Gill's Exposition of the Entire BibleAnd God made the firmament. As God commanded and ordered it, so it was done and settled. the air, because they are above a considerable part of it. The waters in the clouds for the clouds are called waters, Psa 18:11 Psa 104:3, and are said to be in heaven, 2Sa 21:10 Mat 24:30, and the production thereof is mentioned as an eminent work of God's creation, Job 35:5 Job 36:29 Psa 147:8 Pro 8:28 which therefore it is not credible that Moses in his history of the creation would admit, which he doth, if they be not here meant and these are rightly said to be above the firmament, i.e. A collection or sea of waters placed by God above all the visible heavens, and there reserved for ends known to himself. The waters above the firmament, or above the heavens, as they are called, Psa 148:4, are either,ġ. The waters under the firmament are seas, rivers, lakes, fountains, and other waters in the bowels of the earth. The air called here, the expansion, or extension, because it is extended far and wide, even from the earth to the third heaven called also the firmament, because it is fixed in its proper place, from whence it cannot be moved, unless by force. The starry heaven so called, not from its solidity, but from its fixed, durable, and, in a sort, incorruptible and unchangeable nature. Matthew Poole's Commentary The firmament here is either,ġ. For the attainment of all such knowledge God has provided another way. Mark’s expression, “The sun did set” ( Mark 1:32), disproves the inspiration of the Gospels. Even if the writer supposed that the rains were poured down from an upper reservoir, it would be no more an argument against his being inspired than St. The use, however, of popular language and ideas is confessedly the method of Holy Scripture, and we must not force upon the writer knowledge which man was to gain for himself. and the result would be such as is described in Genesis 2:5, that man could not exist on earth to till the ground. (See Acts 14:17.) Moreover, were there not an open expanse next the earth, it would be wrapped in a perpetual mist, unvisited by sunshine. So full of thoughtful contrivance and arrangement are the laws by which rain is formed and the earth watered, that they are constantly referred to in the Bible as the chief natural proof of God’s wisdom and goodness. The atmosphere is the receptacle of the waters evaporated from the earth and ocean, and by means of electrical action it keeps these aqueous particles in a state of repulsion, and forms clouds, which the winds carry in their bosom. the waters which were above the firmament.-While this is a popular description of what we daily see-namely, masses of running water congregated upon earth’s surface, and above a cloudland, into which the waters rise and float-it is not contrary to, but in accordance with, science. The waters which were under the firmament. (See Note, Genesis 1:8.) And in this secondary sense it may still rightly be called the firmament. In each step of the narrative it is ever man that is in view and even the weight of the superincumbent atmosphere is indispensable for the health and comfort of the human body, and for the keeping of all things in their place on earth. Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(7) God made the firmament.-This wide open expanse upon earth’s surface, supplied by the chemistry of nature-that is, of God-with that marvellous mixture of gases which form atmospheric air, was a primary necessity for man’s existence and activity.
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