“And the earth was without form”
KING JAMES VERSION (KJV)
TRANSLATION, MEANING, CONTEXT
This is the second verse of the Bible where there is emptiness and nothing but darkness. Then the Spirit of God began to change everything. This verse is part of the creation story. Would you like to know what Genesis 1:2 means in detail? Scroll down or follow these links for the original scriptural meaning, biblical context and relative popularity.
“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.”
What does this verse really mean? Use this table to get a word-for-word translation of the original Hebrew Scripture. This shows the English words related to the source biblical texts along with brief definitions. Follow the buttons in the right-hand column for detailed definitions and verses that use the same root words. Use this reference information to gain deeper insight into the Bible and enrich your understanding. Information based on Strong's Exhaustive Concordance[1].
| KJV Verse | Original Hebrew | Meaning/ Definition This is a simplified translation of the original Hebrew word. Follow the buttons on the right to get more detail. | More Use the buttons below to get details on the Hebrew word and view related Bible verses that use the same root word. |
|---|---|---|---|
| “And the earth” | וְהָאָ֗רֶץ | The earth (at large, or partitively a land) | earth |
| “was” | הָיְתָ֥ה | To exist, i.e., be or become, come to pass (always emphatic, and not a mere copula or auxiliary) | was |
| “without form,” | תֹ֙הוּ֙ | A desolation (of surface), i.e., desert; figuratively, a worthless thing; adverbially, in vain | without form |
| “and void;” | וָבֹ֔הוּ | A vacuity, i.e., (superficially) an undistinguishable ruin | void |
| “and darkness” | וְחֹ֖שֶׁךְ | The dark; hence (literally) darkness; figuratively, misery, destruction, death, ignorance, sorrow, wickedness | darkness |
| “was” | (No Hebrew definition. English implied.) | ||
| “upon” | עַל | Above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applications | upon |
| “the face” | פְּנֵ֣י | The face (as the part that turns); used in a great variety of applications (literally and figuratively); also (with prepositional prefix) as a preposition (before, etc.) | face |
| “of the deep.” | תְה֑וֹם | An abyss (as a surging mass of water), especially the deep (the main sea or the subterranean watersupply) | deep |
| “And the Spirit” | וְר֣וּחַ | Wind; by resemblance breath, i.e., a sensible (or even violent) exhalation; figuratively, life, anger, unsubstantiality; by extension, a region of the sky; by resemblance spirit, but only of a rational being (including its expression and functions) | Spirit |
| “of God” | אֱלֹהִ֔ים | Gods in the ordinary sense; but specifically used (in the plural thus, especially with the article) of the supreme God; occasionally applied by way of deference to magistrates; and sometimes as a superlative | God |
| “moved” | מְרַחֶ֖פֶת | To brood; by implication, to be relaxed | moved |
| “upon” | עַל | Above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applications | upon |
| “the face” | פְּנֵ֥י | The face (as the part that turns); used in a great variety of applications (literally and figuratively); also (with prepositional prefix) as a preposition (before, etc.) | face |
| “of the waters.” | הַמָּֽיִם׃ | Water; figuratively, juice; by euphemism, urine, semen | waters |
See Genesis 1:2 with its adjacent verses in bold below. Follow either of the two large buttons below to see these verses in their broader context of the King James Bible or a Bible concordance.
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1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2 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.
3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
The King James Bible (1611) and Strong's Concordance (1890) with Hebrew and Greek dictionaries are sourced from the BibleForgeDB database (https://github.com/bibleforge) within the BibleForge project (http://bibleforge.com). Popularity rankings are based on search volume data from the Google AdWords Keyword Planner tool.