We’re making progress! So far, in our careful reading of the verses that tell about the first day of creation, we’ve worked through vv. 1 and 2:
1 When God began to create the sky and the earth —
בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ׃
2 at the time the world was a tohu-bohu, with darkness over Deep and a God-wind hovering over the water —
וְהָאָ֗רֶץ הָיְתָ֥ה תֹ֨הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ וְחֹ֖שֶׁךְ עַל־פְּנֵ֣י תְה֑וֹם וְר֣וּחַ אֱלֹהִ֔ים מְרַחֶ֖פֶת עַל־פְּנֵ֥י הַמָּֽיִם׃
Now let’s move ahead to the moment when creation actually begins:
3 God thought, Let there be light, and there was light.
וַיֹּ֥אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֖ים יְהִ֣י א֑וֹר וַֽיְהִי־אֽוֹר׃
God thought וַיֹּ֥אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֖ים First a quick reminder of what we said at the end of our discussion of v. 2: nothing has happened yet in this story. But the grammatical form used with this verb – technically called the converted imperfect or the imperfect consecutive – is not just a past tense verb. It also identifies its action as the next consecutive event to occur. Now that we understand what the world is like at this point, It is used here for the first time in the Bible, because this is the first action that the Bible wants to tell us about: “God thought.”
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