"Idiomatic expression...allusion...pay attention to this part, not the other part..."looks like" a circle...metaphor..."
Like I said, you have to go beyond the plain meaning of the words in order to make them comport with reality. And that's fine with me. But you are aware, I hope, that some people in these threads insist that the "fountains" were literal huge gouts of water from beneath the earth's surface? I just find it curious that we're allowed to interpret "sluices" as a metaphor emphasizing how it flows, but "fountains" have to be real; or that "ends" of the earth (using the same word that refers to the hem of a garment or the edge of a carpet) can be an idiom, but the six days and the creation of kinds have to be taken literally.
Then the biggie question is how do we distinguish between the literal and the metaphor, idiom, etc.?
My impression is that everyone takes some parts as metaphor or idiom, but several people insist that only they have the key to figuring out which parts those are.
“There are more”? By all means bring them on.
No need--they're more of the same, and you'll explain how they're not meant to be taken literally but rather as idiom or metaphor. The thing is, I agree with you, at least when it comes to figuring out what's important in the Bible. Who cares if the writers thought the sky was a solid covering like a tent? The important thing is that God placed it there for us.
Evidently there is a shared aspect of wings, ends of the earth, or as “kanaph” is translated in the AV at Ezek. 7:2, “four corners” of the earth.
Wings, four corners, ends, all the plain meaning of “kanaph”.
As for fountains or gouts of water from under ground sources, the Ogallala aquifer covers thousands of square miles and is estimated to have as much water in it as Lake Huron. That's enough water to do a lot of gouting and fountaining.
Without trying to understand how someone uses metaphor, idioms, literal and figurative speech we would still be thinking King Herod really was a fox.
” Who cares if the writers thought the sky was a solid covering like a tent?”
Evidently you do, evidently those persons attacking the veracity of the Scriptures do, evidently I do or I wouldn't comment on it.