HEAVEN, sky — and in Matthew almost always PLURAL, 'the heavens', because Hebrew shamayim is plural. ⚠ Matthew says 'the kingdom of the HEAVENS' about thirty times and 'the kingdom of God' barely at all, where Mark and Luke say the opposite; the usual explanation is Jewish reverence, 'heaven' standing in for the divine name (as in 'I have sinned against heaven'). KJV/NIV/Douay flatten it to a singular 'kingdom of heaven'; ASV and NWT keep the plural, and this translation has kept it since the Sermon on the Mount. The plural also frames the baptism: the voice comes 'out of the heavens' (3:17), which have just been 'opened' (3:16). → first discussed at Matt 3:2