“Tohu bohu”… Actually, in Hebrew, the full expression would have a connective: “tohu w’bohu” might be the closest transliteration in English.
It is one of those phrases that sticks with you. The first time I heard it, from Sis. Marie Banta in a Bible class, I laughed. But once you’ve heard it and thought about it for a few seconds, it is practically impossible to forget it, and what it means. The closest English equivalent might be “topsy-turvy”… or “helter-skelter”… or “upside-down”.
“Tohu w’bohu” occurs in Genesis 1:2: “The earth was without form and void” (KJV), or “The earth was formless and empty” (NIV). “Without form” or “formless” translates “tohu”, and “void” or “empty” translates “bohu”.
“Tohu” occurs about 20 times in the Old Testament. It describes chaos, confusion, disorder — a state of randomness or formlessness.
“Bohu” occurs only three times in the Old Testament, and only in close proximity to “tohu”. It means that which is empty. It describes a vacuum, or an uninhabited area. You’ll understand what the word means if you have ever watched Lawrence of Arabia, in which T.E. Lawrence, with a couple of Arab companions, makes a thousand-mile trek across the Rub’ al Khali of Arabia, what the Bedouin call — to this day — the “Empty Quarter”. In the “Empty Quarter” one will find wave upon wave of sand dunes, constantly changing size and shape, but never changing character: sand, all sand, and nothing but sand — blown about ceaselessly by the brutally hot desert winds. Anyone attempting to cross the Empty Quarter will soon become totally disoriented by the lack of landmarks. If a great sandstorm blows up, and the sun is obscured, then there is simply no hope of finding one’s way until it subsides.
“Bohu” only occurs in the Bible alongside “tohu”. Besides Genesis 1:2, the other two instances are Jeremiah 4:23 and Isaiah 34:11. Some Bible expositors, taking their cue from this juxtaposition, suggest that the pair is a “hendiadys” — which literally means “a one-in-two word”, where two words combine to produce a new word. (Think about “fireman” or “drugstore” or “bestseller”.) Combining the two words, then, “tohu w’bohu” would mean a “formless emptiness”, or an “empty chaos”.
Even when “tohu” occurs, as it does, without “bohu”, it may imply “tohu w’bohu”! That is, “tohu” alone may not so much mean “that which is formless” or “disorganized” only; but rather a place that is both “formless” and “empty”:
(a) the “wasteland” (Hebrew “tohu”) that Job describes (Job 6:18), with wadis (dry creek beds) and no water to be found, or
(b) the “desert land… the waste (‘tohu’) howling wilderness” of the Sinai (Deut. 32:10), through which Israel journeyed on their way to the Land of Promise.
Genesis 1
So, when we read in Genesis 1:2 that the earth, at some point after its creation, was “tohu w’bohu”, we need not think of simple nothingness (like a vacuum in outer space). Instead, we should think (with the Middle Eastern sensibilities of Jew or Arab) of a useless piece of land, a barrenness in which nothing of consequence can grow, a stretch of sand without order, with no fixed landmarks, no set patterns — and no discernible life. Just such a place was the “earth” before God began his creative (or, perhaps, His re-creative) work.
“Now the earth was ‘tohu w’bohu’, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters” (Gen. 1:2, NIV).
“Hovering”, or “moving” (as the KJV), is a Hebrew word that describes a devoted mother bird brooding over, or sheltering, her young. Through His Spirit or power, God is lavishing His love on the new world about to be born. Remember the “waste (‘tohu’) howling wilderness” of Deuteronomy 32:10? It was in just that place, a chaotic emptiness, that Moses said God found His people, Jacob or Israel. There He “guarded [the children of Israel]… like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young” (Deut. 32:11)!
The words describe a mother bird, and through her they portray the energy-giving presence of God — wrapping, protecting, and caressing, under His wings, the chaos of an empty and unfinished earth as He prepares to complete His creation.
And so, where there had been nothing but “darkness” (Gen. 1:2) before, now there would be light! “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light ‘day,’ and the darkness he called ‘night.’ And there was evening, and there was morning — the first day” (vv. 3-5).
