Genesis 1:14

Bishops' Bible (1568)

And God sayde: let there be lyghtes in the firmament of the heauen, that they may deuide the day and the nyght, and let them be for signes, & seasons, and for dayes, and yeres.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֗ים יְהִ֤י מְאֹרֹת֙ בִּרְקִ֣יעַ הַשָּׁמַ֔יִם לְהַבְדִּ֕יל בֵּ֥ין הַיּ֖וֹם וּבֵ֣ין הַלָּ֑יְלָה וְהָי֤וּ לְאֹתֹת֙ וּלְמ֣וֹעֲדִ֔ים וּלְיָמִ֖ים וְשָׁנִֽים׃

Transliteration

And wayyōʾmer ʾĕlōhîm yĕhî mĕʾōrōt in rĕqîaʿ the šāmayim to habdîl between the yôm and between the lāylāh and hāyû for ʾōtōt and for môʿădîm and for yāmîm and šānîm

Grammar Details

• *mĕʾōrōt*: noun, masculine plural - lights/luminaries
• *bi-rĕqîaʿ*: preposition + noun, masculine singular construct - in firmament of
• *lĕ-habdîl*: preposition + hiphil infinitive construct - to separate/divide
• *hāyû*: verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural - they will be
• *lĕ-ʾōtōt*: preposition + noun, masculine plural - for signs
• *û-lĕ-môʿădîm*: conjunction + preposition + noun, masculine plural - and for appointed times
• *û-lĕ-yāmîm*: conjunction + preposition + noun, masculine plural - and for days
• *wĕ-šānîm*: conjunction + noun, feminine plural - and years

Word Meanings

• *mĕʾōrōt*: lights/luminaries/light-bearers
• *habdîl*: to separate/to divide/to distinguish
• *ʾōtōt*: signs/signals/markers
• *môʿădîm*: appointed times/festivals/seasons
• *yāmîm*: days/periods of time
• *šānîm*: years/annual cycles

Referenced Verses

• Ps 136:7-9 : 7 Who hath made great lightes: for his mercy endureth for euer. 8 The sunne to rule in the day: for his mercy endureth for euer. 9 The moone and the starres to gouerne in the night: for his mercy endureth for euer.
• Ps 104:19-20 : 19 He hath made the moone for certayne seasons: and the sunne knoweth his goyng downe. 20 Thou makest darknes and it is night: wherein all the beastes of the forrest do go abrode.
• Ps 8:3-4 : 3 For I will consider thy heauens, euen the workes of thy fingers: the moone and the starres whiche thou hast ordayned. 4 What is man that thou art myndfull of him? and the sonne of man that thou visitest hym?
• Ps 74:16-17 : 16 The day is thine, & the nyght is thine: thou hast prepared the light & the sunne. 17 Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: thou hast ordeyned summer and wynter.
• Deut 4:19 : 19 Yea, and lest thou lift vp thyne eyes vnto heauen, and when thou seest the sunne, the moone, and the starres, with all the hoast of heauen, shouldest be driuen to worship them, & serue them, and shouldest worship and serue the thynges, which the Lorde thy God hath made to serue all nations vnder the whole heauen.
• Isa 40:26 : 26 Lift vp your eyes on high, and consider who hath made those thinges which come out by so great heapes, and he calleth them al by their names: there is nothing hid from the greatnesse of his power, strength, and might.
• Jer 31:35 : 35 Thus saith the Lorde, which gaue the sunne to be a lyght for the day, and the moone and the starres to shine in the night, whiche moueth the sea, so that the fluddes thereof waxe fierce, his name is the Lorde of hoastes.
• Amos 5:8 : 8 He maketh the seuen starres and Orion, and he turneth the shadowe of death into the morning, and he maketh the day darke as night: he calleth the waters of the sea, and powreth them out vpon the open earth, the Lorde is his name.
• Ps 148:3 : 3 Prayse ye hym sunne and moone: praise hym all ye starres that geue lyght.
• Ps 148:6 : 6 He hath set them sure for euer and euer: he hath geuen them a lawe which shall not be broken.
• Job 38:12-14 : 12 Hast thou geue the morning his charge since thy dayes, and shewed the day spring his place, 13 That it might take holde of the corners of the earth, and that the vngodly might be shaken out of it. 14 They are fashioned as is the clay with the seale, and all stand vp as a garment.
• Job 38:31-32 : 31 Wylt thou hinder the sweete influences of the seuen starres? or loose the bandes of Orion? 32 Canst thou bring foorth Mazzaroth in their time? canst thou also guide Arctutus with his sonnes?
• Joel 2:30-31 : 30 And I will shewe wonders in heauen and in earth, blood, and fire, and pillers of smoke. 31 The sunne shalbe turned into darknesse, and the moone into blood, before that great and terrible day of the Lord come.
• Joel 3:15 : 15 The sunne and the moone shalbe darkned, and the starres shall withdrawe their light.
• Matt 24:29 : 29 Immediatly after the tribulation of those dayes, shal the sunne be darkened, and the moone shall not geue her lyght, and the starres shall fall from heauen, and the powers of heauen shalbe shaken.
• Jer 33:20 : 20 Thus saith the Lorde: May the couenaunt whiche I haue made with day and night be broken, that there shoulde not be day and night in due season?
• Jer 10:2 : 2 Thus saith the Lord: ye shal not learne after the maner of the heathen, and ye shall not be afraide for the tokens of heauen: for the heathen are afraide of suche.
• Ezek 32:7-8 : 7 When thou art put out, I wyll couer the heauen, and make his starres dim: I wyll spreade a cloude ouer the sunne, and the moone shall not geue her light. 8 All the lightes of heauen wyll I make darke for thee: and bring darkenesse vpon thy lande, saith the Lorde God.
• Luke 21:25-26 : 25 And there shalbe signes in the sunne and in the moone, & in the starres: and vpon the earth trouble among the nations, with perplexitie. The sea and the water shall rore. 26 And mens heartes shal fayle them for feare, and for loking after those thinges which shall come on the world: For the powers of heauen shalbe shaken.
• Luke 23:45 : 45 And the sunne was darkned, and the vayle of the temple dyd rent, euen thorowe the middes.
• Acts 2:19-20 : 19 And I wyll shewe wonders in heauen aboue, and tokens in the earth beneath, blood, and fyre, and the vapour of smoke. 20 The Sunne shalbe turned into darknesse, and the Moone into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come.
• Rev 6:12 : 12 And I behelde when he had opened the sixt seale, and loe there was a great earthquake, & the sunne was as blacke as sackcloth made of heere, & the moone waxed all euen as blood:
• Rev 8:12 : 12 And the fourth angell blewe, and the thirde part of the sunne was smytten, and the thirde part of the moone, and the thirde part of starres, so that the thirde part of them was darkened: and the day was smitten, that the third part of it shoulde not shyne, and lykewise the nyght.
• Rev 9:2 : 2 And he opened the bottomlesse pit, and the smoke of the pit arose, as the smoke of a great fornace, and the sunne and the ayre were darkened by the reason of the smoke of the pit.
• Ezek 46:1 : 1 Thus saith the Lorde God: The gate of the inner court towarde the east shalbe shut the sixe working dayes: but in the Sabbath & in the day of the new moone it shalbe opened.
• Ezek 46:6 : 6 In the day of the new moneth, it shalbe a young bullocke without blemishe, and sixelambes, and a ramme also without blemishe.
• Joel 2:10 : 10 The earth shall quake before him, the heauens shall tremble, the sunne and the moone shalbe darke, and the starres shall withdrawe their shinyng.
• Jer 33:25 : 25 Therefore thus saith the Lord, If I haue made no couenaunt with day and night, and geuen no statute vnto heauen and earth:
• Mark 13:24 : 24 Moreouer, in those dayes, after that tribulation, the sunne shall waxe darke, and the moone shall not geue her light.
• Amos 8:9 : 9 And in that day, sayth the Lord God, I will euen cause the sunne to go downe at noone, and I wil darken the earth in the cleare day.
• Matt 2:2 : 2 Saying: Where is he that is borne kyng of Iewes? For we haue seene his starre in the east, and are come to worship hym.
• Matt 16:2-3 : 2 He aunswered & sayde vnto them: when it is euenyng, ye say, it wyll be fayre weather: for the sky is redde. 3 And in the mornyng, It wyll be foule weather to day: for the sky is lowryng redde. O ye hypocrites, ye can discerne the outwarde appearaunce of the sky: but can ye not discerne the signes of the tymes?
• Gen 8:22 : 22 Yet therefore shall not sowyng tyme and haruest, colde and heate, sommer and wynter, day and nyght, ceasse all the dayes of the earth.
• Gen 9:13 : 13 I do set my bowe in the cloude, and it shall be for a token betweene me and the earth.
• Job 3:9 : 9 Let the starres of that night be dimme thorowe darkenesse of it, let it loke for light, but haue none, neither let it see the dawning of the day:
• Job 25:3 : 3 Is there any number of his armies, and vpon whom shal not his light arise?
• Job 25:5 : 5 Beholde, the moone shyneth nothing in comparison to him, and the starres are vncleane in his sight.
• Ps 119:91 : 91 All thynges continue this day accordyng to thine ordinaunce: for all thinges be thy seruauntes.
• Ps 81:3 : 3 Blowe vp the trumpet in the newe moone, euen in the time appointed: and vpon our solempne feast day.
• Ps 19:1-6 : 1 To the chiefe musition, a psalme of Dauid. The heauens declare the glorie of God: and the firmament sheweth his handy worke. 2 A day occasioneth talke therof vnto a day: and a night teacheth knoweledge vnto a nyght. 3 No language, no wordes, no voyce of theirs is hearde: 4 yet their sounde goeth into all landes, and their wordes into the endes of the worlde.In them he hath set a tabernacle for the sunne: 5 which commeth foorth as a bridegrome out of his chamber, and reioyceth as a giaunt to runne his course. 6 His settyng foorth is from the vtmost part of heauen, and his circuite vnto the vtmost part therof: and there is nothing hyd from his heat.