Translated as “land” over 1,500 times in the Bible, אֶרֶץ erets (H776) is the “dry ground” referring to the substance of the land surface or soil defined in Genesis 1:9-10; “Elohim said, ‘Let the waters [underneath](DSS) the heavens be gathered together to one [gathering],(DSS)(LXX) and let the dry ground appear;’ and it was so. [And the waters under the heavens gathered to their gatherings and the dry land appeared.](DSS)(LXX) 10 Elohim called the dry ground “erets”, and the [gatherings](LXX) of the waters he called “yamim”. Elohim saw that it was good.”
The second most often translated word for אֶרֶץ erets is “earth” (712 times). In 1828, Noah Webster, an American lexicographer and “Father of American Scholarship and Education,” wrote, “earth in its primary sense, signifies the particles which compose the mass of the globe, but more particularly the particles which form the fine mold on the surface of the globe; or it denotes any indefinite mass or portion of that matter.” Webster goes on to define “globe” as, “a round or spherical solid body or ball whose surface is in every part equidistant from the center.” Webster then writes “the earth” is a terraqueous ball (consisting or formed of land and water) that is not perfectly spherical. This definition of “earth” is not found in the Bible and inconsistent with the description of the third day of creation and definition of “earth” in Genesis 1:9-10 (cf. 2 Peter 3:5).
« Back to Glossary Index