Why do The Bible, and "God" refer to the earth as "flat"?

Isaiah 11:12

12 And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the FOUR CORNERS OF THE EARTH.

Daniel 4:11

11 The tree grew, and was strong, and the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the ENDS OF ALL THE EARTH.

(Psa 93:1 NRSV) … He has established the world; it shall never be moved;

(1 Sam 2:8 NRSV) For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s, and on them he has set the world.

It suggests the flat earth is on pillars or a foundation,so the earth never moves,which we know isnt true.Why do The Bible, and "God" refer to the earth as "flat"?
You're just trying to be stupid to annoy people, aren't you? Surely, you don't believe that these are saying that the world is flat.
In islam, and our holy book the qur'an, in the qur'an God tells us that the earth is round: "Will they not regard the camels how they are created...... and earth how it spread?"



And the earth have We spread out, and placed therein firm hills, and caused each seemly thing to grow therein…(Sura Al-Hijr 15:19)



Who hath appointed the earth as a bed and hath threaded roads for you therein and hath sent down water from the sky and thereby We have brought forth divers kinds of vegetation,…(Sura Ta Ha 20:53)



And Allah hath made the earth a wide expanse for you…(Sura Nooh 71:19)



The qur'an is 1400 years old by the way, and there are many more miracles in the qur'an if your interested visit this website:



http://www.mukto-mona.com/Articles/aviji…Why do The Bible, and "God" refer to the earth as "flat"?
It's referring to the world known to those that that verse was addressing. God knew there was more of the world, but His people didn't.



As for the others: Ever heard of a little thing called a "METAPHOR"?
Bible



The Bible does not say or describe the Earth as flat. Job Chap. 26 knew the earth hung on nothing in space. Read Job 26:10, Prov 8:27, Isaiah 40:22, Amos 9:6. In various verses, the Bible says the earth is round and hangs in space. The Bible revealed that the earth is round.



Whether we like the Bible or not it's evident that there are passages in the Bible that coincide with scientific principles that weren't discovered by scientists until hundreds of years after the Bible had been written. What you're referring to is north, south, east and west principles. Reread.



Quran



Islam considers the Earth to be flat. Dahaahaa does not mean "shape like an egg ". Some Muslim apologists like to cheat non-Arabic speakers. So the Arabic word for egg is baidah and not 'dahiyah'



Dahaahaa actually means "flatten". Therefore the concise meaning of Dahaahaa is “Spread out like a carpet and Flattened” for Surah 79:30 in the Quran book. An honest Muslim would tell you that especially if they really know Arabic.Why do The Bible, and "God" refer to the earth as "flat"?
That's just what you are reading into it. The four corners refer to the four principal directions, North, South, East and West. Pillars could refer to axis.



Isaiah calls the world a circle... but the Hebrew word used here also translates as globe, according to several authorities.
The Bible does not refer to the earth as flat. Consider the following verse. How is the Bible speaking? I do not believe these verses are making a scientific statement. Man uses these same terms today. In one sense there are four corners to the earth, etc. However you need to study for yourself and come up with your own conclusion.



Isaiah 40:22 It is he that sits upon the CIRCLE OF THE EARTH, ...
Isaiah 40:22

It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:





CAN YOU READ? THE CIRCLE OF THE EARTH!!!
So to have corners something has to be flat? I guess we will have to revisit thousands of years of geometry which tells us that three dimensional object can also have corners. Things like cubes, cylinders and even spheres (the shape of the earth). Spheres also have an "edge" and much of trigonometry involves finding things that are tangent to that edge. The terms "corner" and "edge" are not limited to "flat" objects.



But in the context of Isaiah 11:12, it reference is to the four compass direction of north, south, east and west, still used by science and intelligent, educated people today. In 1600 which the King James Bible was translated, the words "corners of the earth" conveyed that meaning, so it was correctly translated that way. In the 400 years since, the English language as evolved. Translations today correctly translate the same phrase as "the four different directions of the earth".



As for 1 Samuel 2:8, the phrase is in the middle of a very fanciful poem that includes phrases like:

he brings down the grave to nothing

he breaks the mighty like a bow

he raises up the beggar from a dunghill

he weights the acts of man

he makes them inherit thrones of glory

he keeps their feet in silence

...nothing in the context of this very allegorical poem suggest that the author is giving scientific information about the nature or creation of the earth. Rather if you read through the Old Testament, you will find that to "set something on a pillar" carried the same idea who have to today when we speak of "setting someone on a pedestal". (That is where the phrase comes from.) It refers to holding it in a place of importance. That fits with the context of the poem itself.
You know, people still use the terms "four corners of the Earth" and "ends of the Earth", but they don't believe the Earth is flat.



The other two have nothing to do with the shape of the Earth.



Let's hope that the Earth doesn't stray from its course... which is what Psalm 93 and 1 Samuel 2 are both referring to. The word translated as "moved" in Psalm 93:1 can also be translated as "slip off course." Too often people attack the Bible using the English translation, and they don't bother to consider that it was originally written in Hebrew and Greek, not English. So some of the terms may not be exact. That's why it's a good idea to consider the Hebrew and the Greek.



I don't know Hebrew (other than a word memorized here and there), but I do have a Strong's concordance (and a Hebrew-English Tanakh for cross-referencing. I think that those who like to attack the Bible as the asker has done here may do well to get one.
1) Why do The Bible, and "God" refer to the earth as "flat"?



Neither do.





2) Isa 11:12



Refers to the Earth as having 4 corners. As almost anyone can tell you, many, many, many shapes have 4 corners - almost all of them not flat. As we (and the Bible author at the time) all know, the Earth has many, many corners. Clearly he was not speaking of physical corners.





3) Dan 4:11



So - do you believe that Daniel was describing an actual tree that grew so tall that it could be seen from anywhere on Earth? No? Why not? The "why" is because it states very plainly that this was a **vision**. If you do not accept the description of the tree as being the description of an actual, physical tree of such unimaginable proportions (and it is quite obvious that you do not), why do you consider the description of the Earth that occurs in the same sentence to be a description of the actual, physical Earth?





4) Psa 93:1



So - since the world was established, who has moved it? Anyone? Anyone?



Imagine a semi with a fully-loaded trailer is traveling along a straight section of the interstate at 70 mph. You and I are at the edge of the road, and I tell you: "That semi cannot be moved". Obviously what is implied is that it cannot be moved from its present course. Obviously it is not a claim that the semi is not moving. Even more important: what has this to do with the shape of the Earth?





5) 1Sa 2:8



The only verse in The Bible that genuinely seems to support the claim that The Bible states the Earth is flat. However: who is saying this? Hannah, and she is saying this in a song.



Now - we know for a *fact* that there are *dozens* of quotes by people recorded in The Bible where what those people said is **wrong**. Rabshekah said he would destroy Jerusalem. Peter said he did not know Jesus. The people of Babel said they would build a tower whose top would reach Heaven. Etc. etc.



And Hannah said the world was flat.



Now - never does God imply that the world is flat. Never does a prophet imply that the world is flat. Never does an author directly imply that the world is flat. Only a song recorded by one author - a song sung by someone not God, not a prophet and not a Biblical author - ever implies that the Earth is flat.



Jim, http://www.bible-reviews.com
There it is, more proof the bible is not real. Back when those people wrote the bible they didn't know what we know today about our universe. They didn't have the technology. But God would have supposedly known. So! There you go.