It was worded that way in the bible so to make it easier to visualize what actually happened using man's own terminology. Sort of like where the bible mentions that the sun rises and sets when actually it is the earth's rotation that makes night and day possible. God did make the earth stand still for almost a day and later on in another passage a few more minutes to make it 24 hours. I'm not sure if the bible mentions that the earth is at the center of the universe or not. Without knowing the extent of the celestial bodies in space it would be impossible to determine.
If NASA is right about the earth spinning a 1000 miles p/h and rotating 66,000 miles p/h around the sun; then the Bible has science problems big time.
The Bible supports an earth that has been spread out by God with the heavens He stretched over it as a canopy or tent. God describes the earth as having borders to keep the oceans in and as having edges that he can use to shake the earth. He says the circle of the earth, and never the sphere of the earth or ball. And Hebrew has word to describe ball and sphere, but the inspired writer used the term circle.
Jesus said he is coming back, and every eye will see Him; this is not possible unless it is a geocentric system of cosmology. The Bible describe the sun as moving and the moon. God said the earth cannot be moved and that he set up its foundations so that it is established and stable. It says God's word has gone out to the ends of the earth; a ball doesn't have ends. It comes down to do we believe God and the Bible or NASA and man.
The Devil showed Jesus on a high mountain all the kingdoms of the world; this is obviously not possible in a heliocentric system. God would say to you: "Have you not heard has it not been told to you from the beginning God sits above the circle of the earth and spreads the heavens over it like a canopy the inhabitants are as grasshoppers."
So the Bible is a huge problem for Christians who adhere to a heliocentric system of cosmology, and there are atheist that believe the Bible version of the earth and they have done experiments showing that water always remains level. If the earth is a sphere with a 25,000 mile circumference through spherical trigonometry the curvature can be systemically calculated and every test shows that water remains level. High powered lasers were used over miles showing no compensation in the water for curvature. Go figure. For now I'll stick to the Bible's description.