Adam Clarke's Bible Commentary Verse 6. And God said, Let there be a firmament] Our translators, by following the firmamentum of the Vulgate, which is a translation of the sterewma of the Septuagint, have deprived this passage of all sense and meaning. The Hebrew word [yqr rakia, from [qr raka, to spread out as the curtains of a tent or pavilion, simply signifies an expanse or space, and consequently that circumambient space or expansion separating the clouds, which are in the higher regions of it, from the seas, &c., which are below it. This we call the atmosphere, the orb of atoms or inconceivably small particles; but the word appears to have been used by Moses in a more extensive sense, and to include the whole of the planetary vortex, or the space which is occupied by the whole solar system.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 6-13 - The earth was emptiness, but by a word spoken, it became full of God' 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 produc 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 mercie are dried up.
Original Hebrew ויאמר559 אלהים430 יהי1961 רקיע7549 בתוך8432 המים4325 ויהי1961 מבדיל914 בין996 מים4325 למים׃4325
