Albert Barnes Commentary Proverbs 8:23

"I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, Before the earth was." — Proverbs 8:23 (ASV)

I was set up - Rather, “I was anointed” (compare Psalms 2:6 margin: 2 Chronicles 28:15). The image is that of Wisdom anointed, as at her birth, with the oil of gladness.

Or ever the earth was - literally, “from the times before the earth.”