EARTH, EARTH, CIRCLE OF THE (אֲדָמָה֒, H141, land, soil, אֶ֫רֶץ, H824, land, earth, עָפָר, H6760, dust, γῆ, G1178, earth, οικουμένη, inhabited earth; חוּג֮, H2553, vault, horizon). There is considerable overlapping of meaning in these words. Sometimes it is hard to define the territorial limits intended by “land” or “earth.” Poetic references are even more difficult. The word for “circle,” חוּג֮, H2553, is derived either from חוּג֒, H2552, “to draw round, make a circle” or חָקַק, H2980, “to trace, mark out a circle over the face of the deep.” The phrase itself appears only in Isaiah 40:22, where God “sits above the circle of the earth.” Job 22:14 refers to God “walk(ing) on the vault of heaven,” and Proverbs 8:27 describes a “circle” placed upon the deep. This last reference, esp., suggests a boundary, and some would treat the “circle of the earth” as a protective wall, or mountains, which guard the earth from the foreboding waters around it. Such an interpretation imposes too much upon חוּג֮, H2553, however, for it has a less precise meaning, more like “horizon.” “Sphere” may likewise be reading something into חוּג֮, H2553.