Hebrew noun (masculine) · H8414
תֹּהוּ
tohuto'-hoo
formlessness
20 uses in the Hebrew text, one for each word STEP Bible has tagged with this key
Concordance spelling: tôhûw
Word page · Part of the concordance, one page for every word of the Hebrew and Greek text. Strong's H8414is this word's number in James Strong's 1890 index of the King James Bible.
- 7 of 39Old Testament books
- 15spellings
The definition in full
Strong's key (1890) · H8414
a desolation (of surface), i.e. desert; figuratively, a worthless thing; adverbially, in vain
The King James renders it: confusion, empty place, without form, nothing, (thing of) nought, vain, vanity, waste, wilderness.
James Strong, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (1890), public domain. Strong indexed the King James text, and this site quotes his entry as that index.
Summary
tohu is rendered "formlessness". It stands 20 times in the Hebrew text, across seven books.
- Eleven of the uses stand in Isaiah, more than in any other book.
- Its first use in canonical order opens the ledger below.Genesis 1:2Now 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.
- The Greek text spells it fifteen different ways.
The first use
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.
Genesis 1:2תֹ֙הוּ֙
The first use, in the order of the Old Testament's books.
Where the word stands
What the word means
Each meaning, and the words it is translated by
How the Greek text is glossed, word by word
- emptiness4
- formlessness4
- and emptiness2
- in a wasteland2
- a wasteland1
- and in a wasteland of1
- in the wasteland1
- like the nothingness1
- nothingness1
- the emptiness1
- to nothingness1
- with the emptiness1
The words built on the same word-part
Each word below begins with the same letters this one begins with. A shared word-part shows a family. It does not settle what any one of them means, so each word carries its own uses on its own page. Scholars call that shared part the stem.
All 20, in canonical order
Every use, in order
Every use, grouped by book, with its verse.
15 spellings and their grammar
STEP Bible tags every word of the Hebrew and Greek text with its spelling and its grammar. Both lists below count the rows printed underneath, written out in English, with the code beside each one as it was tagged.
How it is spelled
- בְּתֹ֣הוּ2
- וָתֹ֖הוּ2
- תֹ֥הוּ2
- תֹ֖הוּ2
- תֹּ֑הוּ2
- בַתֹּ֣הוּ1
- בַתֹּ֖הוּ1
- הַתֹּ֗הוּ1
- וּבְתֹ֖הוּ1
- כַּתֹּ֥הוּ1
- לְתֹ֥הוּ1
- תֹ֙הוּ֙1
and 3 more spellings in the ledger below.
The grammar of each form
- noun · masculine singular10HNcmsa
- preposition + noun · masculine singular3HR/Ncmsa
- preposition with the article + noun · masculine singular3HRd/Ncmsa
- conjunction (“and”) + noun · masculine singular2HC/Ncmsa
- conjunction (“and”) + preposition + noun · masculine singular · in construct (“…of”)1HC/R/Ncmsc
- the definite article (“the”) + noun · masculine singular1HTd/Ncmsa
Genesis
one use
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.
- תֹ֙הוּ֙tohunoun · masculine singulartagged: formlessness
Deuteronomy
one use
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.
- וּבְתֹ֖הוּuvetohuconjunction (“and”) + preposition + noun · masculine singular · in construct (“…of”)tagged: and in a wasteland of
1 Samuel
two uses
Do not turn aside after worthless things that cannot profit you or deliver you, for they are empty.
- הַתֹּ֗הוּhatohuthe definite article (“the”) + noun · masculine singulartagged: the emptiness
- תֹ֥הוּtohunoun · masculine singulartagged: emptiness
Job
three uses
Caravans turn aside from their routes; they go into the wasteland and perish.
- בַתֹּ֣הוּvatohupreposition with the article + noun · masculine singulartagged: in the wasteland
He deprives the earth’s leaders of reason and makes them wander in a trackless wasteland.
- בְּתֹ֣הוּbetohupreposition + noun · masculine singulartagged: in a wasteland
He stretches out the north over empty space; He hangs the earth upon nothing.
- תֹּ֑הוּtohunoun · masculine singulartagged: emptiness
Psalms
one use
He pours out contempt on the nobles and makes them wander in a trackless wasteland.
- בְּתֹ֣הוּbetohupreposition + noun · masculine singulartagged: in a wasteland
Isaiah
eleven uses
The city of chaos is shattered; every house is closed to entry.
- תֹּ֑הוּtohunoun · masculine singulartagged: formlessness
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.
- בַתֹּ֖הוּvatohupreposition with the article + noun · masculine singulartagged: with the emptiness
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.
- תֹ֖הוּtohunoun · masculine singulartagged: formlessness
All the nations are as nothing before Him; He regards them as nothingness and emptiness.
- וָתֹ֖הוּvatohuconjunction (“and”) + noun · masculine singulartagged: and emptiness
He brings the princes to nothing and makes the rulers of the earth meaningless.
- כַּתֹּ֥הוּkatohupreposition with the article + noun · masculine singulartagged: like the nothingness
See, they are all a delusion; their works amount to nothing; their images are as empty as the wind.
- וָתֹ֖הוּvatohuconjunction (“and”) + noun · masculine singulartagged: and emptiness
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.
- תֹּ֔הוּtohunoun · masculine singulartagged: nothingness
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.
- תֹ֥הוּtohunoun · masculine singulartagged: a wasteland
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.
- תֹּ֣הוּtohunoun · masculine singulartagged: emptiness
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.”
- לְתֹ֥הוּletohupreposition + noun · masculine singulartagged: to nothingness
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.
- תֹּ֙הוּ֙tohunoun · masculine singulartagged: emptiness
Jeremiah
one use
I looked at the earth, and it was formless and void; I looked to the heavens, and they had no light.
- תֹ֖הוּtohunoun · masculine singulartagged: formlessness
Where it leads
How the numbers are counted
Every count on this page comes from STEP Bible's tagged Hebrew and Greek text, the same text the ledger prints. A use is counted once each time the tagging marks a word with this key.
Spellings are counted as the Greek text spells them, with the sentence's own punctuation taken off the word first, so a form that ends a clause is not counted as a second spelling.