Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 8:30
Then I was by him, [as] one brought up [with him]: and I was daily [his] delight, rejoicing always before him;
30. one brought up with him] The Heb. root is used of bringing up a child, acting as nurse or foster-parent to it, Rth 4:16; Est 2:7. Hence the translation of A. V. But it may also be applied to one who rears a building, or carries out a work, an architect, or artificer; a master workman, R.V. So it is rendered in Jer 52:15, R.V. marg. artificers, where see note in this Series. The LXX. have here , and the Vulg. cuncta componens. And this sense agrees best with the general tenor of the passage. Comp. “For she which is the artificer of all things taught me, even wisdom,” Wis 7:22 , R.V.
was daily his delight ] So R.V. text; but, had delight continually, R.V. marg.; , LXX.; delectabar per singulos dies, Vulg.
rejoicing ] “Or, sporting,” R.V. marg.; ludens, Vulg. (and so Pro 8:31). Perhaps exulting would be a better rendering.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
As one brought up with him – i. e., As his foster child. Others take the word in the original in another sense, I was as his artificer, a rendering which falls in best with the special point of the whole passage, the creative energy of Wisdom. Compare Wisdom Pro 7:21, Pro 7:22.
Daily – Heb. day by day. As the Creator rejoiced in His workmanship Gen 1:4, Gen 1:10, Gen 1:12-13, so Wisdom rejoiced in the exuberance of her might and strength.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Pro 8:30
And I was daily His delight.
The happiness of Christ antecedent to His incarnation
The delights between the Father and the Son, before His assumption of our nature, were twofold.
1. They delighted in one another without communicating their joys to any other; for no creature did then exist save in the mind of God.
2. They delighted in the salvation of men; in the prospect of that work, though not yet extant. The condition and state of Jesus Christ before His incarnation was a state of the most unspeakable delight in the enjoyment of His Father. Consider this–
I. Negatively.
1. He was not abased to the low estate of a creature.
2. He was not under the law in this estate.
3. He was not liable to any of those sorrowful consequents and attendants of that frail state of humanity which afterwards He assumed with that nature. Unacquainted with griefs. Never pinched with poverty and want. Never underwent reproach and shame. Was never offended with any impure suggestions. Never sensible of tortures and pains. There were no hidings or withdrawings of His Father. No experience of death.
II. Positively.
1. A state of matchless happiness.
2. A state of intimacy, dearness, and oneness with His Father.
3. A state of pure, unmixed, and ravishing delight.
III. Comparitively.
1. Compare it with the delight that some creatures take in each other, and you will soon find that they fall infinitely short of this.
2. Compare it with the delight that God takes in some of His creatures; you will find it to come short of the delight that God takes in Christ.
3. Compare it with the delight that the best of creatures take in God and Christ; how infinitely short it comes of the delight that God takes in Christ!
Conclusion:
1. What an astonishing love was this for the Father to give the darling of His soul for poor sinners!
2. Adore the love of Jesus to sinners, that ever He should consent to leave such a bosom.
3. An interest in Jesus Christ is the true way to all spiritual preferment in heaven.
4. Jesus Christ is worthy of all love and delight.
5. It is a grievous thing to see Gods dear Son despised, slighted, and rejected by sinners.
6. Let us be ready to forsake and leave all for Christ. (John Flavel.)
Christs eternal felicity
I. Christ was with the Father at the beginning. This censures the Arians.
II. God the Father, as He delighted in Christ at the beginning, so He doth always.
1. Because He is His Son.
2. Because He never offended Him.
3. Because He is always ready to please His Father.
III. Christ rejoiced in God the Father from the beginning, and does so always. Some read, I rejoice, or sport, always before Him. (Francis Taylor, B. D.)
Rejoicing always before Him.
Eternal Wisdom rejoicing in the events to be revealed
If we contemplate the character of Divine Wisdom as directed to earth, dwelling amongst men, anticipating the concerns and circumstances and history of this human world, we shall–
1. Be led to perceive an importance attaching to all the ramifications of that history, to all its epochs and all its events.
2. In addition to this we shall be led to depend, with a degree of delight and joy, on all the arrangements and developments of this Wisdom in relation to our circumstances.
3. And we shall perceive the impropriety of our murmuring; and that there is the greatest measure of folly, as well as of danger, in allowing ourselves to dispute any part of the Divine proceedings.
4. Such a view will induce us to look with intelligent and instructed minds upon all the things around us, and to observe in the various circumstances which transpire before our view the actual working out of a plan arranged before eternity.
