Proverbs 8:30

30. Then I… by him Translation: “There was I, his chosen darling; there was I, his delight, day by day, sporting before him (as a beloved child) all the time.” The particle אצלו , ( etslo,) rendered by him in the Authorized Version, may mean that; but the root, among other significations, has “to reserve,” “keep near one,” and hence “to select,” “choose.” Taken in this sense, with the אמון , ( amon,) a nursling, (one nurtured by another, and hence beloved,) a darling, we make out the above, which agrees with the imagery following: “All the images in this [and the next verse] are borrowed from the state and circumstances of a darling, affectionate, playful child.” A. Clarke.

Although the rendering above given of this verse is well supported, yet there is some uncertainty about the word אמון , amon. The root-meaning of the word branches out in many directions. One is that of establishing, bringing up, rearing. Hence our Authorized Version renders it, “one brought up with him,” a nursling, foster-child, darling, etc. Others take it in the more active sense, of artificer, master-worker, or builder, fabricator, artist, etc. The Septuagint, Vulgate, Luther, and many Germans favour this idea. So, also, some English and Americans, as Holden, Boothroyd, Noyes, Muenscher, Miller, the Bible Com., etc. But Goode, Stuart, Conant, Fausset, Adam Clarke, Benson, etc, prefer the other view. For a defence of this view see Conant. It is a matter of choice and taste.

Fausset, indeed, who identifies the Hhokmah and the Logos, combines both thus: “I was nursed at his side,” amon, answering to John 1:18, the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father; “never separated from the Father; who seeth the Father always; who seeth what the Father doeth, so that he doeth the same himself, (with the same will and power;) in whom the Father is well pleased,” etc. Comp. John 5:20.