Genesis 1:8

וַיִּקְרָא אֱלֹהִים לָֽרָקִיעַ שָׁמָיִם וַֽיְהִי־עֶרֶב וַֽיְהִי־בֹקֶר יוֹם שֵׁנִֽי׃ פ

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וַיִּקְרָ֧א אֱלֹהִ֛ים לָֽרָקִ֖יעַ שָׁמָ֑יִם וַֽיְהִי־עֶ֥רֶב וַֽיְהִי־בֹ֖קֶר י֥וֹם שֵׁנִֽי׃ פ

Greek (Septuagint)

καὶ ἐκάλεσεν ὁ θεὸς τὸ στερέωμα οὐρανόν· καὶ ἴδεν ὁ θεὸς ὅτι καλόν. καὶ ἐγένετο ἑσπέρα καὶ ἐγένετο πρωί, ἡμέρα δευτέρα.

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

Latin (Vulgate)

Vocavitque Deus firmamentum, Cælum: et factum est vespere et mane, dies secundus.

Spanish

Y llamó Dios á la expansión Cielos: y fué la tarde y la mañana el día segundo.

English

God called the expanse “ sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning — the second day. The Third Day

✦ What the text says

Summary

God names the expanse: heaven. The evening-and-morning formula closes the second day, now counted with an ordinal numeral. The LXX adds an approval phrase here that the supplied Hebrew does not have.

Key words

i.yik.Ra' ("he called", H7121) — qal verb in narrative form.
ra.Ki.a' ("firmament", H7549) — the element that receives a name.
sha.Ma.yim ("heaven", H8064) — masculine plural noun; the name bestowed.
she.Ni ("second", H8145) — ordinal number, masculine singular.

What the text says

The structure repeats that of the naming act of the first day: i.yik.Ra' ("he called", H7121) in narrative form, the subject 'E.lo.Him ("God", H0430), the preposition fused with the article la. ("to the", H9005) before the thing named — the ra.Ki.a' ("firmament", H7549) — and the name bestowed: sha.Ma.yim ("heaven", H8064), a noun plural in form.

The closing formula follows, with the verb y.hi- ("there was", H1961) repeated in narrative form: and there was evening ('E.rev, "evening", H6153) and there was morning (Vo.ker, "morning", H1242). The count is Yom ("a day", H3117) + she.Ni ("second", H8145), an ordinal number, masculine singular, agreeing with Yom. Unlike the first day, counted with a cardinal numeral (verse 5), here the data explicitly tag an ordinal.

Differences between versions

After the act of naming, the LXX inserts the phrase καὶ ἴδεν ὁ θεὸς ὅτι καλόν ("and God saw that it was good"), absent from the supplied Hebrew and from the Vulgate, the RV1909, and the BSB of this verse. In addition, sha.Ma.yim ("heaven", H8064) is plural in form: the RV1909 translates with a plural («Cielos»), while the LXX (οὐρανόν), the Vulgate (Cælum), and the BSB ("sky") use a singular.

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