Several Hebrew words are translated “earth,” but they are not employed to distinguish the earth as a sphere from the surface of the earth, or ground; nor to discriminate between the general surface of the earth, and any portion of it as “land,” or the soil of the earth. Thus adanzah generally refers to the earth as ground or soil: the rain falls on “the earth” (Gen. 7:4); “an altar of earth” (Ex. 20:24); man “returneth to his earth” (Psa. 146:4); but it often refers to the “land” of Israel: “prolong your days upon the land”; “dwell in the land”; “live in the land”; “the land which I sware unto their fathers” (Deut. 30:18, 20; Deut. 31:13, 20).
Another word, erets, has wider significations: sometimes the earth as a sphere: “God created the heaven and the earth” (Gen. 1:1); He “hangeth the earth upon nothing” (Job 26:7): but in other places it is restricted to districts: “out of that land went forth Asshur”; “after their tongues in their countries”; “in his days was the earth divided” (Gen. 10:11,20,25).
In the New Testament the word γῆ is employed for all the above various significations. It is used symbolically as a characteristic of man according to his natural estate. “He that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth” (John 3:31).
From the above examples it will be seen that in some instances where the AV has “earth,” the “land” only, or the land of Canaan, may be intended; the context must be studied in each case.