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A
Word Study of Tohu
wa Bohu
By
James T.
Bartsch
WordExplain.com
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Study Index Page
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the dual use of the two words:
Introduction: The primary
purpose of this word study is to arrive at an accurate understanding of
the
Hebrew phrase tohu wabohu as found in Genesis
1:2.
Tohu
You will
find, in the italicized words below, a definition of tohu followed by an
alphabetized list of
translations of tohu from the New
American Standard Bible
as itemized in the New American Standard Hebrew Dictionary (as found in
Quickverse
2008):
H8414
תֹּהוּ
tohu
(1062c); from an unused
word; formlessness, confusion, unreality, emptiness:—chaos
(1),
confusion (1), desolation (1), emptiness (1), empty space (1), formless
(2),
futile (2), futile things (1), meaningless (2), meaningless arguments
(1),
nothing (2), waste (3), waste place (2).
Number 1 (Gen. 1:2)
Ge
1:2 And the earth was without
form, and void; and darkness [was] upon the face of the
deep. And the
Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. (KJV)
2The
earth was formless
and void, and
darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God
was moving over the surface of the waters. (NASB)
Genesis 1:2.
In the initial phase of Day
One during God’s Creation Week, the earth is said to have been tohu.
This Hebrew word in this
context has been translated in two categories of words. (1) The first
category
of words all deal with the form, or
physical
appearance of the earth. In other words they assign a form, or more
precisely,
an absence of form to the earth in Genesis 1:2 as follows: formless (NASB, NIV, NLT, GWT, GNT, HCSB, NIVUK, TNIV);
without form (KJV, NKJV, ESV, AMP);
didn’t have any shape (NIRV).
(2) The second category of words deal with
the function of the earth, or more
precisely, its absence of function in Genesis 1:2 as follows: barren (CEV);
empty (NCV);
waste (ASV, YLT, DT);
void (DRA);
a soup of nothingness (MSG).
What
did the translators mean by the words “formless” or “without form”? If
they
meant merely that the earth, as a watery sphere, had no observable land
features or things that appear on land, such as hills, mountains,
rivers, or
vegetation, their translation is at least admissible, if not optimal.
The
difficulty with the words “formless” or “without form” is that they at
least
suggest that the earth had no shape. In fact, the NIRV
translation flatly states, “The earth didn’t
have any shape.” Let’s think that through a little bit. Did Moses
really mean
that the earth had no shape? Is there any intimation in the surrounding
text
that the earth was an amorphous blob? Was it not spherical? If it were
a shapeless
blob, would it not be because it had no gravity? What would have kept
the blob
from dispersing all over the heavens? To me, a translation that focuses
on form
to the exclusion of function is problematic.
In
my own study of the word tohu in
its various contexts,
in a decided preponderance of the instances, the emphasis is not on
form, but
on function. Here, too, in Genesis 1:2,
in its broader context
of Genesis 1:1-2:3, I
believe, the
translation must carefully balance form and function. Whatever tohu
means in Genesis 1:2,
it means that the earth
at that stage constituted an inhospitable, unsuitable environment in
which
physical life in any form could exist, whether plant, animal, or human.
It was
non-organized or non-functional (tohu)
as regards its ultimate
purpose, which was to be a suitable environment for man and animals;
and
naturally, it was also void or empty (bohu)
of any living organisms,
just as is our moon today. As Genesis 1:2
reveals, at this stage in
Day One of Creation, the earth was a vast, unlit matrix of water, and
presumably, soil and mineral. There was nothing chaotic or evil about
its state
at this point. Quite to the contrary, the Spirit of God Himself was
moving upon
the face of the waters, presumably imbuing the planet with the
appropriate
building blocks to support life. The earth was not deficient, but
merely
incomplete, not yet organized to be a hospitable environment for either
fish or
fowl, or land animals or man, their ruler. Those transformations would
take
place incrementally during the remainder of Day One and the subsequent
five
days of Creation (Gen. 1:3-31).
So an appropriate
literal translation of tohu
and bohu in Genesis 1:2 is
this: “Now the earth
was unformedness and emptiness” (tohu
and bohu
are both substantives).
Smoothing out the translation and again including the word bohu,
we could say, “Now the
earth was unformed and empty…” By
“unformed” I do not mean that the earth had no shape, but rather that
it was insufficiently organized to
be a
suitable environment for life. It was pre-functional.
See the conclusion of this word study.
