Psalms 24:2

24:2 For he set its foundation upon the seas,

and established ¹  it upon the ocean currents. ² 

Psalms 78:69

78:69 He made his sanctuary as enduring as the heavens above; ³ 

as secure as the earth, which he established permanently. ⁴ 

Psalms 93:1

Psalm 93 ⁵ 

93:1 The Lord reigns!

He is robed in majesty,

the Lord is robed,

he wears strength around his waist. ⁶ 

Indeed, the world is established, it cannot be moved.

Psalms 119:90

119:90 You demonstrate your faithfulness to all generations. ⁷ 

You established the earth and it stood firm.

Proverbs 3:19

3:19 By wisdom the Lord laid the foundation of the earth; ⁸ 

he established the heavens by understanding. ⁹ 

Proverbs 30:4

30:4 Who has ascended into heaven, and then descended? ¹⁰ 

Who has gathered up the winds in his fists? ¹¹ 

Who has bound up the waters in his cloak? ¹² 

Who has established all the ends of the earth? ¹³ 

What is his name, and what is his son’s name? ¹⁴  – if you know!

Isaiah 45:18

45:18 For this is what the Lord says,

the one who created the sky –

he is the true God, ¹⁵ 

the one who formed the earth and made it;

he established it,

he did not create it without order, ¹⁶ 

he formed it to be inhabited –

“I am the Lord, I have no peer.

Isaiah 49:8

49:8 This is what the Lord says:

“At the time I decide to show my favor, I will respond to you;

in the day of deliverance I will help you;

I will protect you ¹⁷  and make you a covenant mediator for people, ¹⁸ 

to rebuild ¹⁹  the land ²⁰ 

and to reassign the desolate property.

[24:2]  ¹ tn The prefixed verbal form is understood as a preterite, referring to the creation of the world.

[24:2]  ² sn He…established it upon the ocean currents. The description reflects ancient Israelite prescientific cosmology, which is based on outward appearances. The language also suggests that God’s creative work involved the subjugation of chaos, symbolized by the sea.

[78:69]  ³ tc Heb “and he built like the exalting [ones] his sanctuary.” The phrase כְּמוֹ־רָמִים (kÿmo-ramim, “like the exalting [ones]”) is a poetic form of the comparative preposition followed by a participial form of the verb רוּם (rum, “be exalted”). The text should be emended to כִּמְרֹמִים (kimromim, “like the [heavenly] heights”). See Ps 148:1, where “heights” refers to the heavens above.

[78:69]  ⁴ tn Heb “like the earth, [which] he established permanently.” The feminine singular suffix on the Hebrew verb יָסַד (yasad, “to establish”) refers to the grammatically feminine noun “earth.”

[93:1]  ⁵ sn Psalm 93. The psalmist affirms that the Lord is the king of the universe who preserves order and suppresses the destructive forces in the world.

[93:1]  ⁶ sn Strength is compared here to a belt that one wears for support. The Lord’s power undergirds his rule.

[119:90]  ⁷ tn Heb “to a generation and a generation [is] your faithfulness.”

[3:19]  ⁸ tn Heb “founded the earth.” The verb יָסַד (yasad, “to establish; to found”) describes laying the foundation of a building (1 Kgs 5:31 [HT]; 7:10; 2 Chr 3:3; Ezra 3:10-12; Zech 4:9) and God laying the foundation of the earth (Job 38:4; Pss 24:2; 89:12; 102:26; 104:5; Isa 48:13; 51:13, 16; Zech 12:1).

[3:19]  ⁹ sn The theme of God’s use of wisdom in creation is developed in Prov 8:22-31. Because God established the world to operate according to the principle of wisdom it is impossible for anyone to live successfully in his world apart from the wisdom that only God can give.

[30:4]  ¹⁰ sn To make his point Agur includes five questions. These, like Job 38–41, or Proverbs 8:24-29, focus on the divine acts to show that it is absurd for a mere mortal to think that he can explain God’s work or compare himself to God. These questions display mankind’s limitations and God’s incomparable nature. The first question could be open to include humans, but may refer to God alone (as the other questions do).

[30:4]  ¹¹ sn The questions are filled with anthropomorphic language. The questioner is asking what humans have ever done this, but the meaning is that only God has done this. “Gathering the wind in his fists” is a way of expressing absolute sovereign control over the forces of nature.

[30:4]  ¹² sn The question is comparing the clouds of the heavens to garments (e.g., Job 26:8). T. T. Perowne writes, “Men bind up water in skins or bottles; God binds up the rain-floods in the thin, gauzy texture of the changing clouds, which yet by his power does not rend under its burden of waters.”

[30:4]  ¹³ sn The ends of the earth is an expression often used in scripture as a metonymy of subject referring to the people who live in the ends of the earth, the far off and remote lands and islands. While that is possible here as well, this may simply be a synecdoche saying that God created the whole world, even the most remote and distant places.

[30:4]  ¹⁴ sn The reference to “son” in this passage has prompted many suggestions down through the years: It was identified as Israel in the Jewish Midrashim, the Logos or demiurge by some of the philosophers and allegorical writers, as simple poetic parallelism without a separate identity by some critical scholars, and as Jesus by Christian commentators. Parallels with Ugaritic are interesting, because Baal is referred to as a son; but that is bound up within the pantheon where there was a father god. Some of the Jewish commentators exhibit a strange logic in expressing what Christians would say is only their blindness to the full revelation: There is little cogency in this being a reference to Jesus because if there had been such a person at any time in the past he would have left some tradition about it through his descendants (J. H. Greenstone, Proverbs, 317). But Judaism has taught from the earliest times that Messiah was preexistent (especially in view of Micah 5 and Daniel 7); and the claims of Jesus in the Gospels bear this out. It seems best to say that there is a hint here of the nature of the Messiah as Son, a hint that will later be revealed in full through the incarnation.

[45:18]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “he [is] the God.” The article here indicates uniqueness.

[45:18]  ¹⁶ tn Or “unformed.” Gen 1:2 describes the world as “unformed” (תֹהוּ, tohu) prior to God’s creative work, but God then formed the world and made it fit for habitation.

[49:8]  ¹⁷ tn The translation assumes the verb is derived from the root נָצָר (natsar, “protect”). Some prefer to derive it from the root יָצָר (yatsar, “form”).

[49:8]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “a covenant of people.” A person cannot literally be a covenant; בְּרִית (bÿrit) is probably metonymic here, indicating a covenant mediator. Here עָם (’am, “people”) appears to refer to Israel. See the note at 42:6.

[49:8]  ¹⁹ tn The Hiphil of קוּם (qum, “arise”) is probably used here in the sense of “rebuild.”

[49:8]  ²⁰ tn The “land” probably stands by metonymy for the ruins within it.