And God saw that the light was good: this is the evaluation step in the creation poem, which will be repeated in verses 10, 12, 18, 21, and 25. The thought here is not that the light had a quality of goodness in itself, but that in God’s mind the light was judged by him to be good. Good News Translation “God was pleased” correctly places the emphasis on God’s reaction to the light. Bible en français courant says “God established [the fact] that the light was a good thing.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “God took pleasure in the light.” In some languages it may be necessary to say, for example, “God looked at the light and was pleased with what he saw.” Because the evaluation of the light is another step in the process, it may be necessary in some languages to mark the transition; for example, “After the light appeared, God looked at it and he was pleased with what he saw.” One translation expresses it like this: “And when God looked at the light, he was happy with it.”

And God separated: Revised Standard Version and some other versions represent the Hebrew in repeating the noun God, whereas Good News Translation, New International Version, and others translate “and he separated.” In English and in many other languages the pronoun is not ambiguous, and it is used generally in regular speech. There is, however, a repeated use of the noun God throughout this passage, which goes beyond what is normal in biblical Hebrew; this is apparently a feature used for special effect here. Translators are advised to follow normal pronoun usage in their own languages, but to note that there is perhaps a feature of emphasis in the Hebrew text, and to consider how they may be able to express that in their translation.

Separated the light from the darkness: the word translated separated occurs also in verses 6 and 7, in which the waters under the firmament are separated from those above. The result of the separation of light from darkness is to give day and night. In this way the first act of creation sets in motion the cycle of time, day followed by night. The picture given in the text is that of light being created while everything is still in darkness, and of a second step being necessary to give light and darkness their own places to function. For the idea of light and darkness occupying separate spaces, see Job 26.10; 38.19-20.

The idea of separating light from darkness is often expressed as dividing the two things so that they go different ways or to different places. A typical expression of this is “God made the light and the darkness, those two things, divide….” However, in some languages it is difficult to speak in this way, since light and darkness are not material objects that can be moved about. Accordingly it may be necessary to say, for example, “God made the light to shine in one place and left it dark in another” or “God made some places light and some places he made dark.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .