Proverbs 8:23
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.
American King James Version (AKJV)
I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.
American Standard Version (ASV)
I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, Before the earth was.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
From eternal days I was given my place, from the birth of time, before the earth was.
Webster's Revision
I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.
World English Bible
I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, before the earth existed.
English Revised Version (ERV)
I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.
Clarke's Proverbs 8:23 Bible Commentary
I was set up from everlasting - נסכתי nissachti, "I was diffused or poured out," from נסך nasach, "to diffuse, pour abroad, as a spirit or disposition," Isaiah 29:10. See Parkhurst. Or from סך sach, "to cover, overspread, smear over, as with oil;" to be anointed king. Hence some have translated it, principatum habui, I had the principality, or was a ruler, governor, and director, from eternity. All the schemes, plans, and circumstances, relative to creation, government, providence, and to all being, material, animal, and intellectual, were conceived in the Divine mind, by the Divine wisdom, from eternity, or ever the earth was. There was no fortuitous creation, no jumbling concourse of original atoms, that entered into the composition of created beings; all was the effect of the plans before conceived, laid down, and at last acted upon by God's eternal wisdom.
Barnes's Proverbs 8:23 Bible Commentary
I was set up - Rather, "I was anointed" (compare Psalm 2:6 margin: 2 Chronicles 28:15). The image is that of Wisdom anointed, as at her birth, with "the oil of gladness."
Or ever the earth was - literally, "from the times before the earth."
Wesley's Proverbs 8:23 Bible Commentary
8:23 Set up - Heb. anointed, constituted to be the person by whom the Father resolved to do all his works, to create, to uphold and govern and judge, to redeem and save the world. From the beginning - Before which, there was nothing but a vast eternity. The earth - Which together with the heaven, was the first of God's visible works.