Verse 23. It was in the last times, that the Eternal Wisdom was set forth unto us, but it was _from everlasting,_ that He was set up to be a king over us. It was in the fulness of time that He offered Himself for us, but it was from the beginning that He was anointed to be priest unto us. It was upon the earth that His gracious lips taught us, but it was before the earth was that He was ordained to be a prophet for us. It is in Him that all are chosen who come unto eternity, and He Himself was chosen from eternity. From everlasting he was set up our King, to set us up an everlasting kingdom. From the beginning was He anointed our priest, to anoint us in a priesthood that shall never end. Before the earth was, He was ordained our prophet, to order our feet in that way which shall bring us from earth to heaven; He was chosen that we might be the chosen people of God.--_Jermin._ Verse 24. The order of creation corresponds to that which we find in Genesis i. Still more striking is the resemblance with the thoughts and language of the book of Job, chap. xxii., xxvi., xxxviii. A world of waters, "great deeps" lying in darkness--this was the picture of the remotest time of which man could form any conception, and yet the co-existence of the uncreated wisdom with the eternal Jehovah was before that.--_Plumptre._ At the period referred to here, creation was not yet actually framed and executed, it was only framed and planned; the whole being at once, in all its magnificence and in all its minuteness, before the eye of the omniscient mind, in its almost _infinite_ complexity, extent, and variety, yet without the slightest approach to confusion! All there, in one vast and complicated, yet simple idea!--_Wardlaw._ Verse 27. God's "setting a compass upon the face of the deep" seems to refer to His circumscribing the earth when in its fluid state, assigning to it its spherical form, and fixing the laws by which that form should be constantly maintained. I think it probable that this refers to the earth in the state in which it is described previous to the beginning of the six days' work, by which it was reduced to order, and fitted for and stocked with inhabitants. How was the fluid element held together in the spherical form? The answer is, God "set a compass upon the face of the deep, saying, This be thy just circumference, O World!" By the power of gravitation, affecting every particle, drawing it to the common centre, the equilibrium was maintained, the globular form effected and kept; which may here be meant by the poetical conception of sweeping a circle from the centre, and defining the spherical limits of the world of waters.--_Wardlaw._