and "valleys", by the Targum here: or the "out parts" ; the extremities of the earth, the two poles of it; the uninhabitable parts of the earth, as distinct from the habitable part of it afterwards mentioned: or all with out it; the ambient and spacious ether;nor the highest part of the dust of the world: meaning, not the mountains and hills, which are before mentioned, and are the highest part of the earth; but rather "the chief of the dust of the earth" , as the words may be rendered; these are the metals and minerals within it; the gold, silver, and precious stones, of which we read very early, Ge 2:12; or the "beginning", the first and chief, the "prima materia", even the dusts of the world, out of which man and all the creatures were made, Ge 2:6.
Dr. Lister was of opinion that sand was once the most exterior and general cover of the surface of the whole earth; partly because all our northern mountains are covered with it, more or less, at this day; and partly because of its great hardness, durableness, and unalterable quality; and the higher the mountains be, he says, still the more and coarser the sand is; and if so, this might with propriety be called the highest part of the dust of the earth.
But Christ was before any of them, as well as is more excellent than they. Or it may be man is designed, who was made of the dust of the earth; even the first man Adam, so Jarchi, Ge 2:7; before whom Christ was: yea, the human nature of Christ himself may be meant, which is fairer than any of the children of men, and the chief of all the individuals of human nature; being without sin, and united to the Son of God, and also the curious workmanship of the Spirit of God.
Now Christ, as the Son of God, as the only begotten of the Father, existed before his human nature did, or before he was the Son of man. twuwx "quae extra sunt", Tigurine version, Vatablus; "exteriora", Cocceius, Michaelis.
var "caput", Montanus, Tigurine version; "summam", Cocceius, Michaelis, Schultens. In Philosoph. Transact. abridged, vol. 2. p.