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Explainer / Tanakh

Proverbs 8:22–23

Yehovah possessed me in the beginning of his way, Before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, Before the earth was.

יְהוָה קָנָנִי רֵאשִׁית דַּרְכּוֹ קֶדֶם מִפְעָלָיו מֵאָז׃ מֵעוֹלָם נִסַּכְתִּי מֵרֹאשׁ מִקַּדְמֵי־אָרֶץ

Hebrew
What we did

We kept the ASV's wording, in modern English: "Yehovah possessed me" and "I was set up."

Why

  1. The speaker

    is Wisdom, who speaks in the first person through this chapter (8:1).

  2. קָנָה

    usually means "acquire, get, possess" (Prov 4:5, "get wisdom"; Gen 25:10, the field Abraham "bought").

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    It can also mean "bring forth" or "make" (Gen 4:1, "I have gotten a man"; Gen 14:19, "possessor [or maker] of heaven and earth"; Deut 32:6). "Possessed" gives its usual sense.

  3. The Septuagint

    reads ἔκτισέν με, "he created me."

  4. נִסַּכְתִּי

    (8:23) is "I was set up, installed," the word used for installing a king (Ps 2:6).

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    It may also be read "I was woven, formed" (Ps 139:13). "Set up" gives the first sense.

Other renderings

"possessed me" (ASV, ESV); "brought me forth" or "created me" (NIV, NASB); "created me" (Septuagint).

Read Proverbs 8:22 in context