Logos Bible Study

Genesis 1:16

The NET BibleOther versions

English

Arabic

Czech

French

German

Hebrew

Hungarian

Italian

Korean

Latin

Portuguese

Russian

Simplified Chinese

Spanish

Traditional Chinese

1:16God made two great lights37—the greater light to rule over the day and the lesser light to rule over the night. He made the stars also.38

Read in Logos
Genesis 1:16: And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars.

Footnotes

  1. 37 Two great lights. The text goes to great length to discuss the creation of these lights, suggesting that the subject was very important to the ancients. Since these “lights” were considered deities in the ancient world, the section serves as a strong polemic (see G. Hasel, “The Polemical Nature of the Genesis Cosmology,” 46 [1974]: 81–102). The Book of Genesis is affirming they are created entities, not deities. To underscore this the text does not even give them names. If used here, the usual names for the sun and moon [Shemesh and Yarih, respectively] might have carried pagan connotations, so they are simply described as greater and lesser lights. Moreover, they serve in the capacity that God gives them, which would not be the normal function the pagans ascribed to them. They merely divide, govern, and give light in God’s creation.
  2. 38 Heb “and the stars.” Now the term “stars” is added as a third object of the verb “made.” Perhaps the language is phenomenological, meaning that the stars appeared in the sky from this time forward.

In other versions

ESVEnglish Standard Version

And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars.

NIVNew International Version (2011)

God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.

CSBChristian Standard Bible

God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule over the day and the lesser light to rule over the night—as well as the stars.

NLTNew Living Translation

God made two great lights—the larger one to govern the day, and the smaller one to govern the night. He also made the stars.

LEBThe Lexham English Bible

And God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the smaller light to rule the night, and the stars.

KJV 1900King James Version

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.