SEV Biblia, Chapter 1:2
Y la tierra estaba desordenada y vacía, y las tinieblas estaban sobre la faz del abismo, y el espíritu de Dios se movía sobre la faz de las aguas.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Genesis 1:2
Verse 2. The earth was without form and void] The original term wht tohu and whb bohu, which we translate without form and void, are of uncertain etymology; but in this place, and wherever else they are used, they convey the idea of confusion and disorder. From these terms it is probable that the ancient Syrians and Egyptians borrowed their gods, Theuth and Bau, and the Greeks their Chaos. God seems at first to have created the elementary principles of all things; and this formed the grand mass of matter, which in this state must be without arrangement, or any distinction of parts: a vast collection of indescribably confused materials, of nameless entities strangely mixed; and wonderfully well expressed by an ancient heathen poet:- Ante mare et terras, et, quod tegit omnia, caelum, Unus erat toto naturae vultus in orbe, Quem dixere Chaos; rudis indigestaque moles, Nec quicquam nisi pondus iners; congestaque eodem Non bene junctarum discordia semina rerum.OVID.
Before the seas and this terrestrial ball, And heaven's high canopy that covers all, One was the face of nature, if a face; Rather, a rude and indigested mass; A lifeless lump, unfashion'd and unframed, Of jarring seeds, and justly Chaos named.DRYDEN.
The most ancient of the Greeks have spoken nearly in the same way of this crude, indigested state of the primitive chaotic mass.
When this congeries of elementary principles was brought together, God was pleased to spend six days in assimilating, assorting, and arranging the materials, out of which he built up, not only the earth, but the whole of the solar system.
The spirit of God] This has been variously and strangely understood. Some think a violent wind is meant, because jwr , ruach often signifies wind, as well as spirit, as pneuma, does in Greek; and the term God is connected with it merely, as they think, to express the superlative degree. Others understand by it an elementary fire. Others, the sun, penetrating and drying up the earth with his rays. Others, the angels, who were supposed to have been employed as agents in creation. Others, a certain occult principle, termed the anima mundi or soul of the world. Others, a magnetic attraction, by which all things were caused to gravitate to a common centre. But it is sufficiently evident from the use of the word in other places, that the Holy Spirit of God is intended; which our blessed Lord represents under the notion of wind, John iii. 8; and which, as a mighty rushing wind on the day of pentecost, filled the house where the disciples were sitting, Acts ii. 2, which was immediately followed by their speaking with other tongues, because they were filled with the Holy Ghost, ver. 4. These scriptures sufficiently ascertain the sense in which the word is used by Moses.
Moved] tpjrm merachepheth, was brooding over; for the word expresses that tremulous motion made by the hen while either hatching her eggs or fostering her young. It here probably signifies the communicating a vital or prolific principle to the waters. As the idea of incubation, or hatching an egg, is implied in the original word, hence probably the notion, which prevailed among the ancients, that the world was generated from an egg.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1, 2 - The first verse of the Bible gives us a satisfying and useful accoun of the origin of the earth and the heavens. The faith of humbl Christians understands this better than the fancy of the most learne men. From what we see of heaven and earth, we learn the power of the great Creator. And let our make and place as men, remind us of our duty as Christians, always to keep heaven in our eye, and the earth unde our feet. The Son of God, one with the Father, was with him when he made the world; nay, we are often told that the world was made by him and nothing was made without him. Oh, what high thoughts should ther be in our minds, of that great God whom we worship, and of that grea Mediator in whose name we pray! And here, at the beginning of the sacred volume, we read of that Divine Spirit, whose work upon the hear of man is so often mentioned in other parts of the Bible. Observe, tha at first there was nothing desirable to be seen, for the world wa without form, and void; it was confusion, and emptiness. In like manne the work of grace in the soul is a new creation: and in a graceles soul, one that is not born again, there is disorder, confusion, an every evil work: it is empty of all good, for it is without God; it is dark, it is darkness itself: this is our condition by nature, til Almighty grace works a change in us.
Original Hebrew
והארץ 776 היתה 1961 תהו 8414 ובהו 922 וחשׁך 2822 על 5921 פני 6440 תהום 8415 ורוח 7307 אלהים 430 מרחפת 7363 על 5921 פני 6440 המים׃ 4325
