Waters Under the Earth

Genesis 7:11

In the six hundredth year of Noah's life,

in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month,

the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up,

and the windows of heaven were opened.

Subcrustal waters would be pressurized, and so they would emerge with great force. It is the restraining of the flood waters, perhaps by accumulation of sediments, or subterranean lavas, etc., that is emphasized in the following passage where God answers Job.

Job 38:8-11

Or who shut up the sea with doors,

when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?

When I made the cloud the garment thereof,

and thick darkness a swaddlingband for it,

And brake up for it my decreed place,

and set bars and doors,

And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further:

and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?

Also in this chapter, there is a possible reference to the subterranean waters being frozen, as they would likely be, due to the very high pressures which exist within the earth.

Job 38:30

The waters are hid as with a stone,

and the face of the deep is frozen.

The waters under the earth are referred to in the 10 commandments.

Exodus 20:4:

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image,

or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above,

or that is in the earth beneath,

or that is in the water under the earth.

In the Psalms, David depicts the earth's crust as resting on water.

Psalm 24:1-2

A Psalm of David.

The earth is the LORD'S, and the fulness thereof;

the world, and they that dwell therein.

For he hath founded it upon the seas,

and established it upon the floods.

The formation of the earth during the creation week is associated with Wisdom in the following passage from the book of Proverbs. This scripture provides us with an ancient commentary or paraphrase of the somewhat mysterious events of the second day of the creation week of Genesis 1.

Proverbs 8:24-30

When there were no depths, I was brought forth;

when there were no fountains abounding with water.

Before the mountains were settled,

before the hills was I brought forth:

While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields,

nor the highest part of the dust of the world.

When he prepared the heavens, I was there:

when he set a compass upon the face of the depth:

When he established the clouds above:

when he strengthened the fountains of the deep:

When he gave to the sea his decree,

that the waters should not pass his commandment:

when he appointed the foundations of the earth:

Then I was by him, as one brought up with him:

and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him;

The statement in verse 27: "he set a compass upon the face of the depth" apparently refers to the formation of the earth's crust "in the midst of the waters" on the second day. This was the 'raqia' or 'firmament'. It was the earth's crust that enclosed or encompassed the interior waters.

In the New Testament, the apostle Peter makes reference to the primeval subterranean waters as the source of the flood waters when he writes:

2 Peter 3:5-6

For this they willingly are ignorant of,

that by the word of God the heavens were of old,

and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:

Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.