Proverbs 8:24

Pro 8:24 When [there were] no depths, I was brought forth; when [there were] no fountains abounding with water.

Ver. 24. When there were no depths.] In mentioning God’s works of creation, some observe here, that wisdom proceeds from the lower elements to the superior and heavenly bodies: she begins with the earth, {Pro 8:23} goes on here to the waters, and so to the air, called streets, rendered "fields," {Pro 8:26} that is, the vast element of the air; which compared with the far less elements of earth and water, must needs seem exceedingly large, spacious, and open, as streets, or fields. Lastly, by "the highest part of the dust of the world," the Hebrew doctors understand the element of fire. Iudicium sit penes lectorem: let the reader judge.

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.

brought forth--(Compare Psa 90:2).

abounding--or, "laden with water."

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 24. When there were no depths] תהמות tehomoth, before the original chaotic mass was formed. See Ge 1:2.

I was brought forth] חוללתי cholalti, "I was produced as by labouring throes." Mr. Parkhurst thinks that the heathen poets derived their idea of Minerva's (wisdom's) being born of Jupiter's brain, from some such high poetic personification as that in the text.

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

(24) I was brought forth.—i.e., born. The same word is used in Psa_51:5 (7), and Job_15:7.

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

When there were no depths, I was brought forth,.... Not only in the decree of God, as the head of the elect; foreordained to be the Redeemer of them, and to be the propitiation for their sins; and appointed the Judge of the world, and heir of all things; but "was begotten", as the Targum and Syriac version; the Septuagint is, "he begot me"; and so it is to be understood of the eternal generation and sonship of Christ; for the word is used of generation, Job 15:7. Christ is the firstborn of every creature, begotten, born, and brought forth before any creature was in being; see Psa 2:7; before the depths of the great sea were formed, for they were made by him, Psa 95:1; when there were no depths, but the infinite being and perfections of God, and the thoughts and purposes of his heart, which are his deep things, Job 11:7;

when there were no fountains abounding with water; or "heavy", or "honoured" (k) with it; when the fountains of the great deep were not; and when there were no other fountains which form rivers, and water the earth; when there were none but God the fountain of living waters; then was Christ as the only begotten son of God; and who was also set up as the fountain of all grace, life, and salvation for his people.

(k) "aggravati", Pagninus; "praegravati", Vatablus; "gravati", Michaelis; "honorabiles", Gejerus.

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

Compare Gen. 1; Job 22; Job 26:1-14; 38: A world of waters, “great deeps” lying in darkness, this was the picture of the remotest time of which man could form any conception, and yet the co-existence of the uncreated Wisdom with the eternal Yahweh was before that.

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

Conceived. Having yet manifested none of my works. Since the creation, wisdom only seeks to communicate itself to us. (Calmet)

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).

No depths; no abyss or deep waters, either mixed with the earth, as they were at first, or separated from it.

Brought forth; begotten of my Father’s essence.

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

24. When… no depths, I was brought forth — Better, when no abysses, I was produced.

When… no fountains abounding with water — The precise idea of the last words is uncertain. The participle for “abounding,” נכבדי, may mean glorious. Perhaps it may be equivalent to our expression, “fountains of sparkling water.” The sentiment of the whole verse then would be: I was produced before there were either oceans or flowing streams. Brought forth, Stuart renders, “was born.” Produced is preferable, as corresponding better with the original, חוללתי, which, though sometimes used in the sense or was born, is not a specific term, like ילד, (yulladh,) but more general, like our words produced, originated, which may be applied to the beginning of any thing.

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

The preexistence of Wisdom is still more expressly set forth. When there were no depths (vers. 27, 28). The waste of waters which covered the face of the earth is meant that great deep on which primeval darkness brooded. (Gen_1:2) Before even this, man"s earliest conception of the beginning of the world, uncreated Wisdom was. Septuagint, "before he made the abysses". (see on Pro_3:20) I was brought forth; Vulgate, et ego jam concepta eram; Septuagint, at the end of ver. 25, genna me , "he begetteth me." The verb here is lWj (chul), which is used of the travailing of women, and is rightly translated, "brought forth by generation." It indicates in this place the energizing of Wisdom, her conception in the Divine mind, and her putting forth in operation.

When there were no fountains abounding with water; i.e. springs in the interior of the earth. (Gen_7:11; comp. Job 22 Job 26 Job 38) Septuagint, "Before the springs of the waters came forward (proelyein )."

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

No depths - No abyss or deep waters. Brought forth - Begotten of my father.

