Proverbs 8:27

Pro 8:27 When he prepared the heavens, I [was] there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth:

Ver. 27. When he prepared the heavens.] Or, Caused them to be prepared, took order to have it done, viz., by me, who was with him, and "by whom he made the worlds." {Heb 1:1-14 : 3Jn 1:3 Col 1:16} "For the Father loveth the Son, and hath put all things into his hand." {Joh 3:35}

When he set a compass.] Or, Drew a circle round about the earth, meaning the outspread firmament of heaven. {Gen 1:6} Howbeit the Hebrews understand it of the world of angels, called by them the third world, or the third heaven; whereunto St Paul also seems to allude in 2Co 12:2.

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 8:27-29. When he prepared the heavens I was there — Not as an idle spectator, but as a co-worker with my Father. When he set a compass upon the face of the depth — Of that great abyss of water and earth, mixed together, which is called both earth, and water, and the deep, (Gen 1:2,) when he made this lower world in the form of a globe. When he established the clouds above — Hebrew, strengthened them, by his word and decree, which alone upholds the clouds in the air, which otherwise would quickly be dissolved or dispersed. When he strengthened the fountains — When he shut up the several fountains in the cavities of the earth, and kept them there, as it were, by a strong hand, for the use of man and beast; of the deep — Which fountains have their originals from the deep, either from the sea, or from the abyss of waters, in the bowels of the earth. When he gave to the sea his decree — Its bounds or limits, namely, by those parts of the earth which border upon it; that the waters should not pass his commandment — Should not overflow the earth; when he appointed — Or fixed; the foundations of the earth — Hung the earth, self- balanced, upon its centre, or gave the earth its firm standing upon its foundations, notwithstanding all the assaults which the waters of the sea, or those in the bowels of the earth make against it.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8:27-29 God used his wisdom to establish the created order, so wisdom can tell us how the world works and testifies to God’s greatness.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

when he set . . . depth--marked out the circle, according to the popular idea of the earth, as circular, surrounded by depths on which the visible concave heavens rested.

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 27. When he prepared the heavens, I was there] For there is no part of the creation of God in which wisdom, skill, contrivance, are more manifest, than in the construction of the visible heavens.

When he set a compass upon the face of the depth] Does not this refer to the establishment of the law of gravitation? by which all the particles of matter, tending to a common centre, would produce in all bodies the orbicular form, which we see them have; so that even the waters are not only retained within their boundaries, but are subjected to the circular form, in their great aggregate of seas, as other parts of matter are. This is called here making a compass, בחקו חוג bechukko chug, sweeping a circle; and even this on the face of the deep, to bring the chaotic mass into form, regularity, and order.

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

(27) When he set a compass upon the face of the depth—i.e., when He stretched the vault of heaven over it: the same expression is used in Job_22:14. It is also interpreted of the circle of the horizon.

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

27. compass] Rather, circle, R.V. text, A.V. marg. The reference is to the heavens, just mentioned, which seem to stand like a vault or dome upon the sea, marked out by the circle of the horizon on its surface. Comp. Job_22:14.

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.

When he prepared the heavens, I was there,.... Made, beautified, and adorned them; when he gave them their form, figure, magnitude, and motion; when he garnished them with the sun, moon, and stars; then was Christ present, not as a mere spectator, but as a co-worker; see Heb 1:10; and even the third heaven, the place and state of glorified saints, prepared for them from the foundation of the world, Mat 25:34;

when he set a compass upon the face of the depth: or "compassed the waters with bounds", as Job says, Pro 26:10; or made the earth with the sea globular, which make one terraqueous globe: or "made a circle" (p); all around it, called the circle of the earth, on which he sits, Isa 40:22; this compass may design the vast expanse or firmament of heaven, which is stretched and drawn around the terraqueous globe as a canopy or curtain. Christ was with his Father on the first day's creation of the heavens; and on the second day, when the firmament was made, and was before them both.

(p) "describendo circulum", Montanus, Mercerus, Cocceius, Michaelis, Schultens.

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

A compass - Better as in the margin and Job 22:14 (see the note), i. e., the great vault of heaven stretched over the deep seas.

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

CHAPTER VIII.

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).

I was there, not as an idle spectator, but as a co-worker with my Father.

Of the depth, i.e. of that great and deep abyss of water and earth mixed together, which is called both earth and water, and the deep, Gen 1:2. When he made this lower world round, or in the form of a globe, agreeable to the form of the upper world.

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

27. The teacher now ascends to the visible heavens, (the region of the atmosphere,) as they appear to the eye.

When he prepared — בהכינו, prepared, disposed, adjusted, according to their established order or laws.

The heavens — The רקיע, (rakia’h,) or expanse of Gen_1:6.

