Earth - Fausset's Bible Dictionary

'erets in Hebrew; gee in Greek, designating either the whole globe, or land as opposed to sea, or a particular land; to be distinguished by the context. A distinct term expresses the material of which the earth consists damaah, the "ground," "soil," from whence Adam was named (Gen 2:7), his body coming from and returning to the earth (Gen 3:19), a different word "dust" (Job 10:9; Ecc 12:7). Naaman desired to have two mules' burden of earth of the Holy Land ('Eretz Israel), whether for an altar or other sacred purpose (Exo 20:24), a half-paganish nation that God would accept devotions in connection with that soil rather than with any other.

In Jam 5:17 it is translated: "it rained not on the land (of Israel)"; for the drought was a judgment, not on the whole earth, but on Israel; compare Luk 4:25. So in Luk 23:44 "there was darkness over all the land," not "all the earth"; compare Mat 27:45. In 1Co 15:47-49, "the first man is of the earth, earthy," contrasted with "the Lord from heaven" and "the heavenly," the term is choikos, not merely earthly, i.e. born upon earth, but "earthy," literally, "of heaped clay," answering to the surface "dust" in the Old Testament of which man is made; not merely terrestrial, but terrene, therefore, transitory.