Proverbs 8:22–31 (NKJV) — 22 “The Lord possessed me at the beginning of His way, Before His works of old. 23 I have been established from everlasting, From the beginning, before there was ever an earth. 24 When there were no depths I was brought forth, When there were no fountains abounding with water. 25 Before the mountains were settled, Before the hills, I was brought forth; 26 While as yet He had not made the earth or the fields, Or the primal dust of the world. 27 When He prepared the heavens, I was there, When He drew a circle on the face of the deep, 28 When He established the clouds above, When He strengthened the fountains of the deep, 29 When He assigned to the sea its limit, So that the waters would not transgress His command, When He marked out the foundations of the earth, 30 Then I was beside Him as a master craftsman; And I was daily His delight, Rejoicing always before Him, 31 Rejoicing in His inhabited world, And my delight was with the sons of men.

Wisdom was with God before creation. Wisdom is an attribute of God, and as such, it was with Him from the very beginning, even before the dawn of creation. God delights in wisdom as do wise parents in their children. Wisdom rejoices particularly in those people who receive her. She is above the reach of the animal kingdom, and she has no purpose in dwelling in the uninhabited parts of the earth.

Some people use this passage in an attempt to make wisdom a second person “in” the Godhead. But it obviously personifies the attribute of wisdom as a woman in contrast to folly, as throughout this section of Proverbs. The Bible clearly teaches the absolute oneness of God and excludes the concept of plural divine persons (Deuteronomy 6:4; Galatians 3:20).

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