The Bible begins by saying that God created the heavens and the earth and that it was, in Hebrew, tohu wabohu. It was “without form and void” or “formless and empty” (NIV). Tohu means “unformed, chaotic wilderness,” and bohu means “empty.” So Genesis 1:2 tells us that when God created the heavens and the earth, it was initially an uninhabitable wasteland, a barren wilderness. 

Formless and Void From the Start

There is a phrase I want to teach you because it adds such dimension to the story the Bible tells, beginning with the first sentence in the Bible. And besides, it’s kind of fun to say. Ready? Here it is: Tohu wabohu (תהו ובהו).

It’s there, in the opening sentences of the Bible. Our English Bible reads, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep” (Gen. 1:1–2). The Bible begins by saying that God created the heavens and the earth and that it was, in Hebrew, tohu wabohu. It was “without form and void” or “formless and empty” (NIV). Tohu means “unformed, chaotic wilderness,” and bohu means “empty.” So Genesis 1:2 tells us that when God created the heavens and the earth, it was initially an uninhabitable wasteland, a barren wilderness. There was no shape or form to it. No life could live in it.

I suppose I’ve always thought that when God created the earth, he spoke it into existence as it is. But evidently what God spoke into being was initially a mass of unformed matter in which nothing and no one could live. It was the raw materials to which God would give shape and form. In fact, there were three significant problems with the earth as God initially created it, according to Genesis 1:2. It was formless, empty, and dark. But it was not without hope. Why? Because “the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (Gen 1:2).

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Content adapted from Even Better than Eden: Nine Ways the Bible’s Story Changes Everything about Your Story by Nancy Guthrie. The article originally appeared on Crossway.org; used with permission.