Seven is an important number of perfection [Umberto Cassuto 12] in Hebrew thought. Seven (and other numbers such as 3, 12, 50, 70) figures prominently in other middle-eastern cultures (for example the Sumerians had seven "fate-decreeing" gods, and fifty "great" gods [http://www.ephemeris.com/history/mesopotamia.html]). Seven is used extensively in Genesis 1 and elsewhere in the Old Testament.
Each of the three nouns in the introductory sentence (which express the basic concept of this chapter) are repeated in multiples of 7 [Umberto Cassuto 14-15]
"God" (Hebrew "Elohim"): 35 times (i.e. 7 X 5)
"Earth": 21 (7 X 3)
"Heavens" or "Firmament": 21
Seven "Let there" or "Let the" ...
Seven Days (of course)
"Light" and "Day": 7 times in 1st paragraph
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"Light": 7 times in 4th paragraph. (Remember 1st & 4th paragraphs have a parallel relationship)
"Water": 7 times in 2nd & 3rd paragraph
"hayya" (rendered "living" or "beasts" in English): 7 times in 5th & 6th paragraph
"it was good": 7 times with the 7th occurrence "very good"
1st verse has 7 words (in Hebrew)
2nd verse has 14 words (in Hebrew)
7th paragraph has 35 words (in Hebrew, 5 X 7)
The 7th paragraph, dealing with the 7th day has these three (three was a common form of emphasis) consecutive sentences
And on the Seventh day, God finished His work which He had done
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and He rested on the Seventh day from all His work which He had done
So God blessed the Seventh day and hallowed it.
There are many instances of the phenomena occurring beyond the 1st chapter, for example, there are 70 nations mentioned in chapter 10
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