Psalms 74:16-17

74:16 You established the cycle of day and night; ¹ 

you put the moon ²  and sun in place. ³ 

74:17 You set up all the boundaries ⁴  of the earth;

you created the cycle of summer and winter. ⁵ 

Psalms 104:19

104:19 He made the moon to mark the months, ⁶ 

and the sun sets according to a regular schedule. ⁷ 

Genesis 1:14-19

1:14 God said, “Let there be lights ⁸  in the expanse ⁹  of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them be signs ¹⁰  to indicate seasons and days and years, 1:15 and let them serve as lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth.” It was so. 1:16 God made two great lights ¹¹  – the greater light to rule over the day and the lesser light to rule over the night. He made the stars also. ¹²  1:17 God placed the lights ¹³  in the expanse of the sky to shine on the earth, 1:18 to preside over the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. ¹⁴  God saw that it was good. 1:19 There was evening, and there was morning, a fourth day.

Deuteronomy 4:19

4:19 When you look up ¹⁵  to the sky ¹⁶  and see the sun, moon, and stars – the whole heavenly creation ¹⁷  – you must not be seduced to worship and serve them, ¹⁸  for the Lord your God has assigned ¹⁹  them to all the people ²⁰  of the world. ²¹ 

[74:16]  ¹ tn Heb “To you [is] day, also to you [is] night.”

[74:16]  ² tn Heb “[the] light.” Following the reference to “day and night” and in combination with “sun,” it is likely that the Hebrew term מָאוֹר (ma’or, “light”) refers here to the moon.

[74:16]  ³ tn Heb “you established [the] light and [the] sun.”

[74:17]  ⁴ tn This would appear to refer to geographical boundaries, such as mountains, rivers, and seacoasts. However, since the day-night cycle has just been mentioned (v. 16) and the next line speaks of the seasons, it is possible that “boundaries” here refers to the divisions of the seasons. See C. A. Briggs and E. G. Briggs, Psalms (ICC), 2:156.

[74:17]  ⁵ tn Heb “summer and winter, you, you formed them.”

[104:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “he made [the] moon for appointed times.” The phrase “appointed times” probably refers to the months of the Hebrew lunar calendar.

[104:19]  ⁷ tn Heb more metaphorically, “knows its setting.”

[1:14]  ⁸ sn Let there be lights. Light itself was created before the light-bearers. The order would not seem strange to the ancient Hebrew mind that did not automatically link daylight with the sun (note that dawn and dusk appear to have light without the sun).

[1:14]  ⁹ tn The language describing the cosmos, which reflects a prescientific view of the world, must be interpreted as phenomenal, describing what appears to be the case. The sun and the moon are not in the sky (below the clouds), but from the viewpoint of a person standing on the earth, they appear that way. Even today we use similar phenomenological expressions, such as “the sun is rising” or “the stars in the sky.”

[1:14]  ¹⁰ tn The text has “for signs and for seasons and for days and years.” It seems likely from the meanings of the words involved that “signs” is the main idea, followed by two categories, “seasons” and “days and years.” This is the simplest explanation, and one that matches vv. 11-13. It could even be rendered “signs for the fixed seasons, that is [explicative vav (ו)] days and years.”

[1:16]  ¹¹ sn Two great lights. The text goes to great length to discuss the creation of these lights, suggesting that the subject was very important to the ancients. Since these “lights” were considered deities in the ancient world, the section serves as a strong polemic (see G. Hasel, “The Polemical Nature of the Genesis Cosmology,” EvQ 46 [1974]: 81-102). The Book of Genesis is affirming they are created entities, not deities. To underscore this the text does not even give them names. If used here, the usual names for the sun and moon [Shemesh and Yarih, respectively] might have carried pagan connotations, so they are simply described as greater and lesser lights. Moreover, they serve in the capacity that God gives them, which would not be the normal function the pagans ascribed to them. They merely divide, govern, and give light in God’s creation.

[1:16]  ¹² tn Heb “and the stars.” Now the term “stars” is added as a third object of the verb “made.” Perhaps the language is phenomenological, meaning that the stars appeared in the sky from this time forward.

[1:17]  ¹³ tn Heb “them”; the referent (the lights mentioned in the preceding verses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:18]  ¹⁴ sn In days one to three there is a naming by God; in days five and six there is a blessing by God. But on day four there is neither. It could be a mere stylistic variation. But it could also be a deliberate design to avoid naming “sun” and “moon” or promoting them beyond what they are, things that God made to serve in his creation.

[4:19]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “lest you lift up your eyes.” In the Hebrew text vv. 16-19 are subordinated to “Be careful” in v. 15, but this makes for an unduly long sentence in English.

[4:19]  ¹⁶ tn Or “heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

[4:19]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “all the host of heaven.”

[4:19]  ¹⁸ tn In the Hebrew text the verbal sequence in v. 19 is “lest you look up…and see…and be seduced…and worship them…and serve them.” However, the first two actions are not prohibited in and of themselves. The prohibition pertains to the final three actions. The first two verbs describe actions that are logically subordinate to the following actions and can be treated as temporal or circumstantial: “lest, looking up…and seeing…, you are seduced.” See Joüon 2:635 §168.h.

[4:19]  ¹⁹ tn Or “allotted.”

[4:19]  ²⁰ tn Or “nations.”

[4:19]  ²¹ tn Heb “under all the heaven.”