Earth
Scripture's first sentence sets the frame: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Ge 1:1). The earth is at once a made thing, a possession of Yahweh, the substance from which humanity is shaped, and the present footstool whose figure points beyond itself to a new earth.
Created by God
The earth is presented as a work, not a given. Yahweh "stretches out the north over empty space, And hangs the earth on nothing" (Job 26:7). On the second day "[the Speech of] God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters" (Ge 1:6); the firmament is then made and the waters above and beneath are separated (Ge 1:7). Nehemiah's confession sums the scope: "you have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all things that are on it, the seas and all that is in them, and you preserve them all" (Ne 9:6). Jeremiah collapses the same act into three faculties: "He has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding he has stretched out the heavens" (Je 10:12); "you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm; there is nothing too hard for you" (Je 32:17).
The work is anchored in God's own eternity. "Before the mountains were brought forth, Or you had ever formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God" (Ps 90:2). Wisdom traces the same anteriority: "I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, Before the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth, When there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, Before the hills I was brought forth; While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, Nor the beginning of the dust of the world" (Pr 8:23-26). Peter rebukes those who "willfully forget, that there were heavens from of old, and an earth compacted out of water and amid water, by the word of God" (2Pe 3:5).
The act is purposive. Yahweh "formed the earth and made it, who established it and did not create it a waste, who formed it to be inhabited" (Isa 45:18). And after each cycle is broken, the rhythms hold: "While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night will not cease" (Ge 8:22).
Created by Christ
The New Testament refers the same work to the Son. "All things came into existence through him; and without him nothing came into existence" (Joh 1:3). "He was in the world, and the world came into existence through him, and the world did not know him" (Joh 1:10). Hebrews addresses the Son with creation language: "You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, And the heavens are the works of your hands" (Heb 1:10).
The Earth as Yahweh's Possession
Because the earth is made, it is owned. "The earth is Yahweh's, and the fullness of it; The world, and those who dwell in it" (Ps 24:1). The seraphic cry universalizes the claim: "Holy, holy, holy, is Yahweh of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory" (Isa 6:3). Habakkuk pictures sovereignty as survey: "[His Speech] stood, and measured the earth; He looked, and drove apart the nations" (Hab 3:6). Sirach turns the same ownership against pride: "What is dust and ashes proud about That so long as it lives its nation will be lifted up?" (Sir 10:9).
Pillars, Circle, and Corners
The earth has a shape in Scripture's imagery. Hannah's song speaks of "the pillars of the earth" which "are Yahweh's, And he has set the world on them" (1Sa 2:8); Job pictures the same pillars as movable in God's hand: "Who shakes the earth out of its place, And its pillars tremble" (Job 9:6). Above this structure Yahweh is enthroned: "[It is] he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are as grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens as a curtain, and spreads them out as a tent to dwell in" (Isa 40:22). The apocalypse retains the four-pointed image: "I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth" (Re 7:1). When Yahweh acts in wrath, the structure responds: "Then the earth shook and trembled, The foundations of heaven quaked And were shaken, because he was angry" (2Sa 22:8); and within the natural order, "The voice of his thunder makes the earth travail, By his strength he shakes the mountains" (Sir 43:16).
Footstool
The earth in relation to the throne is footstool. "Thus says Yahweh, Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: what manner of house will you⁺ build to me? And what place will be my rest?" (Isa 66:1). Within Israel's worship the figure narrows: David places the ark "for the footstool of our God" (1Ch 28:2), and the call is to "Exalt⁺ Yahweh our God, And worship at his footstool: He is holy" (Ps 99:5). When Zion is overthrown, the footstool is forgotten: the Lord "has cast down from heaven to the earth the beauty of Israel, And has not remembered his footstool in the day of his anger" (La 2:1). The same footstool image carries forward in Christological key: "Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies a stool for your feet" (Ps 110:1), repeated of the Son in Heb 1:13 and described at the cross's far side as "from now on expecting until his enemies are made the footstool of his feet" (Heb 10:13).
Given to the Sons of Man
Within the made earth there is a delegation. "The heavens are the heavens of Yahweh; But the earth he has given to the sons of man" (Ps 115:16). Genealogy and geography carry that gift forward: "to Eber were born two sons: The name of the one was Peleg. For in his days was the earth divided" (Ge 10:25).
