Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 3:19
The LORD by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens.
Hereto Wisdom has been thought of in relation to men. Now the question comes, What is she in relation to God? and the answer is, that the creative act implies a Divine Wisdom, through which the Divine will acts. This thought, developed in Prov. 8, is the first link in the chain which connects this Wisdom with the Divine Word, the Logos of Johns Gospel. Compare Psa 33:6; Joh 1:3. The words of the writer of the Proverbs take their place among the proofs of the dogmatic statements of the Nicene Creed.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Pro 3:19
The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth.
Earthly and heavenly wisdom
There is but one wisdom for God and man. Mans true wisdom is a pattern of Gods wisdom. A man to prosper in the world must get the very same wisdom by which God made and rules the world. In the last hundred years science has improved in a most wonderful way, and is improving every day. This improvement has taken place simply by mankind understanding this text, and obeying it. For more than sixteen hundred years after our Lords time mankind seem to have become hardly any wiser about earthly things, nay, even to have gone back; but about two hundred and fifty years ago it pleased God to open the eyes of one of the wisest men who ever lived, Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam, and to show him the real and right way of learning by which men can fulfil Gods command to replenish the earth and subdue it. He taught that the only way for man to be wise was to get Gods wisdom, the wisdom with which He had founded the earth, and find out Gods laws by which He had made this world. You can only subdue nature by obeying her. You can only subdue a thing and make it useful to you by finding out the rules by which God made that thing, and by obeying them. If you want to rule, you must obey. If you want to rise to be a master, you must stoop to be a servant. If you want to be master of anything in earth or heaven, you must obey Gods will revealed in that thing; and the man who will go his own way, and follow his own fancy, will understand nothing, and master nothing, and get comfort out of nothing in earth or heaven. The same rule which holds good in this earthly world which we do see holds good in the heavenly world which we do not see. The same rules which hold good about mens bodies hold good about their souls. The heavenly wisdom which begins in trusting in the Lord with all our hearts, the heavenly wisdom which is learnt by chastenings and afflictions, and teaches us that we are the sons of God, is the very same wisdom by which God founded the earth, and makes the clouds drop down dew. Gods wisdom is one–unchangeable, everlasting, and always like itself; and by the same wisdom by which He made our bodies has He made our souls; and therefore we can, and are bound to, glorify Him alike in our bodies and our spirits, for both are His. Illustrate: The only sure way of getting power over people is by making friends of them, making them love and trust us. The Lord Jesus ate and drank with publicans and sinners, who went out into the highways and hedges, to bring home into Gods kingdom poor wretches whom men despised and cast off. Christ also pleased not Himself. There was the perfect fulfilment of the great law–stoop to conquer. Christ stooped lower than any man, and therefore He rose again higher than all men. (Charles Kingsley.)
Divine purpose in nature and revelation
Faith in God and the obedience which arises from faith have at all times, and in almost all circumstances, been beset with difficulties. Counter influences to the work of the Holy Spirit of God have been supplied by the power of the world, the flesh, and the devil. But, in addition to this constant action in the same direction of the world, the flesh, and the devil, there are also agencies, which vary with time and place, and the nature of which it is very desirable that we should examine and recognise with reference to the time and place in which our own lot may happen to be cast. Mathematicians are familiar with formulae composed of terms, one of which shall be constant and the others circulating with the time. I would venture to compare the dangers of infidelity to such a mathematical formula. First you have your great constant term, the power of the world, the flesh, and the devil; strong in Eden as it is now, strong now as it was in Eden; but then you have a number of terms which increase and decrease in magnitude, depending on time and place and circumstances, some such as we can afford to neglect, some which we shall neglect at our peril. Some of the difficulties and trials of faith are not more dangerous than extinct volcanoes, like those of which we find the traces in these islands; some like Vesuvius have been mischievous in time not so long past, and may become mischievous again; others are in active operation and are dangerous now. What corresponds to the active volcano in our time?
I. Let me lead up to the answer to this question by first indicating some few active or conceivable dangers to faith which do not seem to me to be the special danger of our own time.
