The second day of creation begins with verse 6.

And God said: see verse 3. Since this is the beginning of a new paragraph or section of the narrated report, many languages will require the appropriate marker for a new major section at this point, such as “Next…,” “After that…,” or “Having created the light….” To express the fact that God was giving a series of commands, some translations say “Then God spoke again, and he said….”

Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters is the first command of the second day. For Let there be see comments on verse 3. Firmament translates a Hebrew word used also in Psa 19.1, where it is in parallel with “heavens.” In Ezek 1.22 the same Hebrew word is translated “dome” by Good News Translation. As used in Ezek 6.11; 25.6, the related verb in Hebrew means “to stamp with the feet,” and in Exo 39.3 it means “to hammer out, beat flat” with reference to hammering or flattening metal into sheets. The thought is that the firmament is like a hammered sheet of metal that covers the overhead space from horizon to horizon, something like a dome or inverted bowl. Something of this idea is expressed in Job 37.18. This covering dome is commanded to appear in the midst of the waters, just as the light was commanded to appear in the presence of pre-existing darkness. The dome of the sky is to come into existence between the upper waters and the lower waters, as is made clear in Gen 1.7. In verse 8 the firmament is named “Heaven.”

In many languages it is difficult to express the idea of a dome or vault of the sky. However, in some languages the arched dome of the sky is called the “hide,” or “skin of the sky,” and in some languages spoken in jungle areas, it is referred to as the “sky jungle clearing.” You may find it necessary to use an image that will illustrate the thought. For example, you may be able to say “Now the heavens should be like an inverted pan,” “Let the sky be like an inverted bowl over the water,” or “Sky, you must be like a tent stretched across the water.” Two suggestions from translations in Pacific languages are “There must be something like a roof, to…,” and “A fence [or, wall] must come [or, appear], to fence off the water….”

And let it separate the waters from the waters is the second command. Here the command is that the dome or vault of the sky is to hold back the water above it from the water beneath it. Separate is the same word used in 1.4. Here the separation is a dividing of the waters above from the waters below, so that space exists between them. That space is the area under the dome. In Genesis 7 the flood is described as water bursting forth from the deep and rain coming down from the “windows of heaven,” which refers to openings in the arched dome of the sky. See also 2 Kgs 7.2, 19; Psa 148.4, for further examples of this view of the heavens. The command that the firmament … separate the waters from the waters may sometimes be expressed “and the skin of the sky should now keep the waters apart” or “and let the plate of the sky divide the water above from the water below.” One translation has “… divide the water, so that half of the water will stay above it, and half will stay below it.”

A literal rendering of the Hebrew, such as that found in Revised Standard Version, will not help the reader to grasp much of the picture. Even in a translation like Good News Translation, it may be advisable to provide the reader with cross references, an illustration, or a more detailed description in a footnote or introduction to the book. One possible illustration is that on page 27.

Note that Good News Translation has brought forward the words “… and it was done” from verse 7 as the completion of the command, and has combined the two verse numbers. It will be noticed that this statement also occurs in verses 9, 11, 15, and 24, and in each case it follows immediately after the command. Good News Translation has also translated in the midst of the waters, not as a location for the dome, but in terms of purpose, “to divide the water.” The second command let it separate … is rendered in Good News Translation as a second purpose: “and to keep it [the water] in two separate places.” This provides translators with a clearer model to follow.

And God made the firmament, verse 7, is the first part of the action or execution of the command.

And separated the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament expresses the action related to the second phase of the command.

And it was so: as is pointed out above, this is shifted forward in Good News Translation so that the statement of completion accompanies the command, as it does in each of its other occurrences. This expression of completion may be rendered, for example, “and that is the way it happened” or “and it happened as God commanded it.” See also comments on Gen 1.3. If the translator shifts this expression forward to the end of the commands in verse 6, then the numbers should be combined, as in Good News Translation.

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

For the concepts of “waters above” and “waters below,” see also John Roberts’ Biblical Cosmology: The Implications for Bible Translation in Journal of Translation 2013/2, p. 1ff .