Earth, land

(Gen. 1:1; Ps. 24:1 [23:1]) — in Hebrew called eretz. The Hebrews, however, had other various names for designating the word “earth.” It was otherwise called by them by the words adamah and aphar. By the names eretz and adamah was generally denoted the whole earth, or the entire globe. The word adamah, that is, “red earth,” often denotes land fit for cultivation (Gen. 4:11; Isa. 1:7; 30:23). By the word aphar is denoted dry, sandy ground (Num. 23:10), represented in the cited passage as an emblem of a numerous people.

The first man was created from the dust of the ground (Gen. 2:7), to which each of us shall likewise return (Gen. 3:19; Job 10:9; Eccl. 12:7). The word “earth” is often used by the sacred writers also to denote some particular country or state. Thus the expression “all the kingdoms of the earth” (Ezra 1:2) refers only to Chaldea and Assyria; not infrequently it is applied to Judea alone as well. The expression “the depths of the earth,” “the nether parts of the earth” (Isa. 44:23), may in the literal sense mean valleys, and in the figurative sense, the grave, the tomb, and sometimes serves as an emblem of deep humility (Ps. 63:9 [62:10]; Eph. 4:9).

Holy Scripture points to a threefold division of the earth among the sons of Noah, which was undoubtedly arranged by divine Providence, as the prophet Moses clearly testifies. “When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance,” he says, “when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel” (Deut. 32:8). “And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth,” said the Apostle Paul to the Athenians in the Areopagus, “and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation” (Acts 17:26).

From the first citation it appears, in some measure, that the land of Canaan was the original and divinely appointed inheritance for the Hebrew people. The posterity of Shem was to occupy Asia Minor, the posterity of Japheth to pass over into Europe, and the posterity of Ham was to people the hotter, southern parts of the earth, although we see that Nimrod and the Cushites peopled the plain of Shinar (see Babylon). The tenth chapter of the book of Genesis has a special ethnological character.

It states that from Japheth came fourteen sons, from Shem twenty-five, and from Ham thirty-one. It is, of course, not easy to trace the development of population from times of such remote antiquity; but even now some peoples can still be recognized by their forefathers, as, for example, the descendants of the Celts may be seen as descended from Gomer, the Medes from Madai, the Ionians from Javan, and so on. One of the sons of Eber was named Peleg, because in his days the earth was divided (v. 25).