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.