Number
2 (Deut. 32:10)
De
32:10 He found him in a desert land, and in the waste
howling wilderness; he led him about, he
instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. (KJV)
10 “He
found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste
of a wilderness; He encircled him, He cared
for him, He guarded him as the pupil of His eye. (NASB)
Deuteronomy 32:10. Deuteronomy 32 is
the didactic Song of
Moses, written as a witness against Israel’s
inevitable apostasy (Deut. 31:14-22).
(For the setting of
this song, see the author’s Analysis
of Deuteronomy,
pp. 16-17.) Moses spoke
of Yahweh’s provision for Israel (Deut. 32:7-14).
Yahweh had found His
people, Jacob, the sons of Israel (Deut. 32:8-9)
“in a desert land, and
in the howling waste of a wilderness” (Deut. 32:10).
The word translated
“waste” is the word tohu.
“Waste” here may refer
both to the desert land of Egypt (Thomas Constable, Notes
on Deuteronomy,
2010 Edition, p. 102), and also to the desert experience of
bondage and slavery in which the sons of Israel found themselves. Israel’s
slavery was not a judgment by God on the nation, but rather a
painful crucible in which God melded the clan into a nation, separating
them
from their Egyptian hosts. In slavery, the people of Israel were unable to function as the nation that
God intended for them to be.
Number
3 (1 Sam. 12:21)
1Sa
12:21 And turn ye not aside: for [then should ye go] after vain
[things], which
cannot profit nor deliver; for they [are] vain. (KJV)
21“You
must not turn aside,
for then you would go after futile
things which cannot profit or deliver,
because they are futile. (NASB)
Number
4 (1 Sam. 12:21)
1Sa
12:21 And turn ye not aside: for [then should ye go] after vain
[things], which
cannot profit nor deliver; for they [are] vain.
(KJV)
21“You
must not turn aside,
for then you would go after futile things
which cannot profit or
deliver, because they are futile.
(NASB)
1 Samuel 12:21. 1 Samuel 12
constitutes Samuel’s
renewal of the kingdom of Saul over Israel at
Gilgal (1 Sam. 11:14-15).
Samuel chided the
people for rejecting Yahweh as their (invisible) king and requesting a
(visible, human) king (1 Sam. 12:12-20).
They had committed all
this evil, yet still Yahweh would bless them if they served Him with
all their
heart (1 Sam. 12:20).
They were not to “turn
aside” from following Yahweh, for if they did, they would
pursue “futile
things” (tohu)
that could never “profit
or deliver, because they are futile” (tohu) (1 Sam. 12:21).
So turning aside from
Yahweh by serving other gods and disobeying Yahweh’s commands could be
classified as futile, or non-productive,
because disobedience
would inevitably lead to God’s cursing and judgment (Deut. 27:1-26;
28:15-68).
So tohu in
this context means useless, futile, and
counterproductive.
Number
5 (Isa. 24:10)
Isa
24:10 The city of confusion
is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may come in. (KJV)
10The
city of chaos
is broken down;
every house
is shut up so that none may enter. (NASB)
What Isaiah 24:10 is
speaking of is that
because of the terrible events of the Tribulation (Isa. 24:1-6; 17-20),
many people have died
in the typical city of the earth, leaving houses empty. Survivors have
apparently
locked themselves in, or boarded up their homes so marauders cannot
enter. There
is an outcry in the streets because of the absence of basic
necessities, such
as wine (Isa. 24:11).
Thus it is a “city of chaos”
(tohu)
because it is not
functioning as a normal city. It is a city of non-organization
or non-functionality,
and perhaps, of anarchy.
Number 6 (Isa. 29:21)
Isa
29:21 That make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him
that
reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for
a thing of nought. (KJV)
21Who
cause a person to be
indicted by a word, and ensnare him who adjudicates at the
gate, and defraud
the one in the right with
meaningless arguments. (NASB)
Isaiah 29:21.
People who are described
as “the ruthless,” “the scorner,” and “all who are intent on evil” will
be cut
off (Isa. 29:20).
They are further
described as performing the actions of Isa. 29:21.
They sound like crooked
lawyers or evil people who employ crooked lawyers to defraud their
victims with
meaningless arguments. So here batohu
means “with
meaninglessness.”
Number
7 (Isa. 34:11)
Isa
34:11 But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also
and the
raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion,
and the stones
of emptiness. (KJV)
11But
pelican and hedgehog
will possess it,
and owl and raven will dwell in it; and
He will stretch over
it the line of desolation
(tohu)
and the plumb line of emptiness.
