Sky

ski (shachaq, "fine dust" or "cloud," apparently from [?] shachaq, "to rub," "to pulverize"; Samaritan: shechaqayyah instead of Hebrew shamayim; sachq = "cloud," "small dust"):

1. In the Old Testament:

The Revised Version (British and American) has "skies" for the King James Version "clouds" in Job 35:5; 36:28; 37:21; Ps 36:5; 57:10; 68:34; 78:23; 108:4; Pr 3:20; 8:28, in which passages BDB supports the rendering of King James Version. In Ps 89:6,37 Revised Version (British and American) has "sky" for King James Version "heaven." English Versions has "sky" in De 33:26; 2Sa 22:12; Job 37:18; Ps 18:11; 77:1; Isa 45:8; Jer 51:9. The word occurs mainly in poetical passages.

2. In the New Ttestament:

In the New Testament ouranos, is translated "heaven" (the King James Version "sky") in connection with the weather in Mt 16:2,3; Lu 12:56. In Heb 11:12 we find "the stars of heaven" ("the sky") as a figure of multitude. The conception, however, that the visible "sky" is but the dome-like floor of a higher world often makes it hard to tell whether "heaven" in certain passages may or may not be identified with the sky.

See HEAVEN; COSMOGONY.

Alfred Ely Day