Genesis 1:2 And the earth was formless and void and darkness was over the surface of the deep
without form, and void. This means "not finished in its shape and, as yet, uninhabited by creatures" (cf. Isa_45:18-19; Jer_4:23). The Hebrew expression signifies a wasteland, a desolate place. The earth was an empty place of utter desolation, existing in a formless, barren state, shrouded in darkness and water or mist of some sort. It suggests that the very shape of the earth was unfinished and empty. The raw material was all there, but it had not yet been given form. God would quickly (in six days) decorate His initial creation (Gen_2-2:3).
deep. Sometimes referred to as primordial waters, this is the term used to describe the earth's water-covered surface before the dry land emerged (Gen_1:9-10). The earth's surface was a vast ocean—a global, primordial sea that covered the entire planet. Water, so vital to the nourishment of the life that was to come, was already earth's most prominent feature. Jonah used this word to describe the watery abyss in which he found himself submerged (Jon_2:5).
The earth was formless (
tohu)
and void (
bohu) (Hebrew transliterated =
tohu wabohu)
and darkness (choshek) was over the surface (face, presence)
of the deep - On Day One there are three conditions - (1) formless (empty), (2) void (waste place), and (3) darkness.
Hebrew scholar
Umberto Cassuto on
tohu and
bohu - As for the earth, it was
tōhū and
bōhū, that is to say, the unformed material from which the earth was to be fashioned was at the beginning of its creation in a state of tōhū and bōhū, to wit, water above and solid matter beneath, and the whole a chaotic mass, without order or life. (
A Commentary on the Book of Genesis)
The context of
formless (
tohu) points to the "formlessness" of the earth in contrast to the creative order God will create in Ge 1:3-26. Some have incorrectly translated
tohu as "chaos" or "confusion," but Yahweh is a God of order, not a God of confusion. The idea is that it was a waste place (of course not like waste in a garbage dump) and there was as yet no life. The English definition of
waste is a place, region, or land that is uninhabited or uncultivated, which would be a good picture of the creation at this time for it was almost like a blank canvas as God the
consummate Artist was about to begin "painting" His glorious, majestic masterpiece!
MacArthur puts it simply "the earth was unfinished as to its shape and unpopulated. The material was there. There was time and there was space and there was matter, but it was unformed and unpopulated. The original created elements mentioned in verse 1, time, in the beginning; the heavens, matter … or the heavens space; and the earth matter. God created them, God spoke them into existence but yet they were undifferentiated, unseparated, unorganized and uninhabited. God had not yet shaped them and God had not populated the cosmos. So you have the raw materials mentioned in verse 1 … time, space, matter. They are described, first of all, as unfinished as to shape and unpopulated as to inhabitant."