8:4 “To you, O people, 2 I call out,
and my voice calls 3 to all mankind. 4
8:5 You who are naive, discern 5 wisdom!
And you fools, understand discernment! 6
8:26 before he made the earth and its fields, 7
or the beginning 8 of the dust of the world.
8:27 When he established the heavens, I was there;
when he marked out the horizon 9 over the face of the deep,
8:28 when he established the clouds above,
when the fountains of the deep grew strong, 10
8:29 when he gave the sea his decree
that the waters should not pass over his command, 11
when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
8:30 then I was 12 beside him as a master craftsman, 13
and I was his delight 14 day by day,
rejoicing before him at all times,
8:31 rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth, 15
and delighting 16 in its people. 17
8:32 “So now, children, 18 listen to me;
blessed are those who keep my ways.
1 tn Heb “sons” (so NASB); KJV, ASV, NIV, NRSV “children.”
2 tn Heb “men.” Although it might be argued in light of the preceding material that males would be particularly addressed by wisdom here, the following material indicates a more universal appeal. Cf. TEV, NLT “to all of you.”
3 tn The verb “calls” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for the sake of style.
4 tn Heb “sons of man.” Cf. NAB “the children of men”; NCV, NLT “all people”; NRSV “all that live.”
5 tn The imperative of בִּין (bin) means “to understand; to discern.” The call is for the simple to understand what wisdom is, not just to gain it.
6 tn Heb “heart.” The noun לֵב (lev, “heart”) often functions metonymically for wisdom, understanding, discernment.
7 tn Heb “open places.”
8 tn Here רֹאשׁ (ro’sh) means “beginning” with reference to time (BDB 911 s.v. 4.b).
9 sn The infinitive construct בְּחוּקוֹ (bÿkhuqo, “to cut; to engrave; to mark”) and the noun חוּג (khug, “horizon; circle”) form a paronomasia in the line.
10 tn To form a better parallel some commentators read this infinitive בַּעֲזוֹז (ba’azoz), “when [they] grew strong,” as a Piel causative, “when he made firm, fixed fast” (cf. NIV “fixed securely”; NLT “established”). But the following verse (“should not pass over”) implies the meaning “grew strong” here.
11 tn Heb “his mouth.”
12 tn The verb form is a preterite with vav consecutive, although it has not been apocopated. It provides the concluding statement for the temporal clauses as well as the parallel to v. 27.
13 tn Critical to the interpretation of this line is the meaning of אָמוֹן (’amon). Several suggestions have been made: “master craftsman” (cf. ASV, NASB, NIV, NRSV), “nursing child” (cf. NCV), “foster father.” R. B. Y. Scott chooses “faithful” – a binding or living link (“Wisdom in Creation: The ‘Amon of Proverbs 8:30,” VT 10 [1960]: 213-23). The image of a child is consistent with the previous figure of being “given birth to” (vv. 24, 25). However, “craftsman” has the most support (LXX, Vulgate, Syriac, Tg. Prov 8:30, Song 7:1; Jer 52:15; also P. W. Skehan, “Structures in Poems on Wisdom: Proverbs 8 and Sirach 24,” CBQ 41 [1979]: 365-79).
14 tn The word is a plural of intensification for “delight”; it describes wisdom as the object of delight. The LXX has the suffix; the Hebrew does not.
15 tn The two words are synonymous in general and so could be taken to express a superlative idea – the “whole world” (cf. NIV, NCV). But תֵּבֵל (tevel) also means the inhabited world, and so the construct may be interpreted as a partitive genitive.
16 tn Heb “and my delights” [were] with/in.”
17 tn Heb “the sons of man.”
18 tn Heb “sons.”