In the Prophets and the Psalms
In First Isaiah, rejoicing shall arise “in the middle of the earth in the center of the nations” (MT: בקרב הארץ בתוך העמים; LXX: ἐν τῇ γῇ ἐν μέσῳ τῶν ἐθνῶν). The exuberance is over the destruction of the “city of havoc” (קרית־תהו) (24:10) an enemy suzerainty; most likely, Babylon. The rejoicing will be such as one would find at a harvest festival:
For so it shall be in the middle of the earth in the center of the nations, as when an olive tree is shaken, as when the harvest of grapes is completed. They lift up their voices and sing of the majesty of the Lord, they shout from the direction of the sea (Isa 24:13-14).
In this Isaianic context, the middle of the earth in the center of the nations can only be Jerusalem or Mount Zion (see Isa 24:23). Remarkably, the description of Jerusalem or Mount Zion as “the middle of the earth” or “center of the nations” is a recurring theme in biblical tradition.
In Ezekiel, the prophet is instructed to cut his hair and perform various actions with the strands to symbolize God’s judgment upon Jerusalem. At a climactic moment the prophet declares, “Thus says the Lord God, This is Jerusalem, I have set her in the center of the nations , with countries all around her” (Ezek 5:5).
Later in the book, there is a shift in the prophet’s pronouncements of judgment from Zion to Gog, the enemy of Zion. The prophet warns Gog of the thoughts that this enemy has “To take spoil and steal a prize; to attack the waste places where people dwell, especially the people who were gathered out of the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, who dwell at the navel of the earth ” (Ezek 38:12).11Cf. Terrien, 1970, p. 333. “After the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 B.C., it was above all the belief in the Zion-space myth which enabled the surrounding Judahites to maintain their sociological identity and thus create Judaism. It was precisely at that moment that the prophet Ezekiel explicitly referred to Jerusalem as the navel of the earth.” I took this quote directly from Terrien, but I wish to acknowledge Charlesworth 1985, 720 note i, for his mention of this source. The prophet is here referring to Jerusalem as the navel of the earth . Significantly, the prophet makes synonymous use of the terms “in the center of the nations” (MT:בתוך הגוים ; LXX: ἐν μέσῳ τῶν ἐθνῶν) and “in the navel of the earth” (MT: על־טבור הארץ; LXX: ἐπὶ τὸν ὸμφαλὸν τῆς γῆς ) when referring to Jerusalem.
In Psalm 74:2 (73:2 LXX) the petitioner prays “Remember your congregation, which you possess from ancient times, which you have redeemed as the people of your inheritance, Mount Zion, where you dwell.” Here the petitioner establishes the context for the rest of the psalm which laments the destruction of Jerusalem at the hand of the Babylonians. In verse 12, however, the petitioner returns the typical counterpoint, “Yet God my King is from ancient times, working salvationin the middle of the earth. ” The phrase “in the middle of the earth” (MT: בקרב הארץ ; LXX: ἐν μέσῳ τῆς γῆς) can only be a reference to Jerusalem.