What does תֹּהוּ (tōhû) mean in the Bible?
Formlessness, waste and futility take their meaning from the thing described and the passage's purpose. Genesis describes the earth before the narrated ordering of creation.
Hebrew · H8414
תֹּהוּ
Formlessness, waste and futility take their meaning from the thing described and the passage's purpose. Genesis describes the earth before the narrated ordering of creation.
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תֹּהוּH8414
Pronunciationtōhû
What does תֹּהוּ (tōhû) mean in the Bible?
Reader summary
Full entry for תֹּהוּ (H8414) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render H8414?
The BSB source-word alignment has 20 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include of chaos (2), wasteland (2), and emptiness (1), and it was formless (1), and who with false charges (1).
Where does תֹּהוּ (tōhû) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 1:2. Its strongest book concentrations include Isaiah (11), Job (3), 1 Samuel (2), Deuteronomy (1).
What This Word Actually Means
Formlessness, waste and futility take their meaning from the thing described and the passage's purpose. Genesis describes the earth before the narrated ordering of creation. Jeremiah reuses the scene of an unformed and empty earth within his vision of devastation. Isaiah speaks of a land made for habitation, rejected false claims and labor that seems spent in vain.
Samuel warns against useless things that cannot help or rescue. These uses do not make creation evil, people worthless or every difficult task meaningless. Read the speaker and what the word describes before drawing an application. Isaiah's servant entrusts his cause and reward to the Lord even as he describes apparent failure. A congregation can name devastation or discouragement honestly without treating the vocabulary as a verdict against human dignity or a scientific account of creation's timing.
How the Bible Uses It
The creation scene, a vision of devastation, useless objects of trust, false judicial claims and apparent wasted labor give this vocabulary distinct work. Its negative uses do not erase the created world's intended habitation.
- Gen.1.2
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.
The earth is described before the narrated ordering, with darkness, the deep and the Spirit of God present.
- 1Sam.12.21
Do not turn aside after worthless things that cannot profit you or deliver you, for they are empty.
Samuel warns against turning aside after useless things that cannot help or deliver the people.
- Isa.29.21
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.
False accusations and empty claims belong to the indictment of people obstructing justice at the gate.
- Isa.45.18
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.
The Lord who made the earth for habitation distinguishes that purpose from creating it as a wasteland.
- Isa.49.4
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.”
The servant describes apparently vain labor while entrusting his cause and reward to the Lord.
- Jer.4.23
I looked at the earth, and it was formless and void; I looked to the heavens, and they had no light.
Jeremiah sees an unformed and empty earth within a devastation vision whose subsequent verses name judgment.
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders Itof chaos2×Isaiah 24:10, Isaiah 34:11
wasteland2×Job 12:24, Psalms 107:40
and emptiness1×Isaiah 40:17
and it was formless1×Jeremiah 4:23
and who with false charges1×Isaiah 29:21
are as empty1×Isaiah 41:29
are nothing1×Isaiah 44:9
empty1×1 Samuel 12:21
empty [pleas]1×Isaiah 59:4
empty space1×Job 26:7
formless1×Genesis 1:2
in a barren1×Deuteronomy 32:10
in a wasteland1×Isaiah 45:19
in futility1×Isaiah 49:4
into the wasteland1×Job 6:18
it to be empty1×Isaiah 45:18
meaningless1×Isaiah 40:23
worthless1×1 Samuel 12:21
Show sample aligned rows
Genesis 1:2תֹ֙הוּ֙toformlessNoun - masculine singularDeuteronomy 32:10וּבְתֹ֖הוּtoin a barrenConjunctive waw, Preposition-b | Noun - masculine singular1 Samuel 12:21הַתֹּ֗הוּtoworthlessArticle | Noun - masculine singular1 Samuel 12:21תֹ֥הוּtoemptyNoun - masculine singularJob 6:18בַתֹּ֣הוּtointo the wastelandPreposition-b, Article | Noun - masculine singularJob 12:24בְּתֹ֣הוּtowastelandPreposition-b | Noun - masculine singularJob 26:7תֹּ֑הוּtoempty spaceNoun - masculine singularPsalms 107:40בְּתֹ֣הוּtowastelandPreposition-b | Noun - masculine singularIsaiah 24:10תֹּ֑הוּtoof chaosNoun - masculine singularIsaiah 29:21בַתֹּ֖הוּtoand who with false chargesPreposition-b, Article | Noun - masculine singular
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned rowGenesis 1:2
Aligned rows20
Books represented7
Genesis1Deuteronomy11 Samuel2Job3Psalms1Isaiah11Jeremiah1
