By wisdom the Lord founded the earth; by understanding he created the heavens.
Parallel translations
- WEB By wisdom Yahweh founded the earth. By understanding, he established the heavens.
- KJV The LORD by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens.
- BSB The LORD founded the earth by wisdom and established the heavens by understanding.
- NKJV The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; By understanding He established the heavens;
- NASB The Lord founded the earth by wisdom, He established the heavens by understanding.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The LORD founded the earth by wisdom and established the heavens by understanding. The same wisdom that ordered creation is the wisdom offered to us.
Overview
Here wisdom is shown to be no mere human prudence but the principle by which God himself created and ordered the cosmos. To pursue wisdom is to align with the very grain of reality. The New Testament reveals Christ as the one through whom all things were made (John 1:3; Col 1:16), the wisdom of God in person.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Ps 104:24Yahweh, how many are your works! In wisdom have you made them all. The earth is full of your riches.
- Jer 10:12He has made the earth by his power. he has established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding has he stretched out the heavens.
- John 1:3All things were made through him. Without him was not anything made that has been made.
- Jer 51:15“He has made the earth by his power. He has established the world by his wisdom. By his understanding he has stretched out the heavens.
- Ps 136:5To him who by understanding made the heavens; for his loving kindness endures forever:
- Prov 8:27–29When he established the heavens, I was there; when he set a circle on the surface of the deep,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 3:19 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.