Proverbs 8:24-31

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 8:24

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 חוללתי is used of generation, Job 15:7 . Christ is the... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Proverbs 8:25

Before the mountains were settled ,.... "Plunged" F12 הטבעו "defixi", Montanus; "mergerentur", Tigurine version; "immersi", Vatablus, Junius & Tremellius. , or fixed in the earth; and which was done by the great strength of the Lord, upon their proper bases, Psalm 65:6 ; and which were "aborigine", or from the beginning of the world, and therefore called the ancient mountains, Deuteronomy 33:15 ; to be before the mountains is a periphrasis of eternity, and is a phrase... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Proverbs 8:26

While as yet he had not made the earth ,.... That is, the Lord, who possessed Wisdom, or Christ, and by whom he was set up; he as yet had not made the earth, when this was done; this shows that the earth had a beginning, contrary to those philosophers who asserted the eternity of it; that Christ was before that was, for it was made by him; and consequently he must be eternal, and was before any man was, since the earth was made before man; and that he was not of the earth, earthy, as was the... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Proverbs 8:27

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 Hebrews 1:10 ; and even the third heaven, the place and state of glorified saints, prepared for them from the foundation of the world, Matthew 25:34 ; when he set a compass upon the face of the depth : or... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Proverbs 8:28

When he established the clouds above ,.... In which the waters are bound, and yet are not rent under them; and where, in the thin air, they hang heavy with them; where they are weighed by measure, and a decree made for them when they shall fall; and when they do, the Lord makes small the drops of water, which the clouds do drop and distil on men abundantly; the spreadings of which are beyond understanding, and are unaccountable, and must be referred to the power of God; who has settled and... 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 8:24

When there were no depths - תהמות tehomoth , before the original chaotic mass was formed. See Genesis 1:2 . I was brought forth - חוללתי cholalti , "I was produced as by laboring 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. read more

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