Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth:
Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth. "Settled" - literally, sunk down, fixed firmly in the earth, so as to give a secure settlement to the earth above the waters. He mentions the earth generally first; then its parts, the depths and water under the earth, in Proverbs 8:24; then the mountains and hills. "I was brought forth" is here repeated (cf. Proverbs 8:24), to mark the more emphatically the often-doubted truth of the eternal generation of the Son.