I. Name

The expression ʾapsê ʾereṣ, ‘The ends of the Earth’ occurs 16 times in the OT, mainly in poetic texts (e.g. Deut. 33.17; Isa. 45.22; Isa. 52.10; Mic. 5.3; Zech. 9.10; six times in the Pss). The first element of this construct chain, ʾepes, denotes the end or limit of space or time. The noun has cognates in Ug. ʾps, ‘upper edge’, (KTU 1.6 i:61); Phoen. ʾps, ‘end’, adverbially used as ‘finally; even’ in KAI 26 IV:1, and in the Canaanite noun upsu, ‘extremity’, (EA 287:70; 289:50; 366:34; R. Degen, WdO 6 [1971–72…