“Ages ago I was set up”: “Ages ago” translates another time expression that emphasizes the antiquity of Wisdom. The word rendered “Ages ago” refers to the dim and remote past or future and is often translated as “everlasting.” Here the reference is to the most remote past, that is, “in the most distant past,” or as Good News Translation says, “in the very beginning.” “Set up” may mean “placed in position,” but that is somewhat unlikely and certainly unclear. The Hebrew verb upon which “set up” is based is much disputed. Some believe that the verb root means “to knit” or “to weave,” as used in Job 10.11: “[You] knit me together with bones and sinews.” See also Psa 139.13. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project considers the Hebrew text a “B” and accepts both “I was established” and “I was fashioned” as translations. In any event the language is figurative and continues the thought of “create” in verse 22. Accordingly something like “fashioned” (made) or “woven” is suitable. Good News Translation avoids the poetic image of “woven” and says “I was made,” while Contemporary English Version says “gave life to me.”

“At the first, before the beginning of the earth”: “At the first” renders a term related to “at the beginning” in verse 22. “Beginning of the earth” may need to be adjusted to say, for example, “before God began to create the earth.”

A translation that combines verses 22 and 23 expresses them as follows: “A very long time ago, when God hadn’t made this world yet, at the time he started his work, the first work he did was that he made me.”

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 .