Bible Strands
Proverbs 8:31
I was rejoicing in His whole world, delighting together in the sons of men.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Wisdom addresses her audience while describing her pre-creation activity alongside God. This description follows her identification as a master craftsman in the preceding verse.
The words — The Hebrew מְשַׂחֶקֶת (mesaḥeqet) translates literally as "playing," paired with שַׁעֲשׁוּעַי (shaʿăšûʿay), meaning "my delights." These terms denote the speaker's active engagement within the created earth and among human beings.
The thread — The text describes delighting in the earth and humankind, a motif that runs parallel to Psalms 16:3 where the speaker's delight resides specifically in the saints and excellent ones in the land.
Why it lands — The passage requires the reader to acknowledge that divine joy precedes human existence and is directed toward the created order. It demands practical alignment with this pattern by heeding the immediate instruction to keep the ways being described.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men.
Cross-references
- Psalms 16:3 As for the saints in the land, they are the excellence in whom all my delight resides.
- John 13:1 It was now just before the Passover Feast, and Jesus knew that His hour had come to leave this world and return to the Father. Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the very end.
- Psalms 40:6 Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but my ears You have opened. Burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not require.
- 2 Corinthians 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.
- John 4:34 Jesus explained, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work.