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that nothing but catastrophic judgment can be intended by this verse. The two words that
describe the condition of the earth in verse 2 are the Hebrew words tohu and bohu
"without form and void". Tohu occurs twenty times in the O.T. and bohu twice in
addition to Gen. 1: 2. The only other occurrence of tohu in the writings of Moses is in
Deut. 32: 10 where it refers to "the waste howling wilderness". The use which Isaiah
makes of this word is highly suggestive and full of instruction.
Isa. 24: This chapter opens with a judgment that is reminiscent of Gen. 1: 2
"Behold the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside
down, and scattereth the inhabitants thereof . . . . . the land shall be utterly emptied, and
utterly spoiled" (Isa. 24: 1, 3). When Isaiah would once again refer to this state of
affairs, he sums it up in the epithet "The city of confusion (tohu)" (Isa. 24: 10), and
there can be no doubt but that the desolation here spoken of is the result of judgment.
Another example of its usage is found in 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". Here the A.V. treats the word
tohu as an adverb, "in vain" which the R.V. corrects, reading "a waste". Whatever
rendering we may adopt, one thing is certain, Isa. 45: 18 declares in the name of Him
Who created the heavens, Who formed the earth and made it, that He did not create it
TOHU, it therefore must have become so. Even more convincing are two passages other
than Gen. 1: 2, where bohu is employed, for in both instances the word is combined with
tohu. The first passage is Isa. 34: 11. The context is one of catastrophic judgment
and upheaval. The presence of such terms as "indignation", "fury", "utterly destroyed",
"sword" and "vengeance" in the first eight verses are sufficient to prove this, and one
verse is so definitely prophetic of the upheaval at the time of the end, as to leave no
option in the mind:
"And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together
as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a
falling fig from the fig tree" (Isa. 34: 4).
This passage is almost identical with the language employed by Peter when he speaks
of the signs that shall precede the coming of the day of God at the setting up of the new
heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness (II Pet. 3: 12). The words tohu
and bohu occur in Isa. 34: 11, to which all these symbols of judgment point:
"He will stretch out upon it the line of confusion (tohu) and the stones of emptiness
(bohu)",
nor it is without significance that unclean birds like the cormorant and the bittern possess
the devoted land, that nettles and brambles appear in the fortress, and that dragons,
wild beasts, screech owls and satyrs gather there. The whole is a picture in miniature of
what the earth "became" in Gen. 1: 2. Isaiah's usage of tohu and bohu is convincing, but
"in the mouth of two or three witness every word shall be established", and accordingly
we find the prophet Jeremiah using tohu and bohu in a similar context.
In the structure of Jer. 4: 5-7 are in correspondence with verses 19-31.