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Proverbs 8:25

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex) Proverbs 8:25 appears in the Hebrew Old Testament. The text above is from the Westminster Leningrad Codex. Each word links to its Strong’s number, a concise gloss, and parsing drawn from the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible morphology. Click any word for its full Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB) entry.
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Proverbs 8:25 (World English Bible). Public Domain. Lemma interlinear Bible study tool, https://lemma.gebible.app/v/proverbs/8/25.

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English Translation
Before the mountains were settled in place, Before the hills, I was brought forth;
World English Bible · Public Domain
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Compare translations 3

The same verse in 3 English versions, stacked beneath the original-language interlinear above. Click any original word for its lexicon entry.

Each is an independent rendering of the whole verse — the interlinear is not word-aligned to these translations.

Highlighted words mark where these versions differ — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment.

  • World English Bible Public Domain
    Before the mountains were settled in place, Before the hills, I was brought forth;
  • King James Version Public Domain
    Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth:
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
    Before the mountains were sunk, to the face of the hills, I was brought forth,

unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult).

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Show all 18 translations

Every available English version of this verse, each an independent rendering of the whole verse.

  • World English Bible Public Domain
    Before the mountains were settled in place, Before the hills, I was brought forth;
  • Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
    Before the mountains were settled, before the hills, I was brought forth,
  • Majority Standard Bible Public Domain
    Before the mountains were settled, before the hills, I was brought forth,
  • King James Version Public Domain
    Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth:
  • American Standard Version (1901) Public Domain
    Before the mountains were settled, Before the hills was I brought forth;
  • Revised Version (1885) Public Domain
    Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth:
  • Geneva Bible (1599) Public Domain
    Before the mountaines were setled: and before the hilles, was I begotten.
  • Douay-Rheims (1899) Public Domain
    The mountains with their huge bulk had not as yet been established: before the hills I was brought forth:
  • Young's Literal Translation Public Domain
    Before mountains were sunk, Before heights, I was brought forth.
  • Literal Standard Version CC BY-SA 4.0
    Before mountains were sunk, || Before heights, I was brought forth.
  • Unlocked Literal Bible CC BY-SA 4.0
    Before the mountains were settled and before the hills, I was born.
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
    Before the mountains were sunk, to the face of the hills, I was brought forth,
  • Darby Bible Public Domain
    Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth;
  • World Messianic Bible Public Domain
    Before the mountains were settled in place, before the hills, I was born;
  • Webster's Bible Public Domain
    Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth.
  • Free Bible Version CC BY-SA 4.0
    I was born before the mountains or the hills had been formed,
  • Bible in Basic English Public Domain
    Before the mountains were put in their places, before the hills was my birth:
  • JPS Tanakh (1917) Public Domain
    Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth;

Literal Standard Version (2020), Covenant Press — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). Unlocked Literal Bible (unfoldingWord) — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult). Free Bible Version, Dr. Jonathan Gallagher — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org).

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About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

6
words
6
distinct lemmas
Wisdom
section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is הָטְבָּ֑עוּ to sink H2883 — appearing just 10 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

הָטְבָּ֑עוּ to sink H2883 occurs in 10 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

  • 2 verbs
  • 3 nouns
  • 1 adverb

Verb forms

  • הָטְבָּ֑עוּ Hophal · Perfect
  • חוֹלָֽלְתִּי Polal · Perfect

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 14 words from the Hebrew and 12 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 6 Hebrew tokens and 10 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

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Cross-references

5

Topical passages linked to Proverbs 8:25 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

  • Psalms 90:2 Before the mountains were brought forth, Or ever you had formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.
  • Job 15:7–8 "Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought forth before the hills?
  • Job 38:4–11 "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if you have understanding.
  • Psalms 102:25–28 Of old, you laid the foundation of the earth. The heavens are the work of your hands.
  • Hebrews 1:10 And, "You, Lord, in the beginning, laid the foundation of the earth. The heavens are the works of your hands.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Proverbs 8:25 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

בְּטֶ֣רֶם הָרִ֣ים הָטְבָּ֑עוּ לִפְנֵ֖י גְבָע֣וֹת חוֹלָֽלְתִּי

Before the mountains were settled in place, Before the hills, I was brought forth;

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Proverbs 8:25 Septuagint · lemma form

πρό ὁ ὄρος ἑδράζω πρό δέ πᾶς βουνός γεννάω ἐγώ

before the mountains were settled, and before all hills, he begets me.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Commentary

Notes on Proverbs 8:25 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Pro 8:25 Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth:

Ver. 25. Was I brought forth.] Or, Begotten. Thus wisdom describes her eternity in human words and expressions, for our better apprehension. Which while Arius either knew not, or weighed not, he herehence took occasion to oppose the Deity of our Saviour, and to propagate that damnable error in the Eastern Churches, to the ruin of many souls. This arch-heretic Arius sitting on the stool to ease nature at Constantinople, voided there his entrails. And now Mohammedanism is there as the excrement of Arius.

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.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown

settled--that is, sunk in foundations.

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

John Gill's Exposition

Before the mountains were settled,.... "Plunged" (l), or fixed in the earth; and which was done by the great strength of the Lord, upon their proper bases, Psa 65:6; and which were "aborigine", or from the beginning of the world, and therefore called the ancient mountains, Deu 33:15; to be before the mountains is a periphrasis of eternity, and is a phrase expressive of God's eternity; and being here used of the Son's, shows his eternity is the same with his Father's, Psa 90:2;

before the hills was I brought forth; which is repeated partly to show the importance of it; this being a matter of infinite moment and concern, and deserving of the strictest attention and observation; and partly to show the certainty of it; the eternal generation of Christ being an article of faith most surely to be believed.

(l) "defixi", Montanus; "mergerentur", Tigurine version; "immersi", Vatablus, Junius & Tremellius.

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

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Compare Psa 90:2. What the Psalmist said of Yahweh, the teacher here asserts of Wisdom; she was before the everlasting hills.

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

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

Settled; or, fixed by their roots in the earth.

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

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Daniel D. Whedon

25. Settled — Hebrew, sunk, as a foundation; founded.

Brought forth — Same word as in preceding verse.

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

The Pulpit Commentary

Before the mountains were settled. (Job_38:6) It is questioned where the mountains were supposed to be fixed, and some have thought that they are represented as fixed in the depths of the earth. But, as we learn from Gen_1:9, they are regarded as rising from the waters, their foundations are laid in the great deep. So the psalmist, speaking of the waters, says, "They went up by the mountains, they went down by the valleys, unto the place which thou hast founded for them". (Psa_104:8; comp. Psa_24:2) What is here affirmed of Wisdom is said of Jehovah in Psa_90:2, "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God."

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

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

before the mountains were sunk within the water.

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.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Proverbs, in the Wisdom, opens this verse with 6 words (6 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is ṭâbaʻ (“to sink”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

  1. What does “to sink” (ṭâbaʻ) contribute to the verse as a whole?
  2. Exodus 15:4 shares the word «to sink» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
  3. These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
  4. The verb «הָטְבָּ֑עוּ» is Hophal Perfect. How does its form color the action?
  5. Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Jamieson, Fausset & Brown read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

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Old Testament
Old Testament edition

Read the OT as the Masoretic Hebrew (MT) or the Greek Septuagint (LXX).

English shown for the Greek Septuagint (in the Hebrew ↔ Greek comparison).

Comparing translations? Open the Compare panel on any verse page to stack up to four side by side.