Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 8:27

When he prepared the heavens, I [was] there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth:

27. compass ] Rather, circle, R.V. text, A.V. marg. The reference is to the heavens, just mentioned, which seem to stand like a vault or dome upon the sea, marked out by the circle of the horizon on its surface. Comp. Job 22:14.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

A compass – Better as in the margin and Job 22:14 (see the note), i. e., the great vault of heaven stretched over the deep seas.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 27. When he prepared the heavens, I was there] For there is no part of the creation of God in which wisdom, skill, contrivance, are more manifest, than in the construction of the visible heavens.

When he set a compass upon the face of the depth] Does not this refer to the establishment of the law of gravitation? by which all the particles of matter, tending to a common centre, would produce in all bodies the orbicular form, which we see them have; so that even the waters are not only retained within their boundaries, but are subjected to the circular form, in their great aggregate of seas, as other parts of matter are. This is called here making a compass, bechukko chug, sweeping a circle; and even this on the face of the deep, to bring the chaotic mass into form, regularity, and order.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

I was there, not as an idle spectator, but as a co-worker with my Father.

Of the depth, i.e. of that great and deep abyss of water and earth mixed together, which is called both earth and water, and the deep, Gen 1:2. When he made this lower world round, or in the form of a globe, agreeable to the form of the upper world.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

27. when he set . . . depthmarkedout the circle, according to the popular idea of the earth, ascircular, surrounded by depths on which the visible concave heavensrested.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

When he prepared the heavens, I [was] there,…. Made, beautified, and adorned them; when he gave them their form, figure, magnitude, and motion; when he garnished them with the sun, moon, and stars; then was Christ present, not as a mere spectator, but as a co-worker; see Heb 1:10; and even the third heaven, the place and state of glorified saints, prepared for them from the foundation of the world, Mt 25:34;

when he set a compass upon the face of the depth: or “compassed the waters with bounds”, as Job says, Pr 26:10; or made the earth with the sea globular, which make one terraqueous globe: or “made a circle” p; all around it, called the circle of the earth, on which he sits,

Isa 40:22; this compass may design the vast expanse or firmament of heaven, which is stretched and drawn around the terraqueous globe as a canopy or curtain. Christ was with his Father on the first day’s creation of the heavens; and on the second day, when the firmament was made, and was before them both.

p “describendo circulum”, Montanus, Mercerus, Cocceius, Michaelis, Schultens.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

But not only did her existence precede the laying of the foundation of the world; she was also actively taking part in the creative work:

“When He prepared the heavens, I was there,

When He measured out a circle for the mirror of the multitude of waters.”

Again a sentence clothed with two designations of time. The adv. of place is used, chiefly poetically, for , eo tempore (Arab. thumm , in contradistinction to thamm , eo loco ); but here it has the signification of place, which includes that of time: Wisdom was there when God created the world, and had then already long before that come into existence, like as the servant of Jahve, Isa 48:16, with just such a , says that He is there from the time that the history of nations received a new direction, beginning with Cyrus. signifies to give a firm position or a definite direction. Thus Job 28:27 of Wisdom, whom the Creator places before Himself as a pattern (ideal); here, as Jer 10:12; Psa 65:7, of the setting up, restoring throughout the whole world. In the parallel member, , corresponding to , appears necessarily to designate the circle or the vault of the heavens (Job 22:14), which, according to the idea of the Hebrews, as in Homer, rests as a half-globe on the outermost ends of the disc of the earth surrounded with water, and thus lies on the waters. Vid., Hupfeld under Psa 24:2. This idea of the ocean girdling the earth is introduced into the O.T. without its being sanctioned by it. The lxx ( ) appears to understand of the waters above; but never has this meaning, (Job 9:8; Job 36:30) might rather be interpreted of the ocean of the heavens. The passage in accordance with which this before us is to be expounded is Job 26:10: He has set a limit for the surface of the waters, i.e., describing over them a circle setting bounds to their region. So here, with the exchange of the functions of the two words; when He marked out a circle over the surface of the multitude of waters, viz., to appoint a fixed region ( , Gen 1:10) for them, i.e., the seas, fountains, rivers, in which the waters under the heavens spread over the earth. signifies incidere, figere , to prescribe, to measure off, to consign, and directly to mark out, which is done by means of firm impressions of the graver’s tools. But here this verb is without the Dagesh, to distinguish between the infinitive and the substantive (his statute or limit); for correct texts have ( Michlol 147a); and although a monosyllable follows, yet there is no throwing back of the tone, after the rule that words terminating in o in this case maintain their ultima accentuation ( e.g., , Num 24:23). Fleischer also finally decides for the explanation: quum delinearet circulum super abysso , when He marked out the region of the sea as with the circle.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

(27) When he set a compass upon the face of the depthi.e., when He stretched the vault of heaven over it: the same expression is used in Job. 22:14. It is also interpreted of the circle of the horizon.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

27. The teacher now ascends to the visible heavens, (the region of the atmosphere,) as they appear to the eye.

When he prepared , prepared, disposed, adjusted, according to their established order or laws.

The heavens The , ( rakia’h,) or expanse of Gen 1:6.

When he set a compass In his defining the circle, or sphere: when he described a circle upon the face of the depth, , ( tehom,) the abyss, of the atmosphere; more probably of the apparent resting of the concave heavens, the atmosphere the sphere of air over the abyss beneath; a poetic description in accordance with the appearance.

I was there Hebrews, emphatic There was I. Comp. Isa 40:22; Job 26:10. Translation, according to the sense: When he disposed the heavens there was I when he swept (his) circle upon the face of the (great) abyss.

There is in this and the following verses a change in the form of the predicate concerning wisdom. When the antemundane period is spoken of, the ‘holam eternity “ the beginning,” she belonged to Jehovah she existed as the attribute of the eternal Mind. She was produced, originated, (a poetical conception of the period of actual exertion or manifestation,) when she began to act, as in the work of creation. She was there, was with him.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments