Proverbs 8:26

While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. WHILE AS YET HE HAD NOT MADE THE EARTH, NOR THE FIELDS, NOR THE HIGHEST PART OF THE DUST OF THE WORLD. The fields" - literally, the outside places ( chuwtsowt (H2351); cf. Job 5:10, margin), the open, broad spaces of the earth; in contrast to the previous "mountains" and "hills." The Chaldaic, Vulgate, and Syriac take it the rivers outside the dry land. The Septuagint and the Arabic, 'the uninhabited places'-literally, the outer parts or extremities of the earth; in which case "the earth," by contrast, must mean the inhabited part of the earth - "the highest part of the dust of the world." I prefer the English version, as forming a gradation, the earth, the open fields, the h...

22-31 The Son of God declares himself to have been engaged in the creation of the world. How able, how fit is the Son of God to be the Saviour of the world, who was the Creator of it! The Son of God was ordained, before the world, to that great work. Does he delight in saving wretched sinners, and shall not we delight in his salvation?...

Verse Proverbs 8:26. _THE HIGHEST PART OF THE DUST OF THE WORLD_] ראש עפרות תבל _rosh aphroth tebel_, "the first particle of matter." The _prima materia_, the primitive atom. All these verses (Proverbs 8:3) are a periphrasis for _I existed before creation_; consequently before _time_ was. I dwelt in God as a principle which might be communicated in its influences to intellectual beings when formed....

THE HIGHEST PART OF THE DUST OF THE WORLD - literally, “the head of the dusts of the world;” an image of either: (1) the dry land, habitable, fit for cultivation, as contrasted with the waters of the chaotic deep; or (2) man himself. Compare Ecclesiastes 3:20....

EXPOSITION PROVERBS 8:1 14. _Fourteenth admonitory discourse _concerning Wisdom—her excellence, her origin, her gifts. She is contrasted with the strange woman of Proverbs 7:1; 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. (1) Introductory (Proverbs 7:1); Wisdom calls on all to listen, and gives reasons for trusting to her ...

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 first man; NOR THE FIELDS; the plain parts of the earth, in opposition to the mountains and hills before mentioned; the valleys and meadows that lay between them, full of grass, flowers, and fruits; pleasant to behold, and profitable to be enjoyed; so the word is also rendered Job 5:10; and "valleys", by the Targum here: or the "out parts" m; the extremities of the earth, the two poles of it; t

CHAPTER 8 _ 1. The call and appeal of wisdom (Proverbs 8:1)_ 2. What wisdom is and what wisdom gives (Proverbs 8:12) 3. Wisdom; the Person, who He is (Proverbs 8:22) 4. The renewed appeal (Proverbs 8:32) Proverbs 8:1. This is one of the most interesting Chapter s in the entire book. It begins with a call and appeal of wisdom, much like the call and appeal of the first chapter. If wisdom calls, has a voice, then wisdom must also be a person. Who personified wisdom is we learn most blessedly in this chapt

PROVERBS 8. WISDOM SPEAKS IN HER OWN PERSON. This chapter forms at once the nucleus and the climax of this section of the book. The series of addresses on practical wisdom is fitly closed by a profounder presentation of wisdom as the moving principle in the ways of God. It reinforces the practical maxims of Proverbs 8:1 with the fundamental principle that the wise man is in harmony with God. Its date probably fixes the date of the whole section (see Introduction, and for a fuller discussion especially Cheyne, _Job and Solomon,_ pp. 156f.). The relation of the conception of Wisdom personified to the Stoic Logos and to Greek philosophy in general cannot be discussed here. (See _Wisdom Literature_ in HDB, and especially the excellent introduction by Holmes to the Book of Wisdom in Charles-' _Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha._) The two main lines of development of this conception in H

EARTH. Hebrew. _eretz_. THE HIGHEST PART: or, the first atoms or particles. WORLD. the habitable world. Hebrew. _tebel_ (not _'eretz_ dearth). The Talmud (_Taanith_ vol. 10A) distinguishes _'eretz_ as meaning the land of Israel, from the world as meaning _the outside lands._ Compare Matthew 2:20....

_highest part_ Rather, BEGINNING; R.V. text ("or _sum_," marg.); i.e. the primary elements out of which other things were subsequently formed. Comp. "all his work which God _created_and _made_," Genesis 2:3. The idea that man is intended as the "chief part of the dust of the earth," out of which he was formed, has little to commend it. _dust_ Lit. DUSTS (plural), i.e. particles, or clods, of earth. Comp. _dusts of gold_, Job 28:6, where R.V. marg. suggests _lumps_....