>>16565647This was the ancient hebrews explanation for rain. They thought that the water leaked through the dome above us and came down as rain.
In Genesis 1, the entire earth is nothing but a giant ball of water. Then god "divides the waters" by creating the firmament "in the midst of the waters" and raising a significant portion of the water up above us. Although that wasn't enough to make the dry land appear. So much of the rest of the water is concentrated underground "in one place", until finally the dry land appears. This is the cosmology of the ancient hebrews.
There's numerous other verses alluding to this interpretation, like when it's said that our civilization is founded "on the oceans and the floods" (referring to the water under the earth). And when it's said god reigns "over the waters" (referring to the waters up above our heads).
In fact it might surprise you that the hebrew word for "heaven" itself is just one letter different from the word for "oceans". The difference is the character for "there" or "place", thus combining the two means "the water in a high place"...essentially just referring to the ocean above our heads. This is what "heaven" means in the old testament. There is no concent of some parallel ethereal realm called "heaven" that the christians imagine. In fact most jews do not believe in heaven.
