The Meaning of Proverbs 8:23 Explained

Proverbs 8:23

KJV: I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.

YLT: From the age I was anointed, from the first, From former states of the earth.

Darby: I was set up from eternity, from the beginning, before the earth was.

ASV: I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, Before the earth was.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

I was set up  from everlasting,  from the beginning,  or ever  the earth  was. 

What does Proverbs 8:23 Mean?

Context Summary

Proverbs 8:22-36 - Finding Wisdom, Finding Life
The world did not come into being by chance. It was created by an intelligent Creator. Nothing is arbitrary or by accident. Law is the expression of the perfect will of God. It is founded on the inherent necessity which is at the heart of all things; and it is according to unchanging law that all things subsist. Yet never forget that God is Redeemer, as well as Creator, and reserves to Himself the right of suffering the infliction of a broken law, that He may step in to redeem those who are penitent and believing.
It would seem as if in Luke 7:35 our Lord appropriated these sublime words as applicable to Himself. How glorious it is that He appropriates Proverbs 8:31! He does not delight in us after we are redeemed, but before; and it is on this that He bases His appeal: Blessed are they that keep My ways, Proverbs 8:32. Let us watch daily at His gates, and wait at the posts of His doors. For to find Him is to find eternal life, 1 John 4:19. [source]

Chapter Summary: Proverbs 8

1  the fame
6  and evidence of wisdom
10  The excellence
12  the nature
15  the power
18  the riches
22  and the eternity of wisdom
32  Wisdom is to be desired for the blessedness it brings

What do the individual words in Proverbs 8:23 mean?

From everlasting I have been established from the beginning before there was ever an earth
מֵ֭עוֹלָם נִסַּ֥כְתִּי מֵרֹ֗אשׁ מִקַּדְמֵי־ אָֽרֶץ

מֵ֭עוֹלָם  From  everlasting 
Parse: Preposition-m, Noun, masculine singular
Root: עֹולָם  
Sense: long duration, antiquity, futurity, for ever, ever, everlasting, evermore, perpetual, old, ancient, world.
נִסַּ֥כְתִּי  I  have  been  established 
Parse: Verb, Nifal, Perfect, first person common singular
Root: נָסַךְ 
Sense: to pour out, pour, offer, cast.
מֵרֹ֗אשׁ  from  the  beginning 
Parse: Preposition-m, Noun, masculine singular
Root: רֹאשׁ 
Sense: head, top, summit, upper part, chief, total, sum, height, front, beginning.
מִקַּדְמֵי־  before  there  was  ever 
Parse: Preposition-m, Noun, masculine plural construct
Root: קֶדֶם 
Sense: east, antiquity, front, that which is before, aforetime.
אָֽרֶץ  an  earth 
Parse: Noun, feminine singular
Root: אֶרֶץ  
Sense: land, earth.