God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. And He made the stars as well.
Moses wrote in a popular style so that common people could understand him without instruction, not as a natural philosopher measuring spheres and distances. Astronomy itself is useful and unfolds God's wisdom, and studious men are right to pursue it; but Moses had to speak to the learned and unlearned alike, and so he descended to the grosser method of instruction that fits his office as a teacher.
AI summary
Moses speaks here as man judges by his eye; the moon is indeed less than Saturn, but it reflects sufficient light to serve the purposes for which God appointed these instruments.
AI summary
The atmosphere being purified, the sun, moon, and stars appeared for the first time in all their glory in the cloudless sky, though to our eye they seem to be in the firmament when they are really at vast distances from it.
AI summary
Commenting on Genesis 1:14-19