When there were no depths, I was born, when there were no springs abounding with water.
Parallel translations
- KJV When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water.
- BSB When there were no watery depths, I was brought forth, when no springs were overflowing with water.
- NKJV When there were no depths I was brought forth, When there were no fountains abounding with water.
- NASB “When there were no ocean depths, I was born, When there were no springs abounding with water.
- NLT I was born before the oceans were created, before the springs bubbled forth their waters.
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
Wisdom was brought forth before the deeps and springs of water existed. She predates the most ancient features of creation.
Overview
Using vivid imagery of birth, the passage portrays wisdom as present before the primeval waters of the world. The point is wisdom's absolute precedence over everything created. This poetic language magnifies God's wisdom in creation and, for the Christian, points to the One who was 'in the beginning with God' (John 1:2).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- 1 Jn 4:9By this God’s love was revealed in us, that God has sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
- Prov 3:20By his knowledge, the depths were broken up, and the skies drop down the dew.
- Gen 1:2The earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep and God’s Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters.
- Heb 1:5For to which of the angels did he say at any time, “You are my Son. Today I have become your father?” and again, “I will be to him a Father, and he will be to me a Son?”
- John 1:14The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.
- Ps 2:7I will tell of the decree. Yahweh said to me, “You are my son. Today I have become your father.
- John 3:16For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
- John 5:20For the Father has affection for the Son, and shows him all things that he himself does. He will show him greater works than these, that you may marvel.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 8:24 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.