John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 1:9
And God said, let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place ,.... Which are before called the waters under the firmament; and which were either on the surface of the earth, or in the bowels of it, or mixed with it, which by the compressure of the expanse or air were separated from it and these, by apertures and channels made, were caused to flow as by a straight line, as the word F5 יקוו "congregentur tanquam ad amussim et regulam", Fagius; "recto et equabili... read more
John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 1:8
And God called the firmament heaven ,.... Including the starry and airy heavens: it has its name from its height in the Arabic language, it being above the earth, and reaching to the third heaven; though others take the word "shamaim" to be a compound of two words, "sham" and "maim", that is, there are waters, namely, in the clouds of heaven: and the evening; and the morning were the second day ; these together made up the space of twenty four hours, which was another natural day; the... read more