" which "pour down rain according to the
vapor thereof."

God called the expanse "Heaven." In former chapters we have noticed
that heaven in the popular speech of the Hebrews, as in our own, had
different meanings, applying alike to the cloudy, the astral, and the
spiritual heavens. The Creator here sanctions its application to the
aerial expanse; and accordingly throughout the Scriptures it is used
in this way; _rakiah_ occurs very rarely, as if it had become nearly
obsolete, or was perhaps regarded as a merely technical or descriptive
term. The divine sanction for the use of the term heaven for the
atmosphere is, as already explained, to indicate that this popular
use is not to interfere with its application to the whole universe
beyond our earth in verse 1st.

The poetical parts of the Bible, and especially the book of Job, which
is probably the most ancient of the whole, abound in references to the
atmosphere and its phenomena. I may quote a few of these passages, to
enable us to understand the views of these subjects given in the
Bible, and the meaning attached to the creation of the atmosphere, in
very ancient periods. In Job, 38th chapter, we have the following:

"In what way is the lightning distributed,
And how is the east wind spread abroad over the earth?
Who hath opened a channel for the pouring rain,
Or a way for the thunder-flash?
To cause it to rain on the land where no man is,
In the desert where no one dwells;
To saturate the desolate and waste ground,
And to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth."

Here we have the unequal and unforeseen distribution of
thunder-storms, beyond the knowledge and power of man, but under the
absolute control of God, and designed by him for beneficent purposes.
Equally fine are some of the following lines:

"Dost thou lift up thy voice to the clouds,
That abundance of waters may cover thee?
Dost thou send forth the lightnings, and they go,
And say unto thee, Here are we?
Who can number the clouds by wisdom,
Or cause the bottles of heaven to empty themselves?
When the dust groweth into mire,
And the clods cleave fast together?"

In the 36th and 37th chapters of the same book we have a grand
description of atmospheric changes in their relation to man and his
works. The speaker is Elihu, who in this ancient book most favorably
represents the knowledge of nature that existed at a time probably
anterior to the age of Moses--