Proverbs 8:22-30 (Vespers, 4th reading, Theotokos)
- 22
- “The Lord possessed me at the beginning of His way, before His works of old.
- 23
- I have been established from everlasting, from the beginning, before there was ever an earth.
- 24
- When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no fountains abounding with water.
- 25
- Before the mountains were settled, before the hills, I was brought forth;
- 26
- while as yet He had not made the earth or the fields, or the primal dust of the world.
- 27
- When He prepared the heavens, I was there, when He drew a circle on the face of the deep,
- 28
- when He established the clouds above, when He strengthened the fountains of the deep,
- 29
- when He assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters would not transgress His command, when He marked out the foundations of the earth,
- 30
- then I was beside Him as a master craftsman; and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him,