meaning `to be waste, desert' which gives us the word that appears twenty times

in the Hebrew Old Testament.  It is variously translated `without form',

`waste', `vain', `vanity', `nothing', `wilderness', `empty place', `confusion'

and `thing of nought'.  It never refers to anything constructive, but always

something wasted and spoiled.  Moses, the writer of Genesis 1:2, uses the word

to describe `the waste howling wilderness' of Israel's wanderings (Deut. 32:10)

and we can believe that he did not employ the word tohu in Deuteronomy in a

meaning entirely opposite to that of Genesis 1:2.  The fact that several times

tohu is translated `vain', again indicates the conditions obtaining in Genesis

Bohu also comes from an unusual root which means to be `empty', as a house

that is unoccupied.  This word occurs but three times in the Scriptures, and on

each occasion it is paired with tohu.  In Isaiah 45:18 we read:

`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'.

Here we learn from God Himself the Creator, that He did not create the

earth tohu; if He did not create it so, it must have become so as a subsequent

event.  Moreover, we can learn from the parallelism of the verse, that tohu

indicates an uninhabited condition `a waste, empty confusion'.

In Isaiah 24, the prophet speaks of `the city of confusion' tohu (verse

10), and this in a context that speaks of the earth being made `empty', `waste',

`turned upside-down', `utterly spoiled', `utterly broken down', and `clean

dissolved' (Isa. 24:1,3,10,19).  It will also be observed that the prophet

extends the meaning of tohu until it resembles the companion word bohu by adding

`every house is shut up' (verse 10).

Now this state of desolation is definitely said to be a `punishment'.

`The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard ... the Lord shall punish the

host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the

earth' (Isa. 24:20,21).

Here, this state of confusion is seen to be a judgment that falls upon the

earth, not only for the evils wrought by kings on earth, but by `high ones on

high'.  This word `high' is used not only of high places on the earth, but as

here, in contrast with the earth, with heavenly heights even the dwelling place

of the Lord Himself (Isa. 57:15).

Already we have read enough to warrant the thought that:

Genesis 1:2 indicates a state entirely different from God's creative

purpose. `He created it not tohu'.

Genesis 1:2 can be likened to a waste howling wilderness, something

empty and uninhabitable, a confusion very different from creation which

was intended to be `inhabited'.

Genesis 1:2 is seen to be a `punishment' that descended upon `high

ones that are on high', for this judgment took place long before Adam

was created.