Genesis 1:14

FOURTH DAY LUMINARIES, Genesis 1:14-19.

14. Lights מארת , luminaries, or lightbearers, thus differing from אור , light, in Genesis 1:3. Light was made to shine out of the darkness upon the deep three days before these lightholders were made to appear in the expanse above the Eden land . Every interpreter has felt the difficulty of explaining this . For our hypothesis, see note on Genesis 1:3. The sacred writer speaks of these luminaries merely in their phenomenal relation to the land of Eden, and not as an astronomer of the nineteenth century A . D . He therefore fittingly assigns them to that day of the creative week when they first became visible from the land already described .

Let them be for signs, and for seasons That is, let them serve this purpose to the earth . Some suppose here a hendiadys, signs of seasons . This, however, is not necessary. There is also no sufficient reason for abandoning the natural meaning of the word signs, ( אתת ,) as indicating remarkable phenomena in the heavens which, according to the Scriptures, sometimes indicate great events of judgment or of blessing. Comp. Jeremiah 10:2; Joel 2:30; Matthew 2:2; Matthew 24:29; Luke 21:25. The luminaries also serve as signs to indicate different points of the compass signals to direct the path of the traveller on the land and on the deep . מועדים , seasons, or appointed times; from יעד , to fix, to appoint . The heavenly bodies serve to regulate and measure off these weekly, monthly, or yearly recurring seasons .