12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.
14 and God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days, and years:
15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth.
18 And to "rule over day the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness, and God saw that it was good.
19 And the evening and the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
COMMENTARY: 1:16 and God made two great lights refers to the sun and moon. They did not appear different verb (a different verb and stem) as the dry land in verse 9, but were actually made ('asah, synonymous with bara') at this time. God makes it clear that He, not the sun is the earth's Creator, and that God is not decedent upon the sun either for the earth's material substance or for the sustaining of life. From the standpoint of astronomy, the sun and the moon are obviously not 'the two great lights' of the universe. This is the language of appearance, as seen from man's viewpoint. Genesis is written in geocentric (rather than heliocentric) terms. "Signs" in verse 14 might refer to unusual sights in the heavens, such as eclipses of the sun, rather than suggest that God designed the celestial bodies to determine the destines of individual men as modern astrologers proclaim (cf. II Kings 23:12, Jeremiah 19:13; Zeph. 1:5, where God condemns such practice).
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