Genesis 1:10

וַיִּקְרָא אֱלֹהִים׀ לַיַּבָּשָׁה אֶרֶץ וּלְמִקְוֵה הַמַּיִם קָרָא יַמִּים וַיַּרְא אֱלֹהִים כִּי־טֽוֹב׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וַיִּקְרָ֨א אֱלֹהִ֤ים׀ לַיַּבָּשָׁה֙ אֶ֔רֶץ וּלְמִקְוֵ֥ה הַמַּ֖יִם קָרָ֣א יַמִּ֑ים וַיַּ֥רְא אֱלֹהִ֖ים כִּי־טֽוֹב׃

Greek (Septuagint)

καὶ ἐκάλεσεν ὁ θεὸς τὴν ξηρὰν γῆν, καὶ τὰ συστέματα τῶν ὑδάτων ἐκάλεσεν θαλάσσας· καὶ ἴδεν ὁ θεὸς ὅτι καλόν.

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

Et vocavit Deus aridam Terram, congregationesque aquarum appellavit Maria. Et vidit Deus quod esset bonum.

Spanish

Y llamó Dios á la seca Tierra, y á la reunión de las aguas llamó Mares: y vió Dios que era bueno.

English

God called the dry land “earth,” and the gathering of waters He called “ seas.” And God saw that it was good.

✦ What the text says

Summary

God assigns names to the two newly bounded spaces: the dry ground is named "earth" and the collection of the waters, "seas." The verse closes with the assessment formula: and God saw that it was good.

Key words

i.yik.Ra' ("he called", H7121) — narrative form: "and he called."
ka.Ra' ("he called", H7121) — the same verb, now in the perfect.
'E.retz ("earth", H0776) — the name given to the dry ground.
mik.Veh ("[the] collection of", H4723) — construct: "collection of the waters."
ya.Mim ("seas", H3220) — masculine plural.

What the text says

The act of naming occurs twice with the same verb but in different forms, and the provided morphology records the difference. The first is a narrative form ("and then he called"), continuing the story chain: God names i.ya.ba.Shah ("dry ground", H3004) "earth." The second time the verb stands in the perfect — "completed action" — and its object is fronted: "and the collection of the waters he called seas." The shift in verb form accompanies the shift in word order within the verse.

The waters' name is built on mik.Veh ("[the] collection of", H4723), a singular noun in construct ("X of…") followed by Ma.yim ("waters", H4325): one collective entity that receives a plural name, ya.Mim ("seas", H3220). The close introduces the approval formula: i.Yar' ("he saw", H7200) in the narrative form, then ki- ("that", H3588) and Tov ("[it was] good", H2895), which the provided morphology classifies as a verb in the perfect: "and God saw that it was good."

Differences between versions

The Hebrew uses a singular construct, "the collection of the waters"; the Septuagint translates with a plural, "τὰ συστέματα τῶν ὑδάτων" ("the systems of the waters"), and the Vulgate also pluralizes: "congregationes aquarum." The BSB keeps the singular: "the gathering of waters." For the name itself, the Vulgate writes "Maria" ("seas") and the Septuagint "θαλάσσας"; both agree with the Hebrew plural.

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.