Isaiah 22:18

Lexical comparison

Isaiah (Major Prophet, Old Testament) · Prophetic oracle (against Shebna)

Verse & chapter context

World English Bible (verified corpus)

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What the passage explicitly says

God will roll/wind Shebna around like a כַּדּוּר (kaddur — a ball) and throw him into a wide land.

What requires interpretation

This passage is stored here as the lexical comparator for chug vs. kaddur. It does not itself describe the earth.

Flat-circle interpretation

Confirms that the Hebrew word for a ball is kaddur, not chug. Isaiah 40:22 uses chug (circle), so Isaiah does not describe the earth with the ball-word.

Globe-compatible interpretation

The verse is not about earth's shape; it is about Shebna. But it establishes the Hebrew lexicon: kaddur = ball. Any 'sphere' interpretation of Isaiah 40:22 must argue from context, not from vocabulary.

Original-language study

כַּדּוּר
kaddur · H1754
Hebrew

A ball. BDB: 'ball'. Used in Isaiah 22:18 of a ball tossed into a wide land. This is the Hebrew word for a ball; it is not the word used in Isaiah 40:22.

Brown–Driver–Briggs (BibleHub reprint)
חוּג
chug · H2329
Hebrew

A circle; a circuit; a compass-drawn arc or vault. BDB gives 'circle, vault'. Distinct from a three-dimensional ball.

Brown–Driver–Briggs (BibleHub reprint)

Lexical comparison — Isaiah 40:22 (חוּג) vs. Isaiah 22:18 (כַּדּוּר)

Isaiah 40:22 uses chug (H2329) — circle, circuit, or drawn boundary. Isaiah 22:18 uses kaddur (H1754) — a ball. Isaiah 40:22 does not use the Hebrew word for a ball. A flat-circle reading of chug is a recognized interpretation of the imagery; other interpreters read chug as horizon, circuit, or a circular language compatible with a globe. Chug is not lexically defined as "sphere" — do not automatically rewrite Isaiah 40:22 as "sphere of the earth".

Isaiah 40:22 — chug (circle)
חוּגchug · H2329

A circle; a circuit; a compass-drawn arc or vault. BDB gives 'circle, vault'. Distinct from a three-dimensional ball.

Brown–Driver–Briggs (BibleHub reprint)

God sits above the חוּג (chug) — the circle/circuit — of the earth and stretches out the heavens like a curtain and a tent.

Isaiah 22:18 — kaddur (ball)
כַּדּוּרkaddur · H1754

A ball. BDB: 'ball'. Used in Isaiah 22:18 of a ball tossed into a wide land. This is the Hebrew word for a ball; it is not the word used in Isaiah 40:22.

Brown–Driver–Briggs (BibleHub reprint)

God will roll/wind Shebna around like a כַּדּוּר (kaddur — a ball) and throw him into a wide land.

The explicit word in Isaiah 40:22 is chug. Any move from "circle" to "sphere" is later geometric interpretation, not translation.

Compare related passages

Questions for further study

  • Why does Isaiah use kaddur here but chug in 40:22?
  • What does the lexical distinction imply about later 'sphere' readings?
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Personal notes

Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain) — Heavens Declare verified corpus. Every verse on this page is rendered from the verified corpus already ingested into Heavens Declare — not from the discovery article.

Verse discovery: BibleStudyTools — Bible Verses About Flat Earth Secondary topical-index reference used only to seed the verse list. Not the source of Scripture text or lexical claims. Retrieved 2026-07-26.