1. Suppose, for example, that in an unscientific age people have built up a cosmical system which makes the earth the centre of things, and arranges all else in accordance with this fundamental hypothesis–translating, in fact, into the form of a geocentric theory the mere rough, uncorrected impressions of the senses: and suppose that the theory so constructed comes to be regarded as a truth of Divine revelation, so that men see their theory reflected from the page of Holy Scripture, and not unnaturally consider the truth of one bound up with the truthfulness of the other. Then, it seems manifest, that the first discovery of the fact that the earth is not the centre of the universe, but only a tiny ball, the extinction of which would scarcely affect the solar system, and would be absolutely imperceptible as a loss to the sum of existing matter, would of necessity shake the minds of men who had been led to regard their theory of the heavens and the earth as a portion of revealed truth, and that some would probably fall from their faith. The Church has gone through such an experience as this. The volcano is extinct now.
2. Again, suppose that an artificial theological system has arisen, and that ingenious men, puzzled by the mysteries of Christian faith, have devoted their energies to attempts to explain them; or, if not to explain them, at all events to formulate them, and to make it possible to express in precise language that which probably language is incapable of expressing. Suppose, for example, that you have a subtle distinction between substance and accidents, and that you apply this distinction to define by language the nature of the presence of Christ in the holy Sacrament: you build up, in fact, the dogma of transubstantiation; and devout worshippers accept the dogma, and to question its truth is considered equivalent to denying the faith itself. What is to happen when the progress of human thought, or the discernment of some God-given teacher, blows the subtle figment of substance and accidents to the winds, and leads men to deny that the presence of Christ can be expressed by any such formula as that which transubstantiation professes to be? Is it not probable that the explosion of a dogma so closely bound up in general opinion with Christian orthodoxy will shake many minds?
3. But there is another danger, not connected with intellectual subtleties, of which the transition from Mediaeval to Reformation times affords an example, and of which, unfortunately, there have been examples since. The thing which brought on the Reformation more than anything else was the unholy lives of men–pope, priest, and people. And the want of holiness on the part of those who should be patterns to the flock has ever been, and ever will be, when it is conspicuous, one of the principal stumbling-blocks that can be placed in the way of those who would follow Christ. This volcano is not extinct. I fear it never will be.
4. Once more, it is not so long ago since we were told, on high authority, that the peculiar danger to the faith belonging to our own days was that which arose from the destructive results of modern criticism. But God was with His servants in the burning fiery furnace; and I think I am only saying that which expresses the conclusions of some of our soundest scholars, when I assert that the Gospels have come out of the furnace unhurt, and that the smell of fire has not passed upon them.
II. Well, then, what is our special difficulty or danger just now? It seems to me that it may be described by such a phrase as this: the denial of the being of God on the ground of supposed scientific conclusions. The fool, says the psalmist twice over, hath said in his heart, There is no God; and, if it were only the fool who said so, he might very well be left alone in his folly. No, we must accept the fact that a certain number of persons of high scientific position tell us that a careful examination of nature leads to the conclusion that it exhibits no purpose, and that it is all evolved out of primeval matter without any creative power such as that which believers in God are wont to assume. Fix your mind upon this one point. I am going to put out of the question the beneficence of the Creator, and the moral order of the universe, because I wish to concentrate attention upon the one consideration of purpose or design; if there be no design, there cannot well be beneficence or morality, and if there be design, beneficence and morality will (so to speak) take care of themselves. Moreover, design is that which is much more closely connected with physical studies than beneficence and morality. Give me design in the visible region of nature, and I shall have no fear as to the possibility of detecting the manifestation of purpose and will in the region of morals and of grace. But take design out of nature, tell me that the heavens and the earth are spontaneously evolved out of matter (whatever that may mean), that the men, and beasts, and creeping things are one, that the life of man has come from nothing, is nothing, and tends to nothing–and then I confess that all the glory of the universe, all the brightness of existence, all that makes life worth living, seems to me to be gone, and that there is nothing hopeful or joyous left. When I am told by a man of scientific eminence that it is only superficial observers who attribute purpose to nature, and that if I examine sufficiently I shall find that all things come of themselves, it seems to me that this is very much like telling me that ignorant folks may imagine that there is some purpose in locomotive engines, but that if any one will visit Crewe, and see them made, he will put aside all notion of purpose as unworthy of an educated mind. The ordinary observer who sees a train pass at full speed may have an ignorant feeling of wonder at the machine which moves it, while the careful observer in the factory will see that, after all, a locomotive engine is a comparatively simple affair, and easily made when you know how to do it; but there need be, and there ought to be, no difference of opinion as to the wisdom by which the locomotive was made and the understanding by which it was established. And so life is as completely a mystery, and as truly Divine, whether you read in Genesis that God spake the word and living