Genesis 1:14
New International Version
And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years,

New Living Translation
Then God said, “Let lights appear in the sky to separate the day from the night. Let them be signs to mark the seasons, days, and years.

English Standard Version
And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years,

Berean Standard Bible
And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to distinguish between the day and the night, and let them be signs to mark the seasons and days and years.

King James Bible
And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

New King James Version
Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years;

New American Standard Bible
Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and they shall serve as signs and for seasons, and for days and years;

NASB 1995
Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years;

NASB 1977
Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years;

Legacy Standard Bible
Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years;

Amplified Bible
Then God said, “Let there be light-bearers (sun, moon, stars) in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be useful for signs (tokens) [of God’s provident care], and for marking seasons, days, and years;

Christian Standard Bible
Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night. They will serve as signs for seasons and for days and years.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night. They will serve as signs for festivals and for days and years.

American Standard Version
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:

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And God said, “Lights shall be in the firmament of Heaven to distinguish between daytime and night and they shall be for signs and for times and for days and for years:

Brenton Septuagint Translation
And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, to divide between day and night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and for years.

Contemporary English Version
God said, "I command lights to appear in the sky and to separate day from night and to show the time for seasons, special days, and years.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And God said: Let there be lights made in the firmament of heaven, to divide the day and the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years:

English Revised Version
And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years:

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Then God said, "Let there be lights in the sky to separate the day from the night. They will be signs and will mark religious festivals, days, and years.

Good News Translation
Then God commanded, "Let lights appear in the sky to separate day from night and to show the time when days, years, and religious festivals begin;

International Standard Version
Then God said, "Let there be lights across the sky to distinguish day from night, to act as signs for seasons, days, and years,

JPS Tanakh 1917
And God said: 'Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years;

Literal Standard Version
And God says, “Let luminaries be in the expanse of the heavens, to make a separation between the day and the night, then they have been for signs, and for appointed times, and for days and years,

Majority Standard Bible
And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to distinguish between the day and the night, and let them be signs to mark the seasons and days and years.

New American Bible
Then God said: Let there be lights in the dome of the sky, to separate day from night. Let them mark the seasons, the days and the years,

NET Bible
God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them be signs to indicate seasons and days and years,

New Revised Standard Version
And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years,

New Heart English Bible
And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky for the illumination of the day, to give light on the earth, and to rule the day and the night, and to separate between the day and the night. And let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years;

Webster's Bible Translation
And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven, to divide the day from the night: and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years.

World English Bible
God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs to mark seasons, days, and years;

Young's Literal Translation
And God saith, 'Let luminaries be in the expanse of the heavens, to make a separation between the day and the night, then they have been for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years,

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Fourth Day
13And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day. 14And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to distinguish between the day and the night, and let them be signs to mark the seasons and days and years. 15And let them serve as lights in the expanse of the sky to shine upon the earth.” And it was so.…

Cross References
Genesis 1:13
And there was evening, and there was morning--the third day.

Genesis 1:15
And let them serve as lights in the expanse of the sky to shine upon the earth." And it was so.

Psalm 19:1
The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.

Psalm 74:16
The day is Yours, and also the night; You established the moon and the sun.

Psalm 104:19
He made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows when to set.

Psalm 136:7
He made the great lights--His loving devotion endures forever.

Psalm 150:1
Hallelujah! Praise God in His sanctuary. Praise Him in His mighty heavens.


Treasury of Scripture

And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

Let there.

Deuteronomy 4:19
And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven.

Job 25:3,5
Is there any number of his armies? and upon whom doth not his light arise? …

Job 38:12-14
Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days; and caused the dayspring to know his place; …

lights.

Genesis 1:3
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

between the day and between the night.

Genesis 8:22
While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

Genesis 9:13
I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.

