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  • Sailhamer objects to rendering the Hebrew phrase tohu wabohu as ‘formless and empty’, stating that this phrase, when properly understood, refers to a desolate and uninhabitable wasteland. This desolate and uninhabitable wasteland is said to be the initial state of the garden.

    While it is true that tohu wabohu should be understood as referring to a desolate and uninhabitable place, it doesn’t preclude the idea of that place being formless and empty, since a formless and empty place would also be a desolate and uninhabitable wasteland. In addition, Genesis 1:2 and 1:9 make it clear that there was no dry ground at all until Day 3!

    (From A Review of Genesis Unbound)

    Alt. of tohubohu.

    October 15, 2008