Translation
And there was evening, and there was morning, the fourth day. (See comment below.)
Go to footnote numberParaphrase
When the periods of time and their transitions from night to day and day to night had passed, and it was time for the next transition, it marked the completion of another day, day four. (See comment below.)
Footnotes
1
See the in-text comment below about Genesis and science for more details about the celestial bodies being created on day four.
THE CELESTIAL BODIES WERE NOT CREATED UNTIL DAY FOUR
God did not make the stars or the sun or moon until day four. This fact stands in sharp contrast to the Big Bang model. Also anyone who strives to promote a biblical explanation for the creation of the sun, moon and stars needs to keep this in mind. Any explanation that puts the formation of galaxies ahead of the formation of this earth has violated the order of events God describes here in Genesis 1. God is the only eye-witness to the event. He did it, and He has told us how He did it; we should trust Him, even if many scientists disagree.
SIGNS OF SEASONS AND DAYS AND YEARS
The lights were to serve as signs that could be interpreted to understand the passing of time, specifically what season, what day, or what year it is. The designation “month” is not mentioned even though the Jewish calendar was a lunar calendar, which is very easy for everyone to follow. Months could be considered as part of the designation “days” as far as this passage goes.
At first glance we see problems, not symmetry, for we all know that there are some problems with our calendars. Days, which are the foundation of all calendars, mess up the years; and months do not coincide exactly with years either. Some adjustments must be made. Americans make an adjustment of one day every 4 years, the Jews use a lunar calendar which adds a full 30 day month 7 times during a 19-year cycle, and both the Aztecs and the Mayans used a 52-year calendar. All of these systems require periodic adjustments to resolve the problems. But there is also evident a perfect consistency with the days and years. We can count on the passage of time being uniform. The heavenly bodies are good indicators (if you know how to interpret these things) of what time, what day, what month and what year it is. This was by design, for God gave us what we needed to figure out those things. Even though our calendars need periodic adjustments, the signs in the sky are never wrong about the passage of time.
They are also good indicators of where one is on our globe, which is particularly helpful when travelling the open seas. Someone who is good at navigating with the stars can usually travel long distances across open water and reach their destination while being off course by less than 10 miles.