Let's continue with the story of the Creation. The last thing we read was God dividing the light and the darkness. Now, continuing with Genesis 1:5: appellavitque lucem diem et tenebras noctem; factumque est vespere et mane, dies unus
New words:
No new grammar here, but the sentence is quite complex. The key is to see those Accusative forms "lucem" and "diem". Normally, there must not be two Accusative objects in the same sentence unless they are combined with "and". The reason "lucem diem" is allowed is that we are equating the two, and also equating "tenebras" and "noctem". "Appellavit-que" is "he called". "He called the light Day and the darkness Night" - that's how they are being equated. The rest is more straightforward: "there was evening and morning, day one."
Next verse: dixit quoque Deus fiat firmamentum in medio aquarum et dividat aquas ab aquis
Not many new words:
There are three different forms of the word "aqua" (water) here:
"aquarum", the Genitive plural, translated as "of the waters"
"aquas", the Accusative plural, translated as "the waters"
"ab aquis", the Ablative plural, translated as "from the waters".
Let's add these to our working knowledge of -a words:
| Case name | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | aqua | aquae |
| Genitive | aquae | aquarum |
| Accusative | aquam | aquas |
| Ablative | aqua | aquis |
Remember that the Ablative is usually used after prepositions, that's why you see it after "ab" here. Can you translate the first part of this verse, up to "aquarum"? dixit quoque Deus fiat firmamentum in medio aquarum
"God also said: there shall be a firmament made in the middle of the waters".
For the next part, keep in mind that "dividat" shows a vowel change - based on the infinitive "dividere", the 3rd person should be "dividet". Since it's "dividat" here, we know that it must be Conjunctive, "it shall divide" or "let it divide". Try the full verse now: dixit quoque Deus fiat firmamentum in medio aquarum et dividat aquas ab aquis
"God also said: there shall be a firmament made in the middle of the waters, and it shall divide the waters from the waters."
You're making great progress! This is the end of lesson 9.