EXPOSITION. Ver. 6.-Day two. The work of this clay and how far it may have been 1tssistc•l by consisted in tho formation of that immense the action of the light upon the condcnsin" gaseous ocean, called tho atmosphere, hy mass of the globe is a problem in the soln~ which the earth is cncirclccl. And God said, tion of which science may legitirnatdy take Let there be CL firmament (i-akiya, an ex- an interest. And divided the waters which panse, from i·akah, to beat out; LXX., were under the firmament Crom the waters 11r,piwµa ; Vulgnte, .firmamentum) in the which were above the firmament. 'l"he midst of the waters. To affirm with Knobel, upper waters are not the ma terfal of the Gescnius, and others that the Hebrews sup- stars (Delitzsch, Wordsworth), althou"h posed the atmosphe1ic heavens to be a Jupiter is of the same density as water, a~d metallic substance (Exod. xxiv. 10), a vault Saturn only half its density; Lut the waters fixed on the water-flood which surrounds floating about in the higher spaces of the tho earth (Prov. viii. 27), firm as a molten air. The under waters arc not the lower looking-glass (Job xxxviL 18), borne by the atmospheric vapours, but the oceanic and highest mountains, which are therefore called terrestrial waters. Ho;v the waters arn the pillars nnd foundations of heaven(~ Sam. collected in the upper reaches of the atmo- xxii. 8), and having doors and wmdows sphere, Scripture, no less than science, ex- (eh. vii. 11 ; xxviii. 17; Ps. lxxviii. 23), is plains to be by means of evaporation (Gen. to confound poetical metaphor with literal ii. 6; Job xxxvi 2i; xxxvii. 16). These prose, optical and phenomenal language with latter passages suggest that the clouds are strict scientific statement. The Vulgatc and balanced, suspended, upheld by the buov- English translations of i·akiya may convey ancy of the air in exact accordance with the idea of solidity, though it is doubtful if scientific principles. And it was so. Six 11r,piwµ.a (LXX.) does not signify that which times these words occur in the creation makes firm as well as that which is made record. Sublimely suggestive of the resist- firm (McCaul, Wordsworth, W. Lewis), thus less energy of the Divine word, which speaks, referring to the well-known scientific fact and it is done, commands, and it staudeth that the atmosphere by its weight upon the fast, they likewise remind us of the sweet waters of the sea keeps them down, and by submissiveness of the creature.to the all-wise its pressure against our bo(lies keeps them Creator's will, and, perhaps, are designed as up ; but it is certain that not solidity, but well to intimate the fixed and permanent expansiveness, is the idea represented by character of those arrangements to which rakiya (cf. Scottish, ra:x, to stretch ; Job they are n ttached. xxxvii. 18 ; Ps. civ. 2 ; Isa. xl. 22). Ver. 8.-And God called the firmament heaven. Literally, the heights, shamayim, as "The firmament, expanse of liquid, pure, in ver. 1. "This," says Principal Dawson, Transparent, elemental air, diffused "may bo regarded as an intimation that no In circuit to the uttermost convex definite barrier separates our film of atmo- Of this great round." sphere from the boundless abyss of heaven {Milton, 'P[lr, Lost,' Bk. vii.) without;" and how appropriate tho desig- And let it divide the waters from the nation "heights" is, as applied to the atmo- waters. What these waters were, which sphere, we a.re reminded by science, which were designed to be parted by the atmo- info1·ms us that, after rising to the height of spheric firmament, is explained in the verse forty-five miles above the earth, it becomes which follows. imperceptible, nnd loses itself in the universal Ver. 7.-And God made the firmament. ether with which it is surrounded. And the HO\V the present atmosphere was evolved evening and the moming were the second from the chaotic mass of waters the Mosaic day. For the literal rendering of this clause narrative does not reveal. The primary in- see on ver. 5. It is observable that in con- tention of that record being not to teach nection with the second day's work the science, hut to discover religious truth, the usual formula, "And Goel saw that it was thing of paramount ·importance to be com- good," is omitted. The "cai ,ic,v i, 9,o, or& municated was that the firmament was of ca~ov" of the Septuagint is unsupported by God's construction, This, of course, cloes not any ancient version. Tho conceit of the prevent us from believing that the elimin- Rabbis, that an expression of the Dil'ine ation of those gases (twonty-one parts of approbation was omitted because on this oxygen nnd seventy-nine of niti·ogen, with day the angels foll, requires no refutation. a small proportion of carbonic acid gas and Aben Ezra accounts for its omission by a.qneous vapour) which compose our atmo- making the second day's work terminate epliere wa.s not effected by natural means ; with vcr. 10, Lange asks, "linJ tho pro• 16 TIIE nooK OF GENESIS. [en, r. G-8,
rhetic author somo nnticipation that tho weight, is probably the concct one, that tha hlne ,-ault "-..s merely an arpcaranco, whilst l\·ork begun on the second dny was not t.hc savans of the Septuagint had no such properly terminated till tho middle of tho anticipation, and therefore proceeded to third, at which plnce, nccordingly, the ex- <loctc,r the rassage I" The explanation of pr<'ssion of Divine approbation is introduced Cnlviu, Dehtzsch, Macdonald, and Alford, (see vcr. 10). though declared by Kalisch to be of no