More exactly, “waste and void,” tohu wabohu. This signifies a state of wasteness and emptiness, but without implying that the earth was once perfect and then was made waste or desolate.

 When the words tohu wabohu appear together in other passages, such as Isa. 34:11; Jer. 4:23, they seem to be borrowed from this text, but tohu alone is frequently employed as synonymous with nonexistence, or nothingness (Isa. 40:17, 23; 49:4). Job 26:7 demonstrates the correct meaning of this word. The second half of this passage states that God “hangeth the earth upon nothing,” and the first half has the parallel “he stretcheth out the north over tuho [the emptiness].” This text in Job shows clearly the meaning of tuho in Gen. 1:2, in which this and the synonymous word bohu indicate that the earth was shapeless and lifeless. Its elements were all mingled together, completely unorganized and inanimate.

 The “deep,” from a root “to roar,” “to rage,” is frequently applied to the raging waters, the roaring waves, or the flood, and hence the depths of the sea (Ps. 42:7; Ex. 15:5; Deut. 8:7; Job 28:14; 38:16). “Deep” is an old word, and is here used like a proper name. The Babylonians, who retained some vague memory of the true creation story for many centuries, actually personified this word, tehom, and applied it in their mythology to a deity, Tiamat, out of whose corpse they believed the earth was created. The Biblical record shows that originally there was no light on earth and that the surface matter was in a fluid state, because “the face of the deep” stands parallel to “the face of the waters” in this verse.

 “Spirit,” ruach. In harmony with Scriptural usage, the Spirit of God is the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead. From this place onward, throughout the whole Scripture, the Spirit of God has the role of the divine agent of God in all creative acts, whether of the earth, of nature, of the church, of the new life, or of the new man. See on v. 26 for a comment on Christ’s relationship to creation.

 The word here rendered “moved” is merachepheth, which cannot rightly be translated “brooded,” although it has this meaning in Syriac, a post-Biblical Aramaic dialect. The word occurs but twice elsewhere in the OT. It appears in Jer. 23:9, where it has the meaning “to tremble,” “to shake,” whereas in Deut. 32:11 it is used to describe the fluttering of an eagle over its young. The eagle does not brood over the living young but hovers watchfully and protectingly over them.

The work of God’s Spirit must have some connection with the activity that was presently to be initiated, an activity bringing order out of chaos. The Spirit of God was already present, ready to act as soon as the order should be given. The Holy Spirit has always been doing this very work. This divine Agent has ever been present to assist in the work of creation and redemption, to reprove and strengthen wayward souls, to comfort the sorrowing, and to present the believer’s prayers in an acceptable form to God.