Proverbs 8:22
in Proverbs 8The LORD created me as His first course, before His works of old.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Jehovah possessed me in the beginning of his way, Before his works of old.
KJV
The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.
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This verse in Proverbs 8
Commentary
4 notes on this verseBut it is written, say they, 'The Lord created me in the beginning of His ways for His works.' O untaught and insensate that ye are! He is called also in the Scriptures, 'servant,' and 'son of a handmaid,' and 'lamb,' and 'sheep,' and it is said that He suffered toil, and thirst, and was beaten, and has suffered pain.
This site's exposition
The Lord possessed me in the beginning
on Proverbs 8:22-26
The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way is one of the most argued verses in the Old Testament, and the argument turns on one Hebrew word, qanah, which the King James renders possessed and the Septuagint rendered created me. On that Greek reading the Arians built their claim that the Son was a creature, and the church answered that begotten is not made; the history is stated as history. The readings today are named with their holders: wisdom as the personified attribute of God, older than every made thing (so most of the bench, Delitzsch among them), and the passage read toward Christ the wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:24), so the older writers, hearing in was brought forth the language of begetting rather than making. The verses themselves say what no reading can remove: before depths, fountains, mountains and fields, wisdom already was.
The record, by era
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way - Wisdom is not acquired by the Divine Being; man, and even angels, learn it by slow and progressive degrees; but in God it is as eternally inherent as any other essential attribute of his nature. The Targum makes this wisdom a creature, by thus translating the passage: אלהא בראני בריש בריתיה Elaha barani bereish biriteiah, “God created me in the beginning of his creatures.” The Syriac is the same. This is as absurd and heretical as some modern glosses on the same passage.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
on Proverbs 8:22-31
Strictly, God's attributes are part of Himself. Yet, to the poetical structure of the whole passage, this commendation of wisdom is entirely consonant. In order of time all His attributes are coincident and eternal as Himself.
The words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| יְֽהוָ֗ה | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| קָ֭נָנִי | kanani | he created me | H7069 → | 84 times |
| רֵאשִׁ֣ית | reshit | [the] beginning of | H7225 → | 51 times |
| דַּרְכּ֑וֹ | darko | way his | H1870 → | 707 times |
| קֶ֖דֶם | kedem | [the] beginning of | H6924 → | |
| מִפְעָלָ֣יו | mifalav | works his | H4659 → | |
| מֵאָֽז׃ | meaz | from then | H227 → | 141 times |
יְֽהוָ֗הYahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
קָ֭נָנִיhe created me
kananiH7069 →84 times
רֵאשִׁ֣ית[the] beginning of
reshitH7225 →51 times
דַּרְכּ֑וֹway his
darkoH1870 →707 times
קֶ֖דֶם[the] beginning of
kedemH6924 →
מִפְעָלָ֣יוworks his
mifalavH4659 →
מֵאָֽז׃from then
meazH227 →141 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Colossians 1:17He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
it leads to
- Hebrews 1:3
The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His nature, upholding all things by His powerful word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the…
- 1 Corinthians 8:6
yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we exist. And there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and…
- John 8:58
“Truly, truly, I tell you,” Jesus declared, “before Abraham was born, I am!”
- Acts 17:28
‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are His offspring.’
- John 1:1–3
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
- Hebrews 1:3
Through
Psalms 104:24How many are Your works, O LORD! In wisdom You have made them all; the earth is full of Your creatures.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 10:12
The LORD made the earth by His power; He established the world by His wisdom and stretched out the heavens by His understanding.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Psalms 40:5
Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders You have done, and the plans You have for us— none can compare to You— if I proclaim and declare them, they are more than I…
- Jeremiah 10:12
Through
Proverbs 3:19The LORD founded the earth by wisdom and established the heavens by understanding.
it leads to
- Psalms 104:24
How many are Your works, O LORD! In wisdom You have made them all; the earth is full of Your creatures.
- Psalms 104:24
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies3
On this chapter
By subject
Creation34 verses
Wisdom35 verses
About Proverbs
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Athanasius of Alexandria, LETTER TO THE BISHOPS OF EGYPT 17; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament.