Genesis 1:5

And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
God	אֱלֹהִ֤ים 'E.lo.Him	H430	gods in the ordinary sense · noun, common masculine plural absolute
called	וַיִּקְרָ֨א vai.yik.Ra'	H7121	to call out to (i.e. properly · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
light	לָאוֹר֙ la.'Or	H216	illumination or (concrete) luminary (in every sense · preposition with the article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
Day	י֔וֹם Yom	H3117	a day (as the warm hours) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
darkness	וְלַחֹ֖שֶׁךְ ve.la.Cho.shekh	H2822	the dark · conjunction + preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
called	קָ֣רָא Ka.ra'	H7121	to call out to (i.e. properly · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Night	לָ֑יְלָה Lai.lah	H3915	properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
evening	עֶ֥רֶב 'E.rev	H6153	dusk · noun, common masculine singular absolute
morning	בֹ֖קֶר Vo.ker	H1242	properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
first	אֶחָֽד 'e.Chad	H259	properly · cardinal number, feminine singular absolute
day	י֥וֹם Yom	H3117	a day (as the warm hours) · noun, common masculine singular absolute

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Psalms 74:16 The day is thine, the night also is thine: thou hast prepared the light and the sun.
Isaiah 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
Psalms 104:20 Thou makest darkness, and it is night: wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth.
1 Thessalonians 5:5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
Genesis 8:22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
Genesis 1:8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
Psalms 19:2 Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.
Jeremiah 33:20 Thus saith the LORD; If ye can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in the…

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Genesis 1:3-5

We have here a further account of the first day's work, in which observe, 1. That the first of all visible beings which God created was light; not that by it he himself might see to work (for the darkness and light are both alike to him), but that by it we might see his works and his glory in them, and might work our works while it is day. The works of Satan and his servants are works of darkness; but he that doeth truth, and doeth good, cometh to the light, and coveteth it, that his deeds may be made manifest, Joh 3:21. Light is the great beauty and blessing of the universe. Like the first-born, it does, of all visible beings, most resemble its great Parent in purity and power, brightness a…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Genesis 1:5

first day--a natural day, as the mention of its two parts clearly determines; and Moses reckons, according to Oriental usage, from sunset to sunset, saying not day and night as we do, but evening and morning.

Adam Clarke on Genesis 1:4

God divided the light from the darkness - This does not imply that light and darkness are two distinct substances, seeing darkness is only the privation of light; but the words simply refer us by anticipation to the rotation of the earth round its own axis once in twenty-three hours, fifty-six minutes, and four seconds, which is the cause of the distinction between day and night, by bringing the different parts of the surface of the earth successively into and from under the solar rays; and it was probably at this moment that God gave this rotation to the earth, to produce this merciful provision of day and night. For the manner in which light is supposed to be produced, see Gen 1:16, under…

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John Gill on Genesis 1:5

And God called the light day, and the darkness he called night,.... Either by the circulating motion of the above body of light, or by the rotation of the chaos on its own axis towards it, in the space of twenty four hours there was a vicissitude of light and darkness; just as there is now by the like motion either of the sun, or of the earth; and which after this appellation God has given, we call the one, day, and the other, night: and the evening and the morning were the first day: the evening, the first part of the night, or darkness, put for the whole night, which might be about the space of twelve hours; and the morning, which was the first part of the day, or light, put also for the…

The Church Fathers

The angels, dominions and powers, although they began to exist at some time, were already in existence when the [visible] world was created.
— Ambrose of Milan, The Six Days of Creation

Since the birth of the sun, the light that it diffuses in the air, when shining on our hemisphere, is day; and the shadow produced by its disappearance is night. But at that time it was not after the movement of the sun, but following this primitive light spread abroad in the air or withdrawn in a measure determined by God, that day came and was followed by night.
— Basil of Caesarea, The Hexaemeron, Homily 2: The Earth Was Invisible and Unfinished

Now, henceforth, after the creation of the sun, it is day when the air is illuminated by the sun shining on the hemisphere above the earth, and night is the darkness of the earth when the sun is hidden. Yet it was not at that time according to solar motion, but it was when that first created light was diffused and again drawn in according to the measure ordained by God, that day came and night succeeded.
— Basil of Caesarea, HEXAEMERON 2.8

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Day — The Jews reckoned the day from sunset to sunset (Lev. 23:32). It was originally divided into three parts (Ps. 55:17). “The heat of the day” (1 Sam. 11:11; Neh. 7:3) was at our nine o’clock, and “the…
Evening — The period following sunset with which the Jewish day began (Gen. 1:5; Mark 13:35). The Hebrews reckoned two evenings of each day, as appears from Ex. 16:12: 30:8; 12:6 (marg.); Lev. 23:5 (marg.…
Genesis — The five books of Moses were collectively called the Pentateuch, a word of Greek origin meaning “the five-fold book.” The Jews called them the Torah, i.e., “the law.” It is probable that the division…
Creation · Order of: First day, making light and dividing it from darkness — Order of: First day, making light and dividing it from darkness
Darkness · General references — General references
Day · A creative period — A creative period
Evening, The · The day originally began with — The day originally began with
Light · Created — Created
Morning · The second part of the day at the creation — The second part of the day at the creation
Night · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Genesis 1:5

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Genesis 1:3-5

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Genesis 1:5

Adam Clarke on Genesis 1:4

John Gill on Genesis 1:5

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Genesis 1:5

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Genesis 1:3-5

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Genesis 1:5

Adam Clarke on Genesis 1:4

John Gill on Genesis 1:5

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

John Calvin on Genesis 1:5

Keil & Delitzsch on Genesis 1:2-5

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Genesis 1:5

Rashi on Genesis 1:5