“Let there be light”
KING JAMES VERSION (KJV)
TRANSLATION, MEANING, CONTEXT
WORDS OF GOD IN RED
This scripture contains the very first words attributed to God in the Bible and is part of the creation story.
To get what Genesis 1:3 means in detail, scroll down or follow these links for the original scriptural meaning , biblical context and relative popularity.
“And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.”
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 |
| “said,” | וַיֹּ֥אמֶר | To say (used with great latitude) | said |
| “Let there be” | יְהִ֣י | To exist, i.e., be or become, come to pass (always emphatic, and not a mere copula or auxiliary) | Let |
| “light:” | א֑וֹר | Illumination or (concrete) luminary (in every sense, including lightning, happiness, etc.) | light |
| “and there was” | וַֽיְהִי | To exist, i.e., be or become, come to pass (always emphatic, and not a mere copula or auxiliary) | and there was |
| “light.” | אֽוֹר׃ | Illumination or (concrete) luminary (in every sense, including lightning, happiness, etc.) | light |
See Genesis 1:3 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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1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
• Genesis 1:3 Wikipedia Article
• Let there be light Wikipedia Article
• 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.