And God saw
The phrase "And God saw" indicates divine observation and approval. The Hebrew word for "saw" is "ra'ah," which implies not just a visual perception but an understanding and acknowledgment. In the context of creation, this suggests that God is not a distant creator but one who is intimately involved and takes pleasure in His creation. This divine seeing is an affirmation of the inherent goodness and purpose in what He has made.

that the light was good
The word "good" in Hebrew is "tov," which encompasses beauty, order, and purpose. Light, in this context, is not merely a physical phenomenon but a symbol of God's presence and the order He brings to chaos. The declaration of light as "good" sets a precedent for the rest of creation, emphasizing that everything God creates is inherently good and purposeful. This goodness reflects God's own nature, as He is the ultimate source of all that is good.

and He separated
The act of separation is crucial in the creation narrative. The Hebrew word "badal" means to divide or distinguish. This separation of light from darkness is not just a physical act but a metaphorical one, representing the establishment of order and boundaries in the universe. It signifies God's authority and sovereignty in defining and structuring creation, setting the stage for the rest of the creative acts.

the light from the darkness
Light and darkness are often used symbolically throughout Scripture. Here, they represent the first act of bringing order to chaos. In the ancient Near Eastern context, darkness was associated with chaos and disorder, while light symbolized life and divine presence. By separating light from darkness, God is establishing a rhythm and balance in creation, which is foundational for life. This separation also prefigures the moral and spiritual distinctions that will be developed throughout the Bible, where light often symbolizes truth and righteousness, and darkness represents sin and separation from God.

(4) And God saw.--This contemplation indicates, first, lapse of time; and next, that the judgment pronounced was the verdict of the Divine reason.

That it was good.--As light was a necessary result of motion in the world-mass, so was it indispensable for all that was to follow, inasmuch as neither vegetable nor animal life can exist without it. But the repeated approval by the Deity of each part and portion of this material universe (comp. Psalm 104:31) also condemns all Manichaean theories, and asserts that this world is a noble home for man, and life a blessing, in spite of its solemn responsibilities.

And God divided . . . --The first three creative days are all days of order and distribution, and have been called "the three separations." But while on the first two days no new thing was created, but only the chaotic matter (described in Genesis 1:2) arranged, on day three there was the introduction of vegetable life. The division on the first day does not imply that darkness has a separate and independent existence, but that there were now periods of light and darkness; and thus by the end of the first day our earth must have advanced far on its way towards its present state. (See Note, Genesis 1:5.) It is, however, even more probable that the ultimate results of each creative word are summed up in the account given of it. No sooner did motion begin, than the separation of the air and water from the denser particles must have begun too. The immediate result was light; removed by a greater interval was the formation of an open space round the contracting earth-ball; still more remote was the formation of continents and oceans; but the separations must have commenced immediately that the "wind of Elohim" began to brood upon and move the chaotic mass. How far these separations had advanced before there were recurrent periods of light and darkness is outside the scope of the Divine narrative, which is not geological, but religious.

Verse 4. - And God saw the light, that it was good. The anthropomorphism of this verse is suggestive, as teaching that from the first the absolute and all-sufficient Elohim was an intelligent Spectator of the operation of his own laws and forces, and was profoundly interested in the results which they achieved - an amount and degree of interference with the vast machine of nature which would satisfy any rational theist of today. God saw, i.e. examined and judged the newly-finished product, investigated its nature and its properties, contemplated its uses, admired its excellences, noted its correspondence with his own Divine idea; and in all these respects he pronounced it good. Afterwards it is the particular arrangement effected, or condition induced, by the creative word that evokes the Divine commendation; here it is the creature itself - "perhaps as the one object in nature which forms the fittest representation of the Creator himself, who is Light, and in whom is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5), and of the true Light, which lighteth every man (John 1:9)" (Macdonald). And God divided between the light and the darkness. The celestial, bodies not having been constituted light-holders for the earth until the fourth day forbids the supposition that the luminous matter, on being eliminated from the chaotic mass, was forthwith transported towards and concentrated in the sun. The sun itself, it is now well known, is "a solid mass of highly igneous matter engirt by a bed of dense clouds, on the top of which there lies, encircling all, a floating phosphorescent or luminous atmosphere, the lower part of it splendid, but the upper of luster altogether dazzling, from which streams the flood of light that enlivens all surrounding spheres" (Nichol's 'Cyclopedia,' art. Sun). "If, therefore, with Laplace, we may assume that the physical history of the sun was the archetype of that of the various planetary bodies that compose our system, we must think of them also, in the process of condensation, developing luminous atmospheres, which would continue encircling them, and in fact making them suns, until, through their further condensation, those phosphorescent bands were broken up, and, becoming disengaged from their parent globes, were attracted towards, and subsequently centralized in, the photosphere of the sun. So far as our earth is concerned, that happened on the fourth day. On the first day the light would either ensphere it in a radiant cloud, or exist apart from it, like a sun, though always in the plane of its orbit" (Delitzsch). If the former, then manifestly, though revolving on its axis, the earth would not experience the vicissitude of day and night, which some conjecture was not at this time established; if the latter, then the same succession of light and darkness would be begun as was afterwards rendered permanent by the fourth day's work. The chief reasons for the latter alternative are the supposed necessity of understanding the term day as a period of twenty-four hours, and the apparent impossibility of explaining how the light could be divided from the darkness otherwise than by the diurnal revolution of the earth. The Hiphil of בָּדַל, however, means to disjoin what was previously mixed, and may simply refer to the separation of the luminous particles from the opaque mass. By that very act the light was divided from the darkness. It was henceforth to be no more commingled. "The light denotes all that is simply illuminating in its efficacy, all the luminous element; the darkness denotes all that is untransparent, dark, shadow-casting; both together denote the polarity of the created world as it exists between the light-formations and the night-formations - the constitution of the day and night" (Lange).

Parallel Commentaries ...


And seeing
וַיַּ֧רְא (way·yar)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 7200: To see

that
כִּי־ (kî-)
Conjunction
Strong's 3588: A relative conjunction

the light
הָא֖וֹר (hā·’ō·wr)
Article | Noun - common singular
Strong's 216: Illumination, luminary

[was] good,
ט֑וֹב (ṭō·wḇ)
Adjective - masculine singular
Strong's 2896: Pleasant, agreeable, good

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

separated
וַיַּבְדֵּ֣ל (way·yaḇ·dêl)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Hifil - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 914: To be divided, separate

the light
הָא֖וֹר (hā·’ō·wr)
Article | Noun - common singular
Strong's 216: Illumination, luminary

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

the darkness.
הַחֹֽשֶׁךְ׃ (ha·ḥō·šeḵ)
Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 2822: The dark, darkness, misery, destruction, death, ignorance, sorrow, wickedness


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OT Law: Genesis 1:4 God saw the light and saw that (Gen. Ge Gn)