6 And God said, Let there, the waters, and let it divide the be a firmament in the midst of waters from the waters.

g Job 37. 18. Ps. 136. 5. Jer. 10. 12. & 51. 15. such reasons for all things in a treatise by itself, I shall put off its exposition till that time.' J. Antiq. B. I. c. 1. § 1. He evidently considered the phrase " 'one day' as having, in this connection, something of a peculiar sense. What that was can only be determined from other instances of the usage that obtains in regard to each of these terms. As to the numeral one, we find several instances in which its true import seems to be that of certain, peculiar, special, Lat. quidam, as Dan. 8. 13, 'Then I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and behold, there stood before me a ram,' Heb. 3 a certain ram, | i. e. a ram of a peculiar description; one having two horns of unequal height. Ezek. 7. 5, 'Thus saith the Lord God; an evil, an only evil, behold, is come,' Heb. one evil, i. e. an evil of a unique and unwonted nature. Cant. 6. 9, 'My dove, my undefiled is (but) one; she is the (only) one of her mother, she is the choice (one) of her that bare her;' where it is plain that the term 'one' conveys the idea of something peculiar, something especially distinguished from others of the same class. Comp. Gen. 37. 20. Kings 19. 4. -20. 13. Dan. 8. 13. Now if this sense may be admitted in the present passage, to which we see no valid objection, the meaning will be, that the evening and the morning constituted a certain, a special, a peculiar day, a day sui generis; in other words, a period of time of indefinite length. For that the Heb.

yom, day is repeatedly used in the indefinite sense of epoch or period, no one will question who is at all acquaint ed with the Scriptural idiom. Thus, in the very first instance in which it occurs after the history of the six days' work, as if to furnish us with authority for such a rendering, we find it employed in a collective sense to denote the whole

|

ap

six days' period of the creation; 'These
are the generations of the heavens
and the earth, in the day (beyom)
that the Lord God made the earth and
the heavens.' So in Job 18. 20,
pears to be put for the whole period of
a man's life; "They that come after him
shall be astonied at his day (277
yomu);' and in Is. 30. 8, for all future
time; 'Now go, note it in a book, that
it may be for the time to come (3

for the latter day), for ever and
ever.' In like manner the phrase, ‘The
day of the Lord,' so often occurring, un-
doubtedly denotes a period of indeter-
minate length. To this it may indeed
be objected that the day here spoken of
is said to have been made up of evening
and morning; and how, it will be asked,
could a single evening and morning
constitute a day of indefinite duration?
To this we reply, that nothing is more
common in Hebrew than to find the sin-
gular used in a collective sense equivalent
to the plural. When it is said, therefore,
that the evening and the morning were
a certain day,' we understand it as equi-
valent to saying, that a series or suc-
cession of evenings and mornings (Gr.
vvxonpepa, twenty-four hour days) con-
stituted a peculiar kind of day, a day, a
period, of undefined extent; and so of
the subsequent days of the creative
week; the sense of the common day
being really involved in that of the
other; or in other words, each of the
six indefinite days or periods, being
made up of an equally indefinite num-
ber of common or twenty-four hour
days. It is doubtless under some dis-
advantages that this interpretation is
thus briefly and nakedly proposed, but
as our limits will not allow enlarge-
ment, we have no alternative but to
leave it to commend itself as best it may
to the judgment of the reader. By the
author it has not been rashly adopted.

h

7 And God made the firma-1 8 And God called the firmament, and divided the waters ment Heaven: and the evening which were under the firmament and the morning were the second from the waters which were day.

I above the firmament: and it was

So.

h Prov. 8. 28. i Ps. 148. 4.

ated ever

- Let it

divide. Heb Prot the let it be separating, i. e. let it continue to separate. The original implies a continued act. So Is. 59. 2, Your iniquities have separated (Heb. 3 are separating) between you and your God,' i. e. continue to separate, form a fixed ground of separation. By this arrangement one portion of the waters remained suspended in the upper regions of ether, whilst another was forced down in immediate contact with the body of the earth, and the expanse left void by their separation was called by the name of 'firmament,' or 'heaven.' Probably a considerable portion of the space now occupied by the atmosphere was previously occupied by the surrounding waters, as the Psalmist says, referring to this period, Ps. 104. 6, 'They stood above the mountains.'

