The term translated center
means navel.
The Navel of the Land
could have been a mountain near Shechem. The mountain could have been Gerizim, since, as the highest peak in the area, this mountain would have deserved such an unusual name…. We can only guess why Mount Gerizim would have been called the Navel of the Land, however. Perhaps the people living near Shechem regarded it as the center or heart of Canaan (just as the navel marks the center of the belly), but we have no evidence to confirm this.
1
37 Gaal spoke again and said, “Look, people are coming down from the center of the land, and one company is coming from the direction of the Diviners’ Oak.”