Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom I am intelligence; I have strength.
In Proverbs 8, wisdom speaks in the first person. Here that speaker lists what He holds, and the next verses show what those things do in the world.
The chapter shifts partway through. One commentator marks the change at verse 12, and ties the speaker to the New Testament, which calls Christ the wisdom of God.
Wisdom is personified in these verses, and perhaps strangely, as "she." In fact, 1 Corinthians 1:24 speaks of "Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God," and Christ is not female. The answer is in 1 Corinthians 1:30, "Of Him (God) you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God." … So "in Christ" believers have wisdom from God, but this is wisdom as it works in them, which accounts for the female gender used here. Christ Himself is wisdom in His own Person, but He uses believers to declare His truth. In Proverbs 8 the first 11 verses are the female voice, that is, Christ in believers declaring the truth. The rest of chapter 8 (vv. 12-36) is clearly the voice of the Lord Jesus Himself, who in His own Person is the wisdom of God.
The ESV reads "I have insight." Older translations put it as a claim about who He is: I am understanding. Read that way, the words were spoken before He came into the world.
Before He came out of heaven, His recorded word said, "I am understanding" (Prov. 8:14); and we are told, "Understanding is a wellspring of life to him who has it" (Prov. 16:22). We made our beginning in this when we were brought to the fear of the Lord. All that hate Him love death: but whoever finds Him finds life (Prov. 8:35). He is now found, thank God, by those who did not seek Him, as Isaiah foretold (Rom. 10:20). He sought and saved us when we were wandering in the wild wastes of sin and folly.
If counsel is His, then every piece of good advice ever given came from one source. That also explains one of the names given to Him.
He will be the source of all counsel for those who share the government and its benefits in that day. All counsel that is good has already proceeded from Him, for it is He who has said, "Counsel is Mine, and sound wisdom: I am understanding; I have strength. By Me kings reign, and princes decree justice. By Me princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges of the earth" (Prov. 8:14-16). It is divinely suitable, indeed, that He should be called "Counsellor."
The verse joins understanding to strength. That is what a believer needs when facing cleverness and deceit, and the answer is not to out-scheme the schemers.
Wisdom makes prudence its dwelling place, and there finds knowledge… So wisdom and its resources meet subtle adversaries, and they go deeper than every snare. Its base is that fear of the Lord which hates evil, and intellectual sharpness and craft are no match for it. For divine wisdom in the Word forms the godly in obedience. It does not train them in the cleverness that outwits craft by deeper craft, for that would only dishonour God and stain the soul. Pride and arrogance on one side, and the evil way and the twisted mouth on the other, are hateful to God and His people. They are the ways and the words of self. They are far from Him who leads in the path of obedience, and who gives counsel and sound wisdom to those who wait on Him and keep His word. With Him is not only intelligence but strength — all we need in this tangled and shifting scene.
The next two verses apply this to kings and judges. Yet the state of government today tells a mixed story.
We cannot read His glory in the present state of government in the world, even though God Himself has set up the authorities that exist. There is government, and we have reason to be thankful for this. We know that all true justice comes from God's wisdom, as He tells us in Proverbs 8:15-16… Someone like Solomon showed remarkable wisdom in government, but that wisdom has been corrupted, like everything else committed to man's responsibility.
Yet the offer does not stop at the powerful. Kelly notes that the next verse widens it to anyone at all: "wisdom goes out far beyond rulers and the great, even to all that seek and prize it… God has no blanks for the real."
- Speaker. From verse 12 onward, wisdom is not a quality but a Person — Christ, whom the New Testament names as the wisdom of God.
- Counsel. Every good counsel ever given came from Him. That is why He is called Counsellor.
- Understanding. He does not just hold understanding. The older reading has Him say I am understanding — and whoever finds Him finds life.
- Strength. His strength meets craft with obedience, not with deeper craft, and that is all we need in a shifting world.
- Reach. The same wisdom stands behind kings and judges, and He is found even by those who were not looking for Him.
By me kings reign, and rulers make just decrees;
In this verse Wisdom claims to stand behind every throne and every court. That raises two questions. Who is speaking? And what does the claim mean for rulers who never acknowledge Him?
The chapter does not treat wisdom as a mere quality. What wisdom gives, and the power it holds, point to who is speaking.
Wisdom is a person. What wisdom gives, and the power wisdom has, make it clear that wisdom is a divine person. Kings and princes rule by that person, as well as the nobles and judges of the earth. This wisdom ordains the authorities that exist.
One writer traces this Person through the chapter's own words to the name Christ.
But in Proverbs 8 we get wonderful things predicated of wisdom. Wisdom speaks, not as an abstract quality, but as a Person capable of loving and being loved. "I love those who love Me, and those who seek Me diligently find Me." That Person tells us He was set up from everlasting and anointed from everlasting. The title Christ means the Anointed.
However men come to power — by appointment or by election — that process is not the real cause.
"By Me kings reign, and rulers decree what is just" (v. 15). By whatever means men may appoint or elect rulers, such men are only pawns in the hand of the Lord Jesus, for He who is Wisdom is perfectly in control of all this.
The clearest test case is Pilate, the man who judged Jesus. The Lord told him where his authority came from.
The Lord did not dispute Pilate's authority. But where did it come from? "You would have no authority over Me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered Me over to you has the greater sin." "There is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God"; so wrote the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Romans (13:1). "By Me kings reign, and rulers decree what is just"; so Wisdom speaks in the Old Testament (Prov. 8:15). Pilate had authority, but it was delegated authority. It was from above — that is, from God. So it was fitting for him to judge justly.
Delegated authority comes with a job description the ruler did not write.
