Proverbs 8:26
He had not yet made the earth, nor the rivers, nor the poles of the world.
Open Proverbs 8:26 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Adhuc terram non fecerat, et flumina, et cardines orbis terræ.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- Κύριος ἐποίησεν χώρας καὶ ἀοικήτους καὶ ἄκρα οἰκούμενα τῆς ὑπ᾽ οὐρανῶν.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- עַד לֹ֣א עָ֭שָׂה אֶ֣רֶץ וְחוּצ֑וֹת וְ֝רֹ֗אשׁ עָפְר֥וֹת תֵּבֵֽל
Haydock's commentary
Poles. Hebrew, "head or height of the dust of the world." (Haydock)
I subsisted with the chaos, before things appeared in their present form. (Calmet)
The poles denote the north and south, or the four quarters of the world. (Menochius)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Cyprian Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews, That Christ is the First-born, and that He is the Wisdom of God, by whom all things were made
In Solomon in the Proverbs: “The Lord established me in the beginning of His ways, into His works: before the world He founded me. In the beginning, before He made the earth, and before He appointed the abysses, before the fountains of waters gushed forth, before the mountains were settled, before all the hills, the Lord begot me. He made the countries, and the uninhabitable places, and the uninhabitable bounds under heaven. When He prepared the heaven, I was present with Him; and when He set apart His seat. …
St Athanasius Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.), Texts Explained; Sixthly, the Context of Proverbs viii. 22 Vz. 22-30. It is right to interpret this passage by the Regula Fidei. 'Founded' is used in contrast to superstructure; and it implies, as in the case of stones in building, previous existence. 'Before the world' signifies the divine intention and purpose. Recurrence to Prov. viii. 22, and application of it to created Wisdom as seen in the works. The Son reveals the Father, first by the works, then by the Incarnation
Chapter XXII . Texts Explained; Sixthly, the Context of Proverbs viii. 22 Vz. 22-30 It is right to interpret this passage by the Regula Fidei. ‘Founded’ is used in contrast to superstructure; and it implies, as in the case of stones in building, previous existence. ‘Before the world’ signifies the divine intention and purpose. Recurrence to Prov. viii. 22 , and application of it to created Wisdom as seen in the works. The Son reveals the Father, first by the works, then by the Incarnation.
St Gregory of Nyssa Against Eunomius, He then once more excellently, appropriately, and clearly examines and expounds the passage, “The Lord Created Me.“
Seeing then that all reasonable men admit that these expressions are to be read in such a sense as this, rather than in that which appears in the words at first sight, it is consequently probable that the phrase we are discussing, being written in close connection with them, is not received by prudent men absolutely and without examination. “If I declare to you,” she says, “the things that happen day by day, I will remember to recount the things from everlasting: the Lord created me.” What, pray, has the slave of the literal text, who sits listening closely to the sound of the syllables, like the Jews, to say to this phrase? Does not the conjunction, “If I declare to you the things that happen day by day, the Lord created me,” ring strangely in the ears of those who listen attentively? as though, if she did not declare the things that happen day by day, she will by consequence deny absol …
St Hilary of Poitiers De Trinitate or On the Trinity, Book XII
38. But this divine discourse has not left our understandings unenlightened, since it explains the reason of the phrase in what follows: God made the regions, both the uninhabitable parts and the heights which are inhabited under the heaven. When He was preparing the heaven, I was with Him; and when He was setting apart His own seat. When above the winds He made the clouds huge in the upper air, and when He placed securely the springs under the heaven, and when He made firm the foundations of the earth, I was by Him, joining all things together . …
The Fathers are given as they wrote. Where a passage lays the Passion on the Jewish people, the Church teaches that it cannot be charged against all the Jews then living, nor against the Jews of today, and that all sinners were its authors (CCC 597, 598).