Genesis 1:23

Summary

Close of the fifth day with the fixed formula: two identical narrative verbs — "and there was evening and there was morning" — and the ordinal number that counts the day. The structure matches v. 19, with the ordinal changed.

Key words

• y.hi ("there was", H1961) — doubled qal narrative.
• 'E.rev ("evening", H6153) — masculine singular noun.
• Vo.ker ("morning", H1242) — masculine singular noun.
• cha.mi.Shi ("fifth", H2549) — ordinal number.

What the text says

The verse repeats the day-count formula. Two twin clauses use y.hi ("there was", H1961) in the narrative form — "and then there was" — first with 'E.rev ("evening", H6153) and then with Vo.ker ("morning", H1242); the evening–morning order is constant and all four provided versions keep it. The final apposition counts the day: Yom ("a day", H3117) plus cha.mi.Shi ("fifth", H2549), a masculine singular ordinal agreeing with the noun.

As in v. 19, the English gloss provided for Yom is "a day": the Hebrew construction carries no definite article. And as there, the provided Hebrew text (TAHOT) closes with the isolated letter פ after the end of the verse, a visible division mark in the text.

Differences between versions

The LXX matches the article-less phrase (ἡμέρα πέμπτη), while the RV1909 translates "el día quinto" and the BSB "the fifth day", both with the definite article. The Hebrew, the LXX, and the BSB repeat the verb ("and there was… and there was…"), but the Vulgate writes it once ("Et factum est vespere et mane") and the RV1909 likewise unifies it ("Y fué la tarde y la mañana"). The provided BSB text appends after the verse the section heading "The Sixth Day", which corresponds to no words in the Hebrew.