Tremble before him, all the earth; yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved.
1 Chronicles 16:30
The LORD reigns; he is robed in majesty; the LORD is robed; he has put on strength as his belt. Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved.
Psalms 93:1
He set the earth on its foundations, so that it should never be moved.
Psalms 104:5
I have heard some people quote these verses in support of the idea that the earth can't possibly be spinning through space, orbiting around the sun. "God says the earth doesn't move and God doesn't lie!"
If you read these verses in isolation without looking at the context or the underlying Hebrew, and if you squint just right, I can see why a person might think that, but if you take just a few minutes to understand what the authors were trying to communicate, you'll quickly see that it doesn't hold up.
For example, 1 Chronicles 16:30 is part of a prayer that David spoke after bringing the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. It's poetic and demonstrative, and--like almost all poetry--uses some very picturesque language that wasn't meant to be understood literally. Other lines in this same prayer describe the land (Hebrew eretz, which can be translated "land", "ground", or "earth") singing to God and speaking to the nations and peoples. If verse 30 literally means that the world (Hebrew tebel) cannot physically move, then verses 23, 24, and 31 must literally mean that the land speaks in an audible, comprehensible voice. We all know that it doesn't.
The Hebrew word translated as "moved" in these three verses is mot, which literally means to shake. It does not mean to move something from one place to another, as the earth orbiting the sun or a person moving from one room to another. It's used in Job 41:23 to describe the scales of the leviathan. I don't think anyone would seriously propose that the leviathan was in immobile statue, so it obviously doesn't mean that its scales can't move from one place to another. It's also used in Isaiah 41:7 to describe an idol that has been nailed to a base or other type of mount. Again, that doesn't mean the idol can't be moved. It only means that the idol won't wobble and fall over.
Clearly saying that the world or the earth can't be moved, does not have to mean that it is fixed in a static location within the universe or else we would have to say the same thing about finished idols and the leviathan.
"The world shall never be moved" doesn't even mean that it won't be moved in the literal sense of being shaken. Earthquakes happen all the time, even in the Bible. More than that, the Bible says that entire mountain ranges and oceans have been rearranged over time and will be again.
Even if you believe, despite the overwhelmingly massive evidence all around you, that the earth is a plane, standing on literal pillars, Job 9:5 says that God moves mountains and 9:6 says that he shakes the whole earth out of its place. Psalm 104:5 says the earth's foundations mean it can't be moved, but Psalm 82:5 says all the foundations of the earth are shaken. The selectively hyper-literal reading of flat-earthers requires that the earth cannot be moved and that it moves. It is inherently contradictory. It is physically, literally, and logically absurd.
Even if you believe, despite the overwhelmingly massive evidence all around you, that the earth is a plane, standing on literal pillars, Job 9:5 says that God moves mountains and 9:6 says that he shakes the whole earth out of its place. Psalm 104:5 says the earth's foundations mean it can't be moved, but Psalm 82:5 says all the foundations of the earth are shaken. The selectively hyper-literal reading of flat-earthers requires that the earth cannot be moved and that it moves. It is inherently contradictory. It is physically, literally, and logically absurd.
So if "never moved" doesn't mean that the earth's location is permanently fixed in the universe, and it doesn't mean that the earth never trembles or moves around in any way, what does it mean?
"The world shall never be moved" is just a poetic way of saying "This stuff sure is dependable compared to you and me." And that's all it means. It's an idiomatic expression (Dictionary definition of idiom), never meant to be taken literally. Neither David nor Job believed that the earth could never be moved, and I'm sure they would be dumbfounded if they learned that anyone had taken their words to mean that.
If any "teacher" says otherwise, you should immediately stop listening to them. They are not qualified to be a teacher of anything at all that requires a basic understanding of human language.
If any "teacher" says otherwise, you should immediately stop listening to them. They are not qualified to be a teacher of anything at all that requires a basic understanding of human language.