(bohu)
(NASB)
The
entirety of Isaiah 34
describes the time of
God’s terrible judgment upon all nations of the earth during the Tribulation
period. Edom and Bozrah
are singled out especially as receiving God’s judgment. Probably they
are
specific examples of God’s global wrath. Edom and Bozrah will be
devastated by
burning pitch and brimstone that will smoke forever. For that reason no
one
will pass through the land, nor will there be any inhabitant except for
wild
animals. Since, in Isa. 34:11,
no humans are there and
it is deserted, the
land of Edom and
Bozrah is described as measured by a line of desolation (tohu –
it is a non-functioning
land) and by a plumb line of emptiness (bohu
– no one is there). Note that both tohu
and bohu
are used. So tohu
here means desolation
or non-functionality.
Number
8 (Isa. 40:17)
Isa
40:17 All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to
him less
than nothing, and vanity.
(KJV)
17All
the nations are as
nothing before Him, they are regarded by Him as less than
nothing and meaningless.
(NASB)
Isaiah 40:17. Isaiah 40 features the
mighty power of
Sovereign Yahweh as being able to comfort and to restore gloriously the
people
of Israel and the city of
Jerusalem despite the
repeated ravages of the surrounding hostile nations. Appropriately, in Isa. 40:17, Yahweh regards
all the world’s
nations, who have been Israel’s
enemies, as “nothing,” “less than nothing,” and “meaningless” (tohu). As far as God
is concerned, He will
stop the onslaught of the nations against His people, and so they will
be an
immobilized, non-factor. The nations are “of no account” in Yahweh’s
sight and against Israel, and ultimately
they cannot possibly
succeed in deterring His program for His people. Here, tohu means meaningless
or of
no account.
Number
9 (Isa. 40:23)
Isa
40:23 That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the
earth as
vanity.
(KJV)
23He it
is who
reduces rulers to nothing, Who makes the
judges of the earth meaningless.
(NASB)
Isaiah 40:23.
Just as the nations of
the earth are non-functional and non-organized in opposing God and His
efforts
to restore His people Israel (Isa. 40:17, cf.
Isa. 40:1-11),
just so He reduces
potentates to nothingness and renders judges of the earth as meaningless or non-functional
(tohu)
in their opposition to
God and His plans of salvation for His people Israel,
and indeed, for all who wait upon Yahweh (Isa. 40:23, cf.
40:27-31).
Number
10 (Isa. 41:29)
Isa
41:29 Behold, they [are] all vanity; their works [are] nothing: their
molten
images [are] wind and confusion.
(KJV)
29“Behold,
all of them
are false;
their works are worthless,
their
molten images are wind and emptiness.
(NASB)
Isaiah 41
demonstrates Yahweh’s
omniscient sovereignty in comparison to idols. Unlike Yahweh Himself,
who through
the prophet Isaiah predicted the Persian King Cyrus as Israel’s
savior at least 120 years before his appearance (Isa. 41:2; 44:28;
45:1),
the Gentiles have no
counselor who can predict the future (Isa. 41:28).
All the nations’
counselors are false, and the nations’ works are worthless, and their
molten
images are wind and emptiness (tohu),
meaning they are devoid of accomplishment and
purpose (Isa. 41:29).
Number
11 (Isa. 44:9)
Isa
44:9 They that make a graven image [are] all of them vanity;
and their delectable things shall
not profit; and they [are] their own witnesses; they see not, nor know;
that
they may be ashamed. (KJV)
9Those
who fashion a graven
image are all of them futile,
and their precious things are of no profit; even their own witnesses
fail to
see or know, so that they will be put to shame. (NASB)
Isaiah
44:9-20 is
a scathing essay on the utter absurdity of constructing and worshiping
idols. The section begins (Isa. 44:9)
with a three-fold charge: 1) All “who fashion a graven image are
futile” (tohu);
2) “…their precious
things are of no profit (yaal);”
3) since “their own
witnesses fail to see or know” the truth, the result of this folly is
that the
makers and worshipers of the graven images “will be put to shame” (bosh).
So tohu is
here defined as that which is futile because
it brings no
benefit, but only shame. It is futile,
worthless and thus shameful to build one’s own god.
Number
12 (Isa. 45:18)
Isa
45:18 For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself
that formed
the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain,
he formed it to be
inhabited: I [am] the LORD; and [there is] none else. (KJV)
18 For
thus says the LORD, who created the heavens
(He
is the God who formed the earth and
made it,
He
established it and did not
create it a waste
place,
But
formed it to be inhabited),
“I
am the LORD, and there is none else.
(NASB)
Isaiah 45:18 is
a superb commentary on Genesis 1:2 in
relation to the rest
of God’s creative activity in Genesis 1-2.
Many foundational
creation terms appear here: created (bara’ – Gen. 1:1, 21, 27;
2:3, 4);
heavens (shamayim – Gen. 1:1, 8, 9,
14, 15, 17, 20, 26,
28, 30; 2:1, 4, 19, 20);
formed (yatsar – Gen. 2:7, 8, 19);
earth (erets – Gen. 1:1, 2, 10,
11, 12, 15, 17, 20,
22, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30; 2:1); made (‘asah – Gen. 1:7, 11, 12,
16, 25, 26, 31; 2:2,
3, 4, 18);
and waste place (tohu – Gen. 1:2).
The most fascinating
aspect of the commentary of Isaiah 45:18
upon Genesis 1:2 is
this: it helps us
understand the meaning of the word tohu,
translated in Genesis 1:2 as
“formless,” and here
in Isaiah 45:18 as
“waste place.” Far
from denying that the earth, as God created it on day one, was tohu, Isaiah 45:18
tells us that God did not
create the earth to be tohu,
but rather He created it to be inhabited. So when
Moses wrote
in Genesis 1:2
that the earth was tohu,
he did not mean that it
was chaotic, evil, coordinate with sin and judgment, and in need of
redemption
(contra Allen P. Ross, The
Bible Knowledge Commentary,
OT Vol., p. 28). He merely meant that it was not yet a suitable
environment in which humans might live. So an appropriate translation
of tohu in
both Genesis 1:2
and Isaiah 45:18 is non-functional or
perhaps, pre-functional.
It was at that point not suitable
for
habitation, which was God’s ultimate purpose for the earth. God would
incrementally make the earth suitable for human habitation during the
remainder
of day one and during the remaining six days of creation.
Number
13 (Isa. 45:19)
Isa
45:19 I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I said
not
unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in
vain: I the LORD speak righteousness, I declare things
that
are right. (KJV)
19 “I
have not spoken in secret,
In
some dark land;
I
did not say to the offspring of Jacob,
‘Seek
Me in a waste
place’;
I,
the LORD, speak righteousness,
Declaring
things that are upright. (NASB)
In
the very next verse (Isa. 45:19),
Yahweh applies His
purpose in creating the earth – to be inhabited (Isa. 45:18) –
to the nation of Israel.
Unlike the obscure and secret communications of the priests of
false gods, Yahweh has communicated with the people of Israel
openly and forthrightly things that are true. Yahweh did not ask Israel to
seek Him in tohu,
that is, in a meaningless, non-productive
exercise in
futility. No, when Jacob’s descendants worshiped the One True
God, they
were participating in genuine worship and in a relationship of eternal
significance and value, for their worship of Yahweh was based on
righteousness
and uprightness. (See also Thomas Constable, Notes
on Isaiah,
2010 Edition, p. 206.) Here, the translation (of KJV), “in
vain,” is preferable to (that of NASB),
“a waste place.”
Number
14 (Isa. 49:4)
Isa 49:4
Then I said, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought,
and in vain:
[yet] surely my judgment [is] with the LORD, and my work with my God.
(KJV)
4 But
I said, “I have toiled in vain,
I
have spent My strength for nothing
and vanity;
Yet
surely the justice due to
Me is with the LORD,
And
My reward with My God.” (NASB)
Isaiah 49:4.
In this particular “Servant” passage
found in the book of Isaiah (Isa. 49:1-13),
there is a double
identification of the Servant.
Clearly he is identified by name as Israel (Isa. 49:3).
Yet there are other factors at
work (Isa. 49:2; Rev.
1:16; 19:15, 21; Isa.
49:5-7; 49:8-10; Rev. 7:16-17)
that identify the Servant as
the Messiah,
Jesus, who fully
embodies the mission assigned to the nation to reach the nations for
God (Ex. 19:5-6).
The Servant,
in Isaiah 49:4,
makes some conflicting
statements. He believes that His labor has been in vain, yet He is
confident
that Yahweh will yet reward Him. As applied to Jesus, these statements
mean
that His toil during His earthly ministry presenting Himself as Messiah
brought Him rejection, flogging
and crucifixion. Yet God raised Him up, and He has ascended to the
right hand
of the Father. Yet even so His own people continue to reject Him, and
the
earth’s nations and rulers plot their revolt against Him (Psa. 2:1-3).
So the Messiah
waits, fulfilling His Priestly
mission (Psa. 110:1, 4),
assured that one day
Yahweh will perform justice on His behalf. He will one day receive the
nations
as His inheritance from Yahweh and rule them with a rod of iron as King (Psa. 2:6-9;
110:2-3, 5-7).
In Isaiah 49:4,
the passage in question,
Isaiah quotes the Servant as
saying the following
(which I have reproduced literally in the Hebrew word order in my own
translation): “But I said, ‘For emptiness (riyq) I
have toiled; to no
avail (tohu)
and [for] vapor (hebel)
my effort I have exerted.
Surely my justice [is] with Yahweh, and my compensation [is] with my
God.’” So tohu
here refers to non-productivity or fruitlessness.
It is a synonym for
emptiness and vapor. The Servant is
saddened because all His efforts appear to have resulted in
little or no gain in relation to His appointed office as King of Israel,
at least up to this point. In the case of Israel as
the Servant,
the nation’s efforts to serve and represent Yahweh have only
resulted in centuries of hostility, anti-Semitism, and anti-Zionism
from the nations of the
world. In the case of Jesus as the Servant,
His efforts to present Himself as Messiah,
proven by His miraculous
signs and advertized by His preaching of the good news of the Kingdom,
ended only in His
rejection and crucifixion by the nation. Yet in both cases, the Servant
rests Himself on Yahweh’s ultimate triumph and dispensation of
justice on behalf of the Servant.
He will be vindicated and He will rule the earth from Jerusalem!
An appropriate translation of tohu in
this context is of no avail.
Number
15 (Isa. 59:4)
Isa
59:4 None calleth for justice, nor [any] pleadeth for truth: they trust
in vanity,
and speak lies;
they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. (KJV)
4 No
one sues righteously and no one pleads honestly.
They
trust in confusion
and speak lies;
They
conceive mischief and bring forth
iniquity. (NASB)
In Isaiah 59:1-8
the prophet describes the
corruption and depravity rampant in Judah.
Here
is my own literal translation of Isaiah 59:4:
“No one calls in
righteousness, and no one is judged in fidelity. They trust in obfuscation (tohu)
and speak emptiness. They
conceive trouble and give birth to wickedness.” This sounds like a
modern court
of law in which corrupt plaintiffs, aided by corrupt lawyers, and
abetted by
corrupt judges or juries, defy the original intent of the law and the
clear
facts of the case to achieve a pre-determined monetary settlement based
on
greed or a civil result based on racism or immorality or atheism. Here
the word tohu
refers to the deliberate distortion of truth to circumvent justice. Obfuscation is an appropriate
translation here.
Number
16 (Jer. 4:23)
Jer
4:23 I beheld the earth, and, lo, [it was] without
form, and void;
and the heavens, and they [had] no light. (KJV)
23 I
looked on the earth, and behold, it was formless
and void;
And
to the heavens, and they had no light.
(NASB)
Jeremiah 4:23.
Jeremiah was predicting
that judgment from Babylon was coming upon Judah. The judgment was so
severe
that the entire land of Israel would be devastated. Yet aspects of the
language,
especially in Jeremiah 4:23-28,
are so severe and
far-reaching that this prophecy goes beyond predicting judgment merely
upon
Israel. It also looks at a much more distant time when God would pour
out
cosmic judgment on the entire earth. We know this time of unprecedented
trouble
as the Tribulation.
In either case, the
result would be that both the land of Judah, and later the whole earth,
would
be both devastated,
thus non-functional
(tohu)
and, in many places empty
of people (bohu)
(the Book of Revelation predicts that
upwards of one half of the earth’s population will be destroyed – see,
for
example, Rev. 6:7-8; 9:15).
So Jeremiah compared
the non-functionality
and emptiness of the earth in his
day and the distant future (Jer. 4:23)
with the non-functionality
and emptiness
of the earth on
day one of creation (Gen. 1:2).
Number
17 (Psa. 107:40)
Ps
107:40 He poureth contempt upon princes, and causeth them to wander in
the wilderness, [where
there is] no way. (KJV)
40 He
pours contempt upon princes
And
makes them wander in
a pathless waste.
(NASB)
Psalm 107 is a call
to the redeemed of the LORD to thank Yahweh for His goodness (Ps. 107:1-2). The
redeemed are identified as those whom Yahweh has redeemed from their
adversary
and gathered from the lands – from the east, west, north, and south (Ps. 107:2-3). Though
the people of Israel are never mentioned by name, they have to be in
the
Psalmist’s thinking. On the other hand this psalm is broad in its
scope,
addressing the “sons of men” (Ps. 107:8,
15, 21, 31).
The author of Psalm 107 appears, in
the first part of verse 40, to be
quoting from Job 12:21a, and in the
second part, from Job 12:24b. In Psalm
107:39-43
the worshipers are urged to thank Yahweh for delivering the conquered
needy.
When the conquered are “diminished and bowed down through oppression,
misery
and sorrow” (Ps. 107:39), Yahweh
delivers them by pouring “contempt” on the “princes” who subjugate
them. In
poetic justice, Yahweh avenges these princes’ ill-treatment of their
captives
by causing them to wander in a tohu (waste, NASB;
wilderness KJV) (Ps. 107:40). There is
here, in the word tohu, a reference to futility and meaninglessness,
for the judged princes wander in a wilderness that has no way (KJV) or
in a
waste that is pathless (NASB). Meanwhile, Yahweh delivers the needy,
afflicted
ones (Ps. 107:41). So tohu here refers to a desert or wilderness
with
overtones of futility and meaninglessness.
(For an overview of
Psalm 107 see the author’s Expanded
Analysis of Psalm 107.)
Number
18 (Job 6:18)
Job
6:18 The paths of their way are turned aside; they go to
nothing, and perish. (KJV)
18 “The
paths of their course wind along,
They
go up into
nothing and perish. (NASB)
In Job 6:14-30,
Job reprimands his three
friends for their unsympathetic and erroneous response. They should
have been
kind to him so that he would not lose his faith in God (Job 6:14).
Instead, their help had
evaporated like the torrents of wadis in the desert (Job 6:15-18).
(A wadi is a stream bed
or river bed that only has water when there is sufficient rain or when
there is
snow-melt in the spring. Most of the year the wadi is dry.) In the
spring,
melting snow from higher elevations produces rushing water in these
stream and
river beds. But when the hot summer sun comes, these torrents vanish.
“The
paths of their course wind along, they go up into nothing (tohu)
and perish” (Job 16:18).
Here Job speaks of the
help his friends should have given him. Looking for their help is like
travelers who looked for life-giving water from the wadis, but found
nothing (Job 6:19-20).
As the hot summer sun
comes out, the torrents in the wadis “go up” (evaporate) “into nothing”
(tohu) –
into “thin air,” as we
would say. So tohu
here refers to the
nothingness of air into which the waters of the torrents have
evaporated under
the searing sun. So tohu
here means nothingness with
overtones of futility and meaninglessness,
because the travelers
had hoped to find water, but
their efforts went unrewarded. (See a satellite image of Wadi
El Arish.)
Number
19 (Job 12:24)
Job
12:24 He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth,
and
causeth them to wander in a wilderness
[where there is] no way. (KJV)
24 “He
deprives of intelligence the chiefs of the earth’s people
And
makes them wander in a pathless
waste. (NASB)
In Job 12-14,
Job responds to the
speech of Zophar. He replies to Zophar (Job 12:1-13:19)
and then appeals to God
(Job 13:20-14:22).
In Job 12:7-25
Job concedes God’s sovereignty.
For example, God is the controller of
nations (Job 12:23-25).
He enlarges and
destroys nations (Job 12:23)
and He deludes national
leaders (Job 12:24-25):
“He deprives of
intelligence the chiefs of the earth’s people and makes them wander in
a
pathless waste” (tohu) (Job 12:24).
“They grope in darkness
with no light, and He makes them stagger like a drunken man” (Job 12:25).
This appears to be a
figurative use of tohu.
National leaders do not
wander through a trackless desert literally, but metaphorically. In
other
words, God brings problematic situations into their reigns or
administrations
which they are helpless to solve. They endeavor to find solutions to
these problems,
but find none. They are like a ship lost at sea at night with no
engine, no
power, no instruments, no light, and a clouded sky. So tohu
here refers to a
metaphorical wilderness with
overtones of futility and helplessness.
(For an overview of this
portion of Job, see the author’s Analysis
of Job,
pp. 25-26.)
Number
20 (Job 26:7)
Job
26:7 He stretcheth out the north over the empty
place, [and] hangeth the earth upon nothing.
(KJV)
7 “He
stretches out
the north over empty
space and hangs
the earth on nothing. (NASB)
Job 26:7. Job must have
been thinking not
merely of the direction north, but of the vast northern reaches of the
North
Star, up and out in what we would call outer space. North here is the
center
around which the constellations at night appear to revolve as our earth
rotates. Job asserts that God stretches out the north over empty space (tohu). This is an
amazingly accurate
statement even by today’s scientific terminology. Here is yet another
instance
in which tohu does not refer
to anything chaotic,
but rather to that which is unformed and not useful for man’s purposes.
NASB
here appropriately translates tohu as “empty space.”
Tohu - Conclusion
Brown-Driver-Briggs
Hebrew and English Lexicon lists the
following meanings of the noun, tohu:
“formlessness, confusion, unreality, emptiness”. Then it adds,
(“primary
meaning difficult to seize” …). This is certainly true, as is evidenced
by the
chart, Representative
Translations of the Hebrew Word Tohu. Most Bible
versions employ a variation of the word “form,”
translating tohu either
“formless” or “without form.” The translations
“formless” and “without form” tend to leave the impression that the
earth in
Genesis 1:2 was shapeless. I do not believe that is what Moses meant.
Instead,
I have chosen the word “unformed” and I have added four qualifying
statements
as to what “unformed” does not mean
and what it does mean.
1. Unformed does
not mean that the earth on Day One had
no shape (contra NIRV,
“The earth didn’t have any shape”). Think it through. Why are the vast
majority
of entities in our universe, whether they are stars or planets or
moons,
spherical? It is because they all have gravity. If something were both
aqueous
(Gen. 1:2, 9)
and shapeless, it must also mean that it was not spherical. If it were
not
spherical, it must mean that it had insufficient gravity to keep it
together. So
to say that the earth was shapeless is also to say that it had no
gravity or
insufficient gravity. What then would have prevented the earth from
beginning
to disperse throughout the universe?
2. Unformed does
not mean that the earth on Day One
was chaotic (contra Allen P. Ross,
Genesis, The
Bible Knowledge Commentary,
OT Vol., p. 28; contra Thomas Constable, Notes on Genesis,
2010 Edition, pp. 13-14; contra Bruce K. Waltke, Creation
and Chaos;
contra
Waltke, An
Old Testament Theology,
p. 181, quoted by Constable,
p. 10, text denoted by footnote 28). God does not create chaos because
He is
not chaotic. The world God created on Day One was preliminary, not
chaotic. It
was “a waste” (see the NASB marginal reading for formless in Genesis 1:2)
in the sense that it was not a suitable environment for man or animals
to live
in, but it was not a chaos.
3. Unformed does
not mean that the earth as God
originally created it had been disrupted
by some sin, whether by man or by fallen angel (Satan)
(contra Allen P.
Ross, The
Bible Knowledge Commentary,
p. 28. Ross apparently believes that the fall of Satan ruined the
earth, causing
sin to enter the earth, making it a chaos which had to be transformed
and
redeemed by God in the six days of creation). The Scriptures are clear
that sin
entered the earth after the
creation
week, not before it (Gen. 3)
and that it was by one man that sin
entered the earth, not by one fallen
angel (Rom. 5:12).
4. Unformed does
mean that the earth was not yet in
its final form. The best Biblical commentary
on tohu in Genesis 1:2 is
to be found in Isaiah 45:18,
which tells us that God
did not create the earth to be tohu,
but rather He created it to be inhabited. So when
Moses wrote
in Genesis 1:2
that the earth was tohu,
he merely meant that it
was not yet a suitable environment in which humans and animals might
live. It
was unsuitable because it was dark and aqueous (Gen. 1:2, 3-4),
because there was no
atmosphere (Gen. 1:6-7),
because there was no
dry land (Gen. 1:9-10),
because there was no
vegetation (Gen. 1:11-12),
and because there were
no celestial bodies up in the heavens (Gen. 1:14-18).
In fact, there is a
sense in which it can be said that the words “unsuitable” or
“pre-functional”
are appropriate translations of tohu in Genesis 1:2.
By way of illustration,
it could be said that today’s moon is tohu,
although not nearly to
the degree that the earth was in Genesis 1:2.
Today’s moon is tohu in
the sense that it is
not formed to be suitable for human or animal habitation or for the
growth of
vegetation. This is true because it has no atmosphere and no water, and
because
of the extreme
variations in temperature.
Bohu
922
בֹּהוּ bohu
(96a); from an unused word; emptiness:—emptiness
(1),
void (2). (This definition is from the New American Standard Exhaustive
Concordance as found in Quickverse
2008.)
bohu
n.[m.]
emptiness, alw. c. tohu. Tohu wabohu
- of
primaeval earth;
of earth under judgment of Yahweh. the
line of wasteness and the stones of emptiness,
i.e. plummets, employed, not as usual for building, but for destroying
walls; (This
abbreviated definition is from Brown Driver
Briggs Lexicon as found in Bibloi
8.0, adapted from Brown-Driver-Briggs
Hebrew and English Lexicon.)
There
are three instances of bohu found in the
Hebrew text. Every time bohu appears, tohu also appears in
the same verse.
Obviously, the two are linked. In the following representations, the
Hebrew
text and English translations for bohu
are marked in cyanide,
while the Hebrew
text and English translations for tohu
are marked in yellow.
I have given four
representative translations of each of these verses.
Number
1. Genesis 1:2
Ge
1:2 And the earth was without
form, and
void;
and darkness [was] upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God
moved upon
the face of the waters. (KJV)
2The
earth was formless
and
void, and darkness was over
the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over
the surface
of the waters. Genesis 1:2 (NASB)
2
Now the earth was formless
and
empty, darkness was over
the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the
waters.
(NIV)
2The earth was without
form and
void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the
Spirit of God
was hovering over the face of the waters. (ESV)
Number
2. Isaiah 34:11
Isa
34:11 But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also
and the
raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion,
and the stones
of emptiness.
(KJV)
11 But
pelican and hedgehog will possess it,
And
owl and raven will dwell in it;
And
He will stretch over it the line of desolation
And
the plumb line of emptiness.
(NASB)
11 The desert owl
and screech owl will
possess it;
the great
owl and the raven will nest
there.
God will
stretch out over Edom
the
measuring line of chaos
and the
plumb line of desolation.
(NIV)
11 But the hawk and
the porcupine shall
possess it,
the owl and the raven shall dwell in it.
He shall
stretch the line of confusion
over it,
and the plumb line of emptiness.
(ESV)
Number
3. Jeremiah 4:23.
Jer
4:23 I beheld the earth, and, lo, [it was] without
form, and
void; and the heavens, and they [had] no light. (KJV)
23 I
looked on the earth, and behold, it
was formless
and
void; And to the
heavens, and they had no light. Jeremiah 4:23 (NASB)
23
I looked at the earth,
and it was formless
and
empty;
and at the
heavens,
and their
light was gone. (NIV)
23I looked on the
earth, and behold, it
was without
form and
void; and to the heavens,
and they had no light. (ESV)
Bohu
- Conclusion
The
term bohu occurs only
three times in Scripture, Gen. 1:2; Isa.
34:11; Jer. 4:23. Each time it
does so, it is in
tandem with tohu. The Jeremiah
passage harkens back to
the language of creation in Genesis 1:2. Brown-Driver-Briggs
Hebrew and English
Lexicon
lists a
one-word definition for bohu – “emptiness,”
and gives no
etymology. C. F. Keil (Keil and Delitzsch), in his
commentary on Genesis 1:2, states that the
etymology for both tohu and bohu has been lost.
Four representative
translations (https://wordexplain.com/Translations_of_tohu_and_bohu.html) translate bohu as “void” six
times, and as some
variation of “empty” or “emptiness” five times.
In
the English language today, “empty” is a synonym for “void.” Since
“void” with
the meaning of “emptiness” is not a commonly used word, I will use the
noun
“emptiness” to translate the noun bohu.
Conclusion
in regard to the dual use of tohu
and bohu
We have
already noted that
tohu and bohu always
appear in the same connection. In two of those instances, Genesis 1:2 and Jeremiah 4:23, are to be
paired off. In Genesis 1:2 Moses declared
that the earth was “formless
and void” (tohu and bohu); Jeremiah
stated that, as he looked
at the earth, it had primeval conditions – the earth was “formless and
void,”
and the heavens “had no light” (Jer. 4:23).
Some
have viewed tohu and bohu, connected by
“and,” as a hendiadys, “the expression
of an idea by the
use of usually two independent words connected by and
(as nice and warm)
instead of the usual combination of independent word and its modifier
(as nicely
warm).” Constable, in his discussion of Genesis
1:2 (Notes on Genesis, 2010 edition,
p. 11) states, “Here
we learn that the earth was ‘formless and empty’ (a hendiadys meaning
unorganized,
unproductive, and uninhabited) before God graciously prepared it for
human
habitation (cf. Jer. 4:23-27).”
Whether
or not tohu and bohu form a
hendiadys, Constable has
accurately captured their combined meaning as it relates especially to Genesis
1:2. The earth at this stage of Day One of the Creation week
was
unorganized and unproductive (tohu)
and it was uninhabited (bohu).
So
together, tohu and bohu are saying that
the earth, at the
time God first placed it in the heavens He had just made consisted,
literally,
of “unformedness and emptiness.” Or we could say it was “unformed and
unfilled.” Or we could say it was “unorganized and empty.”
A
Word Study of Tohu wa
Bohu
By
James T. Bartsch
WordExplain.com
Originally published July
15, 2010
Updated January 14, 2021
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