261 
Ubicumcjue scribitur nw (nem- 
pe cum nifnn profanantur priora, 
(seu prsecedentia). Et bse sunt 
generationes inn quae significantur 
vers. 2. Terra erat inn inn. Ilia sunt 
de quibus dictum est quod Deus 
benedictus creavit mundos et de- 
struxit eos, et propterea terra erat 
tohu va-bohu, desolata et vacua. 
Wherever there is written 
(ail-le) [these] — e.g. with nYiVin 
tholedoth ] the former words are put 
aside. 
And these are the generations 
of thohu which are signified in ver. 2. 
The earth was thohu and bohu. 
These are the words of which it is 
said that the blessed God created 
the worlds and destroyed them, and 
on that account the earth was thohu 
and bohu, desolated and empty. 
The learned critic follows up this extract with an interesting 
statement of the cabalistic, or rather mystical, interpretations 
by the Rabbins. These do not belong to our present purpose, 
which is simply to show that Jews — at or near the time of our 
Lord — held that the tliohu and bohu condition of the earth was 
not its primary, but its ruined state. "Were it needful, I could 
produce many similar Rabbinical interpretations of thohu 
and bohu , proving that the words mean ruined. 
Let us now examine more in detail the important passage 
in Isa. xlv. 18. Even without departing from the received 
versions, one result is undeniable — that thohu means ruin. 
“ For thus saith Jehovah that created the heavens : God 
Himself that formed the earth and made it : He hath esta- 
blished it ; He created it not in vain. He formed it to be 
inhabited. I am Jehovah, and there is none else. - ” 
We have here a distinctive use of created, made, formed, 
established, which is full of instruction. 
He created the heavens, for there is nothing said anywhere 
of a process in their construction. 
He formed the earth, because a progressive formation is 
detailed. 
He made it — i.e. He put it together, as a workman does 
with materials ready to his hand. 
He established it — i.e. He gave it such an existence as 
cannot be annihilated. 
He did not create it in vain (or for thohu). 
This rendering supposes an ellipsis of a preposition, and in 
that sense the words would mean : He did not create it that it 
might go to ruin; which shows that thohu means ruin; and 
also that it does not describe the state of the earth at its 
creation. These observations result in the same conclusion 
as the more literal rendering* of the passage : “ He did not 
create the earth tliohu. 33 This latter is the rendering of Bishop 
Walton : — ■ 
“ Hon inanitatem creavit earn ; 33 and also of Vitringa : — 
“Non creavit earn rem inanem.” 
