Skip to content

Genesis 1:2

וְ הָ אָרֶץ הָיְתָה תֹהוּ וָ בֹהוּ וְ חֹשֶׁךְ עַל פְּנֵי תְהֹום וְ רוּחַ אֶלֹהִים מְרַחֶפֶת עַל פְּנֵי הַ מָּיִם
The Earth has become an uneven-one and an unbalanced-one9 and a dark-one10 upon the faces11 of an uproar,12 and the wind of elohim is she-who-flutters13 upon the faces of the Dual-Water-ones.14
9

Tohu and Bohu: Divided Against Herself

תהו ובהו [tohu v-bohu]

Strong’s #1961. hayetah. She has become. Verb to be is in the perfect/complete “tense” and the third-person feminine singular. “Have been” would be equivalent to a past-tense incomplete.

The words tohu and bohu are a pairing, where the one is based on the other. Tohu #8414 (inane, unreal, no form, fake, chaos) and Bohu, #922 (plumb/pure). These have always been difficult to translate. “primary meaning difficult to seize” -BDB.

1 Sam. 12:21 connects tohu to the Baalim (other gods, false gods) and the Ashtarot (the goddesses) collectively: “they are tohu” usually translated worthless, useless, nothing. The traditional interpretation is “formless” but idols are not really “formless”, hence out of balance. Out of balance would be the opposite of harmony or in the Hebrew, shalom.

The word bohu according to Gesenius is from the root bahah “which properly appears to have had the signification of purity"

One is crooked, and the other upright. She is divided against herself, and cannot stand.

Jeremiah the prophet describes these in a vision of the Day of HE IS.

I have seen the Earth, and behold: a chaotic one [tohu] and pure one [bohu], and toward the Dual-Heavenly-ones, and their light nothing.” Jer. 4:23 RBT. 

Those who make flesh miss in a word, and for the One-who-corrects in the Gate, they are baiting and are causing to incline down a just one in the Fake-one [tohu].” Isaiah 29:21 RBT

Their light is nothing because she (Zion) is plucked-up [barren] (Isa. 54). Isaiah too,

“They have owned/married her—a vomiting-one, and a contracting-one, and a blowing-one, and a darkened-one. They are sitting in her. And he has stretched out upon her the line of levelness [tohu] and the plumbstones of purity [bohu]” (Isaiah 34:11 RBT)

Tohu and Bohu - cross laid stretched out, a burden carried

The line measures the evenness—chaoticuneven. (Gen. 8:13). The plumb stone measures straight up and down—pure/upright.

And I have placed a judged-one for a line, and a just-one for a level; and the hail has swept away a refuge of lies, and dual-water-ones are washing away the hiding place.” (Isaiah 28:17 RBT)