![]() ![]() "Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens!" Psalm 148:4 ESV "He set the earth on its foundations, so that it should never be moved." Psalm 104:5 ESV And there was evening and there was morning, the second day." Genesis 1:6-8 ESV ![]() "And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. "Can you, like him, spread out the skies, hard as a cast metal mirror?" Job 37:18 ESV And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years," Genesis 1:14 ESV "And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork." Psalm 19:1 ESV It was the support also of the heavenly bodies ( Genesis 1:14) and is spoken of as having "windows" and "doors" ( Genesis 7:11 Isaiah 24:18 Malachi 3:10) through which the rain and snow might descend. The raki'a supported the upper reservoir ( Psalms 148:4). It formed a division between the waters above and the waters below ( Genesis 1:7). The Lord reigneth, he is clothed with majesty the Lord is clothed with strength, wherewith he hath girded himself: the world also is stablished, that it cannot. It is plain that it was used to denote solidity as well as expansion. ![]() verb and stem) as the dry land did in verse 9, but were actually made ('asah. The language of Scripture is not scientific but popular, and hence we read of the sun rising and setting, and also here the use of this particular word. 14 And God said, Let there be Zillights in the firmament of the ' : I '. They who rendered raki'a by firmamentum regarded it as a solid body. This word means simply "expansion." It denotes the space or expanse like an arch appearing immediately above us. Merriam-Webster simply defines the firmament as “the vault or arch of the sky heavens.”Īccording to Easton’s Bible Dictionary, from the Vulgate firmamentum, which is used as the translation of the Hebrew raki'a, or raqia. The definition of the firmament can be essentially summarized as the arch or vault over the earth and sky that separates the earthly realm from what is beyond. And the evening and the morning were the second day ( Genesis 1:6-8). Once again, God and God alone is credited with creating the world as we know it.And God said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters." And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. In any case, the larger point of the verse is that God's power includes the ability to order even the oceans to do His bidding and breathable air to come into existence on the earth. Others have speculated that a water "canopy" once existed in the upper atmosphere that is no longer there in our day. The word-picture offered here seems to be of raising up the top part of the waters and inserting an open area: what we would usually think of as the "air" above the sea or land.īut what about the top layer, the "waters" above the sky? Some scholars suggest those are the clouds of the upper atmosphere or simply the atmosphere itself. The Hebrew term is rā'qi'a, which implies something solid and supportive. More specifically, God calls for something to be placed between the waters: a space or firmament or vault or sky or heaven (depending on the translation). Now God issues a command about those waters: separate them. Verse 2 indicated that the earth was formless, void, and covered by deep waters. In the prior verses, God completed the first day of creation, making light, day, and night. ![]() The corresponding days in the second half-days four, five, and six-show the creation of that new thing. The first half of these moments-days one, two, and three-prepare creation for some future component. God will create something through His words, observe it, declare it good, and then Scripture will indicate the number of that creative day. Genesis chapter 1 follows a rigid structure, according to a very specific pattern. ![]()
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