5. We shall regard the great Supreme with deep solicitude, in order that we ourselves may be brought to see the truth and results of all that is around us.
6. We shall anticipate the glory of that scene in its fulness which we now perceive in fragments. Christ looked forward to the production of the world for the sake of the men who would dwell on it. What is more wonderful than the intellectual, physical, moral, and spiritual being, man? Consider the proofs of this anticipation and delight, and the reason whence arises all this delight. (R. S. McAll, LL. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 30. Then I was with him, as one brought up] amon, a nursling, a darling child. Wisdom continues its parable, says Calmet; and represents itself as a new-born child which is ever near its parent, and takes pleasure to see him act, and to sport in his presence. This is poetical and highly figurative; and they who think they find the deity of Jesus Christ in these metaphors should be very cautious how they apply such terms as these; so that while they are endeavouring to defend the truth, they may do nothing against the truth, in which most of them unhappily fail.
Rejoicing always before him] All the images in this verse are borrowed from the state and circumstances of a darling, affectionate, playful child; as any one will be convinced who examines the Hebrew text.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
By him; conversant with him, and united to him, as was said before.
As one brought up with him; as one tenderly and dearly beloved by him.
Rejoicing always before him; he and I had constant, and intimate, and sweet converse together.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
30, 31. one brought upanobject of special and pleasing regard. The bestowal of wisdom on menis represented by its finding a delightful residence and pleasingGod.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Then I was by him, [as] one brought up [with him],…. He was then, and from all eternity, “by him”, or “with him” q; which denotes his co-existence with God, and his relation to him as his Father; his nearness to him, his equality with him, and his distinction from him: he was by him when the names of God’s elect were put down in the book of life; he was by him and with him in the council and covenant of grace and peace; and so in the creation of all things, and has been ever since; not as a onlooker, but as a party concerned; and not as subordinate and inferior to his Father, but equal with him. The word
, translated “brought up”, is differently rendered; Symmachus and Theodotion render it “strengthened”; as Christ was set up in his mediatorial office, he was strengthened in it by his Father; and was in his view, council, and covenant, the man of his right hand, made strong for himself: the Targum renders it “faithful”, so the Tigurine version; as Christ was to him that appointed him, faithful to all he promised and was intrusted with. Many translate it an “artificer” or “workman” r, as in So 7:1; and so Christ was a co-worker, a worker with God in the making of all things, the heavens, earth, and sea, and all in there; not as an instrument, but as a co-efficient cause of them; which is a proof of his proper deity, and equality with God. But others think the word has the sense of nursing, or being nursed, educated, or brought up. Some s take it actively, as in Ru 4:16 Es 2:7; and interpret it of Christ’s nursing the creation, or cherishing, supporting, and preserving all creatures in their being when made; particularly of his nourishing and cherishing the church and people of God committed to his care. Others t passively, of his being “brought up”, as our version; and so the Latin interpreter of the Targum renders it “nursed up at his side”; which expresses the tender regard of his Father to him, as his begotten Son; in whose bosom he lay and was bore, as a nursing father bears his son in his bosom,
Nu 11:12; and by whom, as Mediator, he was trained up in the performance of his office;
and I was daily his delight; or “delights” u; exceeding delightful to him. The Father loved the Son from all eternity, with a love of complacency and delight, Joh 17:24; this delight was founded in relation to him, in sonship; and in likeness, he being the express image of his person; in sameness of nature, he being of the same nature and perfections with his Father: and he delighted in him as a workman, in the works which he did, being the same he saw him do; and in him as Mediator, in his constitution as such, and in engaging as a surety, to obey and suffer in the stead of his people, Isa 42:1; he not only delighted in him day by day, throughout the six days of the creation, when he was by him as a workman, but before, and even from the days of eternity; from the date of his commencement as Mediator; in the foreviews of his human nature, obeying and suffering in it; and of the salvation of the elect by him, and of his own glory in it;
rejoicing always before him; being always in his presence, and acceptable to him; rejoicing in having the same nature and perfections with him, and in the relation he stood in to him; and also in the view of the works of creation and redemption he would be jointly concerned in with him; which joy always did and ever will continue. There is a mutual pleasure and delight which the Father and Son have in each other, and in all that they are concerned; and especially in what respects the salvation of the chosen people. The allusion in the word used in this clause is to children’s playing in the presence of their parents; which is a diversion to the one, and a pleasure to the other.
q “cum eo”, V. L. “apud eum”, Pagninus, Montanus, Junius Tremellius, Piscator, c. r , Sept. “cuneta componens”, V. L. “artifex vel opifex”, Gejerus so Schindler, col. 90. s “Nutritius”, Montanus, Pagninus, Baynus “educans”, Junius Tremellius. t “Alumnus”, Vatablus, Piscator, Mercerus “alumna”, Schultens; “in sinu gestatus filius”, Cocceius; so Gussetius, p. 77. and Noldius, p. 379. No. 1884. and Stockins, p. 71. u “deliciae”, Montanus, Junius Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius, Gejerus, Michaelis “obleclationes”, Schultens.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(30) As one brought up with himi.e., his foster child; as Mordecai brought up Esther (Est. 2:7). But the word may also bear the sense of artificer. It probably occurs in this meaning in Jer. 52:15 (though translated multitude, in accordance with 2Ki. 25:11), and in a slightly different form, Son. 7:1. This meaning is much more suitable, and harmonises with Psa. 104:24; Psa. 136:5, and Heb. 1:2.
I was daily his delight.The pronoun his does not occur in the Hebrew, which is, literally, I was delights, i.e., all joy, delight, as Psa. 109:4 : I am prayer, i.e., give myself wholly to it. The words express the joy with which Wisdom carried out the work of God.
Rejoicing always before him.The same expression is used in 2Sa. 6:21 by David (there translated play), to describe his leaping and dancing before the Lord.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
30. Then I by him Translation: “There was I, his chosen darling; there was I, his delight, day by day, sporting before him (as a beloved child) all the time.” The particle , ( etslo,) rendered by him in the Authorized Version, may mean that; but the root, among other significations, has “to reserve,” “keep near one,” and hence “to select,” “choose.” Taken in this sense, with the , ( amon,) a nursling, (one nurtured by another, and hence beloved,) a darling, we make out the above, which agrees with the imagery following: “All the images in this [and the next verse] are borrowed from the state and circumstances of a darling, affectionate, playful child.” A. Clarke.
Although the rendering above given of this verse is well supported, yet there is some uncertainty about the word , amon. The root-meaning of the word branches out in many directions. One is that of establishing, bringing up, rearing. Hence our Authorized Version renders it, “one brought up with him,” a nursling, foster-child, darling, etc. Others take it in the more active sense, of artificer, master-worker, or builder, fabricator, artist, etc. The Septuagint, Vulgate, Luther, and many Germans favour this idea. So, also, some English and Americans, as Holden, Boothroyd, Noyes, Muenscher, Miller, the Bible Com., etc. But Goode, Stuart, Conant, Fausset, Adam Clarke, Benson, etc, prefer the other view. For a defence of this view see Conant. It is a matter of choice and taste.
Fausset, indeed, who identifies the Hhokmah and the Logos, combines both thus: “I was nursed at his side,” amon, answering to Joh 1:18, the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father; “never separated from the Father; who seeth the Father always; who seeth what the Father doeth, so that he doeth the same himself, (with the same will and power;) in whom the Father is well pleased,” etc. Comp. Joh 5:20.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Pro 8:30. As one brought up with him The Hebrew signifies, As one co-operating, or working with him. This sense is favoured by the LXX, who read, I was harmonizing, or disposing things together with him. The French render it, I was with him and regulated all things. The expression in the next clause denotes the facility, the pleasure, the address of the Almighty work-master, and of Wisdom, by whom, and with whom he created all things; and the admirable variety of the works of nature, where the wisdom of the Creator appears to have rejoiced with so much order and beauty. See Calmet.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Pro 8:30 Then I was by him, [as] one brought up [with him]: and I was daily [his] delight, rejoicing always before him;
Ver. 30. Then I was by him. ] Accursed then for ever be that blasphemous assertion of the Arians, , There was a time when he was not. This scripture, so much abused by them, makes utterly against them. But heretics pervert the Scriptures, saith St Peter. 2Pe 3:15 A metaphor from those who put a man upon the rack, and make him speak that which he never thought. Tertullian calls Marcion the heretic, Mus Ponticus, because of his arroding a and gnawing the Scripture, to make it serviceable to his errors.
As one brought up with him.
Rejoicing always.
a To gnaw or nibble at.
b – Sept.
c More pueri qui alatur, et risum captans ac concilians. – Mercer.
Proverbs
WISDOM AND CHRIST
Pro 8:30 – Pro 8:31 There is a singular difference between the two portions of this Book of Proverbs. The bulk of it, beginning with Pro 10:1 – Pro 10:32 , contains a collection of isolated maxims which may be described as the product of sanctified common sense. They are shrewd and homely, but not remarkably spiritual or elevated. To these is prefixed this introductory portion, continuous, lofty in style, and in its personification of divine wisdom, rising to great sublimity both of thought and of expression. It seems as if the main body of the book had been fitted with an introduction by another hand than that of the compilers of the various sets of proverbial sayings. It is apparently due to an intellectual movement, perhaps not uninfluenced by Greek thought, and chronologically the latest of the elements composing the Old Testament scriptures. In place of the lyric fervour of prophets, and the devout intuition of psalmists, we have the praise of Wisdom. But that noble portrait is no copy of the Greek conception, but contains features peculiar to itself. She stands opposed to blatant, meretricious Folly, and seeks to draw men to herself by lofty motives and offering pure delights. She is not a person, but she is a personification of an aspect of the divine nature, and seeing that she is held forth as willing to bestow herself on men, that queenly figure shadows the great truth of God’s self-communication as being the end and climax of all His revelation.
We are on the wrong tack when we look for more or less complete resemblances between the ‘Wisdom’ of Proverbs and the ‘Sophia’ of Greek thinkers. It is much rather an anticipation, imperfect but real, of Jesus than a pale reflection of Greek thought. The way for the perfect revelation of God in the incarnation was prepared by prophet and psalmist. Was it not also prepared by this vision of a Wisdom which was always with God, and yet had its delights with the sons of men, and whilst ‘rejoicing always before Him,’ yet rejoiced in the habitable parts of the earth?
Let us then look, however imperfect our gaze may be, at the self-revelation in Proverbs of the personified divine Wisdom, and compare it with the revelation of the incarnate divine Word.
I. The Self-revelation of Wisdom.
Then the relation of this divine Wisdom to God is represented as being a continual delight and a childlike rejoicing in Him, or as the word literally means, a ‘sporting’ in Him. Whatever energy of creative action is suggested by the preceding figure of a ‘master workman,’ that energy had no effort. To the divine Wisdom creation was an easy task. She was not so occupied with it as to interrupt her delight in contemplating God, and her task gave her infinite satisfaction, for she ‘rejoiced always’ before Him, and she rejoiced in His habitable earth. The writer does not shrink from ascribing to the agent of creation something like the glow of satisfaction that we feel over a piece of well-done work, the poet’s or the painter’s rapture as he sees his thoughts bodied forth in melody or glowing on canvas.
But there is a greater thought than these here, for the writer adds, ‘and my delight was with the sons of men.’ It is noteworthy that the same word is used in the preceding verse. The ‘delight of the heavenly Wisdom in God’ is not unlike that directed to man. ‘The sons of men’ are the last, noblest work of Creation, and on them, as the shining apex, her delight settles. The words describe not only what was true when man came into being, as the utmost possible climax of creatural excellence, but are the revelation of what still remains true.
One cannot but feel how in all this most striking disclosure of the depths of God, a deeper mystery is on the verge of revelation. There is here, as we have said, a personification, but there seems to be a Person shining through, or dimly discerned moving behind, the curtain. Wisdom is the agent of creation. She creates with ease, and in creating delights in God as well as in her work, which calls for no effort in doing, and done, is all very good. She delights most of all in the sons of men, and that delight is permanent. Does not this unknown Jewish thinker, too, belong, as well as prophet and psalmist, to those who went before crying, Hosanna to Him that cometh in the name of the Lord? Let us turn to the New Testament and find an answer to the question.
II. The higher revelation of the divine Word.
But the ancient vision of the Jewish thinker anticipated the perfect revelation of the New Testament still further, in its thought of an unbroken communion between the personified Wisdom and God. That dim thought of perfect communion and interchange of delights flashes into wondrous clearness when we think of Him who spake of ‘the glory which I had with Thee before the foundation of the world,’ and calmly declared: ‘Thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.’ Into that depth of mutual love we cannot look, and our eyes are too dim-sighted to bear the blaze of that flashing interchange of glory, but we shall rob the earthly life of Jesus of its pathos and saving power, if we do not recognise that in Him the personification of Proverbs has become a person, and that when He became flesh, He not only took on Him the garment of mortality, but laid aside ‘the visible robes of His imperial majesty,’ and that His being found in fashion as a man was humbling Himself beyond all humiliation that afterwards was His.
But still further, the Gospel reality fills out and completes the personification of Proverbs in that it shows us a divine person who so turned to ‘the sons of men’ that He took on Him their nature and Himself bore their sicknesses. The Jewish writer had great thoughts of the divine condescension, and was sure that God’s love still rested on men, sinful as they were, but not even he could foresee the miracle of long-suffering love in the Incarnate Jesus, and he had no power of insight into the depths of the heart of God, that enabled him to foresee the sufferings and death of Jesus. Till that supreme self-sacrifice was a fact, it was inconceivable. Alas, now that it is a fact, to how many hearts that need it most is it still incredible. But passing all anticipation as it is, it is the root of all joy, the ground of all hope, and to millions of sinful souls it is their only refuge, and their sovereign example and pattern of life.
The Jewish thinker had a glimpse of a divine wisdom which delighted in man, but he did not dream of the divine stooping to share in man’s sorrows, or of its so loving humanity as to take on itself its limitations, not only to pity these as God’s images, but to take part of the same and to die. That man should minister to the divine delight is wonderful, but that God should participate in man’s grief passes wonder. Thereby a new tenderness is given to the ancient personification, and the august form of the divine Wisdom softens and melts into the yet more august and tender likeness of the divine Love. Nor is there only an adumbration of the redeeming love of Jesus as He dwells among us here, but we have to remember that Jesus delights in the sons of men when they love Him back again. All the sweet mysteries of our loving communion with Him, and of His joy in our faith, love, and obedience, all the secret treasures of His self-impartation to, and abiding in, souls that open themselves to His entrance, are suggested in that thought. We can minister to the joy of Jesus, and when He is welcomed into any heart, and any man’s love answers His, He sees of the travail of His soul and is satisfied.
III. The call of the personal Word to each of us.
I was by = I became beside Him. Joh 1:1. See note on “was”, Gen 1:2.
by = close by.
as one brought up with Him = as one constantly with Him, or under His constant care. Hebrew. ‘amon, from root ‘aman = to be constant or steady, and denoting: (1) The making constant or steady (Exo 17:12). (2) The being constant, as a river (Isa 33:16. Jer 15:18); as a house (2Sa 7:16. Isa 7:9); of words (Gen 42:20); of a prophet (1Sa 3:20); an allowance (Neh 11:23). (3) The stability or faithfulness (Deu 32:20. Isa 65:16. Jer 51:15); hence “Amen”, affirming and confirming assent. (4) Of the constant and steady care of a nurse, &c. (Est 2:7, Est 2:20; 2Ki 10:1, 2Ki 10:5. Isa 60:4; Isa 66:12. Lam 4:5). (5) Of the constant and steady resting of the mind as trusting, relying, or depending upon (Gen 15:6; Gen 45:26. Exo 4:5. Deu 28:66. Jdg 11:20). (6) Of the constant, steady hand required in a cunning workman (Son 7:1 = hands of steadiness, meaning work not hastily done. The Revised Version rendering of Pro 8:30, “a master workman”, is made on insufficient ground).
Rejoicing. Compare Pro 8:31.
one: Joh 1:1-3, Joh 1:18, Joh 16:28
I was daily: Isa 42:1, Mat 3:17, Mat 17:5, Joh 12:28, Col 1:13
Reciprocal: Job 38:4 – Where Joh 3:35 – Father Eph 1:6 – in
Pro 8:30-31. Then I was by him Conversant with him, and united to him, as was said before; as one brought up with him As one tenderly and dearly beloved by him. I was daily his delight His elect; in whom his soul delighted, Isa 42:1. Rejoicing always before him In constant and most intimate communion with him. Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth In the vast variety of creatures wherewith the earth was beautified and enriched; and my delights were with the sons of men Made after the likeness of God, and capable of converse with him. Then I delighted to uphold them by my power and providence, to reveal myself, and my Fathers mind and will to them, from age to age, to assume their nature, and to redeem and save them. The wisdom of God, says Calmet, communicated itself to men preferably to all other sensible creatures; having given to them alone intelligence, and souls capable of the illumination of prudence, and of the practice of virtue. The Son of God, the eternal wisdom, abundantly proved his delight to be with the sons of men, when for their instruction and salvation he took upon him a human form.
8:30 Then I was by him, {m} [as] one brought up [with him]: and I was daily [his] delight, rejoicing always before him;
(m) Some read, a chief worker signifying that this wisdom, Christ Jesus, was equal with God his father, and created, preserves and still works with him, as in Joh 5:17.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes