The Pulpit Commentary — Proverbs — Section 173

seems no proof that the word has this mean- the world, even from everlasting to ever- ing. It signifies properly "to pour forth" lasting thou art God." (as of molten metal), then" to put down,"" to Ver. 26.-The earth, nor the fields. Tho appoint or establish." The versions recog- distinction intended is lnnd as cultivated und nize this. Thus the Septuagint, '' he estab- occupied by buildings, eto., and waste un- lished (<9•1'-•71.io,<T<) me;" Vulgate, ordinata culti va.ted land outside towns. Septuagint, Eum; Aquila, Kan<T'l"<i8rw; Symmachus, 7rpo•· "The Lord made countries and nninha.bited x•ip,<Tl'-a.,: Venetian, Kixvl'-a., (comp. Ec-clus. i. places (&.ouc{iTovs);" Vulgate, Adhuc terram 9). So what is here said is that Wisdom was non fecerat, et flumina. Hebrew, chutsoth; from everlasting ,,xalted as ruler and disposer things without, o.hroad, hence open country. of all things. To express eternal relation, The Vulgate rendering, und that of Aquila three synon),uous terms are used. From and Symma.chus, l{o6ous, ure plainly errone- e1Jerla~ting; 1rpo Toii alwvos, Septuagint, as ous, os waters have already been mentioned Delitzsch notes, points back to infinite ( ver. 24 ). The highest part of the dust of distance. From the beginning; i.e. before the world; literally, the head of the dusts of the world was begun to be made; as St. John the world. Some have interpreted this ex- says (Jolm i. 1), "ln the beginning was the pression of" man," tlie chief of those creatures Word;" and Christ prays, "Glorify thou me which ore ma.de of the dust of the ground with thine own self, with the glory which I (Gen. iii. 19; Eccles. iii, 20). But the idea. had with thee before the world was" (John comes in awkwardly here; it is not natural :i;:,·ii. 5). Or ever the earth was. This looks to introduce man amid the inanimate works to the most remote time &ft.er the actual of nature, or to use such an enigmatica.l creation, while the earth was being formed designation for him. St. Jerome has, car- .i.nd adapted. dines orbis terrarwm, "the world's hinges; " Ver. 24.-The pre-existence of Wisdom is Septuagint, "the inhabited summits of the still more expressly set forth. When there earth beneath the heavens; " according to were no depths (vtrs. 27, 28). The waste of St. Hilary1 (' De Trinit.,' xii.), "cacumina. waters which covered the face of the earth qum habitantur sub ccelo." Others ta.ke the 1s mea.nt-tl.iat great deep on wh1ch primeval term to signify the capes or promontories of darkness brooded (Gen. i. 21. Before even the world, the peaks and elevations; others, this, =n's earliest conception of the begin- the clods of dry, arable land, in contra.at ning of the wurld, uncreated Wisdom was. to the untilled waste of waters; others, the Septuagint, "before he made the abysses" chief elements, the matter of which the earth . (see on eh. iii. 20). I was brought forth; is composed. This last interpretation. would Vulgate, et ego jam concepta eram; Septua- lead us be.ck to a period which has already gint, at the end of ver. 25, 'Y'""'f I'-•• "he been passed. Amid the many possible ex- begetteth me." The verb here is ~,n (chul), planations, it is perhaps best (with Delitzscb, which is nsed of the travailing of women, N owe.ck, etc.) to take rash, " head" as eq ui va- and is rightly translated, "brought forth len t to "sum," "mass," a.s in Ps. cxxxix. 17, by generation." It indicates in this place "How great is the sum (rush) of them I" the energizing of Wisdom, her conception in Then the expression comprehensively means tLe Divine wind, and her putting forth in a.11 the mass of earth's dlll!t. operation. When there were no fountains Ver. 27.-After asserting the pre-existence abounding with water; i.e. springs in the of Wisdom, the writer tells her pa.rt in the interior of the earth (Gen. vii. 11 ; comp. work of creation. When he prepared the Job x.x..ii., x.x,L, x.xxvili.). Septuagint," Be- hoavens, I was there. When God made fore the springs of tile waters came forward the firmament, and divided the waters a.born ( 7rpoeMe,v). n it and below (Gen. i. 7), Wisdom co-operated. \' er. ~'-'- - Before the mountains were When he set a compass upon the fe.ce of the settled (Job x:x.xviii. 6). It is questioned depth. J1r. (chug), "circle," or "circuit" where the mountains were supposed to be (as Job xxii. 14), means the ve.ult of heaven, :fixed, and some have thought that they are conceived of as resting on the ocean wl.Jicu represented as fixed in tho depths of tl,e surrounds the earth, in partial o.ccordonce earth. But, as we learn from Gen. i. 9, they with the notion in Homer, who spea.kH of are regarded as rising from the waters, their the streams of ocean flowing bock into itself foundations are laid in the great deep. So (o.,j,6p/loos), 'Iliad,' xviii. 399; 'Odyssey,' x. the psalmist, speaking of the waters, says, 508, etc. That the reference is not to the " They went up by the mountains, tl:!ey went marking out a. limit for the waters is plain down by the valleys, unto the place which from the cousidemtion that this inte1·preta,- thou hast fouuded for tl,em" (Ps. •civ. 8; tion would make the verso identical with comp. Pa. xxiv. 2), What i, liere affirmed ver. 29. 'fhus in Isa. xl. 22 wo have, •• It of Wisdom io said of Jehornh iu Ps. xc. 2, is he that sitteth obove tl.Jo circlo (chug) of "Before the mountains \\ere L10ugLt forth, the eo.rtli ; " i.e. the vault of i1euve11 that en- ,,, e,·er tl.Jou hadst formed the eartl, uml circles the ourth. Septu1lgiut, "When he OH, Vllt. 1-36.] THE PROVERBS. 167