Psalms 8:3

8:3 When I look up at the heavens, which your fingers made,

and see the moon and the stars, which you set in place, ¹ 

Psalms 19:1-6

Psalm 19 ² 

For the music director; a psalm of David.

19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God; ³ 

the sky displays his handiwork. ⁴ 

19:2 Day after day it speaks out; ⁵ 

night after night it reveals his greatness. ⁶ 

19:3 There is no actual speech or word,

nor is its ⁷  voice literally heard.

19:4 Yet its voice ⁸  echoes ⁹  throughout the earth;

its ¹⁰  words carry ¹¹  to the distant horizon. ¹² 

In the sky ¹³  he has pitched a tent for the sun. ¹⁴ 

19:5 Like a bridegroom it emerges ¹⁵  from its chamber; ¹⁶ 

like a strong man it enjoys ¹⁷  running its course. ¹⁸ 

19:6 It emerges from the distant horizon, ¹⁹ 

and goes from one end of the sky to the other; ²⁰ 

nothing can escape ²¹  its heat.

Psalms 136:7-9

136:7 to the one who made the great lights,

for his loyal love endures,

136:8 the sun to rule by day,

for his loyal love endures,

136:9 the moon and stars to rule by night,

for his loyal love endures,

Genesis 1:14-18

1:14 God said, “Let there be lights ²²  in the expanse ²³  of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them be signs ²⁴  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 ²⁵  – the greater light to rule over the day and the lesser light to rule over the night. He made the stars also. ²⁶  1:17 God placed the lights ²⁷  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. ²⁸  God saw that it was good.

Matthew 5:45

5:45 so that you may be like ²⁹  your Father in heaven, since he causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

[8:3]  ¹ tn Heb “when I see your heavens, the works of your fingers, the moon and stars which you established.” The verb “[and] see” is understood by ellipsis in the second half of the verse.

[19:1]  ² sn Psalm 19. The psalmist praises God for his self-revelation in the heavens and in the Mosaic law. The psalmist concludes with a prayer, asking the Lord to keep him from sinning and to approve of his thoughts and words.

[19:1]  ³ sn God’s glory refers here to his royal majesty and power.

[19:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “and the work of his hands the sky declares.” The participles emphasize the ongoing testimony of the heavens/sky.

[19:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “it gushes forth a word.” The “sky” (see v. 1b) is the subject of the verb. Though not literally speaking (see v. 3), it clearly reveals God’s royal majesty. The sun’s splendor and its movement across the sky is in view (see vv. 4-6).

[19:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “it [i.e., the sky] declares knowledge,” i.e., knowledge about God’s royal majesty and power (see v. 1). This apparently refers to the splendor and movements of the stars. The imperfect verbal forms in v. 2, like the participles in the preceding verse, combine with the temporal phrases (“day after day” and “night after night”) to emphasize the ongoing testimony of the sky.

[19:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “their.” The antecedent of the plural pronoun is “heavens” (v. 1).

[19:4]  ⁸ tc The MT reads, “their measuring line” (קוּם, qum). The noun קַו (qav, “measuring line”) makes no sense in this context. The reading קוֹלָם (qolam, “their voice”) which is supported by the LXX, is preferable.

[19:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “goes out,” or “proceeds forth.”

[19:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “their” (see the note on the word “its” in v. 3).

[19:4]  ¹¹ tn The verb is supplied in the translation. The Hebrew text has no verb; יָצָא (yatsa’, “goes out”) is understood by ellipsis.

[19:4]  ¹² tn Heb “to the end of the world.”

[19:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “in them” (i.e., the heavens).

[19:4]  ¹⁴ sn He has pitched a tent for the sun. The personified sun emerges from this “tent” in order to make its daytime journey across the sky. So the “tent” must refer metaphorically to the place where the sun goes to rest during the night.

[19:5]  ¹⁵ tn The participle expresses the repeated or regular nature of the action.

[19:5]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew noun חֻפָּה (khufah, “chamber”) occurs elsewhere only in Isa 4:5 and Joel 2:16 (where it refers to the bedroom of a bride and groom).

[19:5]  ¹⁷ tn The imperfect verbal form draws attention to the regularity of the action.

[19:5]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “[on] a path.”

[19:6]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “from the end of the heavens [is] its going forth.”

[19:6]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and its circuit [is] to their ends.”

[19:6]  ²¹ tn Heb “is hidden from.”

[1:14]  ²² 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]  ²³ 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]  ²⁴ 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]  ²⁵ 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]  ²⁶ 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]  ²⁷ tn Heb “them”; the referent (the lights mentioned in the preceding verses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:18]  ²⁸ 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.

[5:45]  ²⁹ tn Grk “be sons of your Father in heaven.” Here, however, the focus is not on attaining a relationship (becoming a child of God) but rather on being the kind of person who shares the characteristics of God himself (a frequent meaning of the Semitic idiom “son of”). See L&N 58.26.