In view of the importance ascribed to the number generally, and particularly in the story of Creation, this number occurs again and again in the structure of our section. After the introductory verse, the section is divided into seven paragraphs, each of which appertains to one of the seven days. Thus we have here, too, a series of seven corresponding dicta. The terms light and day are found, in all, seven times in the first paragraph, and there are seven references to light in the fourth paragraph.
Water is mentioned seven times in the course of paragraphs two and three.
The first verse has seven words. The second verse contains fourteen words - twice seven. To suppose that all this is a mere coincidence is not possible. Here, too, the words that express the fundamental concepts of the passage recur a given number of times - seven times, or a multiple of seven . And when I sought to break up the section into paragraphs according to the logical division of the contents, there naturally emerged seven paragraphs.