And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

To shine in the firmament of heaven, and to give light upon the earth. And it was so done.

and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens, to give light on the earth. And it was so.

and they have been for luminaries in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth:' and it is so.

And let them be for lights in the arch of heaven to give light on the earth: and it was so.

Let them shine in the firmament of heaven and illuminate the earth." And so it became.

Et sint in luminaria in expansione coeli, ut illuminent terram. Et fuit ita.

Let them be for lights It is well again to repeat what I have said before, that it is not here philosophically discussed, how great the sun is in the heaven, and how great, or how little, is the moon; but how much light comes to us from them. [1] For Moses here addresses himself to our senses, that the knowledge of the gifts of God which we enjoy may not glide away. Therefore, in order to apprehend the meaning of Moses, it is to no purpose to soar above the heavens; let us only open our eyes to behold this light which God enkindles for us in the earth. By this method (as I have before observed) the dishonesty of those men is sufficiently rebuked, who censure Moses for not speaking with greater exactness. For as it became a theologian, he had respect to us rather than to the stars. Nor, in truth, was he ignorant of the fact, that the moon had not sufficient brightness to enlighten the earth, unless it borrowed from the sun; but he deemed it enough to declare what we all may plainly perceive, that the moon is a dispenser of light to us. That it is, as the astronomers assert, an opaque body, I allow to be true, while I deny it to be a dark body. For, first, since it is placed above the element of fire, it must of necessity be a fiery body. Hence it follows, that it is also luminous; but seeing that it has not light sufficient to penetrate to us, it borrows what is wanting from the sun. He calls it a lesser light by comparison; because the portion of light which it emits to us is small compared with the infinite splendor of the sun. [2]

Footnotes

1 - "Great lights;" that is, in our eyes, "to which the sun and moon are nearer than the fixed stars and the greater planets." -- Johannes Clericus in Genesin, p.10. -- Ed.

2 - The reader will be in no danger of being misled by the defective natural philosophy of the age in which this was written.

To shine upon the earth. - The first day spreads the shaded gleam of light over the face of the deep. The fourth day unfolds to the eye the lamps of heaven, hanging in the expanse of the skies, and assigns to them the office of "shining upon the earth." A threefold function is thus attributed to the celestial orbs - to divide day from night, to define time and place, and to shine on the earth. The word of command is here very full, running over two verses, with the exception of the little clause, "and it was so," stating the result.

And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven,.... To continue there as luminous bodies; as enlighteners, as the word signifies, causing light, or as being the instruments of conveying it, particularly to the earth, as follows:
to give light upon the earth; and the inhabitants of it, when formed:
and it was so: these lights were formed and placed in the firmament of the heaven for such uses, and served such purposes as God willed and ordered they should.