"The Hebrews regarded the earth as a plain or a hill figured like a hemisphere, swimming on water. Over this is arched the solid vault of heaven. To this vault are fastened the lights, the stars. So slight is this elevation that birds may rise to it and fly along its expanse." -- Jewish Encyclopedia
"We may understand this name as given to indicate not it is motionless but that it is solid." -- St. Augustine
"You whose clothes get hot
when the south wind brings calm to the land,
can you help God spread out the skies
as hard as a cast metal mirror?"
-- Job 37:17-18
Praise Him, highest heavens,
and you waters above the heavens.
-- Psalms 148:4
Virtually every description of raqia from antiquity to the Renaissance depicts it as solid. The non-solid interpretation of raqia is a novelty.
--
The Firmament of Genesis 1 is Solid but Thatâs Not the Point | The BioLogos Forum
"Jews speculated as to what material the firmament was made of: clay or
copper or iron (3 Apoc. Bar. 3.7). They differentiated between the firmament
and the empty space or air between it and the earth (Gen. Rab. 4.3.a; 2 Apoc.
Bar. 21.4). They tried to figure out how thick it was by employing biblical
interpretation (Gen. Rab. 4.5.2). Most tellingly they even tried to calculate
scientifically the thickness of the firmament (Pesab. 49a).
Christians speculated as to whether it was made of earth, air, fire, or
water (the basic elements of Greek science). Origen called the firmament
"without doubt firm and solid" (First Homily on Genesis, FC 71). Ambrose,
commenting on Gen 1:6, said, "the specific solidity of this exterior firma-
ment is meant" (Hexameron, FC 42.60). Augustine said the word firmament
was used "to indicate not that it is motionless but that it is solid and that
it constitutes an impassable boundary between the waters above and the
waters below" (The Literal Meaning of Genesis, ACW 41.1.61).
Greeks from Anaximenes to Aristotle set forth as scientific fact that the
firmament was made of a crystalline substance to which "the stars are fixed
like nails."44 This idea was passed on for centuries via Ptolemy's Almagest.
The barbarians meanwhile worried about the sky falling on them if they
did not keep their promises!45
Astonishing as it may seem to the modern mind, with very rare excep-
tions the idea that the sky is not solid is a distinctly modern one. Historical
evidence shows that virtually everyone in the ancient world believed in a
solid firmament. Accordingly it is highly probable that the historical mean-
ing of raqiac in Genesis 1 is a solid firmament. Certainly anyone denying the
solidity of the raqiac in Genesis 1 bears a heavy burden of proof. It seems
to me that nothing short of a clear statement to the contrary made by an
OT writer could allow one in good conscience to set aside this clear his-
torical meaning."
--
The Firmament and the Water Above: Seely
In summary, I'm sorry that the evidence does not line up with what you and ApologeticsPress want us to believe.