Genesis 1:6-8

The Firmament of the Heaven

6. Let there be … waters The work of the "second day" is the creation of the so-called "firmament" of heaven. The Hebrews had no conception of an infinite ethereal space. The vault of heaven was to them a solid arched, or vaulted, structure, resting upon the pillars of the earth (Job 26:11). On the top of this dome were the reservoirs of "the waters above the heaven," which supplied the rain and the dew. Beneath the earth were other reservoirs of waters, which were the sources of the seas, lakes, rivers and springs. After the creation of light the next creative act was, according to the Hebrew cosmogony, the division of the primaeval watery abyss, by means of a solid partition which is here denoted by the word rendered "firmament." The waters are above it and below it.

a firmament This word reproduces the Lat. firmamentum; LXX στερέωμα. The Hebrew râqîadenotes (see Heb. Lex.) "extended surface, (solid) expanse" (as if beaten out; cf. Job 37:18). For the verb raq-a=beat, or spread, out, cf. Exodus 39:3; Numbers 17:4; Jeremiah 10:4; Ezekiel 1:22, "and over the head of the living creatures there was the likeness of a firmament… stretched forth over their heads above." Compare Job 37:18, "canst thou with him spread out(tarqi-a) the sky which is strong as a molten mirror?" See Psalms 19:1; Psalms 150:1; Daniel 12:3, where "firmament" = sky.

A diagram representing the Semitic conception of the Universe.

From Dr Hastings" Dictionary of the Bible, by kind permission of Messrs T. & T. Clark.

For the solidity of the heaven according to this conception, cf. Amos 9:6, "it is he that buildeth his chambers in the heaven, and hath founded his vault upon the earth." The fall of rain was regarded as the act of God in opening the sluices of heaven, cf. Genesis 7:11; 2 Kings 7:2; 2 Kings 7:19; Psalms 78:23; Psalms 148:4, "ye waters that be above the heavens."

The LXX adds at the end of this verse, "and it was so." This formula, which appears in Genesis 1:11; Genesis 1:15; Genesis 1:24, in each case after the words of Divine fiat, seems more suitable here than at the close of Genesis 1:7, as in the Hebrew text.