Proverbs 8:23

23. set up] Gesenius renders anointed here and in Psa_2:6, where the same word occurs. But “the verb means ‘to pour out,’ and then ‘to pour metals in a state of fusion into a mould’: hence it passes over into the meaning of setting fast, establishing, &c. So the Niph, Pro_8:23, and hence נָסִיךְ means, not ‘one anointed,’ but ‘one appointed’ to his office.” Bp. Perowne, Crit. Note on Psa_2:6. See also note there in this Series.

ἐθεμελίωσέ με, LXX., ordinata sum, Vulg.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Pro 8:23 I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.

Ver. 23. I was set up.] Coronata sum; I was crowned; so some render it. Inuncta fui, I was anointed - so others - for king, priest, and prophet of my Church. And to this high honour I grew not up by degrees, but had it presently from before all beginnings.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Pro_8:23

I was set up from everlasting.

Christ set up from everlasting

Doctrine: That as Christ is the everlasting God, so, from all eternity, He was foreordained and set up for the great service of mans redemption.

I. To prove That Christ is the everlasting God.

1. That He existed before the incarnation is evident from the appearance He made to our first parents in paradise.

2. We find His existence and agency in the production of all created beings.

3. Run up to the endless ages before the creation of the world, and we find Him existing or ever the earth was.

II. What is imported in His being set up from everlasting.

1. It supposes the council of peace, or an eternal transaction between the Father and the Son concerning the redemption of lost sinners.

2. It implies the infinite complacency that the Father and Son had in each other from all eternity.

3. It implies a Divine ordination and decree, whereby He was from eternity elected into the great service of mans redemption.

4. It implies that, in consequence of the decree, He was called of God to undertake the work of redemption.

5. It implies His own voluntary consent to, and complacence with, His Fathers call. He was actually set up in time.

(1) His first appearance was in the promise made to our first parents.

(2) Set up typically under the Old Testament.

(3) Set up prophetically.

(4) Personally and actually, in His incarnation, obedience, and death.

(5) In His resurrection and ascension.

(6) Sacramentally, in baptism and the last supper.

(7) In conversion.

(8) Will be set up at His second coming.

III. For what ends and purposes Christ was thus set up.

1. As a sun, to give light to this lower world.

2. As a second Adam, the head of a new covenant of grace and promise.

3. As a repairer of breaches between God and man.

IV. The grounds and reasons way Christ was set up.

1. Because it was the Fathers will and pleasure.

2. Because of the good-will He did bear to man upon earth.

3. Because of His ability for the undertaking.

4. Because He voluntarily offered Himself for the work and service.

5. Because from everlasting God foresaw what a revenue of glory would accrue to the crown of heaven through His mediation.

V. Application of the doctrine. See the antiquity and activity of the love of God; the stability and perpetuity of the covenant of grace and of the Church; the reason why all hands should be at work to exalt Him. (E. Erskine.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He declareth the eternity of the Son of God, which is meant by this word, wisdom, who was before all time, and ever present with the father.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

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].

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 23. I was set up from everlasting] נסכתי nissachti, "I was diffused or poured out," from נסך nasach, "to diffuse, pour abroad, as a spirit or disposition," Isa 29:10. See Parkhurst. Or from סך sach, "to cover, overspread, smear over, as with oil;" to be anointed king. Hence some have translated it, principatum habui, I had the principality, or was a ruler, governor, and director, from eternity. All the schemes, plans, and circumstances, relative to creation, government, providence, and to all being, material, animal, and intellectual, were conceived in the Divine mind, by the Divine wisdom, from eternity, or ever the earth was. There was no fortuitous creation, no jumbling concourse of original atoms, that entered into the composition of created beings; all was the effect of the plans before conceived, laid down, and at last acted upon by God's eternal wisdom.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(23) I was set up.—An unusual word; also applied to our Lord in Psa_2:6 when “set” as King on Zion.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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; hence Christ's instalment into his office as Mediator is here expressed by an anointing; for the words may be rendered, "I was anointed" (i); it takes in all that goes to his constitution as Mediator, his call, appointment, and investiture; and the whole of his office, every part and branch of it; and chiefly his kingly office, with reference to which the same word is used Psa 2:6; and so Gersom paraphrases it,

"and there were given to me power, dominion, and greatness;''

all which suppose the eternity of his person; for had he not existed from everlasting, he could not have been set up, and anointed as Mediator, or invested with his office as such;

from the beginning, or ever the earth was; or from the first of the earth, or the original of it; that is, before all time, before the earth or anything was created; this further confirms the eternal existence of Christ's person, the antiquity of his office, the early provision of grace in him as Mediator for his people, and may lead to entertain high and honourable thoughts of him.