First the earth was (in sequence):
(a) formless (‘tohu’),
(b) empty (‘bohu’), and
(c) dark
Then at God’s command (and in reverse sequence) it became:
(c) bright with light (vv. 3-5),
(b) “full” of vegetation (vv. 11,12) and animal life of every imaginable kind (vv. 20-25), and
(a) well-ordered: its regular and recurrent heavenly lights and seasons ordained to mark out days and months and years (vv. 14-18).
And it was all “good”!
Here is the essence of God’s creative act: an earth filled with life, and regulated by His hand. Over this newly filled and ordered world God placed His greatest single “creation”: man and woman.
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth [that until just now has been ‘empty’!] and subdue it [i.e., bring order to what until just now had been ‘chaotic’!]’ ” (vv. 27,28).
“Tohu w’bohu” elsewhere
The other instances of this phrase are remarkably instructive:
First, Jeremiah 4 depicts an “earth” — “eretz”, the Land of Israel — that had once been “fruitful” (v. 26), with inhabited towns (v. 26), and God’s people dwelling peacefully in and around His city of Jerusalem. But how had His people responded to the wonderful blessings of God’s creation — of full and ordered lives — out of which they might glorify Him?
“My people are fools; they do not know me. They are senseless children; they have no understanding. They are skilled in doing evil; they know not how to do good” (v. 22).
What was God’s reaction to this? Out of the north came a great “disaster” (v. 6), a “lion” who “destroyed nations” (v. 7) — the Babylonian king with his armies. “Look! He advances like the clouds, his chariots come like a whirlwind, his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us! We are ruined!” (v. 13). And when the war was finished, the trumpet ceased, and the battle cry quieted (vv. 16-19)… and when, thereafter, the “scorching wind from the barren heights in the desert blows toward my people” (v. 11), to finish what the invading armies had begun…
…Then, there was nothing left at all, but… “tohu w’bohu” again (v. 23):
“I looked at the earth [‘eretz’], and it was formless [‘tohu’] and empty [‘bohu’]; and at the heavens, and their light was gone [a reversal of Gen. 1:4!]. I looked at the mountains, and they were quaking; all the hills were swaying. I looked, and there were no people; every bird in the sky had flown away…” (vv. 23-25).
At every stage, the wonderful effects of God’s earlier creation were being reversed; the Eretz was being returned to its primordial state!
“I looked, and the fruitful land was a desert; all its towns lay in ruins before the LORD, before his fierce anger. This is what the LORD says: ‘The whole land will be ruined, though I will not destroy it completely. Therefore the earth will mourn and the heavens above grow dark, because I have spoken and will not relent, I have decided and will not turn back’ ” (vv. 26-28).
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Secondly, Isaiah 34 depicts a day of terrible judgment upon Edom, one of Israel’s staunchest enemies, because of their disregard for God’s law and their hatred of God’s people. The description is briefer, but still powerful. All the amenities of God’s creative work… fertile lands with crops and animals for food, ordered and inhabited cities and societies… all were gone! And what remained in their place? Smoke and darkness and desolation (vv. 9,10). Thorns and nettles and brambles (v. 13). Jackals and owls and other desert creatures (vv. 13,14). Nothing but a desert… an “empty quarter”… a “tohu w’bohu”!
“God will stretch out over Edom the measuring line of chaos [‘tohu’] and the plumb line of desolation [‘bohu’]” (v. 11). These (the measuring line, and the plumb line) were the tools of a carpenter or builder… as if to say, ‘First I must sweep away all the rubble, all the trash, of that old work. Only then can I start again to build a new — and better — creation!’
“Tohu w’bohu” in the “creation” of Israel
What is true of God’s natural creation is especially true of God’s spiritual “creation” also.
The God who, “in the beginning”, brought light out of darkness, order out of chaos, and abundant life out of the stillness and emptiness of death… plans to do the same — and does the same! — with the spiritual lives of those who believe in Him.
He called a wild, disorganized slave rabble out of Egypt — a people that scarcely knew what they believed anymore. He led them through the desert, feeding and watering and sheltering and protecting them along the way (as a mother bird might care for her chicks).
