(e) Fifth Discourse:--Wisdom as Creator and Protector (Proverbs 3:19-26).

(19) The Lord by wisdom . . .--A passage anticipatory of the doctrine of John 1:3. (Comp. Psalm 104:24; Psalm 136:5.) A further advance towards the personality of the Creator is made in Proverbs 8:27, sqq. . . .

Verses 19-26. - 5. Fifth hortatory discourse. Wisdom, the creative power of God, exhibited as the protection of those who fear God. The teacher in this discourse presents Wisdom under a new aspect. Wisdom is the Divine power of God, by which he created the world, and by which he sustains the work of his hands and regulates the operations of nature. This eminence of Wisdom, in her intimate association with Jehovah, is made the basis of a renewed exhortation to keep Wisdom steadily in view. The elevated thought that Wisdom has her source in Jehovah might seem in itself an adequate and sufficient reason for the exhortation. But another motive is adduced intimately bound up with this view of Wisdom. Jehovah becomes the ground of confidence and the protection in all conditions of life of those who keep Wisdom. Verse 19. - The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth. The emphatic position of the word Jehovah, "the Lord," at the beginning of the sentence (cf. Psalm 27; Psalm 97; Psalm 99), as well as the nature of the discourse, indicates a new paragraph. The description of the creative Wisdom of Jehovah may have been suggested to the mind of the teacher by the mention of the tree of life, in ver. 18 (Zockler); but the connection between this and the preceding passage has to be sought for in something deeper. The scope of the teacher is to exhibit, and so to recommend, Wisdom in every respect, and after showing her excellence in man, he now brings her forward as the medium of creation, and hence in her relation to God. By wisdom (b'kokhmah); Vulgate, sapientia; LXX., σοφίᾳ. It is evident that Wisdom is here something more than an attribute of Jehovah. "By Wisdom" means "by, or through, the instrumentality of Wisdom." While the corresponding and parallel expressions, "understanding," "knowledge," militate against the idea of an hypostatizing of Wisdom, i.e. assigning to Wisdom a concrete and objective personality, yet the language is sufficiently strong, when we connect this passage with ch. 1. and 8, to warrant our regarding Wisdom as something apart from yet intimately connected with Jehovah, as an active agency employed by him, and hence this description may. be looked upon as an anticipation of that which is more fully developed in ch. 8, where the characteristics which are wanting here are there worked out at length. The rabbins evidently connected the passage before us, as well as ch. 1 and 8, with Genesis 1:1, by rendering b'reshith, "in the beginning." by b'kokhmah, "by Wisdom." Our Lord identifies himself with the Divine Sophia, or Wisdom (Luke 11:49). And the language of St. John, "All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made" (John 1:3), which assigns to the Logos, or Word of God, i.e. Christ, the act of creation (cf. John 1:10, and especially the language of St. Paul, in Colossians 1:16), argues in favour of the view of some commentators who understand Wisdom to refer to the Second Person of the Trinity. The Logos was understood by Alexandrian Judaism to express the manifestation of the unseen God, the Absolute Being, in the creation and government of the world; and the Christian teachers, when they adopted this term, assigned to it a concrete meaning as indicating the Incarnate Word (see Bishop Lightfoot, in Colossians 1:15). For the passage, see Psalm 33:6; Psalm 104:24; Psalm 136:5; and especially Jeremiah 10:12, "He hath established the world by his wisdom," etc.; Jeremiah 51:55; Ecclus. 24:2, seq. Hath founded (yasod); Vulgate, fundavit; LXX., ἐθεμελίωσε. The same verb is used in Job 38:4; Psalm 24:2; Psalm 78:69, of the creation of the earth by God. While the primary meaning of yasad is "to give fixity to," "to lay fast," that of konen, rendered "he hath established," is "to set up," "to erect," and so "to found," from kun, or referring to the Arabic and Ethiopic cognate root, "to exist," "to give existence to." The marginal reading, "prepared," corresponds with the LXX. ἐτοίμασε. The Vulgate is stabilivit, "he hath established."

Parallel Commentaries ...


The LORD
יְֽהוָ֗ה (Yah·weh)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3068: LORD -- the proper name of the God of Israel

founded
יָֽסַד־ (yā·saḏ-)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 3245: To set, to found, to sit down together, settle, consult

the earth
אָ֑רֶץ (’ā·reṣ)
Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 776: Earth, land

by wisdom
בְּחָכְמָ֥ה (bə·ḥā·ḵə·māh)
Preposition-b | Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 2451: Wisdom

and established
כּוֹנֵ֥ן (kō·w·nên)
Verb - Piel - Perfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 3559: To be erect

the heavens
שָׁ֝מַ֗יִם (ma·yim)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 8064: Heaven, sky

by understanding.
בִּתְבוּנָֽה׃ (biṯ·ḇū·nāh)
Preposition-b | Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 8394: Intelligence, an argument, caprice


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OT Poetry: Proverbs 3:19 By wisdom Yahweh founded the earth (Prov. Pro Pr)