Dust and Clay
The substance of the gift is humble. "Yahweh God formed the man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living soul" (Ge 2:7). The curse names the same substance as terminus: "for dust you are, and to dust you will return" (Ge 3:19). Sirach restates the inclusion both ways: "And all men are from the ground, And Adam was created of earth" (Sir 33:10); and "All things that are from the earth return to the earth, And that which is from on high [returns] on high" (Sir 40:11). Looking down on the species, "He looks upon the host of the height of heaven, And [on] all men [who] are earth and ashes" (Sir 17:32). Solomon: "the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it" (Ec 12:7). Job frames it as a return movement: "Remember, I urge you, that you have fashioned me as clay; And will you bring me into dust again?" (Job 10:9); "All flesh will perish together, And man will turn again to dust" (Job 34:15). The Psalmist appeals to the same fact for mercy: "For he knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust" (Ps 103:14). And Abraham's self-address before Yahweh, "Seeing now that I have taken on myself to speak to the Lord, who am but dust and ashes" (Ge 18:27), gives the posture this knowledge produces.
The same earthen material becomes the figure of God's prerogative. "Will the potter be esteemed as clay; that the thing made should say of him who made it, He didn't make me; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, He has no understanding?" (Isa 29:16). "Woe to him who strives with his Maker! A potsherd among the potsherds of the earth! Will the clay say to him who fashions it, What do you make? Or your work, He has no hands?" (Isa 45:9). The figure is then claimed: "But now, O Yahweh, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you our potter; and all of us are the work of your hand" (Isa 64:8). Yahweh applies it to the nation: "as the clay in the potter's hand, so are you⁺ in my hand, O house of Israel" (Je 18:6). Sirach generalizes: "As the clay of the potter in his hand, All his ways are according to his good pleasure; So men are in the hand of him who made them, To render to them according to his judgement" (Sir 33:13). And in the mundane workshop the same craft holds: "With his arm he fashions the clay, And he bends its strength before his feet; He applies his heart to finish the glazing, And his diligence is to clean the furnace" (Sir 38:30). Paul carries the figure into the new covenant: "has not the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel to honor, and another to shame?" (Ro 9:21).
Dust as Mourning Sign
Because earth is what man is, dust on the head is the body's answer to grief. Joshua and the elders, after defeat, "put dust on their heads" (Jos 7:6). Job's friends sat with him after sprinkling "dust on their heads toward heaven" (Job 2:12). The elders of Zion at the city's fall "have cast up dust on their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth" (La 2:10); the seafaring nations of Tyre's lament "will cast up dust on their heads, they will wallow themselves in the ashes" (Eze 27:30); merchants of fallen Babylon "cast dust on their heads, and cried out, weeping and mourning" (Re 18:19). Maccabees carries the same gesture: "Jonathan rent his garments, and cast earth on his head, and prayed" (1Ma 11:71).
A Cursed Ground, A Groaning Creation
The earth is not in the state for which it was made. To Adam: "cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you will eat of it all the days of your life; thorns also and thistles it will bring forth to you" (Ge 3:17-18). Paul reads the cosmos through that curse: "the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be delivered from the slavery of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now" (Ro 8:20-22).
Perpetuity
Within history the earth is durable. "One generation goes, and another generation comes; but the earth remains forever" (Ec 1:4). It is the standing image of permanence: Yahweh "built his sanctuary like the heights, Like the earth which he has established forever" (Ps 78:69). And of the foundations: he "laid the foundations of the earth, That it should not be moved forever" (Ps 104:5). Habakkuk's measuring divine "Speech" finds the "eternal mountains," the "everlasting hills" (Hab 3:6).
Destruction
Yet the earth's permanence is relative, not absolute. Isaiah pairs heavens and earth in a contrast with salvation: "the heavens will vanish away like smoke, and the earth will wax old like a garment; and those who dwell in it will die in like manner: but my salvation will be forever" (Isa 51:6). Hebrews uses the same image of the Son's enduring against the earth's wear: "They will perish; but you continue: And they will all wear out as does a garment; And as a mantle you will roll them up, As a garment, and they will be changed: But you are the same, And your years will not fail" (Heb 1:11-12). The Synoptic word agrees: "Heaven and earth will pass away: but my words will definitely not pass away" (Mr 13:31), and again, "Heaven and earth will pass away: but my words will not pass away" (Lu 21:33). Peter's "day of the Lord" elaborates: "the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are in it will not be found... the heavens being on fire will be dissolved, and the elements will melt with fervent heat" (2Pe 3:10, 12). At the throne-vision: "from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them" (Re 20:11).
A New Earth
The same prophets who see the first earth pass speak of one to come. "For, look, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things will not be remembered, nor come into mind" (Isa 65:17). Its endurance is promised: "as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, will remain before me, says Yahweh, so will your⁺ seed and your⁺ name remain" (Isa 66:22). Peter joins the destruction to that promise: "according to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells" (2Pe 3:13). And John sees what was promised: "I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away; and the sea is no more" (Re 21:1).