Judges 9:37

Hebrew Bible

36 Gaal saw the men and said to Zebul, “Look, men are coming down from the tops of the hills.” But Zebul said to him, “You are seeing the shadows on the hills—it just looks like men.” 37 Gaal again said, “Look, men are coming down from the very navel of the land. A unit is coming by way of the Oak Tree of the Diviners.” 38 Zebul said to him, “Where now are your bragging words, ‘Who is Abimelech that we should serve him?’ Are these not the men you insulted? Go out now and fight them!”

Ezekiel 38:12

Hebrew Bible

11 You will say, “I will invade a land of unwalled towns; I will advance against those living quietly in security—all of them living without walls and barred gates— 12 to loot and plunder, to attack the inhabited ruins and the people gathered from the nations, who are acquiring cattle and goods, who live at the navel of the earth. 13 Sheba and Dedan and the traders of Tarshish with all its young warriors will say to you, “Have you come to loot? Have you assembled your armies to plunder, to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to haul away a great amount of spoils?”’

 Notes and References

"... Regardless of whether one speaks of the earth as a disk or of the “ends” of the earth, the question of the center of the earth arises. Ezekiel 38:12 mentions the “navel” of the world (compare 5:5 and Judges 9:37; see HAL 352b and Zimmerli, Ezekiel, Herm, 2:311, with references to ancient Near Eastern and Greek parallels) ..."

Jenni, Ernst, and Claus Westermann Theological Lexicon of the Old Testament (p. 264) Hendrickson Publishers, 1997

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