When you pass through the waters I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. Isa 43:2 RSV
These are not waters above and below the Earth, they clearly are the (primal) waters above and below the stars. These waters are divided by the firmament. The word Raqia, which is translated with firmament or expansion, stands for the second heaven; the starry sky, the cosmos. If you take enough distance, the Cosmos with its Galaxies looks like and behaves as turbulent water.
The Jews knew several heavens, (Hashamaim = waters) mostly seven. Talmud Hagigah 12b mentions; Wilon, Raqia, Shehakim, above paradise; Zebul, (as in Bel-Zebul, the Lord of Zebul.) Ma’on, Makon en Araboth. Raqia is the cosmos in which the sun, the moon, and the stars are fixed. Wilon; veil or curtain, is the first or closest heaven, the air. Its clouds cover the Earth like a veil. Other places visited by saints seem to have their own heavens (firmaments) like as if they have visited other planets.
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