CHAPTER VIII

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CRITICAL NOTES.--+Places of the paths+ "in the midst of the highways." "These ways are roads, solitary paths, not streets in the city, and the delineation proceeds in such an order as to exhibit Wisdom; first, in verse 2, as a preacher in the open country, in grove and field, on mountains and plains, and then in verse 3, to describe her public harangues in the cities, and in the tumult of the multitudes" (_Zöckler_). +3. At the entrance of its doors,+ _i.e._ "standing on the further side of the gateway" (_Zöckler_) "at the entrance of the avenues" (_Stuart_). +4.+ The Hebrew words for men are different in the two clauses, "the first signifies men of high position, the second men of the common sort" (Psa. xlix. 2) (_Fausset_). +5. Wisdom.+ This is a different word from the one used in verse 1, and may be translated "subtilty," or "prudence," and though it is here used in a good sense, may, when the context requires it, be translated "artful cunning." +6. Excellent,+ literally "princely," generally rendered "plain," "evident," "obvious." +7. Mouth,+ lit. "palate." +Speak,+ literally "meditate;" the word originally meant "mutter," and grew to mean "meditate," because what a man meditates deeply he generally mutters about (_Miller_). +8. Froward,+ literally "distorted," or "crooked." +9.+ "Right to the man of understanding, and plain to them that have attained knowledge" (_Zöckler_). "To the men of understanding they are all to the point" (_Delitzsch_). +11. Rubies,+ "pearls." +12. Dwell with+ or "inhabit." +Witty inventions,+ "skilful plans" (_Stuart_), "sagacious counsels" (_Zöckler_). +14. Sound wisdom,+ the same word as in chap. ii. 7 (see note there). Stuart reads here, "As for me, my might is understanding;" Delitzch, "Mine is counsel and promotion." +17. Early,+ _i.e._, "earnestly" (see on ch. i. 28). +18. Durable.+ Zöckler thinks this rather signifies "growing." +21. Inherit substance,+ "abundance." +22. Jehovah possessed me.+ The signification of this verb has been the subject of much discussion; ancient expositors, believing Wisdom here to be the eternal Son of God, deemed it necessary to reject the translation of the Septuagint, etc., who rendered it _created_, as the text then became an argument with Arians against the eternal co-existence of the Son. But most modern commentators, whatever view they take of the signification of "Wisdom," agree in rejecting the reading of the Authorised Version. The majority render it, "created;" Delitzch reads, "brought me forth;" Wordsworth and Miller, "got possession of," or "acquired." Wordsworth says, "The word occurs about eighty times in the Old Testament, and in only four places beside the present it is translated 'possess;' viz., Gen. xiv. 19-22; Psa. cxxxix. 13; Jer. xxxii. 15; Zech. xi. 5; in the last two it may well have the sense of getting, and in the former of creating." +23. Set up,+ Stuart, Miller, and early expositors render "anointed;" Delitzch and Zöckler prefer the Authorised rendering. +26. Earth, etc.,+ "the land and the plains, or the beginning of the dust of the earth." +27. Set a compass, etc.,+ "marked out a circle," _i.e.,_ "when He fixed the vault of heaven, which rests on the face of the ocean." +30. As one brought up,+ "as director of His work," or, "as a builder at His side." +36. Sinneth against,+ "misseth," so Stuart, Delitzsch, and Miller.

NOTES ON THE PERSONIFICATION OF WISDOM.--There has been great discussion among expositors as to who, or what, is to be understood by this personification. Many modern and all ancient expositors consider that it refers exclusively to the Divine Word, the Eternal Son of God, others understand it as relating entirely to an attribute of the Divine nature. There is a middle view, which is thus put by Dr. John Harris in his sermon on verses 30-36: "Others, again reply that it refers exclusively to neither--but partly to that wisdom which begins in the fear of the Lord, partly to the Divine attribute of wisdom, and partly to the Son of God, the second person in the Godhead." We cannot do better than give the views of a few eminent expositors and writers. Delitzsch thus comments on verse 22: "Wisdom takes now a new departure in establishing her right to be heard and to be obeyed and loved by men. As the Divine King in Psa. ii. opposes to His adversaries the self-testimony: 'I will speak concerning a decree! Jehovah said unto me, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten Thee;' so Wisdom here unfolds her Divine patent of nobility; she originates with God before all creatures, and it the object of God's love and joy, as she also has the object of her love and joy on God's earth, and especially among the sons of men. (See his translation of the verb in this verse--Critical Notes). Wisdom is not God, but is God's; she has personal existence in the Logos of the New Testament, but is not herself the Logos; she is the world idea, which, once projected, is objective to God, and not as a dead form, but as a living spiritual image; she is the archetype of the world, which originating from God, stands before God, the world of the idea which forms the medium between the Godhead and the world of actual existence, the communicated spiritual power in the origination and the completion of the world as God designed it to be. This wisdom the poet here personifies; he does not speak of the personal Logos, but the further progress of the revelation points to her actual personification in the Logos. And since to her the poet attributes an existence preceding the creation of the world, he thereby declares her to be eternal, for to be before the world is to be before time. For if he places her at the head of the creatures, as the first of them, so therewith he does not seek to make her a creature of this world having its commencement in time; he connects her origination with the origination of the creature only on this account, because that _à priori_ refers and tends to the latter; the power which was before heaven and earth were, and which operated at the creation of the earth and of the heavens, cannot certainly fall under the category of the creatures around and above us." Wordsworth, in accordance with the principle of interpretation set forth in the note at the beginning of