(i) "uncta sum", Cocceius, Michaelis, Schultens; "inuncta fui", Gejerus.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

I was set up - Rather, “I was anointed” (compare Psa 2:6 margin: 2Ch 28:15). The image is that of Wisdom anointed, as at her birth, with “the oil of gladness.”

Or ever the earth was - literally, “from the times before the earth.”

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Up. Hebrew, "anointed." Septuagint, "he founded." Christ was appointed to be the foundation, on which we must be built. (St. Athanasius iii. Orat.)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Set up, Heb. anointed; ordained or constituted to be the person by whom the Father resolved to do all his works, first to create, and then to uphold, and govern, and judge, and afterwards to redeem and save the world; all which works are particularly ascribed to the Son of God, as is manifest from Joh 1:1, &c.; Col 1:16,17; Heb 1:3, and many other places, as we may see hereafter in their several places.

From the beginning; before which there was nothing but a vast eternity.

Or ever the earth was; which he mentions, because this, together with the heaven, was the first of God’s visible works.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

23. I was set up from everlasting — Rather, from eternity, or from unknown ages, I was anointed.

From the beginning — Before the earth existed. Anointing was the initiating ceremony into high office among the Hebrews; hence the word is equivalent to appointing, constituting, inaugurating. Wisdom was installed in her high functions from eternity. The other expressions, “from the beginning,” “or ever the earth,” are paraphrastic, exegetical, or qualificative. עולם, (‘holam,) rendered everlasting, is not as definite in its signification as our word eternity. It means indefinite or unknown duration. The terms following it define its meaning here.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I was set up from everlasting. The verb used here is remarkable. It is (nasak), in niph.; and it is found in Psa_2:6, "I have set my King upon my holy hill." Both here and there it has been translated "anointed," which would make a noteworthy reference to Christ. But there seems no proof that the word has this meaning. It signifies properly "to pour forth" (as of molten metal), then "to put down," "to appoint or establish." The versions recognize this. Thus the Septuagint, "he established (eyemeliwse ) me;" Vulgate, ordinata sum; Aquila, katestayhn ; Symmachus, proeceirismai ; Venetian, kecumai (comp. Ecc_1:9). So what is here said is that Wisdom was from everlasting exalted as ruler and disposer of all things. To express eternal relation, three synonymous terms are used. From everlasting; pro tou aiwnov , Septuagint, as Delitzsch notes, points back to infinite distance. From the beginning; i.e. before the world was begun to be made; as St. John says, (Joh_1:1) "In the beginning was the Word;" and Christ prays, "Glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was". (Joh_17:5) Or ever the earth was. This looks to the most remote time after the actual creation, while the earth was being formed and adapted.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Set up - Hebrew. anointed, constituted to be the person by whom the Father resolved to do all his works, to create, to uphold and govern and judge, to redeem and save the world. From the beginning - Before which, there was nothing but a vast eternity. The earth - Which together with the heaven, was the first of God's visible works.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

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 Aquila, κατεστάθην; Symmachus, προκεχείρισμαι; Jerome, ordinata sum. Literally, but unintelligibly, the Gr. Venet. κέχυμαι, according to which (cf. Sir. 1:10) Bttcher: I was poured forth = formed, but himself acknowledging that this figure is not suitable to personification; nor is it at all likely that the author applied the word, used in this sense of idols, to the origin of Wisdom. The fact is, that נסך, used as seldom of the anointing or consecration of kings, as סוּך, passes over, like יצק (הצּיק), צוּק (מצוּק, a pillar), and יצג (הצּיג), from the meaning of pouring out to that of placing and appointing; the mediating idea appears to be that of the pouring forth of the metal, since נסיך, Dan 11:8, like נסך, signifies a molten image. The Jewish interpreters quite correctly remark, in comparing it with the princely name נסיך [cf. Psa 83:12] (although without etymological insight), that a placing in princely dignity is meant. Of the three synonyms of aeternitas a parte ante, מעולם points backwards into the infinite distance, מראשׁ into the beginning of the world, מקּדמי־ארץ not into the times which precede the origin of the earth, but into the oldest times of its gradual arising; this קדמי it is impossible to render, in conformity with the Hebr. use of language: it is an extensive plur. of time, Bttcher, 697. The מן repeated does not mean that the origin and greatness of Wisdom are contemporaneous with the foundation of the world; but that when the world was founded, she was already an actual existence.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

I was enthroned, from the beginning Heb. נסכתי, an expression of (Ezek. 35): “Princes (נסיכי) of the sons of man.”

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.