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 signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven, х mª'orot (H3974)] - luminaries, light-bearers, an entirely different word from that used in Genesis 1:3. The atmosphere being completely purified, the heavenly bodies were now unveiled in all their glory in the spacious sky; and they are described as "in the firmament," which to the eye of a spectator they appear to be, though we know they are really at vast distances from it.
And let them be for signs, and for seasons, ..., х lª'otot (H226) uwlmow`ªdiym (H4150)]. This is considered by Gesenius and others as used, by the figure hendiadys, 'for signs of seasons:' Tuch renders it, 'for signs both of seasons and days and years;' not according to the Hebrew usage to translate [wª-] by 'both:' while others regard "signs" as referring to the rare and extraordinary phenomena of eclipses, comets, etc.; but it is more in accordance with the general tenor of the narrative to consider this word as denoting ordinary and oft-recurring changes of the natural world.
In a popular sense, the heavenly bodies have been useful in performing all the offices of directing lights to man-affording signs to the mariner to aid his navigation of the ocean; to the farmer to guide him with reference to the proper seasons of sowing and reaping; and to all they serve as the grand regulators, the standard measurers of our time, alluding it into days and months and years.
And God made two great lights. Gabler and others maintain that this passage describes an actual creation, implying the calling into existence, or the formation in their present form and relative order, of the whole planetary system; and certainly, if the grammatical construction alone is looked at, these writers are correct in their interpretation, because the clause "He made the stars also" stands in the original in the accusative case, being governed by the immediately preceding verb "and He made;" so that if the sun and moon were created on the fourth day, the same thing must be affirmed of "the stars also." This, however, is a view so much at variance with the general analogy of God's operations in the natural world, that it cannot be accepted without the strongest evidence of its truth. But the argument by which it is supported, drawn from Psalms 148:3-5, which contains a call to the objects of universal nature to join in a concert of praise to their Maker, and in which the sun, moon, and stars are specially addressed, "for he commanded, and they were created," is unsatisfactory, inasmuch as the word "created" is used there in a loose sense, because the same call is there given to the waters, which, we know, covered the earth before the first day's operation was commenced.
Besides, it has been shown on Genesis 1:1 that the sun, moon, and stars existed previously to the fourth day, being included in the original creation of the heavens, of which they are uniformly declared in the Scripture style, to be integral parts (cf. Deuteronomy 4:19; Deuteronomy 17:3, with Job 38:4-7); and, therefore, since the statement of the inspired historian cannot mean "creation" here, either in the sense of bringing out of nothing, or of forming from pre-existent matter, the verb х `aasaah (H6213)] "made" must be interpreted as synonymous with 'constituted,' 'appointed,' 'ordained' these lights to their proper uses in the heavens. This word, which occurs in a variety of senses (see Genesis 1:11-12, where it is rendered "yield"), is frequently used in the sense of 'ordaining' or 'appointing' (cf. Numbers 28:26; 1 Samuel 12:6; 1 Kings 12:31-33; 2 Kings 17:32; 2 Chronicles 13:9; Esther 9:22; Job 14:5; Job 28:26; Psalms 8:4; Psalms 104:19; Psalms 136:7; Psalms 136:9; Proverbs 22:28; Jeremiah 31:35; Jeremiah 37:15).
That it must be taken in the same acceptation in this passage is obvious from two circumstances-namely, that the subject of the announcement is not the creation of any new material objects, but the adaptation of some to be 'luminaries,' 'light-bearers;' and that the word does not stand in an isolated position (as in Genesis 1:7), but is in immediate connection with the following verb, 'made to rule.'
Two great lights, х shªneey (H8147) ham'orot (H3974) hagªdoliym (H1419)] - the great lights. In consequence of the day being reckoned as commencing at even, the moon, which would be seen first in the horizon, would appear 'a great light' compared with the little twinkling stars; while its pale benign radiance would be eclipsed by the dazzling splendour of the sun: when his resplendent orb rose in the morning, and gradually attained its meridian blaze of glory, it would, appear the greater light that 'ruled the day.' And this ruling of the day and night does not imply the endowing of these heavenly bodies with any astrological influences, but simply that they were now appointed to the important and necessary office of serving as luminaries to the world, and regulating by their motions and their light the alternations of day and night, as well as the progress and divisions of time. The description bears plainly a phenomenal, not a scientific form: it is given from the position of an observer on the face of the earth, who records his observations according to the appearance of things, and to whom those heavenly bodies would seem to be "made" when they became objects perceptible in the skies. It is remarked by Tuch that Moses does not name the sun or the moon; and he conceives that this silence was purposely maintained in accordance with the general plan of this narrative, in which all things are noticed only in a very brief and general way.
This passage, then, consists of three successive acts: the first, the appearance or manifestation of the heavenly bodies in the clarified atmosphere (Genesis 1:14); secondly, the useful offices they were destined to perform to this world (Genesis 1:15-16); and the actual commencement of their destined uses. The notice of the sun, moon, and stars is more minute and specific than any other part of this narrative, and the reason of this greater fullness of details, which is most probably traceable to the extensive prevalence of the Sabian idolatry (Deuteronomy 4:16; Deuteronomy 4:19; Deuteronomy 17:2-3; Job 31:26-28), was to show that the celestial luminaries, like all other things in the universe, were the creatures of God, occupying the places He assigned them, and performing their functions in subserviency to His will.