Yahweh, had constituted me the beginning of his way, before his works, at the commencement of that time;

At the outset of the ages, had I been established, in advance of the antiquities of the earth;

When there was no resounding deep, I had been brought forth, when there were no fountains, abounding with water;

Ere yet the mountains had been settled, before the hills, had I been brought forth;

Or ever he had made the land and the wastes, or the top of the dry parts of the world:

And lo! there had come up all over it - thorns, there had covered the face thereof - thistles, and, the stone fence thereof, had been thrown down.