Genesis 1:16

Summary

Execution report of the fourth day: God makes the two great luminaries — the greater for the dominion of the day, the lesser for the dominion of the night — and the stars. The text designates them by size and function; no proper name for these bodies appears in the word list.

Key words

• i.Ya.'as ("he made", H6213) — narrative: "and he made."
• ma.'or ("luminary", H3974) — singular for each body; plural for the pair.
• ga.Dol ("great", H1419) and ka.Ton ("small", H6996) — the distinguishing adjectives.
• mem.She.let ("[the] dominion of", H4475) — construct: "dominion of the day / the night."
• ko.kha.Vim ("stars", H3556) — the last object in the series.

What the text says

The fulfillment verb is i.Ya.'as ("he made", H6213) in the narrative form. The object appears first as a block: "the two great luminaries," with the numeral she.Nei ("[the] two", H8147), described by the morphology as a dual ("pair") in construct. The text then itemizes: "the great luminary… and the small luminary," repeating ma.'or ("luminary", H3974) in the singular with the adjectives ga.Dol ("great", H1419) and ka.Ton ("small", H6996).

Each luminary carries its assignment through mem.She.let ("[the] dominion of", H4475), a feminine noun in construct: "for the dominion of the day," "for the dominion of the night," with Yom ("day", H3117) and Lay.lah ("night", H3915). The stars join at the end through the direct object marker 'Et ("", H0853), which the morphology flags as untranslated: all three objects — the pair, each luminary, and the stars — depend on the single verb "made."

Differences between versions

The Hebrew has a singular construct, "dominion of"; the Septuagint translates with a plural, "εἰς ἀρχὰς τῆς ἡμέρας" ("for the dominions of the day"), and calls the lesser light "τὸν φωστῆρα τὸν ἐλάσσω." The Vulgate turns the noun phrase into a purpose clause: "ut præesset diei" ("that it might preside over the day"). For the stars, which in Hebrew hang on the same "made," the RV1909 and the BSB repeat the verb: "hizo también las estrellas" / "And He made the stars as well."