Read & Study the Bible Online - Bible Portal
Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - 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... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Proverbs 8:29

When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment ,.... A perpetual decree, which never has been altered nor never will: he has placed the sand for the bounds of the sea everywhere, which it cannot pass, though its waves toss, foam, and roar; this is his decreed place, with which he has shut it up, as with doors, bars, and bolts; so that those proud waves may come hitherto and no further, Jeremiah 5:22 ; when he appointed the foundations of the earth ;... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Proverbs 8:30

Then I was by him, as one brought up with him ,.... He was then, and from all eternity, "by him", or "with him" F17 אצלו "cum eo", V. L. "apud eum", Pagninus, Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, &c.; ; which denotes his co-existence with God, and his relation to him as his Father; his nearness to him, his equality with him, and his distinction from him: he was by him when the names of God's elect were put down in the book of life; he was by him and with him in the... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Proverbs 8:31

Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth ,.... In that part of the earth which is habitable; in filling it with inhabitants; in preserving and sustaining it in being, and the inhabitants of it; in governing it, and ordering all things in it for the best, according to his infinite wisdom and the counsel of his will; in bestowing the bounties of his providence, and in being the light and life of men: all which were done by him with the greatest ease, as well as pleasure and delight; it was... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Proverbs 8:29

When he gave to the sea his decree - When he assigned its limits, adjusted its saltness, and proportioned the extent of the surface to the quantity of vapors to be raised from it, for the irrigation of the terrene surface. The foundations of the earth - Those irreversible laws by which all its motions are governed; its annual and diurnal rotation, and particularly its centrifugal and centripetal forces; by the former of which it has its annual motion round the sun like all other planets;... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Proverbs 8:30

Then I was with him, as one brought up - אמון amon , a nursling, a darling child. Wisdom continues its parable, says Calmet; and represents itself as a new-born child which is ever near its parent, and takes pleasure to see him act, and to sport in his presence. This is poetical and highly figurative; and they who think they find the deity of Jesus Christ in these metaphors should be very cautious how they apply such terms as these; so that while they are endeavoring to defend the truth,... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Proverbs 8:31

Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth - There God displays especially his wisdom in ordering and directing human beings, and in providing for their wants. The wisdom of God is in an especial manner manifested in his providence. My delights were with the sons of men - This Divine wisdom, as it delighted in the creation of man, so it continues to delight in his instruction. Hence it is represented as offering its lessons of instruction continually, and using every means and... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Proverbs 8:1-36

14. Fourteenth admonitory discourse concerning Wisdom—her excellence, her origin, her gifts. She is contrasted with the strange woman of Proverbs 7:1-27 ; and the exceeding greatness of the blessings which she offers exhibits in the most marked manner the nothingness of the deceiver's gifts. One is reminded of the celebrated episode of the choice of Hercules, delineated by Xenophon, 'Memorab.,' 2.1. 21, etc. The chapter divides itself into four sections. read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Proverbs 8:22-31

Wisdom speaks of her origin, her active operations, the part which she bore in the creation of the universe, her relation to God (see on Proverbs 1:20 and Proverbs 3:19 , and Introduction). It is impossible to decide what was the exact view of the writer with regard to the wisdom of which he speaks so eloquently; but there can be no doubt that he was guided in his diction so as to give expression to the idea of him whom St. John calls the Word of God. The language used is not applicable to... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Proverbs 8:22-31

The primeval glory of Divine wisdom I. THE HIGHEST WISDOM IS CREATED BY GOD . "The Lord created me as the first of his way." This idea was suggested to the Greeks in the myth of Athene, who sprang from the head of Zeus. It is the poetic form of the great truth that God is the Creator of thoughts as well as of things; and it suggests that he not only called individual intelligences into being, but originated the primary laws and conditions of all intelligence, just as he... read more

Group of Brands