“Before he had made the earth with its fields”: The word rendered “fields” is the plural of the word used in 1.20, where it refers to the areas in a town outside the buildings. Here it means the areas outside the town, that is, the open countryside, usually translated as in Revised Standard Version. In some heavily forested areas the only open areas are the cultivated plots.

“Or the first of the dust of the world” is literally “the head of the dust. . ..” “Head” in this context seems to mean “the first bit” or, as Good News Translation says, “the first handful.” “Dust” in the plural form as here is to be taken as “soil.” “World” renders a word meaning the entire expanse of the earth. The word is equivalent here to the earth. In any event there was no thought of the earth as a ball spinning in space.

This verse is a place where some languages repeat the main clause that is found in verses 24 and 25. In one translation, for example, a new sentence begins, “When I arrived [was born] the Lord had not yet made the earth and there were no food gardens.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Proverbs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .