Proverbs 8:22-26 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

The Lord possessed me As his eternal Wisdom and Word, which was in the beginning with him, John 1:1, and in him, John 14:10, and was afterward made flesh, and dwelt among men, as the only begotten of the Father, full of truth and grace, John 1:14. Before his works of old His works of creation, as it follows. He is before all things, says the apostle, and by him all things consist, Colossians 1:17. I had glory with the Father, says this eternal wisdom, before the world was, John 17:5. I was set up from everlasting Hebrew, נסכתי, I was anointed, ordained, or constituted, to be the person by whom the Father resolved to do all his works, first to create, and then to uphold, and govern, and judge, and afterward to redeem and save the world; all which works are particularly ascribed to the Son of God, as is manifest from John 1:1, &c.; Colossians 1:16-17; Hebrews 1:3, and many other places. From the beginning Before which there was nothing but a vast eternity; or ever the earth was Which he mentions, because this, together with the heaven, was the first of God's visible works. When there were no depths No abyss or deep waters, either mixed with the earth, as they were at first, or separated from it; I was brought forth Begotten of my Father. Before the mountains were settled Or fixed by the roots in the earth. While as yet he had not made the earth That is, the dry land, called earth, after it was separated from the waters, Genesis 1:10. Nor the fields The plain and open parts of the earth, distinguished from the mountains and hills, and the valleys enclosed between them; nor the highest part Hebrew, the head; the first part, or beginning; or, the best part; that which exceeds other parts in riches or fruitfulness; which he seems to distinguish from the common fields. Of the dust of the world Of this lower part of the world, which consists of dust.