The term meqyah appears again in this verse in its meaning of a 'reservoir', and its waters are called yamim, a term used later for inland waters like the Mediterranean, and for large rivers.
| jerusalem bible | (alternative genesis) |
|---|---|
|
God called the dry land 'earth' and the mass of the waters 'seas', and God saw that it was good. |
The Shining Ones named the part that had dried out, 'arez', and the waters in the reservoir they called 'yamim'; and the Shining Ones were pleased with the result. |
There is an important distinction, here, that should be borne in mind when interpreting these passages. The dry land was not called 'earth', as the Jerusalem Bible suggests - it was called 'arez', and later generations coined the term 'earth' from the same root. They made it an omnibus word to cover both soil and the planet, itself. Again, the term yamim originated in the waters of the reservoir, and only later was used to connote larger spreads of water.
