From the book of the Wisdom of Solomon (a Deuterocanonical book) Chapter 8:2-21
8:2 Wisdom I loved and searched for from my youth; I resolved to have her as my bride, I fell in love with her beauty.
8:3 She enhances her noble birth by sharing God’s life, for the Master of All has always loved her.
8:4 Indeed, she shares the secrets of God’s knowledge, and she chooses what he will do.
8:5 If in this life wealth is a desirable possession, what is more wealthy than Wisdom whose work is everywhere?
8:6 Or if it be the intellect that is at work, who, more than she, designs whatever exists?
8:7 Or if it be uprightness you love, why, virtues are the fruit of her labours, since it is she who teaches temperance and prudence, justice and fortitude; nothing in life is more useful for human beings.
8:8 Or if you are eager for wide experience, she knows the past, she forecasts the future; she knows how to turn maxims, and solve riddles; she has foreknowledge of signs and wonders, and of the unfolding of the ages and the times.
8:9 I therefore determined to take her to share my life, knowing that she would be my counsellor in prosperity and comfort me in cares and sorrow.
8:10 ‘Thanks to her, I shall be admired by the masses and honoured, though young, by the elders.
8:11 I shall be reckoned shrewd as a judge, and the great will be amazed at me.
8:12 They will wait on my silences, and pay attention when I speak; if I speak at some length, they will lay their hand on their lips.
8:13 By means of her, immortality will be mine, I shall leave an everlasting memory to my successors.
8:14 I shall govern peoples, and nations will be subject to me;
8:15 at the sound of my name fearsome despots will be afraid; I shall show myself kind to the people and valiant in battle.
8:16 ‘When I go home I shall take my ease with her, for nothing is bitter in her company, when life is shared with her there is no pain, nothing but pleasure and joy.’
8:17 Having meditated on all this, and having come to the conclusion that immortality resides in kinship with Wisdom,
8:18 noble contentment in her friendship, inexhaustible riches in her activities, understanding in cultivating her society, and renown in conversing with her, I went all ways, seeking how to get her.
8:19 I was a boy of happy disposition, I had received a good soul as my lot,
8:20 or rather, being good, I had entered an undefiled body;
8:21 but, realising that I could never possess Wisdom unless God gave her to me, -a sign of intelligence in itself, to know in whose gift she lay — I prayed to the Lord and entreated him, and with all my heart I said:
Culled from the Good News Bible with Deuterocanonical Books