things were made, or whether you read in modern books of the evolution of protoplasm. I take my stand upon design as upon a foundation stone; if any one denies it, I can go no further; to attempt to do so would be like discussing optics with a person who did not believe in sunshine, or geometry with a man who denied Euclids axioms. Granting, however, the existence of design within the small region of our own experience, we feel a logical and imperative necessity of postulating design beyond that region. This necessity extends, I think, to the whole material universe. I, who can examine my own frame and the mechanism of the world, and the countless arrangements by which the order of things is maintained, feel myself compelled to conclude that the same principle extends to those parts of the universe which I cannot so directly or so completely examine. I know that gravitation and light extend over space immeasurable, I can have no doubt as to the principle of design extending quite as far; in fact, I feel it to be an inevitable, if not an absolutely logical, conclusion, that the whole material universe is the outcome of one mind, and is governed by that same mind. But this is not the whole of the argument, or even the most important part of it. The transition from design in the material world to purpose in the moral world seems inevitable. Great intellects amongst ourselves do not employ themselves in merely making ingenious toys; the steam-engine would never have been constructed if the comfort of man and the needs of commerce had not demanded it. And this world deprived of its moral aspects, what would it be but a gigantic toy? Is it conceivable that there should be design in every sinew, and nerve, and limb of which mans body is composed, and no purpose in those thoughts, and affections, and feelings, and aspirations, and hopes, which are as truly a part of himself as his heart or his lungs? Let it be granted that purpose in nature is a delusion, and that evolution will explain everything, and then, no doubt, this argument all vanishes; if there be no purpose in nature, then it is impossible to argue that there is any purpose extending beyond nature; but let it be once admitted that the hand and brain of man are full of purpose, and then I think it is difficult not to extend the admission from the wonderful region in which mans hand and brain are occupied to a more wonderful region still, which transcends nature altogether. In other words, it is difficult to believe that God, having manifested a great purpose in the formation of man, has not a still greater purpose concerning him and his destiny. The step from nature to revelation, though in one sense a long one, in another sense seems to be no step at all; the purpose of which I have, as I believe, a clear proof in natural science, indicates a deeper and better, though more mysterious purpose still. Mans endowments are too great for the mere prince or primus of the animal world; his spiritual nature is cabind, cribbd, confind in a mere mortal tenement of flesh and blood; and, therefore, when I read of God speaking to man, making His will known, giving him commands which it is life to obey and death to resist, condescending to receive from man worship and love, I seem to find in all this the proper corollary to all that nature teaches me concerning design in the construction of man; it makes man, of course, a more mysterious being than he would otherwise have seemed to be; but, on the other hand, it makes the history of man–taken as a whole–more simple and more intelligible, because it supplies an adequate solution of the questions, What is man? and Why was man created? And thus we seem to pass by a safe and sure path from the simplest indication of design in nature to the highest doctrine of Divine revelation. Oh, what has happened in these latter years of the worlds history to snatch from us the blessed inheritance of faith in God, which has come down to us from the days of our fathers? I believe in God the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth–is there anything in science to deprive us of this great truth? Does not science emphasise the word Maker, and at least nod assent when the human heart adds the word Father? And though science may have got to the end of its teaching in this article of the creed, is there not something in the conception of a God and Father, which leads up to the belief in a revelation made to His children through Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord? And certainly if Jesus Christ be accepted in the fulness of His manifested being, there can be little difficulty in accepting as the crown of Divine Revelation the blessed truth of the being of the Holy Ghost, the Lord and giver of life. If I am told that scientific discovery is depriving me of all that I most value, if men who pretend to guide me declare that the faith of Christendom is folly, and desire again to raise altars to The Unknown God, if I am told that there is no purpose in nature and that therefore I myself am purposeless and meaningless, a mere bubble upon the infinite stream of time, am I not justified in contending with all my might against such a pitiless system, and in claiming God as my Father, and the knowledge of Him as my most precious possession? (Bp. Harvey Goodwin.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 19. The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth] Here wisdom is taken in its proper acceptation, for that infinite knowledge and skill which God has manifested in the creation and composition of the earth, and in the structure and economy of the heavens. He has established the order as well as the essence of all things; so that though they vary in their positions, c., yet they never change either their places, or their properties. Composition and analysis are not essential changes the original particles, their forms and properties, remain the same.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
By wisdom; either,
1. By Christ, the co-essential and co-eternal Wisdom of God the Father. Or,
2. By that Divine perfection of wisdom, which is the fountain of that wisdom that is in man, which Solomon hath hitherto commended; and therefore the commendation of that wisdom tends to the commendation of this, which is a stream flowing from it.
