Job 28:27

then did he see it then, i. e. when He made a decree for the rain in the act or at the time of creation, when He gave material agencies their laws. Then He "saw" Wisdom, she presented herself to His view.

and declare it The margin numberor count (ch. Job 38:37) gives a very good sense, the meaning being that God went over, enumerated or surveyedthe parts and complex powers of Wisdom. The meaning will not be greatly different if the rendering "declare" be retained and taken in the sense of uttered.This might be done by pronouncing the name of Wisdom, as God presents before His own mind the meaning of any servant or agent of His by calling him by his name (Isaiah 43:1; Isaiah 45:3). Others take "declare" in the sense that God gave expression to Wisdom in the varied works of creation. This is a very unnatural sense in which to take "declare." Besides, of the four expressions used, "saw," "declared," "established," "searched out," the first and last refer exclusively to acts of the Divine mind and it is improbable that the middle terms should refer to acts or operations of God's creative hand. Nor is there allusion to any to whom the declaration was made, God alone being referred to in the verse.

he prepared it Or, established it. The sense appears to be the same as in Proverbs 8:22 "the Lord formedme," i. e. gave me existence. The Writer conceives Wisdom, if not as a person, at least as something that has being or existence of its own. According to Proverbs 8:23 seq. Wisdom received its existence prior to the creation of the world. In the present passage it is not quite easy to say whether the idea be that Wisdom received existence increation or before it, at least it did so in connexion with creation ("then"). It is unnecessary, however, and contrary to the Poet's vivid conception of Wisdom as a real thing or being, to suppose that it was "established" when embodied in the stable, permanent order of created things, as if, being merely an idea before, with wavering outlines, it then became fixed. Neither can the meaning be that God "set up" Wisdom before Him merely as an object of contemplation; much less that He set it up as a "model" after which to work in creating the world, or constituted it "the conductor of the whole general order of the world." These are all additional ideas, hardly warranted by the expression employed.

yea, and searched it out The word yeaimplies that this searching out of Wisdom was something higher than the preceding acts. God explored Wisdom, He saw through it, and brought before Himself the full idea of all that was in its nature and its powers. The word can hardly mean He provedit, e. g. to see whether it was suitable or able for its great function, the guidance of the course of things in the world. This again is an additional idea, which the word does not express.