Genesis 2:1 - Exposition

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished. Literally, and finished were the heavens and the earth, the emphatic position being occupied by the verb. With the creation of man upon the sixth day the Divine Artificer's labors were brought to a termination, and his work to a completion. The two ideas of cessation and perfection are embraced in the import of calais . Not simply had Elohim paused in his activity, but the Divine idea of his universe had been realized. The finished world was a cosmos, arranged, ornamented, and filled with organized, sentient, and rational beings, with plants, animals, and man; and now the resplendent fabric shone before him a magnificent success—"lo! very good." This appears to be by no means obscurely hinted at in the appended clause, and all the host of them , which suggests the picture of a military armament arranged in marching order. Tsebaam , derived from tsaba , to go forth as a soldier (Gesenius), to join together for service (Furst), and applied to the angels ( στρατία οὐράνιος , Luke 2:13 ; 1 Kings 22:19 ; 2 Chronicles 18:18 ; Psalms 148:2 ) and to the celestial bodies ( δυ ì ναμεις τω ͂ ν ου ̓ ρανω ͂ ν , Matthew 24:29 . Isaiah 34:4 ; Isaiah 40:26 ; Daniel 8:10 ), here includes, by Zeugma, the material heavens and earth with the angelic and human races (cf. Nehemiah 9:6 ). If the primary signification of the root be splendor, glory, like tsavah , to some forth or shine out as a star ( T . Lewis), then will the LXX . and the Vulgate be correct in translating πα ͂ ς ο ̔ κο ì σμος αυ ̓ τω ͂ ν and omnis ornatus eorum , the conception being that when the heavens and the earth were completed they were a brilliant army.