Genesis 1:9

1:9 God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place 1  and let dry ground appear.” 2  It was so.

Genesis 29:8

29:8 “We can’t,” they said, “until all the flocks are gathered and the stone is rolled off the mouth of the well. Then we water 3  the sheep.”

1 sn Let the water…be gathered to one place. In the beginning the water covered the whole earth; now the water was to be restricted to an area to form the ocean. The picture is one of the dry land as an island with the sea surrounding it. Again the sovereignty of God is revealed. Whereas the pagans saw the sea as a force to be reckoned with, God controls the boundaries of the sea. And in the judgment at the flood he will blur the boundaries so that chaos returns.

2 tn When the waters are collected to one place, dry land emerges above the surface of the receding water.

3 tn The perfect verbal forms with the vav (ו) consecutive carry on the sequence begun by the initial imperfect form.