Verse (Click for Chapter) New International Version 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. New 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. English 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. Berean Standard Bible God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. And He made the stars as well. King James Bible 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. New King James Version Then 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. New American Standard Bible God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. NASB 1995 God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. NASB 1977 And God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. Legacy Standard Bible So God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night, and also the stars. Amplified Bible God made the two great lights—the greater light (the sun) to rule the day, and the lesser light (the moon) to rule the night; He made the [galaxies of] stars also [that is, all the amazing wonders in the heavens]. Christian 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. Holman Christian Standard Bible God made the two great lights—the greater light to have dominion over the day and the lesser light to have dominion over the night—as well as the stars. American Standard Version And God made the two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. Contemporary English Version God made two powerful lights, the brighter one to rule the day and the other to rule the night. He also made the stars. English Revised Version And God made the two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. GOD'S WORD® Translation God made the two bright lights: the larger light to rule the day and the smaller light to rule the night. He also made the stars. Good News Translation So God made the two larger lights, the sun to rule over the day and the moon to rule over the night; he also made the stars. International Standard Version God fashioned two great lights—the larger light to shine during the day and the smaller light to shine during the night—as well as stars. Majority Standard Bible God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. And He made the stars as well. NET Bible God made two great lights--the greater light to rule over the day and the lesser light to rule over the night. He made the stars also. New Heart English Bible 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. Webster's Bible Translation 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. World English Bible God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He also made the stars. Literal Translations Literal Standard VersionAnd God makes the two great luminaries, the great luminary for the rule of the day, and the small luminary—and the stars—for the rule of the night; Young's Literal Translation And God maketh the two great luminaries, the great luminary for the rule of the day, and the small luminary -- and the stars -- for the rule of the night; Smith's Literal Translation And God will make two great lights; the great light for the rule of the day, and the small light for the rule of the night and the stars. Catholic Translations Douay-Rheims BibleAnd God made two great lights: a greater light to rule the day; and a lesser light to rule the night: and the stars. Catholic Public Domain Version And God made two great lights: a greater light, to rule over the day, and a lesser light, to rule over the night, along with the stars. New American Bible God made the two great lights, the greater one to govern the day, and the lesser one to govern the night, and the stars. New Revised Standard Version God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. Translations from Aramaic Lamsa BibleAnd God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the smaller light to rule the night; and the stars also. Peshitta Holy Bible Translated And God made two great lights: a great light for a ruler of daytime, and one little light for a ruler of the night, and the stars. OT Translations JPS Tanakh 1917And God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; and the stars. Brenton Septuagint Translation And God made the two great lights, the greater light for regulating the day and the lesser light for regulating the night, the stars also. Additional Translations ... Audio Bible Context The Fourth Day…15And let them serve as lights in the expanse of the sky to shine upon the earth.” And it was so. 16God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. And He made the stars as well. 17God set these lights in the expanse of the sky to shine upon the earth,… Cross References Psalm 136:7-9 He made the great lights—His loving devotion endures forever. / the sun to rule the day, His loving devotion endures forever. / the moon and stars to govern the night. His loving devotion endures forever. Psalm 8:3 When I behold Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place— Jeremiah 31:35 Thus says the LORD, who gives the sun for light by day, who sets in order the moon and stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—the LORD of Hosts is His name: Job 38:7 while the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Isaiah 40:26 Lift up your eyes on high: Who created all these? He leads forth the starry host by number; He calls each one by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. Psalm 19:1-6 For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. / Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. / Without speech or language, without a sound to be heard, ... Deuteronomy 4:19 When you look to the heavens and see the sun and moon and stars—all the host of heaven—do not be enticed to bow down and worship what the LORD your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven. Psalm 104:19 He made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows when to set. Job 9:9 He is the Maker of the Bear and Orion, of the Pleiades and the constellations of the south. Isaiah 13:10 For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light. The rising sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light. Matthew 24:29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days: ‘The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.’ Luke 21:25 There will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among the nations, bewildered by the roaring of the sea and the surging of the waves. Revelation 21:23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, because the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its lamp. Revelation 12:1 And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed in the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 1 Corinthians 15:41 The sun has one degree of splendor, the moon another, and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor. Treasury of Scripture 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. to rule. 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. Joshua 10:12-14 Then spake Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon… Job 31:26 If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness; he made the stars also. Jump to Previous Govern Great Greater Lights Maketh Night Rule Ruler Small Smaller StarsJump to Next Govern Great Greater Lights Maketh Night Rule Ruler Small Smaller StarsGenesis 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. God made two great lights: This phrase introduces the creation of the sun and the moon, which are described as "great lights." In the ancient Near Eastern context, celestial bodies were often deified, but here they are presented as creations of God, emphasizing His sovereignty over all creation. The term "great lights" underscores their importance in the natural order, providing light and marking time. the greater light to rule the day: and the lesser light to rule the night: And He made the stars as well: Persons / Places / Events 1. GodThe Creator, who is actively involved in the formation of the universe. In this verse, God is the one who makes the celestial bodies. 2. The Greater Light Refers to the sun, which is created to govern the day. It is a central figure in the creation account, symbolizing order and authority over the day. 3. The Lesser Light Refers to the moon, which governs the night. It complements the sun and provides light during the night. 4. The Stars Created alongside the sun and moon, they fill the night sky and serve as signs and markers of time. 5. Creation The event of God bringing the universe into existence, with this verse focusing on the creation of celestial bodies. Teaching Points God's Sovereignty in CreationRecognize that God is the ultimate authority over the universe, having created the sun, moon, and stars with purpose and order. Purpose and Order in Creation Understand that God designed the celestial bodies with specific roles, reflecting His intentionality and the orderliness of His creation. Light as a Symbol of God's Presence The sun and moon provide physical light, symbolizing God's presence and guidance in our lives. We are called to walk in His light. Dependence on God's Provision Just as the sun and moon provide light and mark time, we depend on God's provision for our daily needs and spiritual growth. Reflecting God's Glory Like the stars that fill the night sky, we are called to reflect God's glory in the world, shining His light in the darkness.(16) He made the stars also.--The Hebrew is, God made two great lights . . . to rule the night; and also the stars. Though the word "also" carries back "the stars" to the verb "made," yet its repetition in our version makes it seem as if the meaning was that God now created the stars; whereas the real sense is that the stars were to rule the night equally with the moon. But besides this, there was no place where the stars--by which the planets are chiefly meant--could be so well mentioned as here. Two of them, Venus and Mercury, were formed somewhere between the first and the fourth day; and absolutely it was not till this day that our solar system, consisting of a central sun and the planets, with their attendant satellites, was complete. To introduce the idea of the fixed stars is unreasonable, for it is the planets which, by becoming in their turns morning and evening stars, rule the night; though the fixed stars indicate the seasons of the year. The true meaning, then, is that at the end of the fourth day the distribution of land and water, the state of the atmosphere, the alternation of day and night, of seasons and years, and the astronomical relations of the sun, moon, and planets (with the stars) to the earth were all settled and fixed, much as they are at present. And to this geology bears witness. Existing causes amply suffice to account for all changes that have taken place on our globe since the day when animal life first appeared upon the earth.Verse 16. - And God made two great lights. Perhaps no part of the material universe more irresistibly demands a supreme Intelligence as its only proper origin and cause. "Elegantissima haecce solis, planetarum et cometarum compages non nisi consilio et domino entis intelligentis et potentis oriri potuit" (Newton, 'Principia,' lib. 3. sub fin. Ed. of Le Seur and Jacquier, vol. 2. p. 199). The greater light to rule (literally, to make like; hence to judge; then to rule. Mashal; cf. βασιλεύω ( Γεσενινσ<ΒΤΤ·Ξομμενταρψ Ωορδ>) the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. The greater light is obviously the sun, which is sometimes denominated chammah, "the warm" (Psalm 19:7; Isaiah 30:26); sometimes there, "the glistering" (Job 9:7); but usually shemesh, "the minister (Deuteronomy 4:19; Deuteronomy 33:14). Here it is described by its bulk or magnitude, which is larger than that of the moon, the second of the two luminaries, which is also spoken of as great relatively to the stars, which, though in reality immensely exceeding it in size, yet appear like little bails of light (kokhavim) bestudding the blue canopy of night, and are so depicted - the Biblical narrative being geocentric and phenomenal, not heliocentric or scientific. How the work of this day was effected does not fall within the writer's scope to declare, the precise object of revelation being to teach not astronomy, or any other merely human gnosis, but religion. Accepting, however, the guidance of physical astronomy, we may imagine that the cosmical light of day one, which had up to this point continued either encompassing our globe like a luminous atmosphere, or existing at a distance from it, but in the plane of the earth's orbit, was now, if in the first of these positions, gradually broken up, doubtless through the shrinking of the earth's mass and the consequent lessening of its power Of attraction, and slowly drawn off towards, and finally concentrated, as a photosphere round the sun, which was thereby constituted chief luminary or "light-holder" the system, the moon and planets becoming, as a necessary consequence, "light-holders" in the secondary sense of "light-reflectors." It is interesting to note that some such explanation as this appears to have suggested itself to Willet, who wrote before the birth of Newton, and at a time when solar physics and spectrum analysis were things of the remote future. It m not unlike, says he, "but that this light (of the first day), after the creation of the celestial bodies, might be drawn upward and have his reflection upon the beame of the sunne and of other starres" And again, "Whereas the light created the first day is called or, but the starres (meaning the heavenly bodies) are called meoroth, as of the light, hence it may appear that these lightsome (i.e. luminous) bodies were made the receptacles of that light thou created, which was now increased and united to these lights" ('Hexapla,' vers. 3, 14, London, 1632); an explanation which, though certainly hypothetical, must be regarded as much more in accordance with the requirements of the sacred text than that which discovers in the making of the lights only a further dissipation of terrestrial mists so as to admit not the light-bringing beams of the celestial bodies alone, but the forms of those shining orbs themselves ('Speaker's Commentary'). He made the stars also. Though the stars are introduced solely because of their relation to the earth as dispensers of light, and no account is taken of their constitution as suns and planets, it is admissible to entertain the opinion that, in their case, as in that of the chief luminary of our tellurian heavens, the process of "sun" making reached its culmination on the fourth day. Perhaps the chief reason for their parenthetical introduction in this place was to guard against the notion that there were any luminaries which were not the work of Elohim, and in particular to prevent the Hebrews, for whom the work was written, from yielding to the heathen practices of star-gazing and star-worship. "The superstition of reading the destiny of man in the stars never took root among the Israelites; astrology is excluded by the first principle of Mosaism - the belief in one all-ruling God, who is subject to no necessity, no fate, no other will. Jeremiah warns the Hebrews not to be afraid of the 'signs of heaven,' before which the heathen tremble in vain terror (Jeremiah 10:2); and Isaiah speaks with taunting irony against the astrologers, star-gazers, and monthly prognosticators, in whose counsel it is folly and wickedness to rely (Isaiah 47:13). But the Israelites had not moral strength enough to resist the example of star-worship in general; they could not keep aloof from an aberration which formed the very focus of the principal Eastern religions; they yielded to that tempting influence, and ignominious incense rose profusely in honor of the sun and the hosts of heaven - Jeremiah 19:13; Ezekiel 8:16; Zephaniah 1:5; Wisd. 13:2" (Kalisch). Parallel Commentaries ... Hebrew Godאֱלֹהִ֔ים (’ĕ·lō·hîm) Noun - masculine plural Strong's 430: gods -- the supreme God, magistrates, a superlative made וַיַּ֣עַשׂ (way·ya·‘aś) Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular Strong's 6213: To do, make two שְׁנֵ֥י (šə·nê) Number - mdc Strong's 8147: Two (a cardinal number) great הַגְּדֹלִ֑ים (hag·gə·ḏō·lîm) Article | Adjective - masculine plural Strong's 1419: Great, older, insolent lights: הַמְּאֹרֹ֖ת (ham·mə·’ō·rōṯ) Article | Noun - masculine plural Strong's 3974: A luminous body, luminary, light, brightness, cheerfulness, a chandelier the greater הַגָּדֹל֙ (hag·gā·ḏōl) Article | Adjective - masculine singular Strong's 1419: Great, older, insolent light הַמָּא֤וֹר (ham·mā·’ō·wr) Article | Noun - masculine singular Strong's 3974: A luminous body, luminary, light, brightness, cheerfulness, a chandelier to rule לְמֶמְשֶׁ֣לֶת (lə·mem·še·leṯ) Preposition-l | Noun - feminine singular construct Strong's 4475: Rule, a realm, a ruler the day הַיּ֔וֹם (hay·yō·wm) Article | Noun - masculine singular Strong's 3117: A day and וְאֶת־ (wə·’eṯ-) Conjunctive waw | Direct object marker Strong's 853: Untranslatable mark of the accusative case the lesser הַקָּטֹן֙ (haq·qā·ṭōn) Article | Adjective - masculine singular Strong's 6996: Small, young, unimportant light הַמָּא֤וֹר (ham·mā·’ō·wr) Article | Noun - masculine singular Strong's 3974: A luminous body, luminary, light, brightness, cheerfulness, a chandelier to rule לְמֶמְשֶׁ֣לֶת (lə·mem·še·leṯ) Preposition-l | Noun - feminine singular construct Strong's 4475: Rule, a realm, a ruler the night. הַלַּ֔יְלָה (hal·lay·lāh) Article | Noun - masculine singular Strong's 3915: A twist, night, adversity And [He made] וְאֵ֖ת (wə·’êṯ) Conjunctive waw | Direct object marker Strong's 853: Untranslatable mark of the accusative case the stars {as well}. הַכּוֹכָבִֽים׃ (hak·kō·w·ḵā·ḇîm) Article | Noun - masculine plural Strong's 3556: A star, a prince Links Genesis 1:16 NIVGenesis 1:16 NLT Genesis 1:16 ESV Genesis 1:16 NASB Genesis 1:16 KJV Genesis 1:16 BibleApps.com Genesis 1:16 Biblia Paralela Genesis 1:16 Chinese Bible Genesis 1:16 French Bible Genesis 1:16 Catholic Bible OT Law: Genesis 1:16 God made the two great lights: (Gen. Ge Gn) |
    |