Charles Ellicott Commentary Proverbs 8:26

"While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, Nor the beginning of the dust of the world." — Proverbs 8:26 (ASV)

The earth. —i.e., the cultivated and enclosed part of it.

The fields.— The open country.

The highest part of the dust of the world. Literally, “the head of the dusts of the fertile earth,” i.e., the heaps of the clods of arable land, or better perhaps, “the sum of the atoms of dust.” Some refer to Genesis 2:7 and interpret these words as referring to man, who was formed out of the dust.