Unfurling the Heavens

The Hebrew scriptures use the language of pitching a tent to describe the sky. When Job, Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Zechariah speak of "the heavens" being created or maintained, the sky is compared to a tent above the earth. In the ancient world between Mesopotamia and Egypt there was no mention of the earth being a rotating globe: the earth as we see it around us is round as a circle is round, not as a ball. (See at Isaiah 44:13 — a tradesman can make it with a compass.) The sky is stretched out as a tent above it.

Consider the following passages:

• Job 9:8
• Psalm 104:2-3
• Isaiah 40:22 (also important, read literally, as the original inspiration of some modern "flat earth" beliefs)
• Isaiah 42:5
• Isaiah 44:2, 21-24
• Isaiah 45:12 — past tense, referring to the creation in the beginning
• Isaiah 48:13
• Isaiah 51:12-16
• Jeremiah 10:9-12
• Jeremiah 51:15
• Zechariah 12:1

Compare also:

• Revelation 6:12-14