Hath founded the earth; hath fixed it in the lowest part of the world.
Established the heavens, or fitted or ordered them; framed them in that exquisite order which now they have,
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
19, 20. The place of wisdom inthe economy of creation and providence commends it to men, who, inproportion to their finite powers, may possess this invaluableattribute, and are thus encouraged by the divine example of its useto seek its possession.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth,…. He has created all things, and made the world by his Son, the Wisdom of God, Eph 3:9 Heb 1:2; not using him as an instrument; but, he being an efficient cause with him, to him, as to the first cause, the creation of all things is ascribed, Joh 1:1; and particularly the laying the foundation of the earth, Heb 1:10; and though this is true of the divine perfection of wisdom, Jer 10:12; yet from the context it appears best to understand it of the essential Wisdom of God, Christ Jesus; the Jerusalem Targum of Ge 1:1; is, “by wisdom God created”, c. and this serves greatly to set forth the dignity and excellency of Wisdom, or Christ, and so the happiness of that man that finds him with this the account of him is closed and crowned;
by understanding hath he established the heavens: or prepared, adorned, and beautified them, by placing the luminaries in them, and directing their station, motion, and influence; the making of the heavens, with all the host of them, is ascribed to the essential Word or Wisdom of God, Ps 33:6.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
This place of a mediatrix – the speaker here now continues – she had from the beginning. God’s world-creating work was mediated by her:
19 Jahve hath by wisdom founded the earth,
Established the heavens by understanding.
20 By His knowledge the water-floods broke forth,
And the sky dropped down dew.
That wisdom is meant by which God planned the world-idea, and now also wrought it out; the wisdom in which God conceived the world ere it was framed, and by which also He gave external realization to His thoughts; the wisdom which is indeed an attribute of God and a characteristic of His actions, since she is a property of His nature, and His nature attests itself in her, but not less, as appears, not from this group of tetrastichs, but from all that has hitherto been said, and form the personal testimony, Pro 8:22., of which it is the praeludium , she goes forth as a divine power to which God has given to have life in herself. Considered apart from the connection of these discourses, this group of verses, as little as Jer 10:2; Psa 104:24, determines regarding the attributive interpretation; the Jerusalem Targum, I, when it translates, Gen 1:1, by ( ), combines Pro 8:22 with such passages as this before us. (here with the tone thrown back) properly signifies, like the Arab. wasad , to lay fast, to found, for one gives to a fact the firm basis of its existence. The parallel Pil. of (Arab. kan , cogn. , see on Isaiah, p. 691) signifies to set up, to restore; here equivalent to, to give existence.
Pro 3:20 It is incorrect to understand 20a, with the Targ., of division, i.e., separating the water under the firmament from the water above the firmament; is spoken of water, especially of its breaking forth, Gen 7:11; Exo 14:21, cf. Psa 74:15, properly dividing itself out, i.e., welling forth from the bowels of the earth; it means, without distinguishing the primordial waters and the later water-floods confined within their banks (cf. Job 38:8., Psa 104:6-8), the overflowing of the earth for the purpose of its processes of cultivation and the irrigation of the land. (from = , to groan, to roar) are chiefly the internal water stores of the earth, Gen 49:25; Psa 33:7. But while 20a is to be understood of the waters under the firmament, 20b is to be interpreted of those above. (from , Arab. shak , comminuere, attenuare ) properly designates the uppermost stratum of air thinly and finely stretching itself far and wide, and then poetically the clouds of heaven ( vid., under Psa 77:18). Another name, , comes from , which is transposed from (here used in 20b), Arab. r’af , to drop, to run. The added on the object accusative represents synecdochically all the waters coming down from heaven and fructifying the earth. This watering proceeds from above ( ); on the contrary, the endowing of the surface of the earth with great and small rivers is a fundamental fact in creation ( ).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
Importance of Wisdom
(Pro 3:19-20)
Vs. 19-20 present a lesson to ponder. If the LORD used wisdom to create and operate the heavens and the earth, how urgent is it for us to have wisdom to fulfill our mission?
