The interpretation timeline

Prov 8:29

How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.

From the early Church Fathers to now.

1 Patristic · 1 Jewish · 2 Reformed · 1 Catholic

Prov 8:29 · Douay-Rheims
“When he compassed the sea with its bounds, and set a law to the waters that they should not pass their limits: when be balanced the foundations of the earth;”
Patristic before A.D. 750
523
A.D.
c. A.D. 450–523
“For in the beginning when He created the world and all that therein is, and when He was establishing things, wisdom worked with Him, even as Solomon saith, "The Lord by His wisdom laid the foundations of the earth, and He constructed the heavens by His understanding; and by His knowledge were the depths broken up, and the clouds distilled water." And again wisdom saith, "When He constructed the heaven I was with Him, and when He made a circle upon the face of the deep, and when He made firm the clouds from above, and when the fountains of the depths became strong." Now wisdom was with God in His primaeval works, but in this second creation faith is with Him; and in this second giving of birth He hath taken to Himself faith as a helpmeet. In everything faith cleaveth to God, and without it to-day He worketh no new things. It were an easy thing for Him to give thee birth from water and spirit without it, but until it is satisfied He doth not give thee new birth. He is able to make thee a new creature, and from being old to make thee new, but until He receiveth from thee faith as a pledge He neither changeth thee nor maketh thee a new creature.”
Source
582 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet
Scholastic c. 1100 – 1500
1105
A.D.
Rashi Jewish
1040–1105
“when He gave the sea its boundary and decreed upon the Reed Sea when he created it, on the condition that it split before Moses. when He established the foundations of the earth Heb. בחקו from an expression of engraving (חקוי), as in (Isa. 49:16): “Behold on [My] hands I have engraved you (חקתיך),” and so (Ezek. 43:14): “And from the bottom (מחיק) upon the ground.””
Source
666 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet
Post-Reformation c. 1650 – 1900
1771
A.D.
John Gill Reformed
1697–1771
“When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment,.... A perpetual decree, which never has been altered nor never will: he has placed the sand for the bounds of the sea everywhere, which it cannot pass, though its waves toss, foam, and roar; this is his decreed place, with which he has shut it up, as with doors, bars, and bolts; so that those proud waves may come hitherto and no further, Jer 5:22; when he appointed the foundations of the earth; which are laid on the seas and floods; nay, the earth is hung like a ball in the air upon nothing; and yet its foundations are such as that it shall not be removed; being the purpose and decree, the power and might, of the Lord himself, Job 26:7. Now Christ was present when those were laid, for he was concerned in the laying of them himself, Heb 1:10. The Lord asks Job where he was then, Job 38:4; he was not theft in being, but Christ was.”
Source
1849
A.D.
1774–1849
“Pass. This is often remarked, Psalm xli. 8. — Earth. See Job xxxviii. 8. (Calmet)”
1871
A.D.
1871
“commandment--better, the shore, that is, of the sea. foundations--figuratively denotes the solid structure (Job 38:4; Psa 24:2).”
Modern · 1953 →

The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.