Did God begin creation by speaking the word light twice?

Question

Creation begins by God speaking:

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. (Genesis 1:3) [ESV]

ויאמר אלהים יהי אור ויהי-אור

The ESV translation shows God's spoken words are only the first part of the phrase "Let there be light..." and what follows is a narrative statement: ...and there was light.

Based on what follows "And God saw that the light was good..." (1:4) the narrative is correct. In other words, God spoke light into existence, saw the light, so, obviously, there was light.

However, it seems as if one had been listening they would have heard the word light repeated and the spoken words would be something like: "Be light become light." The overall meaning is the same since God saw the light; what changes are the words spoken to begin creation:

Said God, יהי אור ויהי-אור

Did God begin creation by speaking the word light twice?

Answer 1

No, the Hebrew simply reads, as you quoted:

ויאמר אלהים יהי אור ויהי-אור

And literally means:

And God said, 'Be light!' And light was.

He isn't accredited as saying anything more than 'Be light!' here.

Also, this is almost certainly not a case of literal words being spoken (poetic language notwithstanding), but the narrative form of His will for His creation, broken down into the major parts of creation, the categories we usually use, and man in general has always used: land and sea, earth and sky, sun and moon, man and beast etc.

Answer 2

The text does not indicate that God spoke more than once concerning light. Two of the ways to interpret this passage include:

• God spoke, God's descriptive enunciation spontaneously manifested itself into existence, and God contemplated his act.

• God spoke a command, God's command was carried out, God evaluated the work performed.

It's mildly humorous to consider that in some translations, the second day project team apparently received an "Incomplete" grade . . .

Dieter