Vs. 21 begins with the 7th “My son:” and urges that wisdom and discretion govern despite all pressures or inclinations to act otherwise. Such will bring long life and will be a spiritual ornament, pleasing to God, Vs. 22 also Pro 1:9; Pro 4:10; Pro 4:22.
Vs. 23-26 describe further blessings for those who retain wisdom.
1) They shall walk safely and not stumble, Vs. 23; Psa 37:24; Psa 91:11-12.
2) They shall sleep peacefully with assurance of God’s watch care, Vs. 24; Lev 26:6; Psa 4:8.
3) They shall be unafraid in time of danger, Vs. 25, 26; Psa 91:5-6.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.
Pro. 3:20. Depths, &c., were the floods divided into rivers and streams for the blessing of man. Dew, or gentle rain, or else the clouds signify the lower regions of the atmosphere where the dew is formed.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Pro. 3:19-20
ONE OF THE PROOFS OF GODS WISDOM
I. God had a personal existence before the world. If we say that a man founded an institutionbuilt a housewe imply that he existed before the institution or the house, and that he exists as a separate identity from that which he has built or founded.
II. The world did not come by chanceit is not an orphan; it had a Creator, a Father. The world is not eternal. The Lord founded it. He laid the foundations of the earth (Job.).
III. That the world which God has made bears the impress of Infinite Wisdom. Scientific investigation and discovery bear out the assertion of Solomon, that the Lord by wisdom founded the earth. The discoveries of astronomers reveal to us more and more the understanding which established the heavens. Solomon here selects one example of the wisdom of God, as displayed in relation to the earth, viz., the process by which it is wateredby which God maketh it soft with showers, and thus blesseth the springing thereof (Psa. 65:10), and so gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater. This philosophy of rain, as it has been called, is one which illustrates creative wisdom in a remarkable manner. Dr. Ure says, To understand the philosophy of the beautiful and often sublime phenomenon, so often witnessed since the creation of the world, and essential to the very existence of plants and animals, a few facts derived from observation and a long train of experiments must be remembered.
(1) Were the atmosphere everywhere at all times of a uniform temperature we should never have rain, or hail, or snow; the water absorbed by it in evaporation from the sea and the earths surface would descend in an imperceptible vapour, or cease to be absorbed by the air when it was once fully saturated.
(2) The absorbing power of the atmosphere, and consequently its capability to retain humidity, is proportionately greater and warmer than in cold air.
(3) The air near the surface of the earth is warmer than it is in the region of the clouds. The higher we ascend from the earth, the colder do we find the atmosphere. Hence the perpetual snow on very high mountains in the hottest climate. Now, when from continued evaporation the air is highly saturated with vapour, though it be invisible and the sky cloudless,if its temperature be suddenly reduced by cold currents descending from above, or rushing from a higher to a lower latitude, its capacity to retain moisture is diminished, clouds are formed, and the result is rain. Air condenses as it cools, and, like a sponge filled with water and compressed, pours out the water which it cannot hold. How singular, yet how simple, the philosophy of rain. Who but Omniscience could have devised such an admirable arrangement for watering the earth? Solomon could not have known how the earth was watered, but he knew enough to awaken his admiration of Providential love and skill.
IV. The exhibition of Gods wisdom in creation is intended to lead men to listen to his Word of Revelation. To this end the subject is introduced here by the preacher. When such a Being speaks, it must be worth mens while to listen and obey. The heavens and earth have a speech or language (Psa. 19:1-2). They counsel us to seek Him who hath measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure,Him whose word shall stand for ever (Isaiah 40).
