The sacred historian here informs us of the first regular production reduced from the chaotic mass. With an astonishing majesty of expression, God said, יהי אור ויהי אור YEHI AUR, _vayehi aur_, _Let there be light: and there was light_. Or, more literally, _Be light: and light was_. Pagninus translates the words יהי אור YEHI AUR, literally, _Sit lux, Be light_. In the Greek it is γενεθητω φῶς, _Be light made_, or _generated_. In the Vulgate, _Fiat lux_, which is much the same as the Greek. The celebrated Dionysius Longinus, meeting with this passage in the Septuagint, considered it as a specimen of the _true sublime_. Though a heathen, he thus expresses himself: “So likewise the Jewish lawgiver, (who was no ordinary man) having conceived a just idea of the divine power, he expressed it in a dignified manner; for at the beginning of his laws he thus speaks: GOD SAID--_What?_ LET THERE BE LIGHT! _and there was light_. LET THERE BE EARTH! _and there was earth_.”[28] Here we may inquire, Whether this was a word uttered with a sound, like that which God spake from mount Sinai in giving the Law; or only the exercise of the inward faculty of reason or understanding? It could not be a word spoken with a sound, for that requires air as its _medium_, and none as yet existed; neither was there any ear to hear, nor any use of such words. Nor could it be any exercise of the Divine Mind, now beginning to think of the creation and formation of things; for this purpose was in his thoughts from eternity. The meaning therefore is, that God did, without any instruments, toil, labor, alteration, or delay, for the manifestation of his own infinite goodness, wisdom, power, and will, actually working like a powerful word or command, instantaneously produce _light_.[29] Thus “Dark Chaos heard his voice.” The Psalmist, touching on the subject of creation, says, “He spake, and it was done: he commanded, and it stood fast”--יעמד _jagnamad, it stood forth_, as a servant at his master’s command, prepared to do his will, and to execute his pleasure.[30]