The word raqiya comes from riqqua, meaning “beaten out.” In ancient times, brass objects were either cast in the form required or beaten into shape on an anvil. A good craftsman could beat a lump of cast brass into a thin bowl. Thus, Elihu asks Job, “Can you beat out [raqa] the vault of the skies, as he does, hard as a mirror of cast metal (Job 37:18)?”
I think Densetzu is right re: solid sky. It also has to be solid so that the language of Genesis with their being waters above , in the form of a solid ice sheet or something like that makes sense. A solid sky earth is also how the other civilisations (Egyptians etc) viewed the earth. It makes sense that the Hebrews would have beileved in a solid sky considering they spent 400 years in Egypt, everyone would have learnt it at school I guess.
I'm not suprised 'Snail that you believe Densetzu's false words are right.
But more importantly let me explain the meaning of
raqia from more authoritive sources, for the other Christian readers of this thread, so to clear up the confusion.
Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament - R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer, Jr., Bruce K Walte.
raqia. Firmament. (NSAB renders more correctly as "expanse" ; cf.
riqqu ' e pahim (Num. 16:38 [H 17:3], literally "an expansion of plates," i.e. broard plates, beaten out (BDB, p.956).
raqia may refer to limited space, such as the canopy over the cherubim, under the throne in Ezekiel's vision (1:22,26). Or it may refer to the broad "expanse of heaven" (Dan. 12:3, NSAB) as it does in thirteen of its seventeen occurrances.
raqia is the most important derivative of
raqa, It identifies God's heavenly expanse. The Mosaic account of creation uses
raqai interchangeably for the "open expanse of the heavens" in which birds fly (Gen. 1:20 NASB) i.e.
the atmosphere (H.C. Leupold,
Exposition of Genesis, I, p.59), and that farther expanse of sky in which God places "the lights...for signs and for seasons", i.e.
empty space.
To this day negative criticism speaks of the vault, or "firmament", regarded by Hebrews as solid, and supporting 'waters' above it, the rendering of Job 37:18, "The skies, strong (
hazaquim) as a molten mirror (cf. Ps 150:1, their 'mighty expanse'), changed by the RSV to read, "the skies, hard." Babylonian mythology recounts how Marduk used half of Tiamat's carcass to form the heavens held in place by a crossbar!. In the OT, however, Isaiah insists that God 'stretches out the heavens [lit] like guaze (
doq, Isa. 40:22); and even Ezekiel's limited canopy is "as the eye of awesome ice" (Ezk. 1:22)
i.e. transperant, "shining like crystal" (RSV) through so dazzling to be terrifying (KD; cf. Dan. 12:3 "brightness").
OK, so what we have here is as Hebrew being derived partially from the Babylonian language there is a misunderstanding due to the influence of flawed Babylonian mythology which believed in a solid sky, however the Biblical account clearly redifines the term to mean 'heavenly expanse' of an atmospheric open consistency.
the "rolling out" and "streatching" compared to a parchment or 'molten mirror' a molten mirror referring to the terrible brightness and fluidity, indeed molten is not referring to something solid but something flexible and fluid and also bright and firey, but atmospherealso has a consistency and structure and weight and as the heavens on a huge scale the Bible give a workingman like definition of a great God at work with materials, the expanses of the Heavens are not a vacuum of empty nothingness but indeed have a weight and structure and this is clear in the Biblical account.
again I urge you to reconsider your position because you are in error.
It is truly interesting to read such comments. I am going to try to keep my comment rather short but if anyone would truly like to discuss this matter in more detail please email me. Before we ask the question "How old is the earth?" Lets ask "Do we need to know how old the earth is?" I would say for our walk and relationship with the Lord, no we do not. Remember our important faith is to us Christians. I am not going to pull out bible versus to support this for I think we can all agree on this, but I would be happy to give versus to anyone that wants them, just email me 
