FuzzyPaul,
Your post #102 forced me to take a more intensive look at Isaiah 45:18, and from that it is my belief that by "earth" the writer(s) were referring to the creation, not to the land of Israel. The following is the reasoning I arrived at:
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In the context, which starts at Isaiah 44:24, the LORD repeatedly makes two claims. His first claim is that he is the “only God”, with “no other”. His second claim is that he alone was the one who made the “heavens”, “earth”, “light”, “darkness”, and the “starry host”.
These claims gave the LORD the absolute right to anoint Cyrus to restore Jerusalem, the cities and the land. This is a clear reference to the Babylonian Captivity experienced by Judah, and the chapter appears to be written at the time as a rebuttal to people who were asking why a heathen king should be appointed by the LORD to restore the land that he had given them.
These two claims of “only God” and “only Creator” come together at verse 18, where the claim as Creator of the “heavens” and of the “earth” interrupts the introductory statement which, without that hiatus, says: “This is what the LORD says, he says: ‘I am the LORD and there is no other. … “
The interloping claim not only continues the theme of Creator, it also juxtaposes “heavens” with “earth”, saying: "he who created the heavens, … he who fashioned and made the earth”.
I thus believe that Isaiah 45:18 does indeed refer to the whole world as understood by the Hebrew writers of the 6th century BCE.
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I am the LORD , who has made all things , who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself … I am the LORD , and there is no other; apart from me there is no God . … there is none besides me . I am the LORD , and there is no other . I form the light and create darkness , I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD , do all these things. “You heavens above, rain down righteousness; let the clouds shower it down. Let the earth open wide, let salvation spring up, let righteousness grow with it; I, the LORD , have created it . …
“ Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker … Does the clay say to the potter … Woe to him who says to his father … do you question me … or give me orders ? … It is I who made the earth and created mankind upon it. My own hands stretched out the heavens; I marshaled their starry hosts . … For this is what the LORD says — he who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it; he did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited — he says: “I am the LORD , and there is no other . … T here is no God apart from me , a righteous God and a Savior; there is none but me . (Isaiah 44:24; 45:5-12, 18, 21)