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Journey of a Passage

Proverbs 8:30

Amon: master craftsman or little child?

"Then I was by him, amon, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing (literally playing) always before him." The Hebrew word amon is rare and its meaning is debated: "master craftsman" (amman), "nursling" or "darling child" (amun), or "faithfully." The library's Greek and Latin read Wisdom as arranging or ordering things with God (Giguet "disposant tout avec lui"; Vulgate "cuncta componens").

Same letters, different readings: the consonants agree, but ancient readers vocalized or interpreted them differently

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. The proverb as first composedCollections from the monarchy to the Persian period (debated)
  2. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from The proverb as first composed
Greek
  1. Greek Proverbs (library: Giguet's French)Old Greek c. 2nd century BC; French 1872Translated from the Old Greek Proverbs
Latin
  1. Latin Vulgate (Clementine)Jerome c. AD 398, from Hebrew; edition 1592Translated from the Hebrew text Jerome used
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

Every witness, in order

  1. Collections from the monarchy to the Persian period (debated)

    The proverb as first composed

    – No copy survives

    No original survives. The oldest Hebrew copies of Proverbs are two small Qumran fragments (4Q102, 4Q103, 1st century BC – 1st century AD, reported).

  2. Jerome c. AD 398, from Hebrew; edition 1592

    Latin Vulgate (Clementine)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Hebrew text Jerome used

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

    cum eo eram, cuncta componens. Et delectabar per singulos dies, ludens coram eo omni tempore,

    Latin position: Proverbs 8:30. Jerome translated Proverbs from Hebrew (c. AD 398), so the Vulgate is an indirect witness to a Hebrew text, with Jerome's interpretation.

  3. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from The proverb as first composed

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

    וָֽאֶהְיֶ֥ה אֶצְל֗וֹ אָ֫מ֥וֹן וָֽאֶהְיֶ֣ה שַׁ֭עֲשֻׁעִים י֤וֹם ׀ י֑וֹם מְשַׂחֶ֖קֶת לְפָנָ֣יו בְּכָל־עֵֽת׃

    And I was beside him, amon (craftsman? child?), and I was delight day by day, playing before him at all times

    Hebrew position: Proverbs 8:30.

  4. 1611

    King James Bible

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

    Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him;

  5. Old Greek c. 2nd century BC; French 1872

    Greek Proverbs (library: Giguet's French)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Old Greek Proverbs

    How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

    J’étais là, près de lui, disposant tout avec lui; j’étais là, et il se délectait en moi; chaque jour, à tout moment, je me réjouissais de la vue de son visage;

    Greek (digital file) position: Proverbs 8:30. Giguet's 1872 French of a printed Greek text (D check). No Göttingen critical edition of Greek Proverbs is published yet; a C check needs Rahlfs–Hanhart and specialist studies.

What changed, and why

Craftsman: supported by the Greek (harmozousa, "fitting together") and Latin, by the creation context, and by Wisdom of Solomon 7:21 ("wisdom, the fashioner [technitis] of all things"); later Jewish interpretation followed it (Genesis Rabbah 1:1: "amon = uman, artisan": the Torah as God's blueprint).

Child: supported by the immediate imagery of delight and play (sha'ashu'im, "delight," used of a child in Jeremiah 31:20; mesacheqet, "playing"), and by the birth language of vv. 24–25. Many modern scholars (for example M. V. Fox) prefer it.

The difference matters: a craftsman shares in making the world; a child delights in it. The Hebrew consonants allow both; the vowels in the Masoretic Text point toward amon, a form that fits neither perfectly. The site shows the options and does not choose one as certain.

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documentedThe library's Greek and Latin read Wisdom as arranging all things with God.
  • DisputedAmon in 8:30 means 'master craftsman.'
  • DisputedAmon in 8:30 means 'nursling' or 'child.'

Sources

    Related lessons

    • Proverbs 8: Wisdom Before Creation →In Proverbs 8 Woman Wisdom speaks at length. At the gates she calls to all people: her words are true, better than silver and gold (vv. 1–11). Through her kings reign and rulers judge justly; she gives riches with righteousness (vv. 12–21). Then she tells her origin: the LORD "possessed" or "created" her at the beginning of his way, before the earth, the deeps, the mountains; she was beside him as he made the heavens and set the sea its limit, rejoicing in his world and "my delights were with the sons of men" (vv. 22–31). Whoever finds her finds life (vv. 32–36).