Genesis1:20

Translation

Then ELOHIM said, “Swarm, oh waters, with swarming creatures that have life in them, and fly, oh birds, above the earth, in the face

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of the expansive, solid, arched surface of the heavens.”

Paraphrase

Then THE CREATOR AND OWNER OF ALL THINGS said, “Oh waters, I command that you be filled with those creatures that congregate together in great numbers, and birds, I command that you fly above the earth in the closest layer of the expansive, solid, arched surface of the heavens.”

Footnotes

1

The Hebrew uses the word “face” with the idea of the closest, most visible part, or that which presents itself most visibly. The “heavens” are depicted in Genesis 1 as having great depth, so it is an accurate and needful detail to say that the birds are limited to the closest layer of the heavens; they cannot fly throughout all the heavens, for that would include outer space. One could almost say that the birds were commanded to fly on the surface of the surface called “the heavens.”