Job 3:9
Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; let it look for light, but have none; neither let it see the dawning of the day:

Jump to Previous
Arch Changes Divide Division Expanse Firmament Heaven Heavens Lights Mark Marking Night Seasons Separate Serve Signs Sky
Jump to Next
Arch Changes Divide Division Expanse Firmament Heaven Heavens Lights Mark Marking Night Seasons Separate Serve Signs Sky
Genesis 1
1. God creates heaven and earth;
3. the light;
6. the firmament;
9. separates the dry land;
14. forms the sun, moon, and stars;
20. fishes and fowls;
24. cattle, wild beasts, and creeping things;
26. creates man in his own image, blesses him;
29. grants the fruits of the earth for food.














(14) Let there be lights (luminaries) in the firmament (or expanse) of the heaven.--In Hebrew the word for light is or, and for luminary, ma-or, a light-bearer. The light was created on the first day, and its concentration into great centres must at once have commenced; but the great luminaries did not appear in the open sky until the fourth day. With this begins the second triad of the creative days. Up to this time there had been arrangement chiefly; heat and water had had their periods of excessive activity, but with the introduction of vegetation there came also the promise of things higher and nobler than mechanical laws. Now, this fourth day seems to mark two things: first, the surface of the earth has become so cool as to need heat given it from without and secondly, there was now a long pause in creation. No new law in it is promulgated, no new factor introduced; only the atmosphere grows clearer, the earth more dry; vegetation does its part in absorbing gases; and day by day the sun shines with more unclouded brilliancy, followed by the mild radiance of the moon, and finally, by the faint gleamings of the stars. But besides this, as the condensation of luminous matter into the sun was the last act in the shaping of our solar system, it is quite possible that during this long fourth day the sun finally assumed as nearly as possible its present dimensions and form. No doubt it is still changing and slowly drawing nearer to that period when, God's seventh day of rest being over, the knell of this our creation will sound, and the sun, with its attendant planets, and among them our earth, become what God shall then will. But during this seventh day, in which we are now living, God works only in maintaining laws already given, and no outburst either of creative or of destructive energy can take place.

Let them be for signs--i.e., marks, means of knowing. This may be taken as qualifying what follows, and would then mean, Let them be means for distinguishing seasons, days, and years; but more probably it refers to the signs of the zodiac, which anciently played so important a part, not merely in astronomy, but in matters of daily life.

Seasons.--Not spring, summer, and the like, but regularly recurring periods, like the three great festivals of the Jews. In old time men depended, both in agriculture, navigation, and daily life, upon their own observation of the setting and rising of the constellations. This work is now done for us by others, and put into a convenient form in almanacks; but equally now as of old, days, years, and seasons depend upon the motion of the heavenly orbs.

Verses 14, 15. - Day four. With this day begins the second half of the creative week, whose works have a striking correspondence with the labors of the first. Having perfected the main structural arrangements of the globe by the elimination from primeval chaos of the four fundamental elements of light, air, water, and land, the formative energy of the Divine word reverts to its initial point of departure, and, in a second series of operations, carries each of these forward to completion - the light by permanently settling it in the sun, the air and water by filling therewith fowl and fish, and the land by making animals and man. The first of these engaged the Divine Artificer's attention on the fourth creative day. And God said, Let there be lights (literally, places where light is, light-holders, Psalm 64:16; φωστῆρες, LXX.; luminaria, Vulgate; spoken of lamps and candlesticks, Exodus 25:6: Numbers 4:9, 16) in the firmament (literally the expanse) of the heaven. יִהִי in the singular with מְאֹרֹת in the plural is explained by Gesenius on the ground that the predicate precedes the subject (vid. 'Gram.,' §147). The scientific accuracy of the language here used to describe the celestial luminaries relieves the Mosaic cosmogony of at least one supposed irreconcilable contradiction, that of representing light as having an existence independent of the sun. Equally does it dispense exegesis from the necessity of accounting for what appears a threefold creation of the heavenly bodies - in the beginning (ver. 1), on the first day (ver. 3), and again on the fourth (ver. 14). The reference in the last of these verses is not to the original creation of the matter of the supra mundane spheres (Gerlach), which was performed in the beginning, nor to the first production of light, which was the specific work of day one; but to the permanent appointment of the former to be the place, or center of radiation, for the latter. The purpose for which this arrangement was designed, so far, at least, as the earth was concerned, was threefold: -

1. To divide the day from the night. Literally, between the day and the night; or, as in ver. 18, to divide the light from the darkness to continue and render permanent the separation and distinction which was effected on the first day.

