Proverbs 8:24

When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(24) I was brought forth.—i.e., born. The same word is used in Psalm 51:5 (7), and Job 15:7.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

8:22-31 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?

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Compare Genesis 1; Job 22; Job 26:1-14; Job 38:A world of waters, "great deeps" lying in darkness, this was the picture of the remotest time of which man could form any conception, and yet the co-existence of the uncreated Wisdom with the eternal Yahweh was before that.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

24. brought forth—(Compare Ps 90:2).

abounding—or, "laden with water."

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No depths; no abyss or deep waters, either mixed with the earth, as they were at first, or separated from it.

Brought forth; begotten of my Father’s essence.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

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 is used of generation, Job 15:7. Christ is the firstborn of every creature, begotten, born, and brought forth before any creature was in being; see Psalm 2:7; before the depths of the great sea were formed, for they were made by him, Psalm 95:1; when there were no depths, but the infinite being and perfections of God, and the thoughts and purposes of his heart, which are his deep things, Job 11:7;

when there were no fountains abounding with water; or "heavy", or "honoured" (k) with it; when the fountains of the great deep were not; and when there were no other fountains which form rivers, and water the earth; when there were none but God the fountain of living waters; then was Christ as the only begotten son of God; and who was also set up as the fountain of all grace, life, and salvation for his people.

(k) "aggravati", Pagninus; "praegravati", Vatablus; "gravati", Michaelis; "honorabiles", Gejerus.

Geneva Study Bible

When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 24. - The preexistence of Wisdom is still more expressly set forth. When there were no depths (vers. 27, 28). The waste of waters which covered the face of the earth is meant - that great deep on which primeval darkness brooded (Genesis 1:2). Before even this, man's earliest conception of the beginning of the world, uncreated Wisdom was. Septuagint, "before he made the abysses" (see on Proverbs 3:20). I was brought forth; Vulgate, et ego jam concepta eram; Septuagint, at the end of ver. 25, γεννᾷ με, "he begetteth me." The verb here is חוּל (chul), which is used of the travailing of women, and is rightly translated, "brought forth by generation." It indicates in this place the energizing of Wisdom, her conception in the Divine mind, and her putting tbrth in operation. When there were no fountains abounding with water; i.e. springs in the interior of the earth (Genesis 7:11; comp. Job 22, 26, 38.). Septuagint,"Before the springs of the waters came forward (προελθεῖν)." Proverbs 8:24

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

This her existence before the world began is now set forth in yet more explicit statements:

24 "When there were as yet no floods was I brought forth,

     When as yet there were not fountains which abounded with water;

25 For before the mountains were settled,

     Before the hills was I brought forth,

26 While as yet He had not made land and plains,

     And the sum of the dust of the earth."

The description is poetical, and affords some room for imagination. By תּהומות are not intended the unrestrained primeval waters, but, as also Proverbs 3:20, the inner waters, treasures of the earth; and consequently by מעינות, not the fountains of the sea on this earth (Ewald, after Job 38:16), but he springs or places of springs (for מעין is n. loci to עין, a well as an eye of the earth; vid., Genesis 16:7), by means of which the internal waters of the earth communicate themselves to the earth above (cf. Genesis 7:11 with Genesis 49:25). נכבּדּי־מים(abounding with water) is a descriptive epitheton to מעינות, which, notwithstanding its fem. plur., is construed as masc. (cf. Proverbs 5:16). The Masora does not distinguish the thrice-occurring נכבדי according to its form as written (Isaiah 23:8-9). The form נכבּדּי (which, like בּתּים, would demand Metheg) is to be rejected; it is everywhere to be written נכבּדּי nettirw (Ewald, 214b) with Pathach, with Dagesh following; vid., Kimchi, Michlol 61b. Kimchi adds the gloss מעיני מים רבים, which the Gr. Venet., in accordance with the meaning of נכבד elsewhere, renders by πηγαῖς δεδοξασμένων ὑδάτων (as also Bttcher: the most honoured equals the most lordly); but Meri, Immanuel, and others rightly judge that the adjective is here to be understood after Genesis 13:2; Job 14:21 (but in this latter passage כבד does not mean "to be numerous"): loaded equals endowed in rich measure.