Circle
Circle (חוּג, chug), any part of a curve, an arch. The word is applied (Job 22:14, where, however, it is translated "circuit") to the heavens, which the ancients supposed to be a hollow sphere. They imagined that the sky was solid, and extended like an arch over the earth. The word is also referred to the earth in Isa 40:22, and to the surface of the ocean in Pr 8:27, where it is rendered "compass;" in both which passages it still seems to mean the celestial vault, as spanning these. In Wisdom of Solomon 13:2, the Greek term κύκλος is so rendered, with reference to the path of the stars. SEE CIRCUIT.