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro. 3:19. Hitherto Wisdom has been thought of in relation to men. Now the question comes: What is she in relation to God? and the answer is: That the creative act implies a Divine wisdom, through which the Divine will acts. We have, as it were, the first link of the chain which connects this wisdom with the Divine Word, the Logos of St. Johns Gospel (Joh. 1:3).Plumptre.
The wisdom, so spiritual as to belong only to the pious, nevertheless has its reachings into all wisdom, as we saw in chap. Pro. 1:10, where it is called wisdoms, as embracing all forms of it. Creative wisdom, therefore, is part of the broad array. But now, as a more important teaching, creative wisdom must include the spiritual. God could not found the heavens without that holy character that makes the system possible. Its enormous intricacies could not be kept up without the harmonising influences of holiness. Government, of course, is built upon it; justice, of course, is a part of it; and the whole world would be an unmeaning mass unless Jehovah, by wisdom, shaped it, viz., in those diviner forms in which He is the governor as well as the builder and original schemer of the universe. God would not have built the world without holiness, and therefore, in the very strictest sense, by wisdom He founded the heavens, because only that holy light, which is the light of love, could be the inspiring motive for building the habitations of His creatures. We are to understand this verse as meaning, therefore, first, that creative light merges into all light, as one grand omniscience; but, second, that creative light would be nothing without spiritual light; that Gods love and justice were the very spring and harmonious law whereon all are builded.Miller.
The spirit of the recommendation seems to be that, as it is the Lord which giveth wisdom, that which comes from such a source must be worthy the desire and the solicitation. Think of what Wisdom, as it exists in Deity, has done!the wonders it hath wrought! This will recommend Gods lessons.Wardlaw.
The river and the fountain are both of one nature, and when pure water hath been looked on in the stream, it is a pleasant thing to behold it in the conduit head.Muffet.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(e) Fifth Discourse:Wisdom as Creator and Protector (Pro. 3:19-26).
(19) The Lord by wisdom . . .A passage anticipatory of the doctrine of Joh. 1:3. (Comp. Psa. 104:24; Psa. 136:5.) A further advance towards the personality of the Creator is made in Pro. 8:27, sqq.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
19, 20. The Lord by wisdom These verses seem to be added for the purpose of commending, in the strongest manner, the pursuit of wisdom. It is an attribute of God himself. By attaining and appreciating true wisdom, a man comes into communion with Jehovah, and participates with him in the enjoyment of the same excellency; for it is in or by wisdom that he performs all his works, some samples of which are given a part for all. The terms here rendered wisdom, understanding, and knowledge, refer, with some discrimination, to the same thing. They are so often interchanged that we may conclude variety of diction to be chiefly the object, and not the expression of ideas substantially different.
Founded the earth established the heavens There is nothing in these terms inconsistent with our modern discoveries in cosmogony and astronomy.
The language is popular, phenomenal, and poetic, and, like all similar terms in the book, neither affirms nor denies any particular philosophical theory. The wise man spoke according to the popular, or, perhaps, rather, the poetical apprehension of things. The allusion, in Pro 3:20, to the depths being broken up, is of doubtful meaning. Some expositors understand it of the ordinary operations of nature in conducting fountains of water from the bowels of the earth; others, to the breaking up of the fountains of the great deep at the flood, (Gen 7:11😉 others, again, to the original separating of the waters above and below the expanse, “firmament,” in Gen 1:6, in consequence of which the clouds drop down, or, as it might be rendered, the atmosphere distils, the dew upon the earth.
Clouds dew As there is nothing that to an understanding mind conveys a more impressive sense of the wisdom and beneficence of the Deity than the atmospheric arrangements of the globe, the latter meaning is a very beautiful and striking one: and as the preceding verse refers to the creation of the heavens and the earth, there would seem to be no inconsistency in so interpreting Pro 3:20, especially the latter clause, unless it might be thought that the ideas are too recondite and abstruse to be attributed to the ancient philosopher. We moderns, however, are gradually learning that the ancients knew more than we once gave them credit for. Comp. Gen 1:7; Gen 7:11; Job 38.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Wisdom’s Divine Power and Divine Plan – After Pro 3:1-18 deals with wisdom’s role in God’s plan for mankind, the next passage (Pro 3:19-20) reveals that wisdom has a role to play in the rest of God’s creation. God created the heavens and the earth (Pro 3:19) and He destroyed it by the Flood (Pro 3:20 a) and He established a new order for the earth, which was then described as producing rain (Pro 3:20 b). It is by wisdom that God’s creation, both heavens and earth, will conform to God’s eternal purpose and plan. Since man is the peak of God’s creation, Pro 3:1-18 comes before Pro 3:19-20, but in much more detail.
