The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 85

refrrro\l to in the }>receding verse, the prc- distingnishos between " tho deop" An<l tha smt ter!"<'strinl globe with its atmospheric "waters," making the latter refer to the firmament, end not simply "the In.nil" as liqui\l condition of the globe, and the former opposed to " the skies " (Murphy) ; cer- apply to " the ntmospheric waters," i. e. the tninly not "the henvens" of ver. 1 as well vaporous or aerifonn lllMS mantling t,ho sur. as the earth (Delitzsch) ; and least of all face of our nascent planet, nnd containing 'a section of the dry land in Central Asia" the materials out of which the ntmosphero (Buckland, Pye Smith). It is n sound prin- wns aftcnrnrds elnborated (' Origin ol the dple of exegesis that R word shall retain World,' p. 106). As yet tho whole wns I he meaning it at first possesses till either shroude,l in the thick folds of Cimmerinn intimation is made by the writer of a gloom, giving not the slightest promise of thnt clrnngc in its significance, or such change fair world of light, order, and life into which is imperatively demancled by the necessities it was nbout to be transformed. Only one of the context, neither of which is the case spark of hope might have been detected in the here. Was. Not "hnd become." Without circumstance that the Spirit of God moved form and void. Literally, wasteness nnd (literally, brooding) upon the face of the emptiness, tohu vabohu. The words are waters. That the Ruach Elohi1n, or breath of employed in Isa. xxxiv. 11 and Jer. iv. 23 God, was not " a great wind," or " a wind of to depict the desolation and desertion of a Go\l," is determined by the non-existence of ntined end depopulated land, nnd by many the air at this particular stage in the eaJ"th's lHn·e been pressed into sernce to support the development. In accordance with Biblical idea of a preceding cosmos, of which the usage generally, it must be regarded ·ns a chaotic condition of our planet was the designation not simply " of the Divine \\Teck (Murphy, Wordsworth, Bush, &c.). power, which, like the wind and the breath, Delitzsch argues, on the ground that tohu can.not be perceived" (Gesenius), but of the i•abohu implies the ruin of a previous cos- Holy Spirit, who is uniformly represented as 111os, that ver. 2 does not state specifically the source or fonnative cause of all life and that God created the earth in this desolate order in the wo!"ld, whether physical, in- '<nd waste condition; end that death, wl1ich tellectual, or spi.titual (cf. Job xxvi. 13; is inconceivable out of connection with sin, xxvii. 3 ; Ps. x.xxiii. 6 ; civ. 29; cxliii. was in the world prior to the fall ; that vcr. 10 ; Isa. xxxiv. 16 ; lxi. 1 ; lxiii. 11). As 2 presupposes the fall of the e.ngels, and it were, the mention of the Ruach Elohiin ndduces in support of his view Job xxxviii. is the first out-blossoming of the le.tent 4-7 (' Bib. Psychology,' sect. i. p. 76 ; fuln.ess of the Divine personality, the initial Clark's 'For. Theol. Lib.')-a notion which movement in that sublime revelation of the Kalisch contemptuously classes nruona "the nature of the Godhead, which, e.dvnncing aberrations of profound minds," and "tl1e slowly, ancl. at the best but indistinctly, endless reveries" of " far-sighted thinkers." throughout Old Testament times, culminated Bush is conficl.ent that Isa. xlv. 18, in which in the clear and ample disclosures of the J ehova.h declares that he created not the gospel. The special form of this Divine earth tohu, is conclusfre against a prime- agent's activity is described as that of" brood- val chaos. The parallel clause, however, ing" (merache'pheth, from rachaph, to be shows that not the original state, but the tremulous, as with love; l1ence, LD Piel, to ultinlate design of the globe, was contem- cherish young-Deut. xxxii. 11) or flutter- plated in Jehovah's language: "He created ing o,er the liquid elements of the shape• it not tohu, he formed it to be inhabited ; " less and tene.ntless globe, communicating to i. e. the Crea.tor did not intend the earth to them, doubtless, those formative powers of be a desolate region, but an inhabited planet. life and order which were to burst forth There can scarcely be a doubt, then., that the into operation in answer to the six words of expression. portrays the condition. in which the six ensuing days. As might have been the new-created earth was, not innumerable anticipated, traces of this primeval chaos are ages, but very shortly, after it was summoned to be detected in various heathen cosmo- i.u to existence. It was formless and lifeless ; gonies, as the following brief extracts '1ill a huge, shapeless, objectless, tena.ntless mass show :-1. The Chaldean le~end, deci:ehered of matter, the gaaeous and solid elements from the creation tablet discovered m the commingled, in which neither organised palace of Assurbanipal, King of Assyria, structure, nor animated form, nor even dis- n. c. 885, depicts the desolate and void con• tinctly-traced outline of any kind appeared. dition of the earth thus :- And d&rkne11 (was) upon. the fa.c:e of the deep. 'l'he " deep," from a. root signifying " "'hen above were not raisccl the hcnvcns, ' to cfuturb, is frequently applied t,0 the sea And below on the earth a plant had not (f's xlii 8), and here probably intimates that grown up; ths primordial matter of our globe existed The abyss also had not broken up their Ula iiuid, or li<1ui·J, or molttn form. Dawson Loundaiie,; Cll. !. 1, '2.J 'l'llB BOOK OF O F.NE~IS /;,