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Word

תֹּהוּ

tôhûw · H8414 · Hebrew · 20 occurrences

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Meanings

  1. waste, desolation, chaos

    Location that is devoid of any life and without any structure or order

    Examples

    Genesis 1:2 And the earth was a formless and desolate emptiness, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

    Deuteronomy 32:10 “He found him in a desert land, And in the howling wasteland of a wilderness; He encircled him, He cared for him, He guarded him as the apple of His eye.

    Job 6:18 “The paths of their course wind along, They go up into wasteland and perish.

  2. nothing, useless, worthless, in vain, emptiness

    Something that has no value and hence does not profit anyone

    Examples

    1 Samuel 12:21 “Indeed, you must not turn aside, for then you would go after useless things which cannot benefit or save, because they are useless.

    Isaiah 29:21 Who cause a person to be indicted by a word, And set a trap for the arbitrator at the gate, And defraud the one in the right with meaningless arguments.

    Isaiah 40:17 All the nations are as nothing before Him, They are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless.

How it’s used In 5 roles

Every occurrence, grouped by the words it is grammatically related to.

the word studied the word it goes with

Words describing itAdjectives, demonstratives, participles

1 occurrences in 2 groups

What is done to itIt is the object

1 occurrences in 1 groups

What is said to be itIt is the predicate

3 occurrences in 3 groups

After prepositionsPrepositional phrases

11 occurrences in 6 groups

In phrases “… of it”It is the genitive

2 occurrences in 2 groups

When two words share a role, as in “Paul and Barnabas said”, the verse appears under each, so a section’s counts can add up to more than the number of occurrences.

MACULA Greek Linguistic Datasets, available at https://github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-greek/, licensed CC BY 4.0; MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets © 2022-2024 by Biblica, Inc., CC BY 4.0. Westminster Leningrad Codex (tanach.us). OpenScriptures Hebrew Bible morphology (hb.openscriptures.org), CC BY 4.0.

In the other Testament 1 word
οὐδείς oudeís · G3762 · no one, none, nothing
Greek οὐδείς renders Hebrew תֹּהוּ in contexts emphasizing absolute negation or nothingness, while תֹּהוּ more broadly denotes formlessness, emptiness, or chaotic waste (including primordial chaos in Genesis 1:2), with οὐδείς capturing the 'nothing/nought' sense rather than the spatial 'wasteland/wilderness' or cosmological 'without form' senses.
Semantic domains 2 entries
Non-Exist002002002006
This noun denotes a formless emptiness, as in Genesis 1:2's description of the earth as a formless and desolate emptiness before creation was ordered.
Worthless002001002030
The noun also denotes something useless or worthless, as in 1 Samuel 12:21's warning against turning aside after useless things that cannot benefit or save.
Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon H8414. tohu תֹּ֫הוּ noun masculine1Sa 12:21 (AlbrZAW xvi (1896), 112) formlessness,…
H8414. tohu
תֹּ֫הוּ noun masculine1Sa 12:21 (AlbrZAW xvi (1896), 112) formlessness, confusion, unreality, emptiness (primary meaning difficult to seize; Vrss usually Κενόν, οὐδέν, μάταιον, inane, vacuum, vanum; compare LagOr. ii. 60; BN 144); —
1 formlessness, of primaeval earth Gen 1:2 (P), of land reduced to primaeval chaos Jer 4:23 (both + וָבֹהוּ and voidness), Isa 34:11 ׳קַותֿֿ (|| בֹהוּ אַבְנֵי), Isa 45:18 ת ׳לֹא בְרָאָהּ (|| יְצָרָתּ לָשֶׁבֶת); Isa 24:10 ׳קִרְיַתאתּ city of chaos (of ruined city); = nothingness, empty space, Job 26:7 ׳עַלתּֿ אֶרֶץ תֹּלֶה; of empty, trackless waste Deu 32:10 (|| מִדְבָּר), Job 6:18; Job 12:24 = Psa 107:40.
2 figurative of what is empty, unreal, as idols 1Sa 12:21 (collective: יוֺעִילוּ לֹא הַתּ ׳אַחֲרֵי אֲשֶׁר), 1Sa 12:21; Isa 41:29 וָת ׳רוּחַ נִסְכֵּיהֶם, Isa 44:9 (of idol-makers), groundless arguments or considerations, Isa 29:21 בַתּ ׳וַיַּטּוּ צַדִּיק, Isa 59:4 moral unreality or falsehood עַלאתּ ׳בָּטוֺחַ (|| וְדַבֶּרשָֿׁוְא); = a thing of nought (compare Ecclus 41:10 תהו אל מתהו), Isa 40:17 (|| אֶפֶס אַיִן), Isa 40:23 כַּתּ אֶרֶץ ׳שֹׁפְטֵי עָשָׂה (|| לְאַיִן), worthlessness Isa 49:19 ׳לְת כִלֵּיתִי כֹּחִי וְהֶבֶל (|| יָגַעְתִּי לְרִיק); as adverb accusative Isa 45:19 I said not, בַקְּשׁוּנִי תֹּהוּ seek me emptily, to no purpose. compare Isa 29:13 וְתֹהוּ ᵐ5 for וַתְּהִי.

Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), public domain

Topical studies with this word 2 entries
Worthless9 occurrencesNon-Contain11 occurrences

Meanings adapted from the UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament, © United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0 and the UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (from the Semantic Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew), © United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0; MACULA Greek Linguistic Datasets, available at https://github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-greek/, licensed CC BY 4.0; MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets © 2022-2024 by Biblica, Inc., CC BY 4.0. Westminster Leningrad Codex (tanach.us). OpenScriptures Hebrew Bible morphology (hb.openscriptures.org), CC BY 4.0.

Sources

eRhema lexical overview, based on the UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew and the UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (© United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Macula Hebrew and Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0); released under CC BY-SA 4.0

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