And that is what happened. God made this space to separate the waters of the earth from the waters of the heavens.
Parallel translations
- WEB God made the expanse, and divided the waters which were under the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so.
- KJV And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
- BSB So God made the expanse and separated the waters beneath it from the waters above. And it was so.
- NKJV Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so.
- NASB God made the expanse, and separated the waters that were below the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse; and it was so.
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 makes the expanse and divides the waters, and it is so. His word is effective, accomplishing exactly what he commands.
Overview
God's spoken intention in verse 6 is carried out, and the phrase 'it was so' stresses that his word never fails to achieve its purpose. The dividing of the waters prepares an inhabitable space between sea and sky. This reliability of God's word anticipates the whole of Scripture, where what God promises he also performs (Isaiah 55:11).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Prov 8:28–29when he established the clouds above, when the springs of the deep became strong,
- Ps 148:4Praise him, you heavens of heavens, You waters that are above the heavens.
- Matt 8:27The men marveled, saying, “What kind of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
- Job 38:8–11“Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it broke out of the womb,
- Gen 1:9God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together to one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so.
- Job 26:8He binds up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not burst under them.
- Gen 1:15and let them be for lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth”; and it was so.
- Gen 1:24God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures after their kind, livestock, creeping things, and animals of the earth after their kind”; and it was so.
- Eccl 11:3If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth; and if a tree falls toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falls, there shall it be.
- Gen 1:11God said, “Let the earth yield grass, herbs yielding seeds, and fruit trees bearing fruit after their kind, with their seeds in it, on the earth”; and it was so.
- Ps 104:10He sends springs into the valleys. They run among the mountains.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Lay
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Commentaries & study tools
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The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 1:7 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.