Earth
(1.) In the sense of soil or ground, the translation of the word adamah’. In Gen 9:20 “husbandman” is literally “man of the ground or earth.” Altars were to be built of earth (Ex 20:24). Naaman asked for two mules’ burden of earth (2 Kgs 5:17), under the superstitious notion that Jehovah, like the gods of the heathen, could be acceptably worshipped only on his own soil.
(2). As the rendering of ’erets, it means the whole world (Gen 1:2); the land as opposed to the sea (Gen 1:10). Erets also denotes a country (Gen 21:32); a plot of ground (Gen 23:15); the ground on which a man stands (Gen 33:3); the inhabitants of the earth (Gen 6:1; Gen 11:1); all the world except Israel (2 Chr 13:9). In the New Testament “the earth” denotes the land of Judea (Matt 23:35); also things carnal in contrast with things heavenly (John 3:31; Col 3:1, Col 3:2).
From Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897), by Matthew George Easton.
