Genesis 1:2
Footnote:
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 formless one of himself [tohu] and pure/plumb one of himself [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 Formless-one of himself [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 within her. And he has stretched out upon her the line of the formless one of himself [tohu] and the plumbstones of the pure one of himself [bohu]” (Isaiah 34:11 RBT)
The line measures the evenness—chaotic, uneven. (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) |