Jonah wakes up in the underworld realm of the dead, sheol. From his vantage point he can see out across the great gulf of open space between the lower mantle, stretching out above him, and the surface of hell down below.
The Bottoms of the Mountains
The Earth Above the Waters
You can scratch your head all day pondering the spiritual truth behind a supposed metaphor, or you can take it literally and deduce that the Earth above the waters refers to the crust and mantle.
The Pillars of Heaven
Most English versions translate the pillars of heaven as the foundations of heaven, or the foundations of the heavens, so there may or may not be actual pillars in heaven which we have to account for.
Foundation vs. Structure
Here's an interesting question for you about church doctrine: what's the Church's foundation, and what's the structure?
The Earth with Her Bars
"The earth with her bars" is how Jonah described the pillars of the earth when he was in the belly of hell, possibly in the place which we refer to as Abraham's bosom. Jesus also went here after the crucifixion.
The Beams of His Chambers
"The beams of his chambers" isn't poetry. Well, yes it is poetry, but it's not poetry for poetry's sake. This describes the pillars of the
Hypothesis 8
The pillars of the earth occur in a few places in scripture. We can incorporate them into the Biblical narrative we're constructing to explain the development of the Spherical Hollow Earth Model (SHEM).
Radial Shrinkage
It will help to have an idea of the volume of material in the Earth's mantle because it appears that Earth has shrunk since it was first created, a process known as radial shrinkage.
The Pillars of the Earth
"The pillars of the earth" are incorporated into a 3D model of a spherical Earth in which they're part of Earth's internal structure. They don't require us to believe that the Earth is flat.
The Bars of the Pit
"The bars of the pit" is a synonym for "the pillars of the earth." They're in the great gulf or "mega chasm" which is the region of Earth's interior which popular science (SciPop) calls the "liquid outer core."
Matty's Paradigm 