NOAH

As far as the Israelites were concerned Israel was the "Whole Earth" This is what has caused us to think the flood was global.

In Exodus 10:15 We read about a plague of locusts that "covered the face of the whole earth." It should be pretty evident that this locust plague covered only part of the land Egypt and as you can see it describes the locust as covering "the face of the whole earth." Yet we never assume these locusts covered the entire globe.

After the Israelites were delivered from Egypt and settled in Canaan, the scripture says they "covered the face of the earth" (Numbers 22:5,11).

Not even fundamentalists would say that Israelites covered every square foot of the planet...This is simply a way of stating that they occupied the land in which they were dwelling.

Again in Gen 4:14 we read, "Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; Cain was in the Land of Nod.

Matthew 4 verse 8 and again we read the same exaggerated view of their land.

"The devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.

The same idiom is used to describe the Israelite conquest of Canaan,
Deut 2:25
"This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you on the peoples who are under the whole heaven, who shall hear the report of you and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you.

The only people who needed to tremble were the local people who were the Canaanites Moabites and Edomites.

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