In Genesis, the Hebrew הַשָּׁמַיִם is translated 'heaven' (singular) in Gen 1:1 but 'heavens' (plural) in Gen 2:1 and 2:4, even though the same plural Hebrew word appears in all three places, and later passages sometimes render it 'air' — alleged as an inconsistency.

This objection commits a category error: it treats a fact about the English target language as if it were a fact about the Hebrew source text. שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) is a plurale tantum in Hebrew — a noun that is always morphologically plural but has no functioning singular form, exactly parallel to English words like 'waters,' 'scissors,' or 'trousers.' English lacks this grammatical category for the concept, so translators must choose 'heaven' or 'heavens' contextually, not according to any variation in the Hebrew, which uses the identical word שָׁמַיִם in Gen 1:1, 2:1, and 2:4 without change. Shamayim's semantic range covers both the visible sky/atmosphere (hence occasional renderings like 'air,' as in the recurring idiom 'עוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם', 'birds of the air/sky') and the transcendent heavens, and English translators select 'heaven' versus 'heavens' based on register and target-language idiom — English liturgical tradition favors singular 'heaven' for God's dwelling ('our Father which art in heaven') but plural 'the heavens' for the visible cosmos ('the heavens declare the glory of God,' Ps 19:1). None of this reflects any change in, or inconsistency within, the Hebrew source text itself.

Hebrew's use of one stable plurale-tantum term for 'heaven(s),' consistent across every manuscript witness (Masoretic Text, Dead Sea Scroll fragments of Genesis, Samaritan Pentateuch), doing double duty for two related but distinguishable referents (sky and transcendent heaven), is a normal and well-attested feature of how ancient Semitic languages encode cosmology — and it is a data point for, not against, the Hebrew text's internal consistency.