HAYDOCK CATHOLIC BIBLE COMMENTARY ON THE OLD TESTAMENT

PROVERBS 8

CHAPTER VIII.

Ver. 1. Voice. Men are wanting to themselves: they cannot plead ignorance. C. --- Wisdom stands on high in the Catholic Church inviting all to virtue and happiness. W. --- Some explain this of the light which is communicated to men; but the Fathers apply it to Jesus Christ, some of the expressions regarding his divinity, and others his human nature. Eccli. xxiv.

Ver. 3. Doors. Amid disputants, whose eagerness ought to convince us of the preference due to wisdom over all terrestrial concerns. v. 10.

Ver. 10. Money. They are generally incompatible.

Ver. 12. Thoughts. All good comes from God, the eternal wisdom, (C.) which speaks here. W.

Ver. 15. Things. Power and knowledge are the gift of the Almighty. Rom. xii. 1. A prince who resembles God the most, is his best present. Pliny in Trajan.

Ver. 18. Glorious. Lit. "proud." H. --- But here it only means great. Is. ix 15. and lxi. 6. Riches too commonly nourish pride, and it is very rare to see them joined with justice. C.

Ver. 19. Stone. So the Sept. translate paz, (H.) which designates a more pure sort of gold. Gen. ii. 11. C.

Ver. 21. Enrich. Heb. "grant what is (real goods) an inheritance to them," &c. --- Treasures. Sept. add, "with goods. If I announce to you daily occurrences, I will admonish you to number the things of the world," (H.) and all past events. C.

Ver. 22. Possessed. As Christ was with God, equal to him in eternity. Jo. i. Sept. "created," which many of the Fathers explain of the word incarnate, (see Corn. a Lapide. Bossuet) or he hath "placed me," (S. Athan. iii. con. Arian. Euseb.) a pattern of all virtues. The Sept. generally render kana, "possessed," as Aquila does here. C.

Ver. 23. Up. Heb. "anointed." Sept. "he founded." Christ was appointed to be the foundation, on which we must be built. S. Athan. iii. Orat.

Ver. 24. Conceived. Having yet manifested none of my works. Since the creation, wisdom only seeks to communicate itself to us. C.

Ver. 26. Poles. Heb. "head or height of the dust of the world." H. --- I subsisted with the chaos, before things appeared in their present form. C. --- The poles denote the north and south, or the four quarters of the world. M.

Ver. 28. Sky. Prot. "clouds." Pagn. "the air." Vulg. Ã¦thera. Sept. "the clouds above." H. --- Moses assigns the higher and lower waters the same origin. Gen. i. 7.

Ver. 29. Pass. This is often remarked. Ps. xli. 8. --- Earth. See Job xxxviii. 8. C.

Ver. 30. Forming. Heb. "one nursed," (C.) or nursing, nutritius. Pagn. --- He was not an idle spectator. --- Playing. With ease and surprising variety. C.

Ver. 31. Men. God saw that all was good, but delighted most in his own image. M. --- He prefers man before all other corporeal creatures. W. --- To him alone below he has granted understanding, and a soul capable of virtue. The Son has also assumed our nature. Bar. iii. 37.

Ver. 35. Lord. Wisdom, or Jesus Christ, is our salvation, happiness, and life. Sept. "and the will is prepared by the Lord." S. Aug. often quotes this to prove the necessity of preventing grace. Ep. ccxvii. and clxxxvi. C.

Ver. 36. Death. Not in itself, (H.) but by adhering to such things as bring death. M.