Along the way, He showed them His glory. He built His tabernacle in the midst of their newly-organized ranks of tribes. He gave them His laws and statutes and ordinances. He provided them precise directions about how and when, and with what substance they might worship Him. Among other things, He instructed them as to:
(a) which days, and at what times, they might come before Him to offer specific sacrifices;
(b) what garments their priests and Levites should wear;
(c) the precise measurements of ingredients for their incense and anointing oil; and
(d) the preparation schedule, and time of sacrifice, and manner of consuming their Passover lambs.
Later, when God brought the children of Israel into the Land of Promise, He instructed them as to:
(a) when, and by what means, they might conquer the cities of Canaan;
(b) how they were to treat those whom they captured;
(c) how they would allocate the newly-acquired lands among their various tribes and families; and
(d) how they should keep the Sabbath — a special day for putting aside all ordinary labor, and for reading, praying, instructing their children, and worshiping Him.
It was in remembering the LORD their God, in the ways He appointed, that they became “a people holy to the LORD” — set apart, sanctified, removed from the presence of the other nations, and dedicated to Him alone. In the orderliness of their lives, insofar as they followed His rules and guidelines, they separated themselves to become the LORD’s “precious jewels”. While all the people of the world, and the cattle on a thousand hills, belonged to Yahweh, they — His special covenant people — were His very special possession: kept close to Him, in His bosom as it were, where as a Father He would always watch over and love them as His dear children.
In the shadow of His hovering wings — as symbolized by the cherubim that overshadowed the mercy seat in tabernacle and temple — they found repose, rest, and comfort. For those who truly loved the LORD, His laws were not burdensome. And even when He chastened them, they were reminded that it was because He loved them as sons and daughters, and yearned for their betterment.
He had brought them from darkness into light, from death to life, from emptiness to fullness, and from the terrible fear of a chaotic, pointless, random existence into an ordered and purposeful service in His divine family…. from “tohu w’bohu” into “the beauty of holiness”. So they might sing:
“Drop Thy still dews of quietness,
Till all our strivings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress,
And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of Thy peace.
“Breathe through the heats of our desire
Thy coolness and Thy balm;
Let sense be numb, let flesh retire;
Speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,
O still, small voice of calm!”
Perhaps they were not “free” as they had been, in the “waste howling wilderness” of Sinai, the “empty quarter” of the Arabian desert — but what did that really mean? It meant they were no longer “free” to live out sad, confused, bewildered lives — existences without meaning and without hope. Now, instead, they were God’s servants, specially chosen by Him and nurtured and instructed. Every day had focus and significance — today, tomorrow, and beyond — because they lived in His household and belonged to His family.
“Why should His people, then, be sad?
None have such reason to be glad
As those redeemed by God.”
“Tohu w’bohu” in the New Testament
In the New Testament — especially in the New Testament! — there is found in Christ Jesus the remedy for the “chaotic emptiness” of a worldly life.
“Thou Whose Almighty word
Chaos and darkness heard,
And took their flight:
Hear us, we humbly pray,
And where the Gospel day
Sheds not its glorious ray,
Let there be light” (John Marriott).
Perhaps this is best demonstrated in the life of the man who called himself “Legion”, being (as he imagined) inhabited by thousands of little “demons” — his mind confused and disoriented, and his life a living hell. The madman who barely survived, naked, among tombs and dead bodies, came face to face with the Savior. When last we see him, he is “clothed, and in his right mind”, sitting at the feet of Jesus and listening to his words. Upon his dark inflamed mind there had dawned the light of the glory of God in the face of His Son. Into the pandemonium of his existence there had come calmness and peace. Into the terrible loneliness of his world there had entered a friend to comfort him, bringing healing for his sores and covering for his nakedness.
Writing to the believers in Ephesus, Paul writes of those like the insane “Legion”, Gentiles who had been “separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world” (2:12).
But, he tells them,
(a) where once they had been “separate”, they are now “brought near” (v. 13);
(b) where once they had been “excluded” from God’s family, they are now “reconciled to God” (v. 16);
(c) where once they had been “foreigners”, they are now “fellow citizens with God’s people” (v. 19);
(d) where once they had been “without hope”, they are now “built on… the prophets” (v. 20), veritable beacons of hope; and
(e) where once they had been “without God”, they now “have access” through Christ’s blood into His presence (v. 18)!
