תֹּ֫הוּ

Genesis 1:2 תֹ֙הוּ֙ formlessness

Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

Here: A wasteland: barren, trackless, unproductive, like the desert. It describes a place that cannot yet support life. It does not mean a shapeless lump of matter.

Deuteronomy 32:10 וּבְתֹ֖הוּ and in a wasteland of

He found him in a desert land, in a barren, howling wilderness; He surrounded him, He instructed him, He guarded him as the apple of His eye.

Here: 'And in the emptiness of…' This is the same word as the 'formless' earth of Genesis 1:2. It means a place with no shape, no path and no life, a kind of un-creation.

1 Samuel 12:21 הַתֹּ֗הוּ תֹ֥הוּ <the> emptiness, [are] emptiness

Do not turn aside after worthless things that cannot profit you or deliver you, for they are empty.

Here: The word used for the unformed earth in Genesis 1:2 and for trackless desert. With 'the' attached it points to something already known: 'the Nothing' just named in verse 10, the Baals and Ashtaroth.

Job 6:18 בַתֹּ֣הוּ in the wasteland

Caravans turn aside from their routes; they go into the wasteland and perish.

Job 12:24 בְּתֹ֣הוּ in a wasteland

He deprives the earth’s leaders of reason and makes them wander in a trackless wasteland.

Job 26:7 תֹּ֑הוּ emptiness

He stretches out the north over empty space; He hangs the earth upon nothing.

Here: The word from Genesis 1:2 ("formless and void"). It means trackless waste, chaos, a place where nothing is ordered or useful. It is not "outer space". It is the empty unformed nothing below and around the made world.

Psalm 107:40 בְּתֹ֣הוּ in a wasteland

He pours out contempt on the nobles and makes them wander in a trackless wasteland.

Here: Tohu is the 'formless' of Genesis 1:2: empty, shapeless waste, nothingness. Applied to a place, it is a desert with no landmarks. It also suggests that the nobles are reduced to nothing.

Isaiah 24:10 תֹּ֑הוּ formlessness

The city of chaos is shattered; every house is closed to entry.

Isaiah 29:21 בַתֹּ֖הוּ with <the> emptiness

those who indict a man with a word, who ensnare the mediator at the gate, and who with false charges deprive the innocent of justice.

Here: "With emptiness": baseless claims, hollow arguments, or testimony with nothing behind it (compare Isa 59:4). It might also mean "into nothing," that is, to ruin. It is the same word as the "formless" of Genesis 1:2.

Isaiah 34:11 תֹ֖הוּ formlessness

The desert owl and screech owl will possess it, and the great owl and raven will dwell in it. The LORD will stretch out over Edom a measuring line of chaos and a plumb line of destruction.

Here: 'Of tohu': trackless waste, a place where nothing can live. This is the first half of the pair 'formless and void' from Gen 1:2.

Isaiah 40:17 וָתֹ֖הוּ and emptiness

All the nations are as nothing before Him; He regards them as nothingness and emptiness.

Isaiah 40:23 כַּתֹּ֥הוּ like <the> nothingness

He brings the princes to nothing and makes the rulers of the earth meaningless.

Isaiah 41:29 וָתֹ֖הוּ and emptiness

See, they are all a delusion; their works amount to nothing; their images are as empty as the wind.

Isaiah 44:9 תֹּ֔הוּ [are] nothingness

All makers of idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless. Their witnesses fail to see or comprehend, so they are put to shame.

Here: The verdict on the makers: they are tōhû, the 'formless' of Genesis 1:2. The people who 'form' gods are themselves unformed emptiness, with no substance and nothing real behind them.

Isaiah 45:18 תֹ֥הוּ a wasteland

For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens—He is God; He formed the earth and fashioned it; He established it; He did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited: “I am the LORD, and there is no other.

Here: A desolate, empty, unlivable waste. It stands in direct contrast to 'for dwelling', so it names what God did not create the world for: a desolation (or futility).

Isaiah 45:19 תֹּ֣הוּ emptiness

I have not spoken in secret, from a place in a land of darkness. I did not say to the descendants of Jacob, ‘Seek Me in a wasteland.’ I, the LORD, speak the truth; I say what is right.

Here: It echoes the previous verse, where Yahweh did not create the earth to be tohu ("empty"). It is either where they seek ("in the empty waste / chaos") or how they seek ("for nothing, in vain"). Either way, seeking Yahweh is never a step into nothingness.

Isaiah 49:4 לְתֹ֥הוּ to nothingness

But I said, “I have labored in vain, I have spent My strength in futility and vanity; yet My vindication is with the LORD, and My reward is with My God.”

Here: The word of Genesis 1:2 ('formless'), used throughout Isaiah 40–48 for idols, idol-makers and powerless nations. The Servant fears his work is as empty as the idols the prophet has been mocking.

Isaiah 59:4 תֹּ֙הוּ֙ emptiness

No one calls for justice; no one pleads his case honestly. They rely on empty pleas; they tell lies; they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.

Here: The word of Genesis 1:2's 'formless'. Here it means empty, baseless arguments: a case built on nothing. Isaiah uses it for idols and for empty legal pleas (29:21).

Jeremiah 4:23 תֹ֖הוּ [it was] formlessness

I looked at the earth, and it was formless and void; I looked to the heavens, and they had no light.

Here: An empty, unlivable place like a trackless desert. In this verse it is the land with all its life, order and people gone. It is not a description of shapeless matter.