In the Bible, north, south, east and west often symbolise God’s vast presence and judgement.
The expression “ends of the earth” and especially “four corners of the earth” is found in the Holy Scriptures as a poetical way of speaking of the utmost borders and remotest parts of the world.
One of the earliest places is in the book of Job, where Elihu saith, “Hear attentively the noise of his voice, and the sound that goeth out of his mouth. He directeth it under the whole heaven, and his lightning unto the ends of the earth”
“Hear attentively the noise of his voice, and the sound that goeth out of his mouth. He directeth it under the whole heaven, and his lightning unto the ends of the earth.” Job 37:2–3
The Hebrew word rendered “ends” here is the same that is elsewhere translated “wings”; as a great eagle stretcheth forth her wings to the farthest tip of her wings, so the voice and lightning of the LORD reach to the outermost parts of the earth.
The prophet Isaiah foretelleth the future regathering of Israel: “And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth”
“And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.” Isaiah 11:12
These “four corners” are a beautiful figure for the four points of the compass—north, south, east, and west—declaring that God’s people shall return from every quarter of the globe.
Ezekiel, speaking doom upon the land, heareth the Lord say, “An end, the end is come upon the four corners of the land”
“Also, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD unto the land of Israel; An end, the end is come upon the four corners of the land.” Ezekiel 7:2
meaning judgment shall fall everywhere, without escape in any direction.
In the Revelation, John beholdeth in vision “four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth”
“And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.” Revelation 7:1
From his place above, the earth is seen as having four corners after the manner of a compass or a scroll spread out; the picture showeth that the angels have power over the whole world, and nothing is in no wise a scientific description of the earth’s shape. The number four in Scripture oft signifieth the world and the things thereof.
The phrase returneth once more near the end of the book: “And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea”
And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. Revelation 20:7–8
Even here, “the four corners of the earth” meaneth nothing else than the farthest nations and remotest peoples in every direction.
Some have mocked, saying these verses prove the Bible teacheth a flat earth with literal corners. But the Scriptures use the same kind of lively figures that all men use. When Shakespeare wrote that men came “from the four corners of the earth” to woo fair Portia, none took him to mean the world is square. We know it is poetry.
So it is with God’s Word. When we ourselves say a man has “searched the four corners of the earth” for something, or that news “went to the ends of the earth,” we speak not of shape but of extent. Likewise, whenever the King James Bible speaketh of “the four corners of the earth,” it simply meaneth “all the world, even to its farthest bounds.”
More Scriptures.
Job 26:7 – He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing.
Isaiah 40:22 – It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:
Psalms 104:5 – Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever.
Psalms 19:1 – (To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.) The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
Genesis 1:1 – In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Revelation 7:1 – And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.
John 1:3 – All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Proverbs 8:27 – When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth: