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The gravitational forces that hold the comets in the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud, and the gravitational perturbations that allow one to occasionally escape, are allegorical or metaphorical in nature, and in no way can be considered a literal physical barrier?

Not one that can have literal holes opened in it. I mean, come on! The comets don't escape through "windows" in the gravitation field--it's not like gravity goes away in certain places.

I know of no place in The Bible where it describes the parting of the waters by the firmament in terms of soaring domes and towering pillars.

I said "pretty much." The Bible describes the heavens spread out like a tent but at the same time as hard as a metal mirror, with God walking around in them. It's just artistic license to turn the hard metal tent into a dome held up by pillars.

”Not one that can have literal holes opened in it. I mean, come on! The comets don't escape through "windows" in the gravitation field--it's not like gravity goes away in certain places.”

It doesn’t?! You mean “gravitational perturbations” aren’t really disturbances in the gravitational field? Gravity doesn't have to "go away" - all it has to do is be stronger in some places and weaker in others.

However you parse the description, it seems the waters “above” and the waters “below” were divided (and now it seems even the moon got some of that stuff).

“It's just artistic license to turn the hard metal tent into a dome held up by pillars.”

Ya think? It was an attempt to describe the reality of what The Bible meant. We may now have a better model of that reality.