He streteheth out the north over the empty place. Over what was "empty space" or "chaos" ( תּהוּ) God stretches out "the north"—a portion of his orderly creation—perhaps the northern portion of the heavens, where are the grandest constellations visible to the inhabitants of the world's northern half.
And hangeth the earth upon nothing. "Takes," i.e; "the huge ball of the earth, and suspends it in vacancy, with nothing to support it but his own fixed will, his own firm laws." This is an idea scarcely reached by astronomers in general, at any rate till the time of Hippar-chus; and it has, not without reason, been regarded as "a very remarkable instance of anticipation of the discoveries of science' (Stanley Loathes).