He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, [and] hangeth the earth upon nothing.
Ver. 7. He stretcheth out the north over the empty place] Heb. Over Tohu. Aristotle saith, that beyond the movable heavens there is neither body, nor time, nor place, nor vacuum. But on this side of the heaven there are bodies, time, place, and, as it may seem to some, an empty place; for so the air is here called, over which, and not over any solid matter, for a foundation, God hath spread and stretched forth the heavens which are here called the north, because they are moved about the north pole; and besides, the north is held the upper part of the world, according to that of Virgil,
Mundus ut ad Scythiam Riphaeasque arduus arces
Cousurgit; premitur Libyae devexus ad austros.
Hence it is here put for the whole heaven which, held up by the word of God's power, without any other props, leaneth upon the liquid air, the air upon the earth, and the earth upon nothing.
And hangeth the earth upon nothing ]
Terra pilae similis, nullo fulcimine nixa,
Aero sublato tam grave pendet onus (Ovid. 6, Fasti).
The earth hangs in the midst of heaven, like Architas' or Archimedes' pigeon, equally poised with his own weight. Of this great wonder the philosophers, after much study, can give no good reason, because ignorant of this, that God hath appointed it so to be, even from the first creation, Psa 104:5 Hebrews 1:2 . The poets fable that Atlas beareth up heaven with his shoulders; but we confess the true Atlas, viz. the Lord our God, who by his word alone beareth up heaven and earth (This is the very finger of God, Aristotle himself admireth it, De Cael. 1. 2, c. 13); and it is here fitly alleged as an argument of his Almightiness. The greatness of this work of God appeareth hereby, saith Merlin, that men cannot spread aloft the thinnest curtain, absque fulcris, without some solid thing to uphold it.