pravum quid, neque perversum;
9. recti sunt intelligentibus, et æqui invenientibus scientiam.
10. Accipite disciplinam meam, et non pecuniam; doctrinam magis quam aurum eligite:
11. melior est enim sapientia cunctis pretiosissimis, et omne desiderabile ei non potest comparari.
12. Ego sapientia, habito in consilio, et eruditis intersum cogitationibus.
13. Timor Domini odit malum: arrogantiam, et superbiam, et viam pravam, et os bilingue, detestor.
14. Meum est consilium et æquitas; mea est prudentia, mea est fortitudo.
15. Per me reges regnant, et legum conditores justa decernunt;
16. per me principes imperant, et potentes decernunt justitiam.
17. Ego diligentes me diligo, et qui mane vigilant ad me, invenient me.
18. Mecum sunt divitiæ et gloria, opes superbæ et justitia.
19. Melior est enim fructus meus auro et lapide pretioso, et genimina mea argento electo.
20. In viis justitiæ ambulo, in medio semitarum judicii:
21. ut ditem diligentes me, et thesauros eorum repleam.
22. Dominus possedit me in initio viarum suarum antequam quidquam faceret a principio.
23. Ab æterno ordinata sum, et ex antiquis antequam terra fieret.
24. Nondum erant abyssi, et ego jam concepta eram: necdum fontes aquarum eruperant,
25. necdum montes gravi mole constiterant: ante colles ego parturiebar.
26. Adhuc terram non fecerat, et flumina, et cardines orbis terræ.
27. Quando præparabat cælos, aderam; quando certa lege et gyro vallabat abyssos;
28. quando æthera firmabat sursum, et librabat fontes aquarum;
29. quando circumdabat mari terminum suum, et legem ponebat aquis, ne transirent fines suos; quando appendebat fundamenta terræ:
30. cum eo eram, cuncta componens. Et delectabar per singulos dies, ludens coram eo omni tempore,
31. ludens in orbe terrarum; et deliciæ meæ esse cum filiis hominum.
32. Nunc ergo, filii, audite me: beati qui custodiunt vias meas.
33. Audite disciplinam, et estote sapientes, et nolite abjicere eam.
34. Beatus homo qui audit me, et qui vigilat ad fores meas quotidie, et observat ad postes ostii mei.
35. Qui me invenerit, inveniet vitam, et hauriet salutem a Domino.
36. Qui autem in me peccaverit, lædet animam suam; omnes qui me oderunt diligunt mortem.

## Catechism of the Catholic Church

Paragraph numbers and the Catechism's own section headings (never quoted); text at vatican.va.
- cf. CCC ¶ 721: The Spirit of Christ in the Fullness of Time ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 2465: Living in the Truth ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 288: The Creator ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))

## Read at Mass (US)

- Sun, Jun 11, 2028 (computed): The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity — First Reading, Proverbs 8:22-31

Dates after May 31, 2027 are computed by Bless from the US Lectionary cycle — confirm with your parish.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).