Texts in Conversation
Genesis 1 describes the firmament as a solid barrier between the upper and lower waters, using language that describes hammered metal. Isaiah 44 uses similar language to describe the heavens as stretched or spread out, reinforcing the image of a solid, constructed dome or barrier.
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Genesis 1:7
Hebrew Bible
6 God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters and let it separate water from water.” 7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. It was so. 8 God called the expanse “sky.” There was evening, and there was morning, a second day.
Date: 5th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
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Isaiah 44:24
Hebrew Bible
23 Shout for joy, O sky, for the Lord intervenes; shout out, you subterranean regions of the earth. O mountains, give a joyful shout; you too, O forest and all your trees! For the Lord protects Jacob; he reveals his splendor through Israel. 24 This is what the Lord, your Protector, says, the one who formed you in the womb: “I am the Lord, who made everything, who alone stretched out the sky, who fashioned the earth all by myself, 25 who frustrates the omens of the empty talkers and humiliates the omen readers, who overturns the counsel of the wise men and makes their advice seem foolish,
Date: 7th-5th Centuries B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... the word raqia in Genesis 1:6–7, often translated “firmament,” stands in parallelism with “the heavens” in Psalm 19:1. In Psalm 150:1 the same word is parallel to “his holy place” and in apposition to “his strong place.” From these comparisons, the firmament is located in the heavens, and it is the site of divine enthronement in the heavens. The root appears in a verbal form in Job 37:18: “Can you, like him [God], spread out the skies, hard as a molten mirror?” (see Isaiah 44:24 for the same root in another creation allusion). The translation of the verb translated “to spread out” in this context is rendered to “stretch out” in NJPS. The D-stem of the verb is taken to refer to beating or hammering out metal plates (Exodus 39:3, Numbers 17:4, Isaiah 40:19). The context of Job 37:18 likewise suggests the activity of metal work, perhaps with the specific sense of the word as “molten,” translated as “cast metal” in NJPS. This root (yṣq) denotes pouring casting liquid metal in casts. The verb applies to the pouring of molten metals for the materials of the tabernacle conducted by the craftsman Bezalel (Exodus 25:12 and 37:3) and for furniture made by Kothar in the Baal Cycle ..."
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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