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# בֹּהוּ

Biblical Hebrew · Strong's H922

**emptiness** — used 3 times in the Hebrew Bible. Below: its meanings with their sources, MACULA's glosses, and 2 verses word for word and in JPS 1917.

## Meaning

### OpenScriptures lexical index

emptiness [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/tanakh/1489/922/#m1)

### Brown–Driver–Briggs 1906

בֹּ֫הוּ: emptiness [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/tanakh/1489/922/#m2)

**The whole BDB entry:** n.\[m.\] emptiness (on form v. Ges§ 84 a, 1 b Sta§ 95, 198 a, on usage cf. LagOr. ii. 60 f.) always c. תֹּהוּ q.v.;—תֹּהוּ וָבֹהוּ Gn 1:2 of primæval earth; Je 4:23 of earth under judgment of י׳; קַו־תֹֿהוּ וְאַבְנֵי בֹהוּ Is 34:11, the line of wasteness and the stones of emptiness, i.e. plummets, employed, not as usual for building, but for destroying walls; cf. Di & v. sub אבן 6.

Why these entries: BDB: headword, part of speech agrees, 3 of its verses cited, 1 words shared with the glosses, lists its Strong's number (1 candidates); OSHB: headword, part of speech agrees, 1 words shared with the BDB entry, 1 with the glosses (1 candidates)

## Glosses

MACULA's English glosses of the word in the text, with how often each is used: emptiness (2); of emptiness (1).

## In the verses

[Jeremiah 4:23](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/JER.4.23/) · [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/JER.4.23/#tree)

רָאִ֙יתִי֙ אֶת־הָאָ֔רֶץ וְהִנֵּה־תֹ֖הוּ וָבֹ֑הוּ וְאֶל־הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ין אוֹרָֽם׃

*Word for word:* I.looked.at (et) the earth and there! \[it.was\].formlessness and emptiness and to the heavens and.\[was\] not light their

*JPS 1917:* I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was waste and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.

[Genesis 1:2](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.1.2/) · [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/GEN.1.2/#tree)

וְהָאָ֗רֶץ הָיְתָ֥ה תֹ֙הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ וְחֹ֖שֶׁךְ עַל־פְּנֵ֣י תְה֑וֹם וְר֣וּחַ אֱלֹהִ֔ים מְרַחֶ֖פֶת עַל־פְּנֵ֥י הַמָּֽיִם׃

*Word for word:* and the earth it.was formlessness and emptiness and darkness \[was\].over the.surface of.the.deep and the.spirit of.God \[was\].hovering over the.surface of the.waters

*JPS 1917:* Now the earth was unformed and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters.

## On Mova

- [This word in the Tanakh dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/tanakh/w/922.html) on Mova free.
- [Trees and pragmatics of its meanings](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/tanakh/1489/922/): every English meaning parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.

Sources. The words, their counts, glosses and the word-for-word renderings: MACULA Hebrew (the Westminster Leningrad Codex; Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0). Meanings: the OpenScriptures lexical index (CC BY 4.0), Brown–Driver–Briggs 1906 and Jastrow 1903 (public domain, via Sefaria); Targum Onkelos from Sefaria (public domain). Translation: JPS 1917 (public domain, from eBible.org).