Faithful Rendering of tohû wābohû in Genesis 1:2: Literal Precision vs. Interpretive Drift

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Introduction: The Centrality of Genesis 1:2 in Translation Philosophy

Genesis 1:2 reads in the UASV:
“The earth was without form and void; and darkness was over the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters..”

Genesis 1:2 reads in the ESV:
“The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”

The Hebrew phrase תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ (tohû wābohû) stands at the heart of this verse. It is one of the most pivotal and misunderstood word pairs in the Old Testament, often subject to interpretive overreach. The question before us is simple yet crucial: Should Bible translators aim for dynamic equivalence that interprets the meaning, or for formal equivalence that retains the literal text and leaves interpretation to the reader?

The answer must always be the latter. Translators are not interpreters. Their task is not to tell the reader what the passage means in their view, but what the text says in the original language, as faithfully and transparently as possible. In the case of Genesis 1:2, the term tohû wābohû must be handled with particular care due to its theological implications and poetic structure.

The Hebrew Words: tohû and bohû in Context

tohû (תֹּהוּ)

This word occurs 20 times in the Hebrew Bible. It conveys a sense of desolation, formlessness, wasteland, futility, or nothingness. Key usages include:

Deuteronomy 32:10 – “a desert land… a howling waste of the wilderness”
Job 26:7 – “He stretches out the north over the void (tohû) and hangs the earth on nothing”
Isaiah 45:18 – “he did not create it a waste (tohû), he formed it to be inhabited”

In all these cases, tohû communicates a negative state of disorder or non-functionality, not a neutral emptiness.

bohû (בֹּהוּ)

This term appears only three times:

Genesis 1:2 – “tohû wābohû“
Isaiah 34:11 – “He shall stretch the line of confusion (tohû) and the plumb line of emptiness (bohû)”
Jeremiah 4:23 – “I looked on the earth, and behold, it was without form and void (tohû wābohû)”

The fact that bohû never appears independently suggests it is bound semantically and stylistically to tohû, functioning as an intensifier or poetic parallel.

The Structure and Theology of Genesis 1:2

Genesis 1:2 serves as a backdrop of chaos or unformed material prior to divine ordering. This must be understood not as evil or hostile chaos (as in pagan myths), but as unordered, uninhabitable matter awaiting God’s creative work. Therefore, tohû wābohû does not describe moral chaos or physical destruction but a state lacking the divine ordering that will follow in the subsequent verses.

Translators must avoid introducing theological constructs like “chaos” or “emptiness” where the original simply says it was without form and void. To go beyond this is to insert interpretation into the translation, violating the principle of textual fidelity.

Comparison of English Translations

Let us now examine how different translations have handled the phrase tohû wābohû and assess their fidelity to the Hebrew.

Faithful Translations:

Updated American Standard Version (UASV)
“The earth was without form and void…”
This rendering rightly retains the compound nature and poetic repetition. It maintains a literal and objective structure without interpretive additions.

English Standard Version (ESV)
“The earth was without form and void…”
This rendering rightly retains the compound nature and poetic repetition. It maintains a literal and objective structure without interpretive additions.

New American Standard Bible (NASB)
“The earth was formless and void…”
Similar to ESV, this translation respects both the Hebrew vocabulary and syntax. It accurately reflects the Hebrew poetry and avoids introducing foreign concepts.

Unfaithful Translations:

New International Version (NIV)
“Now the earth was formless and empty…”
While empty may appear innocuous, it departs from bohû‘s Hebrew connotation. Empty implies something that once was filled, whereas bohû refers to a state of non-functionality or incompleteness. This subtle change influences interpretation.

New Living Translation (NLT)
“The earth was empty, a formless mass cloaked in darkness. And the Spirit of God was hovering over its surface.”
This is an egregious example of dynamic translation gone too far. The addition of “a formless mass” and “cloaked in darkness” and even “its surface” reshapes the verse dramatically. It moves from description to dramatization, overlaying a narrative that the text does not supply.

Theological and Hermeneutical Implications

The rendering of tohû wābohû is not merely a stylistic decision; it influences theological interpretation in several key areas:

Creation Ex Nihilo: Over-interpreting tohû wābohû as “chaos” or “emptiness” may imply pre-existing evil or disorderly forces, undermining the doctrine of creation from nothing.
Cosmic Dualism: Translations that suggest a chaotic struggle (like NLT’s “chaotic mass”) may inadvertently echo pagan cosmologies, such as the Enuma Elish, which has gods battling primeval chaos.
Environmental Readings: Modern liberal theological movements sometimes co-opt “formless and empty” to push environmental or socio-political themes into Genesis 1. Such misuse stems from vague translations that invite eisegesis.

Literal renderings, such as “formless and void,” preserve the text’s integrity and leave theological implications to proper exegesis—not to the translator’s interpretive pen.

The Poetic Pair: Why tohû wābohû Must Remain Intact

There is a poetic unity in tohû wābohû that calls for it to be preserved together. It forms a hendiadys, where two terms joined by “and” function together to express a single concept more vividly. Breaking the unity by substituting one term or rewording its sense diminishes the literary force and opens the door to misinterpretation.

Furthermore, the phrase appears exactly in this form elsewhere, as noted in Jeremiah 4:23. Translational consistency demands that the same phrase be rendered the same way across Scripture, unless there is compelling contextual reason to deviate—which is not the case here.

The Importance of Lexical Concordance

A proper translation philosophy also insists on lexical concordance—that is, using the same English term for the same Hebrew or Greek word wherever context permits. Translators have a duty not to mask the repetition and patterns of the inspired text. Changing bohû to “empty” in Genesis 1:2 but “desolate” in Jeremiah 4:23 (as the NIV does) distorts the inspired wordplay and undermines the unity of Scripture.

The term tohû wābohû should be rendered formless and void consistently. Any variation leads readers to infer distinctions that the original does not make.

Conclusion: Translate, Don’t Interpret

The accurate rendering of Genesis 1:2—specifically tohû wābohû—is a test case for any translation’s fidelity to the biblical text. The UASV, ESV, and NASB pass this test, preserving the poetic integrity and theological neutrality of the original. The NIV and NLT, among others, fail by introducing interpretive bias and lexical inconsistency.

Bible translation is not a task for theological creativity. It is an act of reverence toward the very words God inspired. As such, the translator’s role is to bring the original words across the language barrier—without diluting their structure, force, or meaning. Genesis 1:2 must remain formless and void.

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About the Author

EDWARD D. ANDREWS (AS in Criminal Justice, BS in Religion, MA in Biblical Studies, and MDiv in Theology) is CEO and President of Christian Publishing House. He has authored over 220+ books. In addition, Andrews is the Chief Translator of the Updated American Standard Version (UASV).