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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comFausset Bible Dictionary: Firmament
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Raqi'ah, "the expanse stretched out as a curtain" over the earth (; ), resting on the mountains as its pillars (the language is phenomenal, as indeed necessarily is that of even men of science often): . It was the reservoir of rain and snow, which poured through its opened "windows" or "doors" (; ; ). It includes the atmosphere immediately round the earth, in which the birds fly, and which bears up the clouds (-7; ; in it also comprises the region in which the sun, moon, and stars are seen).
"Firmament" (from the Vulgate: firmamentum; Septuagint: stereooma) is derived from firmness; but the Hebrew expresses no such notion, as if Moses thought the sky a hard firm vault, in which the heavenly bodies were fixed. The sky in is termed "strong, as a molten looking glass," namely, a polished copper mirror. But it is not the solidity, but the transparent clearness and the smiling brightness, which is the point of comparison. Otherwise, how could birds fly in a solid? The language is figurative and phenomenal. In the throne is seen above the "firmament," therefore the firmament must be transparent.