6. Let there be a firmament. Or, Heb. In our modes of speech one thing may an expansion. The original word be said to be in the midst of another, as for 'firmament' comes from a root a stone in a bucket of water, without signifying primitively to beat, to at the same time wholly separating the smite or stamp with the feet, or other ins- parts of the containing substance. But trument, to make hard or firm by tread- the design of the firmament was wholly ing; hence, to spread out by beating, to separate the waters above from the as thin plates of metal, and finally to waters below, and to express this the stretch out, to expand, as a curtain. word 'between' is much more approThe sense of 'expansion' is undoubted-priate than in the midst.'ly prominent in the present use of the term, yet subordinate to this is the idea of a 'firmament' (Gr. scpcoμa), or that which firmly supports an incumbent weight, as the atmosphere does the masses of watery clouds above. But since the aerial regions, by an illusion of the senses, seem to extend to the heavenly bodies, therefore the sun, moon, and stars are said to be placed in the firmament, though in reality removed to immense distances beyond it. It is the usage of the Scriptures to describe the things of the natural world as they appear, as they strike the eyes of plain unlettered observers; accordingly in former ages, before the true structure of the solar system was understood, the idea naturally suggested by the word 'firmament' was dat of the blue vault of heaven; but now that our superior knowledge enables us to correct the impressions of the senses, we interpret the term with stricter propriety of the extensive circumambient fluid the atmosphere, or rather of the region which it occupies.-T In the midst of the waters. This rendering, 8. Called the firmament heaven. The though answering very nearly to the correct interpretation of the term 'healetter of the original, would be better ven,' or 'heavens,' depends of course exchanged for 'between,' a term which upon that of 'firmament.' If this has gives the English reader a far more ac- been rightly explained, it will follow curate idea of the true situation and use that the word 'heaven' does not in of the firmament as above described. ' strict propriety, though in general usage

7. Waters which were under. Rather, 'waters which are under,' 'waters which are above,' &c. ; for it cannot be conceived how the firmament should be the first means of dividing the waters, if a portion of them were already above, and a portion already below.

urate terms; ine eyes

land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

11 And God said, Let the earth

9. & 136. 6. Prov. 8. 29. Jer. 5. 22. 2 Pet. 3. 5.

Thou coveredst it (the earth) with the deep as with a garment: the waters

it does, include the heavenly bodies. This is confirmed by 2 Pet. 3. 5-7 stood above the mountains. At th 'Whereby the world that then was perished; but the heavens and the earth buke they fled; at the noiser him which are now, by the same word are thunder they hasted away. They go up kept in store reserved unto fire,' &c. by the mountains, they go down by Here it will be noted that the world the valleys unto the place which thou which then was' is opposed to 'the hast founded for them. Thou hast set heavens and the earth which now are,' a bound that they may not pass over; as if they were c that they turn not again to cover the and as it was onry globe with its earth.' This may be considered as an surrounding atmosphere which felt the appropriate comment on the phrase effects of the deluge, so it is to be in-one place,' wnich is not to be taken in ferred that if a future physical destruction be here intended, it will be of the same extent. Consequently 'heaven' is a term for the atmosphere. The phrases, 'hosts of heaven,' 'stars of heaven,' &c., do indeed frequently occur, but it is because the starry hosts are apparent-plate; the various great seas and oceans ly placed in the superior regions of that which is really and truly 'heaven,' viz. the atmospheric firmament.

its strictest import, but merely as implying that the waters were for the most part congregated together in one vast body, instead of being universally diffused over the face of the earth. This is the state of things which we now contem

constituting in fact but one body of water called in different regions by different names, as the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Southern, &c. oceans.