The Role of Creation in God’s Divine Plan – Pro 3:19-20 shows us the eternal, creative power of divine wisdom. If God determined His future by following the path of wisdom, how much more should we pursue this same path. Although wisdom plays an important role in man’s purpose in God’s creation, it also plays a much wider role in bringing God’s creation into His overall purpose and plan. These two little verses give us a hint that we have been created for a purpose that is much greater than we can imagine. We are to play an important role in ruling and reigning within God’s great expanse of creation. It reveals to us that God has prepared a much greater plan for mankind after He has redeemed His children to glory. Rom 8:19-21 we see how all of God’s creation is groaning and travailing with mankind until the redemption comes and delivers all from bondage.
Rom 8:19-21, “For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Pro 3:19-20. The Lord by wisdom, &c. See Job 38:4; Job 38:41. The effects which we call natural are the productions of the Creator’s sovereign wisdom. Some understand by the depths broken up, the waters of the deluge; others, the original creation and distribution of the waters. The dews in Palestine are much more abundant than in our countries, whence the wise man gives them the same origin with the rain, namely the clouds; though the dew does not descend from so great a height.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
The LORD by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens. By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew.
There is another confirmation of Christ’s office-name as Wisdom, for the scriptures with one voice declare that the Lord created all things by Jesus Christ. Eph 3:9 ; Heb 1:2 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Pro 3:19 The LORD by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens.
Ver. 19. The Lord by wisdom. ] By his essential Wisdom, by his Eternal Word; Pro 8:30 the Lord Christ, who is “the beginning of the creation of God.” Rev 3:14 See Trapp on “ Joh 1:3 “ “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth,” Gen 1:1 that is, in his Son, as some interpret it. Heb 1:2 Col 1:16 This interpretation is grounded upon the Jerusalem Targum, who translates that, Gen 1:1 bechochmatha, in sapientia. So doth Augustine and others; and for confirmation they bring Joh 8:25 ; but that is a mistake, as Beza shows in his Annotations there.
He established the heavens.
a Coelum maxime eo nomine intelligunt Graeci. – Mercer.
Lord: Pro 8:27-29, Psa 104:24, Psa 136:5, Jer 10:12, Jer 51:15, Joh 1:3
established: or, prepared
Reciprocal: Gen 1:1 – God Job 28:12 – General Job 37:16 – perfect Pro 8:22 – General
Pro 3:19-20. The Lord by wisdom, &c. From human wisdom, or wisdom attainable by man, of which Solomon had hitherto treated, he now digresses to divine; thereby insinuating that it ought not to seem strange that he had said so much in praise of wisdom, and had so vehemently exhorted men to seek it, since all the works of God are effected by it; and that his readers might understand that he did not call them to the imitation of men, subject to errors and vices like themselves, but to the imitation of the divine wisdom. Although Christ be the wisdom of God, and the power of God, 1Co 1:24; and although all things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made, yet it does not appear that Solomon speaks of him here, but rather of that divine perfection of wisdom which is the fountain of wisdom in man. Observe, reader, the effects which we call natural, are the productions of the Creators sovereign wisdom, who formed at the beginning, and who hath preserved ever since, the universe of things, with that connected chain of causes and effects with which we are surrounded. By his knowledge the depths are broken up The great abyss of waters mixed with, and contained in, the bowels of the earth, breaks forth into fountains and rivers for the use of men and beasts: which is justly remembered here as an illustrious effect of divine wisdom, by which the earth was made habitable and the waters serviceable. And the clouds drop down dew Under which rain is comprehended, as being of the same nature and use.
3:19 The LORD by wisdom hath {k} founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens.
(k) By this he shows that this wisdom of which he speaks is everlasting, because it was before all creatures and that all things even the whole world were made by it.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes