Proverbs Chapter 8 verse 26 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 26. - Before the mountains were settled (Job 38:6). It is questioned where the mountains were supposed to be fixed, and some have thought that they are represented as fixed in the depths of the earth. But, as we learn from Genesis 1:9, they are regarded as rising from the waters, their foundations are laid in the great deep. So the psalmist, speaking of the waters, says, "They went up by the mountains, they went down by the valleys, unto the place which thou hast founded for them" (Psalm 104:8; comp. Psalm 24:2). What is here affirmed of Wisdom is said of Jehovah in Psalm 90:2, "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God." Verse 26. - The earth, nor the fields. The distinction intended is land as cultivated and occupied by buildings, etc., and waste uncultivated land outside towns. Septuagint, "The Lord made countries and uninhabited places (ἀοικήτους);" Vulgate, Adhuc terram non fecerat, et flumina. Hebrew, chutsoth; things without, abroad, hence open country. The Vulgate rendering, and that of Aquila and Symmaehus, ἐξόδους, are plainly erroneous, as waters have already been mentioned (ver. 24). The highest part of the dust of the world; literally, the head of the dusts of the world. Some have interpreted this expression of "man," the chief of those creatures which are made of the dust of the ground (Genesis 3:19; Ecclesiastes 3:20). But the idea comes in awkwardly here; it is not natural to introduce man amid the inanimate works of nature, or to use such an enigmatical designation for him. St. Jerome has, cardines orbis terrarum, "the world's hinges;" Septuagint, "the inhabited summits of the earth beneath the heavens; according to St. Hilary ('De Trinit.,' 12), "cacumina quae habitantur sub coelo." Others take the term to signify the capes or promontories ot the world, the peaks and elevations; others, the clods of dry, amble land, in contrast to the untilled waste of waters; others, the chief elements, the matter of which the earth is composed. This last interpretation would lead us back to a period which has already been passed. Amid the many possible explanations, it is perhaps best (with Delitzsch, Nowack, etc.) to take rosh, "head" as equivalent to "sum," "mass," as in Psalm 139:17. "How great is the sum (rosh) of them!" Then the expression comprehensively means all the mass of earth's dust.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(26) The earth.--i.e., the cultivated and enclosed part of it.The fields.--The open country.The highest part of the dust of the world. Literally, "the head of the dusts of the fertile earth" i.e. the heaps of the clods of arable land, or better perhaps, "the sum of the atoms of dust." Some refer to Genesis 2:7, and interpret the words of man, as formed out of the dust.