Earth Without Form And Void?
Categories: Bible Questions and AnswersA querist asks, “In Genesis 1:2, the text says that the earth was without form and void, and the spirit of God moved on the water. If it is void (empty), how can there be form or water?
The phrase, “without form” (Strong’s 8414) in the Hebrew means “desolation.” The Hebrew word for “void” means “to be empty.” These two expressions together could well be rendered the “earth was desolate and empty.”
This is more reasonable, since we cannot conceive of anything that exists at all as not having “any” form. Yet we could easily understand how it could be desolate and empty (cf. Isaiah 34:11-NASB – note the word “desolation” – where the same Strong’s 8414 is used), which was the real condition before God began to arrange it by the six days of the creation.