Proverbs 8:23

I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.

King James Version · Read in your translation · Open the Explore console

Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
up	נִסַּ֥כְתִּי ni.Sakh.ti	H5258	to pour out · verb, niphal perfect, 1st person common singular
everlasting	מֵ֭עוֹלָם Me.'o.lom	H5769	properly · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
beginning	מֵרֹ֗אשׁ me.Rosh	H7218	the head (as most easily shaken) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
ever	מִקַּדְמֵי mi.kad.mei-	H6924	the front · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct
earth	אָֽרֶץ 'A.retz	H776	the earth (at large · noun, common feminine singular absolute

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

John 17:24 Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for…
Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of th…
Micah 5:2 But thou, Beth-lehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be…
John 17:5 And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
Psalms 2:6 Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.
1 John 1:1-2 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have hand…
Ephesians 1:10-11 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which a…

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Proverbs 8:22-31

That it is an intelligent and divine person that here speaks seems very plain, and that it is not meant of a mere essential property of the divine nature, for Wisdom here has personal properties and actions; and that intelligent divine person can be no other than the Son of God himself, to whom the principal things here spoken of wisdom are attributed in other scriptures, and we must explain scripture by itself. If Solomon himself designed only the praise of wisdom as it is an attribute of God, by which he made the world and governs it, so to recommend to men the study of that wisdom which belongs to them, yet the Spirit of God, who indited what he wrote, carried him, as David often, to such…

Read the whole note in the console

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 8:23

I was set up--ordained, or inaugurated (Psa 2:6). The other terms carry out the idea of the earliest antiquity, and illustrate it by the details of creation [Pro 8:24-29].

John Gill on Proverbs 8:23

I was set up from everlasting,.... I, a person, and not a quality; a person, and not a nature; the person of Christ as the Son of God, and not the human nature of Christ, which then did not exist; this phrase designs the ordination and constitution of Christ in his office as Mediator. So the Vulgate Latin version renders it, "I was ordained"; Christ was foreordained to be the Redeemer and Saviour of men, to be the propitiation for their sins, to be the head of the church, and the Judge of the world. It intends likewise his inauguration into his office, and his investiture with it; and because anointing with oil was used in installing persons into the offices of prophet, priest, and king; hen…

Read the whole note in the console

Keil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 8:23

A designation of the When? expressed first by מאז (Isa 48:8, cf. Isa 40:21), is further unfolded: "From everlasting was I set up, From the beginning, from the foundations of the earth." That נסּכתּי cannot be translated: I was anointed = consecrated, vid., at Psa 2:6. But the translation also: I was woven = wrought (Hitzig, Ewald, and previously one of the Greeks, ἐδιάσθην), does not commend itself, for רקּם (Psa 139:15), used of the embryo, lies far from the metaphorical sense in which נסך = Arab. nasaj, texere, would here be translated of the origin of a person, and even of such a spiritual being as Wisdom; נסדתּי, as the lxx reads (ἐθεμελιωσέ με), is not once used of such. Rightly Aqu…

The Church Fathers

[Solomon] says, "He laid down both the cause and foundation of creation." Also it is written, "He created all things in himself, and he is before all things." And the Lord says as well, "I am the beginning of the creation of God." Indeed, desiring to be the foundation of the church, he submitted to becoming human so that the church might be constituted firmly in him. Desiring to give existence to creation, he adjusted himself to its rule by introducing the relationship we mentioned above, when he was made the beginning and cause of future things. However, it says, even if he was created according to these things, still "God begat me before everything," the very one who is his Son.
— Didymus the Blind, COMMENTARY ON THE PROVERBS OF SOLOMON, FRAGMENT 8:23

Since the heretics, reading the next verse, take a perverse view of that also, because it is written, "He founded me before the world," namely, that this is said of the Godhead of the Word and not of his incarnate presence, it is necessary, explaining this verse also, to show their error.It is written, "The Lord in Wisdom founded the earth; if then by wisdom the earth is founded, how can he who founds be founded? Indeed, this too is after the manner of proverbs.… He says not, "Before the world he founded me as Word or Son," but simply, "He founded me," to show again, as I have said, that not for his own sake but for those who are built upon him does he here also speak, after the way of proverbs.
— Athanasius of Alexandria, Discourses Against the Arians 2.22.72-74

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Earth · CREATED BY GOD — CREATED BY GOD
Wisdom · .UNCLASSIFIED SCRIPTURES RELATING TO — .UNCLASSIFIED SCRIPTURES RELATING TO

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Proverbs 8:23

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Proverbs 8:22-31

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 8:23

John Gill on Proverbs 8:23

Keil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 8:23

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Proverbs 8:23

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Proverbs 8:22-31

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 8:23

John Gill on Proverbs 8:23

Keil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 8:23

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Proverbs 8:22-25

Rashi on Proverbs 8:23