And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
Parallel translations
- WEB God saw the light, and saw that it was good. God divided the light from the darkness.
- BSB And God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness.
- NKJV And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.
- NASB God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.
- NLT And God saw that the light was good. Then he separated the light from the darkness.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God evaluates the light as good and separates it from darkness. Creation is intrinsically good and orderly because God deems it so.
Overview
For the first time God pronounces his work 'good,' establishing that the created order reflects his own goodness rather than being neutral or evil. The act of dividing light from darkness continues the theme of bringing order out of chaos. Throughout Scripture light and darkness become moral images, and in Christ the light shines in the darkness and is not overcome (John 1:5).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Eccl 2:13Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness.
- Gen 1:18And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
- Eccl 11:7Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun:
- Gen 1:31And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
- Gen 1:12And 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.
- Gen 1:10And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.
- Gen 1:25And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Lay
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Commentaries & study tools
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Christ at the center
From the first promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent (3:15), through Abraham's blessing to all nations and Judah's coming ruler, Genesis sows every seed that flowers in Christ — the true offspring, the better Adam, the ram caught for Isaac.
How Genesis 1:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.