Firmament

The firmament is the expanse God set in the midst of the waters on the second day of creation, named Heaven, in which the sun, moon, and stars are placed and through which the birds fly. It both divides and displays — separating the waters above from the waters below, and showing forth the handiwork of its maker.

The Second-Day Division

The firmament begins as a spoken act. "And [the Speech of] God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters" (Gen 1:6). The making follows the saying: "And [the Speech of] God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so" (Gen 1:7). Its name is then given: "And [the Speech of] God called the firmament Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day" (Gen 1:8). In UPDV's vocabulary, the firmament is heaven — the named expanse — so the natural heavens and the firmament are one and the same thing seen from two sides.

Lights Set in the Firmament

On the fourth day the firmament becomes the setting for the luminaries. "And [the Speech of] God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years: and let them be for lights in the firmament of heaven to give light on the earth: and it was so. And [the Speech of] God made the two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night and the stars. And [the Speech of] God set them in the firmament of heaven to give light on the earth" (Gen 1:14-17). The firmament is not itself a light; it is the place in which the lights are fixed and from which they govern day, night, and time.

The moon's monthly course paves this same expanse with her shining. "Month by month she renews herself, How wonderful [is she] in her changing! A beacon for the hosts on high, Paving the firmament with her shining" (Sir 43:8). The stars, by the same arrangement, give heaven its glory: "The beauty of heaven, and its glory [are] the stars, With their bright shining in the heights of God" (Sir 43:9).

The Open Firmament for Birds

On the fifth day the firmament is also the air through which living things move. "And [the Speech of] God said, Let the waters swarm with swarms of living souls, and let birds fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven" (Gen 1:20). The same expanse that holds the sun, moon, and stars is "open" — flyable — for the birds beneath them.

Stretched Out by Yahweh

The prophets and psalmists return to the firmament as proof that Yahweh, not the gods of the peoples, made the heavens. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen 1:1). "For all the gods of the peoples are idols: But Yahweh made the heavens" (1Ch 16:26). Jeremiah confesses the same in prayer: "Ah Sovereign Yahweh! Look, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm; there is nothing too hard for you" (Jer 32:17).

The picture Isaiah favors is of an expanse stretched out like fabric. "[It is] he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are as grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens as a curtain, and spreads them out as a tent to dwell in" (Isa 40:22). "Thus says God Yahweh, he who created the heavens, and stretched them forth; he who spread abroad the earth and that which comes out of it" (Isa 42:5). "I [by my Speech] have made the earth, and created man on it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens; and all their host I have commanded" (Isa 45:12). Wisdom watches the work: "When he established the heavens, I was there: When he set a circle on the face of the deep" (Pr 8:27). The Psalmist addresses the same maker: "Of old did you lay the foundation of the earth; And the heavens are the work of your hands" (Ps 102:25).

The Vault, the Skies, the Crystal Above

UPDV uses a small cluster of words for the same upper region. The "skies" are where Yahweh rides and where the rain-clouds gather: "There is none like God, O Jeshurun, Who rides on the heavens for your help, And in his excellency on the skies" (Deut 33:26); "And he made darkness pavilions round about him, Gathering of waters, thick clouds of the skies" (2 Sam 22:12). Job presses the same image into a question whose force is the firmament's hardness and brightness: "Can you with him spread out the sky, Which is strong as a molten mirror?" (Job 37:18).

The same expanse is celebrated as a "vault" of glory by Ben Sira and as a crystal-like floor of the throne-vision in Ezekiel. "The beauty of the height [of the heavens] is the clear firmament, And the vault of heaven is a spectacle of glory" (Sir 43:1). "It encompasses the [heavenly] vault in its glory, And the hand of God has spread it out in might" (Sir 43:12). In Ezekiel's vision the firmament becomes the floor under God's throne: "And over the head of the living creature there was the likeness of a firmament, like the awesome crystal to look at, stretched forth over their heads above" (Eze 1:22).

The Windows of Heaven

Because the firmament divides the waters above from the waters below, it has openings. At the flood, "all the fountains of the great deep [were] broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened" (Gen 7:11). Isaiah reuses the same image for cosmic shaking: "for the windows on high are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble" (Isa 24:18). The same windows, when opened in blessing rather than judgment, pour out abundance: "Bring⁺ the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and prove me now herewith, says Yahweh of hosts, if I will not open for you⁺ the windows of heaven, and pour out a blessing for you⁺, that there will not be room enough [to receive it]" (Mal 3:10).

Declaring the Glory of God

The firmament is not silent. "The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows his handiwork" (Ps 19:1). Sirach makes the same claim about the upper expanse and its lights — that what hangs there is itself a "spectacle of glory" (Sir 43:1) and that the stars "stand as decreed" at God's word. The Diognetus epistle speaks of God himself as the one "by whom he created the heavens, by whom he shut the sea within its own bounds, whose mysteries all the elements faithfully keep, from whom the sun has received the measures of its daily course to keep, whom the moon obeys when he bids her shine by night, whom the stars obey, following the moon in her course" (Gr 7:2).

Wisdom Shining as the Firmament

Daniel turns the firmament into the measure of resurrection brightness. "And those who are wise will shine as the brightness of the firmament; and those who turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever" (Dan 12:3). The image draws on the firmament's two-fold radiance — its own lit clearness and the lights set within it — and applies both to the wise.

Passing Away

For all that the firmament is "strong as a molten mirror" (Job 37:18), it is not eternal. The prophets and apostles see it rolled up and replaced. "And all the host of heaven will be dissolved, and the heavens will be rolled together as a scroll; and all their host will fade away" (Isa 34:4). "Lift up your⁺ eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens will vanish away like smoke, and the earth will wax old like a garment" (Isa 51:6). The Psalmist contrasts the heavens' wear with God's permanence: "They will perish, but you will endure; Yes, all of them will wax old like a garment; As a vesture you will change them, and they will be changed" (Ps 102:26). Peter is starker: "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief; in the which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are in it will not be found" (2 Pet 3:10). The seer sees the same thing: "And the heaven was removed as a scroll when it is rolled up; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places" (Rev 6:14). And, finally, the replacement: "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away; and the sea is no more" (Rev 21:1).