1:6-7 - And God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water." So God made the expanse and separated the water from under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so.
[T]
God now commands the raqia', 'expanse,' into existence to separate "the waters from the waters." Raqia', from the verb raqa', refers to what has been stamp or beaten into shape, such as a bowl wrought from repeated hammering in the hands of a silversmith. We should be careful not to project too much into the noun and insist that the ancient Hebrews thought of the heavens as a solid impermeable dome (by appeal, e.g., to Job 38:18, "Can you, like him, spread out the skies, hard as a molten mirror?"). The focus here is on the expanse of space stretched out and set in its proper place rather than the physical nature of the raqia'.
The author of Genesis sees no difficulty in saying, on the one hand, that "God said . . . and it was so," and, on the other, that "God made the . . ." (see also vv16, 25, 26, 31). His omnipotence that can order things into being by sheer command does not stop Him from "getting His hands dirty in the manual labour' of creation. This portrait of God at work already anticipates the great but eminently comforting paradox so distinctive of the Christian faith, that God, spirit and so 'wholly other' is also 'wholly present' and so utterly involved in all that happens in creation.
Additionally, the ambiguous "waters" and "water from water" of v6 is now clarified as "the water under the expanse and the water above the expanse."
You may wish to read the following commentaries-expositions:
Low Chai Hok
©Alberith, 2016