Have you ever read Genesis 1 and gotten confused about what the firmament is?  This idea plagued me my whole life, but it wasn’t until recent years that I slowed down and studied it, and more importantly, prayed about it.
Let’s take a look at what this bizarre ‘firmament’ might be…

Genesis 1:6-8
Then God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” ⁷ Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so. ⁸ And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day.

~ These verses regarding the firmament always confused me.  I would stop and ponder these verses, trying to fit “what I already knew” into the words on the page.  I never could do it successfully, so I would just continue reading without coming to an understanding of these verses.  I just assumed the ‘firmament’ was referring to dry land.

There are several major problems with this assumption.
1.  Dry land is not created until the Third Day in verses 9-10.
Genesis 1:9-10
Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. 10 And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good.

2. Verse 7 tells us there is water above the firmament and water below the firmament.  This is not referring to dry land.

3. The firmament is again referred to in Genesis 1:14-19
¹⁴ Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; ¹⁵ and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. ¹⁶ Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. ¹⁷ God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, ¹⁸ and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. ¹⁹ So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

These verses clearly tell us that YHVH made various types of lights (sun, moon, stars) and placed them in the firmament.  We’ll touch more on the types of lights and their stated purposes later, but for this current topic, it is clear that the “firmament” is not dry land, since the sun, moon, and stars are not placed in the dry land.

Another possible assumption is that the firmament is just a word used to describe our atmosphere, our skies, our heavens.
Let’s dig into the original text to see if the ancient Hebrew considered the skies to be the firmament…

“Firmament” is Strongs H7549 and is transliterated as “raqiya.”
Blue Letter Bible definition based upon the outline of biblical usage:
Extended surface (solid), expanse, firmament
– expanse (flat as base, support)
– firmament (of vault of heaven supporting waters above)
– considered by Hebrews as solid and supporting ‘waters’ above

Strong’s definition:
râqîyaʻ, raw-kee’-ah; from H7554; properly, an expanse, i.e. the firmament or (apparently) visible arch of the sky:—firmament.

Simply referring to Strongs, we see that the original Hebrew outlook is that the firmament is a firm/solid structure arching across the sky, and supported the waters above. The solid structure of the firmament above is confirmed in Job:
Job 37:14-18
“Listen to this, O Job;
Stand still and consider the wondrous works of God.
¹⁵ Do you know when God dispatches them,
And causes the light of His cloud to shine?
¹⁶ Do you know how the clouds are balanced,
Those wondrous works of Him who is perfect in knowledge?
¹⁷ Why are your garments hot,
When He quiets the earth by the south wind?
¹⁸ With Him, have you spread out the skies,
Strong as a cast metal mirror?

I’d also like to point out that this scripture in Job is rebuking man for thinking he knows more than YHVH.  Man (Job) is questioned about many things, asking if he were there when YHVH created His wonderful and complex world.  Man is rebuked for thinking we know how it all works. We are given a similar rebuking/warning in 1Corinthians:
1Cor 3:18-20
¹⁸ Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. ¹⁹ For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their own craftiness”; ²⁰ and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.”

Are these “waters above” mentioned again in scripture?
Check out Genesis 7:11-12 where the beginning of the Flood is described:
“¹¹ In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. ¹² And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.”

In order to accumulate enough water to flood the whole earth, it did not merely rain, as we know rain today.
The water was obtained via the fountains of the great deep, and from “the waters above the firmament” (mentioned in Genesis 1:7) by opening the windows of heaven.

In Genesis 8:2, we see the end of the waters:
² The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were also stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained.

Some might say that the term “windows of heaven” is just a poetic phrase used to describe rain.
Let’s look at this in Strong’s #H699, transliterated as arubbah.

Blue Letter Bible definition based upon the outline of biblical usage:
1. lattice, window, sluice
2. Chimney (lattice opening where smoke escapes)

Strong’s definition:
אֲרֻבָּה ʼărubbâh, ar-oob-baw’; feminine participle passive of H693 (as if for lurking); a lattice; (by implication) a window, dovecot (because of the pigeon-holes), chimney (with its apertures for smoke), sluice (with openings for water):—chimney, window.

We can see this is not symbolic in nature, but is describing an actual physical opening in a structure.

We see in 2 Kings 7 that the people had knowledge of these physical openings:
2Kings 7:1-2
Then Elisha said, “Hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord: ‘Tomorrow about this time a seah of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria.’”
² So an officer on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God and said, “Look, if the Lord would make windows in heaven (Strong’s #H699), could this thing be?”
And he said, “In fact, you shall see it with your eyes, but you shall not eat of it.”

The same reference is made again in 2 Kings 7:19. They are declaring that something is absolutely true, based on the confirmation (and common knowledge at that time) that YHVH made “windows in heaven”.

These windows are again mentioned in Isaiah:
Isaiah 24:18
And it shall be
That he who flees from the noise of the fear
Shall fall into the pit,
And he who comes up from the midst of the pit
Shall be caught in the snare;
For the windows from on high (Strong’s #H699) are open,
And the foundations of the earth are shaken.

And yet again, these windows are mentioned in Malachi:
Malachi 3:10
Bring all the tithes into the storehouse,
That there may be food in My house,
And try Me now in this,”
Says the Lord of hosts,
“If I will not open for you the windows of heaven (Strong’s #H699)
And pour out for you such blessing
That there will not be room enough to receive it.

I propose that all truth begins and ends with scripture.
According to scripture, we do not have an atmosphere above our land, that slowly fades into the vacuum of an infinite outer space. (By the way, anyone who has even a simple understanding of the behavior of gases/physics knows that a pressurized gas cannot exist adjacent to an infinite vacuum and remain unaffected).
According to scripture, we have a solid firmament above us, separating us from the waters above.

What does this mean?
It means you have to make a decision.
If you believe that scripture is the Word of YHVH (God) and if you believe that scripture is true, then it means you need to reconsider the structure of our home.
Will you believe the Word of YHVH, or will you believe the ideas presented to us by the same people who claim that the lie of evolution is absolute truth?
This topic and this idea is challenging.  To take scripture at face value and believe it means denying what science has taught us.
Will you deny science, or will you deny the Word of YHVH, our Creator?