When he set a compass — In his defining the circle, or sphere: when he described a circle upon the face of the depth, תהום, (tehom,) the abyss, of the atmosphere; more probably of the apparent resting of the concave heavens, the atmosphere — the sphere of air over the abyss beneath; a poetic description in accordance with the appearance.

I was there — Hebrews, emphatic — There was I. Comp. Isa_40:22; Job_26:10. Translation, according to the sense: When he disposed the heavens there was I — when he swept (his) circle upon the face of the (great) abyss.

There is in this and the following verses a change in the form of the predicate concerning wisdom. When the antemundane period is spoken of, the ‘holam — eternity — “the beginning,” she belonged to Jehovah — she existed as the attribute of the eternal Mind. She was produced, originated, (a poetical conception of the period of actual exertion or manifestation,) when she began to act, as in the work of creation. She was there, was with him.

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

After asserting the pre-existence of Wisdom, the writer tells her part in the work of creation. When he prepared the heavens, I was there. When God made the firmament, and divided the waters above it and below, (Gen_1:7) Wisdom cooperated. When he set a compass upon the face of the depth. gWj (chug), "circle," or "circuit", (as Job_22:14) means the vault of heaven, conceived of as resting on the ocean which surrounds the earth, in partial accordance with the notion in Homer, who speaks of the streams of ocean flowing back into itself (aqorroov ), "Iliad," 18:399; "Odyssey," 10:508, etc. That the reference is not to the marking out a limit for the waters is plain from the consideration that this interpretation would make the verse identical with ver. 29. Thus in Isa_40:22 we have, "It is he that sitteth above the circle (chug) of the earth;" i.e. the vault of heaven that encircles the earth. Septuagint, "When he marked out (afwrize ) his throne upon the winds." The translators have referred tchom, "depth," to the waters above.

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

I was there - As co-worker with my Father. Depth - Of that great abyss of water and earth mixed together, which is called both earth and water and the deep, Gen. i, 2, when he made this lower world in the form of a globe.

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

But not only did her existence precede the laying of the foundation of the world; she was also actively taking part in the creative work:

"When He prepared the heavens, I was there,

When He measured out a circle for the mirror of the multitude of waters."

Again a sentence clothed with two designations of time. The adv. of place שׁם is used, chiefly poetically, for אז, eo tempore (Arab. thumm, in contradistinction to thamm, eo loco); but here it has the signification of place, which includes that of time: Wisdom was there when God created the world, and had then already long before that come into existence, like as the servant of Jahve, Isa 48:16, with just such a שׁם אני, says that He is there from the time that the history of nations received a new direction, beginning with Cyrus. הכין signifies to give a firm position or a definite direction. Thus Job 28:27 of Wisdom, whom the Creator places before Himself as a pattern (ideal); here, as Jer 10:12; Psa 65:7, of the setting up, restoring throughout the whole world. In the parallel member, חוּג, corresponding to שׁמים, appears necessarily to designate the circle or the vault of the heavens (Job 22:14), which, according to the idea of the Hebrews, as in Homer, rests as a half-globe on the outermost ends of the disc of the earth surrounded with water, and thus lies on the waters. Vid., Hupfeld under Psa 24:2. This idea of the ocean girdling the earth is introduced into the O.T. without its being sanctioned by it. The lxx (καὶ ὅτε ἀφώριζε τὸν ἑαυτοῦ θρόνον ἐπ ̓ ἀνέμων) appears to understand תהום of the waters above; but תהום never has this meaning, ים (Job 9:8; Job 36:30) might rather be interpreted of the ocean of the heavens. The passage in accordance with which this before us is to be expounded is Job 26:10 : He has set a limit for the surface of the waters, i.e., describing over them a circle setting bounds to their region. So here, with the exchange of the functions of the two words; when He marked out a circle over the surface of the multitude of waters, viz., to appoint a fixed region (מקוה, Gen 1:10) for them, i.e., the seas, fountains, rivers, in which the waters under the heavens spread over the earth. חקק signifies incidere, figere, to prescribe, to measure off, to consign, and directly to mark out, which is done by means of firm impressions of the graver's tools. But here this verb is without the Dagesh, to distinguish between the infinitive and the substantive חקּו (his statute or limit); for correct texts have בּחקו (Michlol 147a); and although a monosyllable follows, yet there is no throwing back of the tone, after the rule that words terminating in o in this case maintain their ultima accentuation (e.g., משׂמו אל, Num 24:23). Fleischer also finally decides for the explanation: quum delinearet circulum super abysso, when He marked out the region of the sea as with the circle.

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.)

when He drew a circle over the face of the deep When He drew the circle of the earth over the water, to draw a boundary that it may not pass.

חוג is an expression of encircling, as in (Isa. 44: 13): “and with a compass (ובמחוגה) he rounds it.” (Compas in French, zirkel in German, as in Gen. 29: 17, Isa. 5:22, 44:13, and Job 22: 14.)

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.