With all these (i.e. every people and nation) I sought a resting-place, And said: “In whose inheritance shall I lodge?” Then the Creator of all things gave me commandment, And He that created me fixed my dwelling-place for me; And He said: “Let thy dwelling-place be in Jacob, And in Israel take up thine inheritance....” And I took root among an honoured people, In the portion of the Lord and of His inheritance (xxiv. 7-12). In his teaching concerning the personification of Wisdom Ben-Sira offers something that is of a transitional character; in the main, he bases his teaching on Proverbs, though he shows some advance upon this; but he falls far behind what the Book of Wisdom has to say on the subject. To this we must now devote some attention. The writer of the Book of Wisdom, like the writers of all the books belonging to this literature, teaches the divine origin of Wisdom; but he has his own way of expressing this truth: For she is a breath of the power of God, And a clear effluence of the glory of the Almighty; Therefore can nothing defiled find entrance into her. For she is an effulgence from everlasting light, And an unspotted mirror of the working of God, And an image of His goodness (vii. 25, 26). This divine Wisdom is so indispensable to man that he is of no account without it: For even if a man be perfect among the sons of men, Yet if the Wisdom that cometh from Thee be not with him, he shall be held in no account (ix. 6). Another invariable doctrine in the Wisdom books, namely the existence of Wisdom before the world was created, and her part in the Creation, is taught thus: And with Thee is Wisdom, which knoweth Thy works, And was present when Thou wast making the world (ix. 9). For she is initiated into the knowledge of God, And she chooseth out for Him His works (viii. 4). Ben-Sira, as we saw, identifies the Law with Wisdom; the Jewish-Hellenistic writer of the Book of Wisdom does not do so, but he teaches an identification between the Holy Spirit of the Lord and Wisdom[317]; this is clear from the following passage: Because Wisdom will not enter into a soul that deviseth evil, Nor dwell in a body that is held in pledge by sin; For a holy spirit of discipline will flee deceit ... For Wisdom is a spirit that loveth man, And she will not hold a blasphemer guiltless for his lips ... Because the spirit of the Lord hath filled the world (i. 4-7). Still more pointed are the words in ix. 17: And who ever gained knowledge of Thy counsel, except Thou gavest Wisdom, And sentest Thy Holy Spirit from on high?