10. Seas. Heb. yamim, from a word signifying tumultuous agitation and roaring. The term is therefore used in many instances in the symbolical language of the prophets to denota a vast body of people in a state of restless commotion. See Ps. 65. 8. Is. 57. 20. Jer. 51. 42. Rev. 17 15. The word is sometimes applied to a lesser collection of waters, as that which one of the Evangelists denominates a 'sea,' Matt. 8. 32, another calls a 'lake,' Luke 8: 33; and it is elsewhere used to denote not a body of water, but the reservoir which contains it, as the 'brazen sea' of Solomon, 2 Chron. 4. 2, and the 'sea of glass' of the Apocalypse, ch. 4. 6.

9. Let the waters-be gathered together unto one place. The vast mass of waters which had hitherto covered the entire surface of the globe was now to be brought within a narrower compass, and large tracts of the submerged earth to be reclaimed and rendered habitable ground. Of the causes or movements by which this mighty result was effected no detail is given. It is easy to conceive that it must have been attended by a tremendous convulsion of the exterior portions of the globe, and it is not unlikely that many of the irregular and broken appearances and traces of violent action which are now visible on the earth's surface are to be referred to this event. The language of the Psalmist, Ps. 104. 6-9, would indicate that 11. Let the earth bring forth grass. the phenomena must have been strik- Heb. Z the tender budding grass, a ing and awful beyond description ;-term applicable to every kind of grassy

I bring forth grass, the herb yield-| after his kind: and God saw that ing seed, and the fruit tree yield- it was good. ing m fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself,

1 Heb. 6. 7. m Luke 6. 44.

ma

13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.

14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven, to divide the day from the night; and let them be for

n Deut. 4. 19. Ps. 74. 16. & 136. 7.

or verdant vegetable in a state of ble from its being said, 'Let the dry sprouting, and pointing more especially land appear (Heb. be seen),' when as to such as are propagated rather from yet there was no eye to see it-then we the root than the seed.--¶ Herb yield- may reasonably conclude that the sun ing seed. Heb. 1 seeding was formed on the first day, or perhaps seed. Gr. oneроr onsрμа; by which is had been created even before our earth, meant such wild or cultivable plants and was in fact the cause of the vicissias were to propagate themselves by tude of the three first days and nights. yielding, shedding or scattering their But as the globe of the earth was during seeds. The word 'herb' embraces the that time surrounded by a dense mass whole department of the vegetable of mingled air and water, the rays of world between grasses and trees, the the sun would be intercepted; only a three grand divisions which are recog- dim glimmering light, even in the day nised in this verse.- - Fruit tree time, would appear; and the bodies of yielding fruit. Heb. the heavenly luminaries would be enking fruit. For a view of the scriptu-tirely hidden, just as they now are in a ral usage in respect to the word make very cloudy day. Let it be supposed in the sense of increase, multiplication, then that on the fourth day the clouds, accumulation, see note on Gen. 12. 5. mists, and vapors were all cleared away, As trees by their height rise superior and the atmosphere made pure and seto the rest of the vegetable tribes, they rene; the sun of course would shine are, in prophetic style, a symbol of per- forth in all his splendor, and to the eye sons of rank, eminence and authority. of our imagined spectator would seem The grass, on the other hand, denotes to have been just created; and so at the mass of the common people. See night of the moon and stars. This efthis confirmed Ezek. 17. 24.-31. 5. Is. fect of the divine power, according to 14. 8. Rev. 8. 7. the usual analogy of the Scriptures, is 14. Let there be lights, &c. It is un- described from its appearance, and the questionable that the Scriptures gene- language employed--'let there be lights rally describe the phenomena of the in the firmament'-and-'he made two natural world as they appear, rather great lights and set them in the firmathan according to strict scientific truth. ment'-is to be interpreted on the prinThus the sun and moon are said to ciple above stated. They might then rise and set-the stars to fall-and the be said to be made,' because they then moon to be turned into blood. Conse- first began to be visible, and to perform quently, if this history of the creation the office for which they were designed. were designed to describe the effects of The original word for 'made' is not the six days' work as they would have the same as that which is rendered appeared to a spectator, had one been create.' It is a term frequently empresent,-a supposition rendered proba-ployed to signify constituted, appointed

signs, and for seasons, and for 15 And let them be for lights days, and years.