KING JAMES VERSION (KJV)
TRANSLATION, MEANING, CONTEXT
This verse is part of the creation story.
To get what Genesis 1:17 means in detail, scroll down or follow these links for the original scriptural meaning , biblical context and relative popularity.
“And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,”
What does this verse really mean? Use this table to get a word-for-word translation of the original Hebrew Scripture. This shows the English words related to the source biblical texts along with brief definitions. Follow the buttons in the right-hand column for detailed definitions and verses that use the same root words. Use this reference information to gain deeper insight into the Bible and enrich your understanding. Information based on Strong's Exhaustive Concordance[1].
| KJV Verse | Original Hebrew | Meaning/ Definition This is a simplified translation of the original Hebrew word. Follow the buttons on the right to get more detail. | More Use the buttons below to get details on the Hebrew word and view related Bible verses that use the same root word. |
|---|---|---|---|
| “And God” | אֱלֹהִ֖ים | Gods in the ordinary sense; but specifically used (in the plural thus, especially with the article) of the supreme God; occasionally applied by way of deference to magistrates; and sometimes as a superlative | God |
| “set” | וַיִּתֵּ֥ן | To give, used with greatest latitude of application (put, make, etc.) | set |
| “them in the firmament” | בִּרְקִ֣יעַ | Properly, an expanse, i.e., the firmament or (apparently) visible arch of the sky | firmament |
| “of the heaven” | הַשָּׁמָ֑יִם | The sky (as aloft; the dual perhaps alluding to the visible arch in which the clouds move, as well as to the higher ether where the celestial bodies revolve) | heaven |
| “to give light” | לְהָאִ֖יר | To be (causative, make) luminous (literally and metaphorically) | give light |
| “upon” | עַל | Above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applications | upon |
| “the earth,” | הָאָֽרֶץ׃ | The earth (at large, or partitively a land) | earth |
See Genesis 1:17 with its adjacent verses in bold below. Follow either of the two large buttons below to see these verses in their broader context of the King James Bible or a Bible concordance.
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15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
• Genesis creation narrative Wikipedia Article
The King James Bible (1611) and Strong's Concordance (1890) with Hebrew and Greek dictionaries are sourced from the BibleForgeDB database (https://github.com/bibleforge) within the BibleForge project (http://bibleforge.com). Popularity rankings are based on search volume data from the Google AdWords Keyword Planner tool.