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

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 of springs (for מעין is n. loci to עין, a well as an eye of the earth; vid., Gen 16:7), by means of which the internal waters of the earth communicate themselves to the earth above (cf. Gen 7:11 with Gen 49:25). נכבּדּי־מים(abounding with water) is a descriptive epitheton to מעינות, which, notwithstanding its fem. plur., is construed as masc. (cf. Pro 5:16). The Masora does not distinguish the thrice-occurring נכבדי according to its form as written (Isa 23:8-9). The form נכבּדּי (which, like בּתּים, would demand Metheg) is to be rejected; it is everywhere to be written נכבּדּי nettirw (Ewald, 214b) with Pathach, with Dagesh following; vid., Kimchi, Michlol 61b. Kimchi adds the gloss מעיני מים רבים, which the Gr. Venet., in accordance with the meaning of נכבד elsewhere, renders by πηγαῖς δεδοξασμένων ὑδάτων (as also Bttcher: the most honoured = the most lordly); but Meri, Immanuel, and others rightly judge that the adjective is here to be understood after Gen 13:2; Job 14:21 (but in this latter passage כבד does not mean "to be numerous"): loaded = endowed in rich measure.

Pro 8:25

Instead of בּאין, in (yet) non-existence (24), we have here טרם, a subst. which signifies cutting off from that which already exists (vid., at Gen 2:5), and then as a particle nondum or antequam, with בּ always antequam, and in Pro 8:26 עד־לא, so long not yet (this also originally a substantive from עדה, in the sense of progress). With הטבּעוּ (were settled) (as Job 38:6, from טבע, to impress into or upon anything, imprimere, infigere) the question is asked: wherein? Not indeed: in the depths of the earth, but as the Caraite Ahron b. Joseph answers, אל קרקע הים, in the bottom of the sea; for out of the waters they rise up, Psa 104:8 (cf. at Gen 1:9).

Pro 8:26

ארץ וחוּצות is either, connecting the whole with its part: terra cum campis, or ארץ gains by this connection the meaning of land covered with buildings, while חוצות the expanse of unoccupied land, or the free field outside the towns and villages (cf. בּר, Arab. barrytt) (Fl.), vid., Job 5:10; Job 18:17 (where we have translated "in the steppe far and wide"); and regarding the fundamental idea, vid., above at Pro 5:16. Synonymous with ארץ, as contrast to חוצות, is תּבל, which like יבוּל (produce, wealth) comes from יבל, and thus denotes the earth as fruit-bearing (as אדמה properly denotes the humus as the covering of earth). Accordingly, with Ewald, we may understand by ראשׁ עפרות, "the heaps of the many clods of the fertile arable land lying as if scattered on the plains." Hitzig also translates: "the first clods of the earth." We do not deny that עפרות may mean clods of earth, i.e., pieces of earth gathered together, as Job 28:6, עפרת זהב, gold ore, i.e., pieces of earth or ore containing gold. But for clods of earth the Heb. language has the nouns רגב and מגרפה; and if we read together עפרות, plur. of the collective עפר (dust as a mass), which comes as from a n. unitatis עפרה, and ראשׁ, which, among its meanings in poetry as well as in prose, has also that of the sum, i.e., the chief amount or the total amount (cf. the Arab. râs âlmâl, the capital, τὸ κεφάλαιον), then the two words in their mutual relation yield the sense of the sum of the several parts of the dust, as of the atoms of dust (Cocceius; Schultens, summam pluverum orbis habitabilis); and Fleischer rightly remarks that other interpretations, as ab initio pulveris orbis, praecipus quaeque orbis terrarum, caput orbis terrarum (i.e., according to Rashi, the first man; according to Umbreit, man generally), leave the choice of the plur. עפרות unintelligible. Before these creatures originated, Wisdom was, as she herself says, and emphatically repeats, already born; חוללתּי is the passive of the Pilel חולל, which means to whirl, to twist oneself, to bring forth with sorrow (Aquila, Theodotion, ὠδινήθην; Graec. Venet. 24a, πέπλασμαι, 25b, ὠδίνημαι), then but poet. generally to beget, to bring forth (Pro 25:23; Pro 26:10).

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.)

General Information:

Wisdom continues to speak. (See: Personification)

Before the mountains were settled

"Before the bases of the mountains were put into place." This can also be put into active form. AT: "Before God made the foundations of the mountains and put them into their proper places" (See: Active or Passive)

translationWords

fountain

water

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

I was created Heb. חוללתי.

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.