2. And let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years. The celestial lights were to serve -

(1) For signs. Othoth, from oth, anything engraved, hence a mark (Genesis 4:15; 2 Kings 20:8), is employed to designate a portent, or sign of wanting or instruction (Psalm 61:8; Isaiah 8:18; Isaiah 20. g; LXX., σημεῖον; cf. Luke 21:25; Acts if. 19), and here probably refers to the subsequent employment of the heavenly bodies "as marks or signs of important changes and occurrences in the kingdom of Providence" (Macdonald). "That they may have been designed also to subserve important purposes in the -various economy of human life, as in affording signs to the mariner and husbandman, is not improbable, though this is not so strictly the import of the original" (Bush). Still less, of course, does the word refer to mediaeval astrology or to modern meteorology. . . .

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
And God
אֱלֹהִ֗ים (’ĕ·lō·hîm)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 430: gods -- the supreme God, magistrates, a superlative

said,
וַיֹּ֣אמֶר (way·yō·mer)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 559: To utter, say

“Let there be
יְהִ֤י (yə·hî)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect Jussive - third person masculine singular
Strong's 1961: To fall out, come to pass, become, be

lights
מְאֹרֹת֙ (mə·’ō·rōṯ)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 3974: A luminous body, luminary, light, brightness, cheerfulness, a chandelier

in the expanse
בִּרְקִ֣יעַ (bir·qî·a‘)
Preposition-b | Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 7549: An expanse, the firmament, visible arch of the sky

of the sky
הַשָּׁמַ֔יִם (haš·šā·ma·yim)
Article | Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 8064: Heaven, sky

to distinguish
לְהַבְדִּ֕יל (lə·haḇ·dîl)
Preposition-l | Verb - Hifil - Infinitive construct
Strong's 914: To be divided, separate

between
בֵּ֥ין (bên)
Preposition
Strong's 996: An interval, space between

day
הַיּ֖וֹם (hay·yō·wm)
Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 3117: A day

and
וּבֵ֣ין (ū·ḇên)
Conjunctive waw | Preposition
Strong's 996: An interval, space between

night
הַלָּ֑יְלָה (hal·lā·yə·lāh)
Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 3915: A twist, night, adversity

and to mark
וְהָי֤וּ (wə·hā·yū)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Conjunctive perfect - third person common plural
Strong's 1961: To fall out, come to pass, become, be

[the] seasons
וּלְמ֣וֹעֲדִ֔ים (ū·lə·mō·w·‘ă·ḏîm)
Conjunctive waw, Preposition-l | Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 4150: Appointed time, place, or meeting

and days
וּלְיָמִ֖ים (ū·lə·yā·mîm)
Conjunctive waw, Preposition-l | Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 3117: A day

and years,
וְשָׁנִֽים׃ (wə·šā·nîm)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - feminine plural
Strong's 8141: A year


Links
Genesis 1:14 NIV
Genesis 1:14 NLT
Genesis 1:14 ESV
Genesis 1:14 NASB
Genesis 1:14 KJV

Genesis 1:14 BibleApps.com
Genesis 1:14 Biblia Paralela
Genesis 1:14 Chinese Bible
Genesis 1:14 French Bible
Genesis 1:14 Catholic Bible

OT Law: Genesis 1:14 God said Let there be lights (Gen. Ge Gn)
Genesis 1:13
Top of Page
Top of Page