Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Joseph Justiss <jljustiss AT msn.com>]

The question that has to be asked is how are these words used in the Hebrew 
Bible. From what I can tell the meaning would be something like "an 
unihabitable wilderness", i.e. a place hostile to human life. Another issue 
is whether the word for "earth" here really refers to the whole planet. The 
way eretz is used in the Pentateuch suggests tht a specific piece of land is 
in view which God is preparing for human life. A better Hebrew word for the 
whole planet would be tebal. A very in depth treatment of these issues can be 
found in the following book which does very detailed exegesis on the Hebrew 
text of Genesis 1.

 

Genesis Unbound: A Provocative New Look at the Creation Account (Paperback)

~ John Sailhammer (Author)                                        
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