Genesis 1:14

Summary

The fourth day opens: the command calls for luminaries in the firmament of the heavens with a double role — separating day from night and serving as time markers: signs, appointed times, days, and years.

Key words

• me.'o.Rot ("luminaries", H3974) — masculine plural.
• r.Ki.a' ("[the] firmament of", H7549) — construct: "firmament of the heavens."
• hav.Dil ("separate", H0914) — hiphil infinitive: "to separate."
• 'o.Tot ("signs", H0226) — feminine plural.
• Mo.'a.Dim ("appointed times", H4150) — masculine plural.

What the text says

After the narrative i.Yo.mer ("he said", H0559), the command is phrased with the jussive ye.Hi ("let it be", H1961), which the provided morphology tags as singular ("he"), although the following noun, me.'o.Rot ("luminaries", H3974), is plural. The first purpose uses the causative infinitive hav.Dil ("separate", H0914), articulated with a repeated bein ("between", H0996) — "between the day and between the night" — with Yom ("day", H3117) and La.ye.lah ("night", H3915).

Then comes ha.Yu ("they will become", H1961) in the sequential perfect, the form the morphology describes as "continues the sequence": after the jussive, the speech moves forward with "and they shall be." The list of functions is organized by the repeated preposition "to/for": for 'o.Tot ("signs", H0226), for Mo.'a.Dim ("appointed times", H4150), for ya.Mim ("days", H3117) and sha.Nim ("years", H8141).

Differences between versions

The Septuagint already includes in this verse purposes the Hebrew text states later: "εἰς φαῦσιν τῆς γῆς" ("for illumination of the earth"; compare the Hebrew of v. 15, "to give light upon the earth") and "ἄρχεῖν τῆς ἡμέρας καὶ τῆς νυκτὸς" ("to rule the day and the night"; compare the "dominion" of v. 16), before the separation clause. For the third term of the series, the RV1909 translates "las estaciones" ("the seasons") and the Vulgate "tempora," where the provided gloss of Mo.'a.Dim is "appointed times"; the BSB likewise reads "to mark the seasons."