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--- hebrew:8414 [2025/10/28 06:02] – created graham
+++ hebrew:8414 [2025/10/28 06:15] (current) – [Biblical Examples] graham
@@ Line 11: / Line 11: @@
 Masculine. Noun.
+Describes something that is unformed or purposeless. It often pairs with בֹּהוּ - void -forming the phrase תֹ֨הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ, a poetic expression for utter chaos or emptiness.
+===== Biblical Examples =====
+<autott>genesis_1:2|Genesis 1:2</autott> - Creation initially"without form and void"
+  * "Now the earth was formless and void"
+  * Here, תֹּהוּ describes the earth before God's creative ordering. It wasn't evil, just unstructured and lifeless, awaiting divine organization and purpose.
+<autott>deuteronomy_32:10|Deuteronomy 32:10</autott> — The wilderness
+  * "He found him in a desert land, and in the waste"
+  * Here תֹּהוּ evokes desolation and barrenness, a place where life and order are absent.
+<autott>isaiah_45:18|Isaiah 45:18</autott> — God did not create the earth in vain
+  * "He did not create it to be empty"
+  * This contrasts תֹּהוּ with God's intention for structure and habitation, highlighting His purposeful creation.
+<autott>jeremiah_4:23|Jeremiah 4:23</autott>
+  * These passages use תֹּהוּ to describe moral or cosmic chaos, often as judgment imagery where the world returns to a pre-creation-like void.
+===== Theological Significance =====
+Creation Theology: Genesis 1:2 emphasizes that God brings order out of chaos, transforming chaos into a structured, life-filled cosmos.
+Prophetic Imagery: Prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah use the term to describe spiritual or societal collapse, suggesting a return to chaos when God's order is rejected.
+Purpose versus Futility: The word becomes a symbol for life without God's purpose—empty, futile, and directionless.
+===== Common grammatical forms =====
+| Grammatical Category | English Meaning | Hebrew Form |
+| Singular (absolute) | formlessness, emptiness, chaos  | תֹּהוּ |
+| Singular (construct) | formlessness of…, emptiness of… | תֹּהוּ — unchanged (rare, used as a fixed form) |
+| Plural (absolute) | desolations, wastes (rare poetic form) | תֹּהִים or תֹּהוּיִם |
+| Plural (construct) | desolations of… (poetic or hypothetical) | תֹּהֵי |
+| With definite article (singular) | the formlessness, the emptiness | הַתֹּהוּ |
+| With preposition בְּ ("in") | in formlessness / in emptiness | בַּתֹּהוּ or בְּתֹּהוּ |
+| With preposition לְ ("to/for") | to emptiness / for nothingness | לַתֹּהוּ or לְתֹּהוּ |
+| With preposition מִן ("from") | from emptiness / out of formlessness | מִתֹּהוּ |