Genesis 1:2 — tohu va-vohu and the ruach that hovers: how do you translate the world before it had form?
The Torah’s second verse describes the world before it had form — and almost every word is contested in translation. Tohu va-vohu: “without form, and void” (King James), “unformed and void” (JPS 1917), “formless and empty” (modern), even Robert Alter’s much-cited “welter and waste.” And ruach Elohim: the Spirit of God brooding over creation, or a wind from God sweeping across the chaos? The Hebrew ruach is spirit, wind, and breath in one word — and the verb merachefet (“hovers,” “broods”) is the clue translators weigh. One verse, and the question of whether creation opens with Spirit or with wind. Then a counter-text: Isaiah says God did not create the earth tohu (45:18) — yet here it is, tohu.
1. The verse · Genesis 1:2 (Hebrew: Tanach with Nikkud, PD) · the world unformed
King James (1611): And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
JPS 1917: Now the earth was unformed and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters.
Jewish English Torah (CC-BY-SA): Now the earth was formless and empty, with darkness over the surface of the deep, and God’s wind was hovering over the surface of the waters.
NoticeTohu on its own means emptiness, futility — the trackless desert. Bohu has no independent meaning of its own; it seems coined to rhyme with and reinforce tohu. So the pair is less a checklist (“form” + “content”) than a single hammer-blow for utter formlessness — which is why translators reach for doublets: without-form-and-void, unformed-and-void, welter-and-waste.
2. The word that hovers · ruach Elohim merachefet · Spirit, or wind?
וְרוּחַ אֱלֹהִים מְרַחֶפֶת
Ruach is spirit, wind, and breath — one word for all three. The older translations read “the Spirit of God” (KJV, JPS 1917); since Harry Orlinsky’s 1957 study, many moderns read “a wind from God” (so the 1985 NJPS, named here, not reproduced) — a mighty storm-wind over the chaos rather than the divine Spirit.
Notice The deciding clue is the verb merachefet — to hover or brood. In this “hover, brood” sense it appears only once more — Deuteronomy 32:11, an eagle hovering over its nest. A wind would blow, not hover; the verb leans toward the brooding Spirit — yet ruach keeps the wind in earshot. The sheet keeps both.
3. The counter-text · Isaiah 45:18 (Hebrew, PD; English KJV, PD) · “He created it not tohu”
King James (1611): For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.
Notice Isaiah says God formed the earth lo tohu — “not in vain,” nottohu — “to be inhabited.” But Genesis says the earth was tohu. The classical resolution: tohu was a stage, never the purpose — the world passes through formlessness toward order. The later Kabbalah hears more: a primordial “world of tohu” (olam ha-tohu) that arose and shattered before this ordered world — the broken vessels, the kings who “died” (the Sifra di-Tzeniuta passage, translated on this site). Kept open, not resolved.
For the teacher: one verse, every level
What it asks
The source
Children’s Hebrew school
The world before “Let there be light”: empty and dark, with God’s ruach over the water. The very beginning, before anything has shape.
The verse (block 1), the picture
Day school / b’nei mitzvah
What do tohu va-vohu mean? Why do the translations differ — “without form,” “formless,” “welter and waste”?
The verse + the tohu note (block 1)
Adult / yeshiva
Spirit, or wind? The ruach crux and the merachefet clue; Isaiah’s “not tohu” beside Genesis’s tohu.
The hovering word (block 2), the counter-text (block 3)
Seminary / rabbinical
The cosmology of the unformed: olam ha-tohu and the world of chaos (the broken vessels); ruach Elohim across the history of interpretation (Orlinsky’s “wind”).
Blocks 2-3 read against the tradition
For discussion
Ruach is spirit, wind, and breath in a single word. Does it change the meaning of creation’s opening whether you read “the Spirit of God” or “a wind from God” — and can the verse hold both at once?
Tohu va-vohu. Does the Torah begin from nothing, or from a formless something already there? What hangs on the difference?
Isaiah says God did not create the earth tohu; Genesis says the earth was tohu. How do you hold the two verses together?
The verb merachefet — “hover,” “brood,” “sweep.” A bird over its nest, or a wind over water? What does the image ask you to picture at the edge of creation?