Genesis 1:7

7. God made the firmament By his almighty fiat the dense mist that hung over the face of the deep, and was itself a vast expanse of waters, was lifted up to find a local habitation on high . Thus was formed the vast reservoir of the heavens, from which the rains descend to fertilize and refresh the land . “Next to the light,” says Jacobus, “is the law of the atmosphere, so essential to life in the vegetable and animal world. Here it is set forth as supporting the floating vapour, and keeping in suspense a fluid of greater specific gravity than itself. The formation of clouds is referred to by Job in language which reveals an acquaintance with the laws here established by the Creator: ‘He maketh small the drops of water: they pour down rain according to the vapour thereof; which the clouds do drop and distil upon man abundantly.… Dost thou know the balancings of the clouds?’” Job 36:27-28; Job 37:16; compare also Genesis 2:6. “But why, it may be asked, did he not speak of this storehouse of waters as diffused through the firmament, instead of placing it above it? We answer: This would have been to convert the firmament of sense into the atmosphere of science, and phenomena into natural philosophy, which doubtless God could have done, but did not see fit to do . ” Barrows .