We now come to wisdom's direct place on earth, in God's government of the world. Government, righteous judgment, and the rule of the great all depend on it. So we read of the wisdom of Solomon. Rulers have to represent God. They must tell good from evil and uphold what is right by authority on the earth. They can only do this by divine wisdom.
Solomon is the example. He asked God for wisdom because he saw whose people he was governing.
He did not regard the people as his people, his to govern, his to serve God in, but God's people entrusted to him. This gives seriousness; and, further, it exercises conscience. So he asked for wisdom, for he surely needed it. Had it been his own people, he might have had wisdom enough; but, being God's people, he required wisdom from God.
The verse names where government comes from. It does not promise that today's governments show God's glory.
We cannot read His glory in the state of government in the world today, even though God Himself has set up the authorities that exist. There is government, and we have reason to be thankful for it. All true justice comes from God's wisdom, just as He tells us in Proverbs 8:15-16. Someone like Solomon showed remarkable wisdom in government. But that wisdom has been corrupted, like everything else God has trusted to man.
One writer marks a difference here. The Old Testament instructs rulers; the New Testament instructs believers under them.
None need wisdom so much as those in authority, the monarch in particular... The New Testament only gives instruction about submitting to authority. The Old Testament also instructs those who hold it. The Christian waits to reign with Christ, content meanwhile to suffer with Him and for Him. No command, no principle, no fact assumes he will hold worldly power in the world that rejected Christ. That waits until Christ appears to judge the world.
- Source. The "Me" of this verse is not an idea but a divine Person — the One through whom kings reign and judges judge.
- Delegated. Every throne holds borrowed power. The Lord told Pilate his authority came from above.
- Required. Rulers stand in God's place to tell good from evil. Only God's wisdom makes that possible, which is why Solomon asked for it.
- Corrupted. Government is God's gift, yet man has spoiled it like everything else in his hands. We cannot read God's glory in it now.
- Waiting. The Christian submits rather than grasps power here, and waits to reign with Christ.
by me princes rule, and nobles, all the judges of the earth.
The verse before this one spoke of kings; this one widens the claim to princes, nobles and judges. Two questions follow: who is the "me" who speaks here, and what does this mean for anyone who holds power?
Older translations end this verse with "all the judges of the earth." The ESV reads "all who govern justly." The quotes below follow the older wording.
Wisdom here does not behave like an abstract quality. It speaks, claims, and hands out authority — and the reach of what it claims points past a virtue to someone alive.
Wisdom is a person. What wisdom gives, and the power wisdom has, make it clear that wisdom is a divine person. Kings and princes rule by that person, as well as the nobles and judges of the earth. This wisdom appoints the powers that exist.
The verse names the people whose decisions fall on others. Those are exactly the people least able to manage without wisdom — though the New Testament speaks to believers differently.
None need wisdom so much as those in authority, the king in particular. "By me princes rule and nobles, all the judges of the earth." But this very language fittingly marks the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament. That is, it marks the entirely new state of things under the gospel compared with the law. For the New Testament instructs only in subjection to authority. The Old Testament instructs those who wield it as well. The Christian waits to reign with Christ, content meanwhile to suffer with Him and for Him.
A judge's work is to tell right from wrong on God's behalf. That is not a skill a man supplies for himself.
We now come to wisdom's direct earthly side, in connection with God's government of the earth. Government, righteous judgment, the rule of the great, all depend on it. So we read of the wisdom of Solomon. Rulers have to represent God on the earth. They must tell good from evil and uphold what is right by their authority. They can do this only by divine wisdom.
Pilate, the Roman governor who tried Jesus, held the power of life and death. Jesus did not deny that power. He named its source.
"You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin." … "By Me princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges of the earth"; so speaks Wisdom in the Old Testament (Prov. 8:15-16). Pilate had authority, but it was delegated authority. It was from above — that is, from God. To judge righteous judgment therefore became him.
Commentators are careful about how far the verse goes. The office is God's gift; the character of the man filling it is another matter.
It definitely asserts that the authority to govern has been given by God. It does not say that the particular individuals who exercise the authority are of God, or that the way they may use their authority is of God. Those who exercise authority may be, and often are, thoroughly wicked men, who may abuse the power for their own ends. The fact remains: God instituted the authority they wield.
If the verse is true, then the courts and offices around us are worth being thankful for. But nobody should read the glory of God off the present state of world affairs.
Nor can we read His glory in the present state of government in the world, even though God Himself has set up the authorities that exist. There is government, and we have reason to be thankful for this. We know that all true justice comes from God's wisdom … In someone like Solomon, remarkable wisdom in government appeared. But it has been corrupted, like everything else committed to man's responsibility.
The One who supplies counsel to rulers now carries a name in Isaiah that matches this verse exactly, and a day is coming when the supply will be direct.
"COUNSELLOR." He will be the source of all counsel for those who share the government and its benefits in that day. All counsel that is good has already come from Him, for He it is who has said, "Counsel is Mine, and sound wisdom: I am understanding; I have strength … By Me princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges of the earth" (Prov. 8:14-16). It is divinely fitting, indeed, that He should be called "Counsellor."
- Source. The "me" of this verse is not a quality but a person — a divine person. Kings, princes, nobles and judges all hold their place from Him.
- Loan. Every ruler's power is on loan. Pilate had real authority over Jesus, but God gave it to him from above.
- Need. Those who govern need wisdom most, because their task is to represent God in telling good from evil.
- Limit. The office is God's institution; that does not make the officeholder good, or his use of power right.
- Horizon. The same Counsellor who gives all good counsel now will counsel those who share His government in the coming day.