Genesis 1:8

_AND GOD SAID, LET THERE BE A FIRMAMENT IN THE MIDST OF THE WATERS, AND LET IT DIVIDE THE WATERS FROM THE WATERS._ Let there be a firmament, х_ RAAQIYA`_ (H7549)] - expansion. Our version, following the Septuagint and Vulgate, uses the word "firmament," which gives an erroneous view of the meaning of the Hebrew term, which comes from a root that signifies to 'beat,' to 'spread out.' If the Hebrew word, in the primary sense of 'a thing beat out,' did point, as many allege, to a metallic plate, it was, like the Greek _ STEREOOMA_ (G4733), or the Latin firmamentum, to express the idea of stability and of splendour, not at all of a solid arch, and was used to designate the blue ethereal vault above us, corresponding with a common, familiar use of the word 'heaven.' Any expressions that are found in Scripture conveying the idea of a solid, permanent dome are used on

6-13 The earth was emptiness, but by a word spoken, it became full of God's riches, and his they are still. Though the use of them is allowed to man, they are from God, and to his service and honour they must be used. The earth, at his command, brings forth grass, herbs, and fruits. God must have the glory of all the benefit we receive from the produce of the earth. If we have, through grace, an interest in Him who is the Fountain, we may rejoice in him when the streams of temporal mercies are dried up....

- IV. The Second Day 6. רקיע _rāqı̂ya‛_, “expanse;” στερέωμα _stereōma_, רקע _rāqa‛_, “spread out by beating, as leaf gold.” This expanse was not understood to be solid, as the fowl is said to fly on the face of it Genesis 1:21. It is also described as luminous Daniel 12:3, and as a monument of divine power Psalms 150:1. 7. עשׂה _‛__āśâh_ “work on,” “make out of already existing materials.” The second act of creative power bears u

EXPOSITION GENESIS 1:6 _Day_ _two_._ _The work of this day consisted in the formation of that immense gaseous ocean, called the atmosphere, by which the earth is encircled. AND GOD SAID, LET THERE BE A FIRMAMENT (_rakiya_,_ _an expand, from _rakah_,_ _to beat out; LXX; στερεìωμα;_ _Vulgate, _firmamentum_)_ _IN THE MIDST OF THE WATERS. To affirm with Knobel, Gesenius, and others that the Hebrews supposed the atmospheric heavens to be a metallic substance (Exodus 24:10), a vault fixed on the water-flood which surrounds the earth (Proverbs 8:27), firm as a

AND GOD CALLED THE FIRMAMENT HEAVEN,.... Including the starry and airy heavens: it has its name from its height in the Arabic language, it being above the earth, and reaching to the third heaven; though others take the word "shamaim" to be a compound of two words, "sham" and "maim", that is, there are waters, namely, in the clouds of heaven: AND THE EVENING; AND THE MORNING WERE THE SECOND DAY; these together made up the space of twenty four hours, which was another natural day; the body of light, created on the first day, having again moved round the chaos in that space of time; or else the chaos had turned round on its own axis in that time, which revolution produced a second day; and which, according to Capellus, was the nineteenth of April, and according to Bishop Usher the twenty fourth of October. It is an observation that everyone may make, that the phrase, AND GOD SAW THAT IT W...

Genesis 1:1. _In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth._ When that «beginning» was, we cannot tell. It may have been long ages before God fitted up this world for the abode of man, but it was not self-existent; it was created by God, it sprang from the will and the word of the all-wise Creator. Genesis 1:2. _And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep._ When God began to arrange this world in order, it was shrouded in darkness, and it had been reduced to what we call, for want of a better name, «chaos.» This is just the condition of every soul of man when God begins to deal with him in his grace; it is formless, and empty of all good things. «There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is

FIRMAMENT That is, the expanse above, the "heaven" of the clouds. (Genesis 7:11); (Genesis 8:2)....

ANALYSIS AND ANNOTATIONS I. THE CREATION ACCOUNT The manner in which the book of Genesis begins leaves no doubt that it is the revelation of God. The creation account is historical truth. The question is how was it given? An answer to this question claims that the Jews obtained the account from the records of other nations concerning the origin of the universe and that they altered it according to their own religious ideas. This is an impossibility. The ancient heathen nations considered God and the universe one and had absolutely no knowledge of the existence of God independent of the universe, nor did they know anything of a creation of the world. Here is something wholly different from all the theories, mythologies and other inventions of the human race. How then was it given? By revelation of God is the only answer. No human being knew anything about the origin of the heavens and t...

When, on the second morning, light resumes the sway which had been interrupted by the night, God begins the task of evolving order out of chaos. First He makes a firmament, by which is meant a solid vault over-arching the earth. Then the waters of the abyss are divided into two portions, one of which is placed above this firmament, to constitute the waters of the upper or heavenly ocean, the other left where it was, to form the deep that coucheth beneath (Genesis 49:25). This, it must be understood, is not identical with the ocean, though the ocean issued from it (Job 38:8); it is beneath both sea and land. It feeds the sea through openings in the bed of the ocean, the springs of the sea (Job 38:16 *) or the fountains of the great deep ...

HEAVEN. Hebrew high, lofty....