How did God speak in Genesis? In Genesis 1:3 New International Version it is written:


  And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.


Is this a figure of speech or did God actually utter the words "Let there be light" ? I assume since this is during creation no one else was around to hear it. So if it is an exact quote when did God pass on this information to a human so they could even know what God said at the time ?
Translation of the word from the original Greek to Said was only the choice of the translators. The actual word used was:

אָמַר


  'amar (aw-mar') v.
  1. to say (used with great latitude)
  [a primitive root]
  KJV: answer, appoint, avouch, bid, boast self, call, certify, challenge, charge, + (at the, give) command(-ment), commune, consider, declare, demand, X desire, determine, X expressly, X indeed, X intend, name, X plainly, promise, publish, report, require, say, speak (against, of), X still, X suppose, talk, tell, term, X that is, X think, use (speech), utter, X verily, X yet.


It could just as well have been translated into any of the above words, some of which (appoint, bid, desire, determine and so on) are not words indicating physical action. and since the original word used does not necessarily require any physical speech, it seems to me that we should also give it some latitude in translation