Proverbs 8:23
in Proverbs 8From everlasting I was established, from the beginning, before the earth began.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, Before the earth was.
KJV
I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.
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This verse in Proverbs 8
Commentary
11 notes on this verseA commentator
Athanasius of Alexandria296–373
Discourses Against the Arians 2.22.72-74 · Written before 373.
Since the heretics, reading the next verse, take a perverse view of that also, because it is written, "He founded me before the world," namely, that this is said of the Godhead of the Word and not of his incarnate presence, it is necessary, explaining this verse also, to show their error.It is written, "The Lord in Wisdom founded the earth; if then by wisdom the earth is founded, how can he who founds be founded?
This site's exposition
The LORD created me as His first course
on Proverbs 8:22-26
The argument turns on the Hebrew qanah, which the King James renders possessed and the Septuagint created. On that Greek reading the Arians called the Son a creature. One reading takes wisdom as God's personified attribute, and another reads toward Christ “the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24).
This site's exposition
From everlasting I was established
Barnes renders established as anointed, and he compares Psalm 2:6, where God installs His King on Zion. He pictures Wisdom anointed at her birth. From everlasting and from the beginning reach back before the earth began.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
A commentator
Didymus the BlindCOMMENTARY ON THE PROVERBS OF SOLOMON, FRAGMENT 8:23 · Written before 398.
proposed
[Solomon] says, "He laid down both the cause and foundation of creation." Also it is written, "He created all things in himself, and he is before all things." And the Lord says as well, "I am the beginning of the creation of God." Indeed, desiring …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
I was set up from everlasting,.... I, a person, and not a quality; a person, and not a nature; the person of Christ as the Son of God, and not the human nature of Christ, which then did not exist; this phrase designs the ordination and constitution of Christ in his office as Mediator. So the Vulgate Latin version renders it, "I was ordained"; Christ was foreordained to be the Redeemer and Saviour of men, to be the propitiation for their sins, to be the head of the church, and the Judge of the world.
): I was set up from everlasting. The Son of God was, in the eternal counsels of God, designed and advanced to be the wisdom and power of the Father, light and life, and all in all both in the creation and in the redemption of the world.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
Set up - Hebrew. anointed, constituted to be the person by whom the Father resolved to do all his works, to create, to uphold and govern and judge, to redeem and save the world. From the beginning - Before which, there was nothing but a vast eternity. The earth - Which together with the heaven, was the first of God's visible works.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
I was set up - Rather, “I was anointed” (compare Psa 2:6 margin: 2Ch 28:15). The image is that of Wisdom anointed, as at her birth, with “the oil of gladness.” Or ever the earth was - literally, “from the times before the earth.”
3 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
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.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
I was set up--ordained, or inaugurated (Ps 2:6). The other terms carry out the idea of the earliest antiquity, and illustrate it by the details of creation [Pr 8:24-29].
I was set up from everlasting - נסכתי nissachti, “I was diffused or poured out,” from נסך nasach, “to diffuse, pour abroad, as a spirit or disposition,” Isa 29:10. See Parkhurst. Or from סך sach, “to cover, overspread, smear over, as with oil;” to be anointed king. Hence some have translated it, principatum habui, I had the principality, or was a ruler, governor, and director, from eternity. All the schemes, plans, and circumstances, relative to creation, government, providence, and to all being, material, animal, and intellectual, were conceived in the Divine mind, by the Divine wisdom, from eternity, or ever the earth was. There was no fortuitous creation, no jumbling concourse of original atoms, that entered into the composition of created beings; all was the effect of the plans before conceived, laid down, and at last acted upon by God’s eternal wisdom.
The words behind it
5 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| מֵ֭עוֹלָם | meolom | from long ago | H5769 → | 438 times |
| נִסַּ֥כְתִּי | nisakhti | I was installed | H5258 → | |
| מֵרֹ֗אשׁ | merosh | from [the] beginning | H7218 → | 599 times |
| מִקַּדְמֵי־ | mikadmei- | from [the] beginnings of | H6924 → | |
| אָֽרֶץ׃ | ʾaretz | [the] earth | H776 → | 2504 times |
מֵ֭עוֹלָםfrom long ago
meolomH5769 →438 times
נִסַּ֥כְתִּיI was installed
nisakhtiH5258 →
מֵרֹ֗אשׁfrom [the] beginning
meroshH7218 →599 times
מִקַּדְמֵי־from [the] beginnings of
mikadmei-H6924 →
אָֽרֶץ׃[the] earth
ʾaretzH776 →2504 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
Genesis 1:26Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness, to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, and over all the…
it leads to
- Colossians 3:10
and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
- Ephesians 4:24
and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
- Psalms 8:4–8
what is man that You are mindful of him, or the son of man that You care for him?
- Genesis 3:22
Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil. And now, lest he reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life,…
- Genesis 5:1
This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him in His own likeness.
- Colossians 3:10
Through
Micah 5:2But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come forth for Me One to be ruler over Israel—One whose origins are of old, from the days…
it leads to
- Matthew 2:6
‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of My people…
- John 7:42
Doesn’t the Scripture say that the Christ will come from the line of David and from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?”
- Matthew 2:6
Through
John 17:5And now, Father, glorify Me in Your presence with the glory I had with You before the world existed.
it leads to
- John 1:1–3
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
- John 1:1–3
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies4
On this chapter
About Proverbs
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Athanasius of Alexandria, Discourses Against the Arians 2.22.72-74; Didymus the Blind, COMMENTARY ON THE PROVERBS OF SOLOMON, FRAGMENT 8:23; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.