The Bible says the earth is spherical

God sits high above the round ball of earth.

Isaiah 40:22 The Message

The Bible Says the Earth is a Globe

Isaiah 40:22

The Message
God sits high above the round ball of earth.
The people look like mere ants.
He stretches out the skies like a canvas—
yes, like a tent canvas to live under.

Peshitta Holy Bible Translated
And him who sits on the sphere of The Earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretched out the Heavens like a vaulted bowl, and stretched them out as a tent for a dwelling

Douay-Rheims Bible
It is he that sitteth upon the globe of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as locusts: he that stretcheth out the heavens as nothing, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in.

Latin Vulgate

qui sedet super gyrum terrae et habitatores eius sunt quasi lucustae qui extendit velut nihilum caelos et expandit eos sicut tabernaculum ad inhabitandum

It is he that sitteth upon the globe of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as locusts: he that stretcheth out the heavens as nothing, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in.

Isaiah 10:20-23

The Message

And on that Day also, what’s left of Israel, the straggling survivors of Jacob, will no longer be fascinated by abusive, battering Assyria. They’ll lean on God, The Holy—yes, truly. The ragtag remnant—what’s left of Jacob—will come back to the Strong God. Your people Israel were once like the sand on the seashore, but only a scattered few will return. Destruction is ordered, brimming over with righteousness. For the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, will finish here what he started all over the globe.

Isaiah 23:6-8

The Message

Visit Tarshish, you who live on the seacoast.
Take a good, long look and wail—yes, cry buckets of tears!
Is this the city you remember as energetic and alive,
bustling with activity, this historic old city,
Expanding throughout the globe,
buying and selling all over the world?

Amos 9:6

Geneva Bible 1560

He buildeth his spheres in the heauen, and hath layde the foundation of his globe of elementes in the earth: hee calleth the waters of the sea, and powreth them out vpon the open earth: the Lorde is his Name.

Note: The Geneva Bible predates the King James Bible by 50 years. Here is a scan of Amos 9:6: geneva_bible1560 p747

Bishops’ Bible 1568

He buyldeth his spheres in the heauen, & hath layde the foundation of his globe of elementes on the earth: he calleth the waters of the sea, and poureth them out vpon the open earth, the Lorde is his name.

The Bible says Earth is a Globe in Other Languages

Isaiah 40:22

  • Albanian
    • “Ai është ai që rri ulur mbi rruzullin e tokës”
    • “He is the one who sits on the globe of the earth”
  • Dutch
    • “Hij is het, Die daar zit boven den kloot der aarde”
    • “It is He who sits there above the globe of the earth”
    • “kloot” means “ball” in Dutch.
  • French – Martin (1744)
    • “C’est lui qui est assis au-dessus du globe de la terre”
    • “It is he who sits above the globe of the earth”
  • Italian: Riveduta Bible (1927)
    • “Egli è colui che sta assiso sul globo della terra”
    • “He is the one who sits on the globe of the earth,”
  • Italian: Giovanni Diodati Bible (1649)
    • “Egli è quel che siede sopra il globo della terra”
    • “He is the one who sits on the globe of the earth”
  • Spanish: Reina Valera 1909
    • “Él está sentado sobre el globo de la tierra”
    • “He is sitting on the earth globe”
  • Spanish: Sagradas Escrituras 1569
    • “El está sentado sobre el globo de la tierra”
    • “He is sitting on the earth globe”

Literal meaning directly contradicting each other

Earth Shape

  • Geometry
    • Circle
      • Isaiah 40:22
    • Rectangle
      • Four corners
  • Motion
    • Not moving
      • Psalm 104:5 NIV He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved.
    • Moving
      • Job 9:6 NIV He shakes the earth from its place and makes its pillars tremble.
      • Isaiah 24:19 NIV The earth is broken up, the earth is split asunder, the earth is violently shaken.
      • Jeremiah 50:46 NIV At the sound of Babylon’s capture the earth will tremble; its cry will resound among the nations.
      • Psalm 104:32 NIV He who looks at the earth, and it trembles, who touches the mountains, and they smoke.
  • Position in creation
    • On Pillars
    • In open void

Biblical scholars that understand ancient Hebrew and Jewish culture agree the Bible does not say the earth is flat:
http://www.freebiblecommentary.org/old_testament_studies/VOL11BOT/VOL11BOT_40.html

https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/isaiah-40/

Innumerable Bible-believing people and organizations claim the earth is spherical and do not hold the position that the Bible claims the earth is flat.

Organizations:

Biblical Scholars:

Denominations, Churches, Pastors, Universities, and other groups:

The Bible Says the Earth is in Space

Job 26:7

The Message
He spreads the skies over unformed space,
hangs the earth out in empty space.

Contemporary English Version
God, who hung the northern sky and suspended the earth on empty space.

King James Bible
He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing.

New International Version
He spreads out the northern skies over empty space; he suspends the earth over nothing.

English Standard Version
He stretches out the north over the void and hangs the earth on nothing.

Latin Vulgate

qui extendit aquilonem super vacuum et adpendit terram super nihili

He stretched out the north over the empty space, and hangeth the earth upon nothing.

What does the Hebrew word used in Isaiah 40:22 mean?

The Hebrew word is “chug”.

According to some, it can only mean a circle. Others claim it can mean either circle or sphere or ball or vault or horizon or to draw around or to make a circle. Words have multiple meanings.

The Concordance of Hebrew and Chaldee Scriptures page 284 (or page 300 of the PDF) gives the definition as “circle, sphere”.

Circle and Rectangle?

Isaiah 40:22 ESV

It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;

Isaiah 11:12 ESV

He will raise a signal for the nations
and will assemble the banished of Israel,
and gather the dispersed of Judah
from the four corners of the earth.

Taking the Bible literally leaves these as contradictory statements. If you add an interpretation to make them align you are no longer taking the Bible literally.

Job 26:7 ESV
He stretches out the north over the void and hangs the earth on nothing.

1 Samuel 2:8 ESV

For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s, and on them he has set the world.

The earth cannot literally be hung on nothing and set on pillars. Either this is figurative or the Bible is contradictory.

Biblical cosmology

Many flat earthers include the Book of Enoch as either canon or somewhat authoritative. The Book of Enoch describes the sun setting through 6 portals in the west. Then exiting the portals in the east when the sun rises. The 6 different portals are used for different times of the year related to the sun’s varying track across the sky throughout the year. The sun sets into a portal a night, travels under the earth and rises out of a portal in the morning. If this was the case, the entire flat earth would experience night at the same time. Is this literal? Adding interpretation makes it non-literal, just an opinion. Modern flat earthers do not adhere to Biblical cosmology, they disagree with it if they do not claim that the entire flat earth experiences night at the same time.

Enoch 72

2. And this is the first law of the luminaries: the luminary the Sun has its rising in the eastern portals of the heaven, and its setting in the western portals of the heaven.

3. And I saw six portals in which the sun rises, and six portals in which the sun sets and the moon rises and sets in these portals, and the leaders of the stars and those whom they lead: six in the east and six in the west, and all following each other in accurately corresponding order: also many windows to the right and left of these portals.

4. And first there goes forth the great luminary, named the Sun, and his circumference is like the circumference of the heaven, and he is quite filled with illuminating and heating fire.

5. The chariot on which he ascends, the wind drives, and the sun goes down from the heaven and returns through the north in order to reach the east, and is so guided that he comes to the appropriate (lit. ‘ that ‘) portal and shines in the face of the heaven.