Proverbs 8:26

While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
made	עָ֭שָׂה 'A.sah	H6213	to do or make · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
earth	אֶ֣רֶץ 'E.retz	H776	the earth (at large · noun, common feminine singular absolute
fields	וְחוּצ֑וֹת ve.chu.Tzot	H2351	properly · conjunction + noun, common feminine plural absolute
part	וְ֝רֹ֗אשׁ ve.Rosh	H7218	the head (as most easily shaken) · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular construct
dust	עָפְר֥וֹת a.fe.Rot	H6083	dust (as powdered or gray) · noun, common feminine plural construct
world	תֵּבֵֽל te.Vel	H8398	the earth (as moist and therefore inhabited) · 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

Genesis 1:1-31 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

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…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 8:26

fields--or, "out places," "deserts," as opposite to (habitable) "world." highest part--or, "sum," all particles together,

John Gill on Proverbs 8:26

While as yet he had not made the earth,.... That is, the Lord, who possessed Wisdom, or Christ, and by whom he was set up; he as yet had not made the earth, when this was done; this shows that the earth had a beginning, contrary to those philosophers who asserted the eternity of it; that Christ was before that was, for it was made by him; and consequently he must be eternal, and was before any man was, since the earth was made before man; and that he was not of the earth, earthy, as was the first man; nor the fields; the plain parts of the earth, in opposition to the mountains and hills before mentioned; the valleys and meadows that lay between them, full of grass, flowers, and fruits; plea…

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Keil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 8:24-26

This her existence before the world began is now set forth in yet more explicit statements: 24 "When there were as yet no floods was I brought forth, When as yet there were not fountains which abounded with water; 25 For before the mountains were settled, Before the hills was I brought forth, 26 While as yet He had not made land and plains, And the sum of the dust of the earth." The description is poetical, and affords some room for imagination. By תּהומות are not intended the unrestrained primeval waters, but, as also Pro 3:20, the inner waters, treasures of the earth; and consequently by מעינות, not the fountains of the sea on this earth (Ewald, after Job 38:16), but he springs or places o…

The Church Fathers

"Before he made anything from the beginning," etc. Similar to this in the Gospel: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made through him" (John 1). Perish those, therefore, who deny that the power of God and the wisdom of God, namely Christ, was begotten by the Father from the beginning, indeed even before any beginning could be said or thought. Another translation begins at this place: "The Lord created me the beginning of his ways in his works," which the Fathers understand to be spoken of the incarnation of the Lord, saying that by the mystery of a certain grace it is said, "The Lord created me," and not "The Father created me." Flesh, they say, acknowledges the Lord, glory signifies the Father. The creature confesses the Lord, charity names the Father as the beginning; or "in the beginning of his ways," as he himself said, "I am the way," because rising from the dead, he made a path for his Church to the kingdom of God, to eternal life. "In his works," because he was created from the Virgin to redeem the works of the Father; taking flesh to free the works of the Father from the bondage of corruption. For the flesh of Christ is for the works, the Divinity before the works.
— Bede, Commentary on Proverbs

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

Atoms Of Matter · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
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 8:26

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Proverbs 8:22-31

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 8:26

John Gill on Proverbs 8:26

Keil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 8:24-26

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Proverbs 8:26

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Proverbs 8:22-31

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 8:26

John Gill on Proverbs 8:26

Keil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 8:24-26

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Proverbs 8:22-25

Rashi on Proverbs 8:26