Source forms
בְּתֹ֣הוּ2xbə·ṯō·hūJob 12:24, Psalms 107:40
וָתֹ֖הוּ2xwā·ṯō·hūIsaiah 40:17, Isaiah 41:29
תֹ֥הוּ2xṯō·hū1 Samuel 12:21, Isaiah 45:18
תֹ֖הוּ2xṯō·hūIsaiah 34:11, Jeremiah 4:23
תֹּ֑הוּ2xtō·hūJob 26:7, Isaiah 24:10
בַתֹּ֣הוּ1xḇat·tō·hūJob 6:18
בַתֹּ֖הוּ1xḇat·tō·hūIsaiah 29:21
הַתֹּ֗הוּ1xhat·tō·hū1 Samuel 12:21
Parsing patterns
Noun - masculine singular10xGenesis 1:2, 1 Samuel 12:21, Job 26:7, Isaiah 24:10
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine singular2xIsaiah 40:17, Isaiah 41:29
Preposition-b | Noun - masculine singular2xJob 12:24, Psalms 107:40
Preposition-b, Article | Noun - masculine singular2xJob 6:18, Isaiah 29:21
Article | Noun - masculine singular1x1 Samuel 12:21
Conjunctive waw, Preposition-b | Noun - masculine singular1xDeuteronomy 32:10
Preposition-k, Article | Noun - masculine singular1xIsaiah 40:23
Preposition-l | Noun - masculine singular1xIsaiah 49:4
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Hear discouragement without requiring a sufferer to describe every setback as personal failure.
- Address false claims and harmful trust through the actual conduct rather than contempt for people.
Avoid claiming...
- This noun cannot establish that the created world is evil or that human beings are worthless.
- The creation description alone cannot determine scientific timing or promise immediate visible ministry results.
Evidence Summary
Hebrew word. Primordial chaos and emptiness; moves from cosmic formlessness to moral/spiritual worthlessness and futility.
Source Gloss
a desolation (of surface), i.e. desert ; figuratively, a worthless thing ; adverbially, in vain
Extended definitionSource: Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon + Brown-Driver-Briggs
Primordial chaos and emptiness; moves from cosmic formlessness to moral/spiritual worthlessness and futility.
a desolation (of surface), i.e. desert; figuratively, a worthless thing; adverbially, in vain BDB: formlessness Usage: confusion, empty place, without form, nothing, (thing of) nought, vain, vanity, waste, wilderness.
Grammatical Forms
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected Scripture Witnesses
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Old Testament Witnesses
Formlessness or desolation.
Emptiness or chaos.
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 20 lexical occurrence verses.
Why This Word Matters
The city of chaos reflects societal breakdown under judgment.Isaiah 24:7-13
Indicates deliberate reversal of ordered habitation.Isaiah 34:9-17
Part of These Phrases
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
For the Preacher and Teacher
The same vocabulary does different work when its subject changes. Genesis describes the earth before the narrated ordering rather than delivering a judgment on human worth. Jeremiah's vision recalls that scene as mountains shake and towns lie devastated, yet the unit also says that the Lord will not make a full end. Samuel's warning concerns things that cannot help or deliver, while Isaiah's gate scene exposes false claims used against the innocent.
Isaiah 45 names the earth's purpose as habitation. In Isaiah 49 the servant speaks of apparently vain labor and then entrusts his cause to the Lord. Teach that turn rather than stopping at failure. A congregation may grieve the devastation it sees and acknowledge effort whose result remains hidden. It must not use a noun for waste to demean people, replace responsible attention to their circumstances or force a creation chronology from a single descriptive word.
Anchor passage
Isa.49.4
Doctrinal connections
- Genesis places the described earth within the narrated work of God's ordering creation.
- Samuel's warning contrasts useless objects of trust with the Lord's stated deliverance.
- Isaiah exposes empty judicial claims that deny justice to the innocent.
- Isaiah names habitation as the purpose of the earth the Lord created.
- The servant entrusts apparent wasted labor and his cause to the Lord.
- Jeremiah's devastation vision includes judgment and the stated limit against a full end.
The licensed range includes unformedness, waste and futility; the selected noun's object and setting determine its use. Twenty local BSB tokens in nineteen verses remain distinct from canonical twenty, and artifact transliteration is preserved without constructing a new sense authority.
From Old to New Testament
Second Corinthians 4 speaks of God commanding light to shine out of darkness while describing the light of knowledge of God's glory in Christ and ministry amid weakness. This is a canonical creation-theme comparison, not an occurrence of this Hebrew noun or a claim that Genesis defines a minister's discouragement.