Their lives of “empty chaos” have been saved by grace, through faith — God’s gift to them (v. 8). They have been “created in Christ Jesus” (v. 10), and the “good works” enjoined upon them (v. 10) are anything but onerous. Not at all! The “good works”, which they joyfully seek to do, are the means by which their loving Father continues to “work” with them — for they are His “workmanship”, and in their partnership with the Creator they do their part to prepare themselves for His new, glorious, everlasting creation.
From darkness to light. From death to life. From emptiness and desolation to fullness and fruitfulness. From chaos and confusion to meaning and purpose.
Those who belong to Christ have come out of a trackless Sahara into a beautiful garden. Now that they rest in its cool shades, should they complain and fret about which flowers they must not pick, or which fruits they must not eat? Looking at the irony of such short-sighted dissatisfaction, the old Bible expositor Robert Candlish writes, “Insensible to the free grant of many trees, we take it amiss that even one should be withheld — and fret under the wholesome restraint of duty.”
“Tohu w’bohu” in Corinth
Similar problems plagued the Corinthian ecclesia. In Corinth there was much fretting under the wholesome restraint of ecclesial rules…
(a) much concern about being able to “exercise [one’s] freedom”, even if it caused others to “stumble” (1 Cor. 8:9)…
(b) much concern about “freedom” to enjoy oneself in certain activities, whether it was “expedient” and “edifying” (“beneficial” and “constructive”: NIV) to all or not (10:23)…
(c) much concern about expressing one’s individuality in various forms of worship, even if it did not bring encouragement and comfort to everyone else (14:31).
To all this, the apostle Paul has various words of advice. But much of what he says boils down to one thing: that whatever is done, or not done, in the ecclesia must be out of “love” (ch. 13) — love which is “patient” and “kind”, love which “does not boast”, love which is “not rude” nor “self-seeking”.
And specifically, and finally, he reminds them that “God is not a God of disorder [cp ‘tohu’: chaos and confusion], but of peace” (14:33), and that “everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way” (v. 40).
God is not a “God” of “tohu w’bohu”, but a God who has a beautiful, holy, enlightened, and infinitely reasonable plan — which He will implement to fill the earth with His own special glory, in the person of those who conform to His pattern.
“Tohu w’bohu” in our personal lives
What is true of the ecclesia, the body of believers, is also true of every individual believer: As we follow Christ, we need to learn how to put aside the “tohu w’bohu” of our own private lives, and develop — by God’s grace — a regular, well-organized lifestyle, in which all we think, and say, and do shows forth His glory!
We do this, quite simply, by developing good habits. We do this regularly, daily and weekly, as a matter of routine:
a. by praying,
b. by reading the Bible, and other spiritually helpful books,
c. by attending memorial meetings at regular times,
d. by supporting Bible classes and other ecclesial activities,
e. by instructing our children,
f. by seeking out how we can be of practical help to others, in the brotherhood and outside.
Of course, we will never do all that we should do — that’s not the point! We will never be saved by our “works”, but only by our faith! Yet our faith must show itself in a desire, at least, to do what we can — no matter how small or faltering — to advance the cause of God’s Kingdom on this earth, and to prepare others along with ourselves for Christ’s coming.
And, most importantly, in the simple process of doing reasonable spiritual things as best we can every day, we keep ourselves — our minds and hearts and spirits — close to the Lord. In developing and following good habits each day, we are like the sheep that follow the Good Shepherd. He is the one who protects us and guides us — we cannot care for ourselves. But we can decide to stay close to him, and not to stray off to pursue our own little selfish interests and pleasures. The order of our daily lives keeps us in his “peace”, beside his “still waters”; there we are fed and watered and tended.
If we stay close by the Good Shepherd, then we will not wander away into the nearby wilderness, where there is only “chaos” and “nothingness” — where confusion and fear await us, and where wolves and lions attack and devour.
As sheep, let us listen to the shepherd’s voice (John 10:3), and follow that voice.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One