תֹּהוּ tohu

Hebrew word for “formlessness” · Strong’s H8414 · used 20 times in 19 verses

Explore it in the Word Atlas

Meaning

1) formlessness, confusion, unreality, emptiness;

How it is translated

Glosses given for tohu in context, with how often each is used:

• emptiness 8
• wasteland 5
• formlessness 4
• nothingness 2
• like nothingness 1

Where it is used

Chapters where it is used most

Isaiah 40 (2), Isaiah 45 (2), Genesis 1 (1), Deuteronomy 32 (1), 1 Samuel 12 (1), Job 6 (1), Job 12 (1), Job 26 (1), Psalms 107 (1), Isaiah 24 (1)

Forms

• תהו 10
• בתהו 4
• ותהו 2
• ובתהו 1
• התהו 1
• כתהו 1
• לתהו 1

Words used with it

Words that share verses with tohu more often than their overall frequency would suggest:

• בֹּהוּ bohu “void” 3
• אַיִן ayin “nothing” 5
• נָטָה natah “to stretch” 3
• יָעַל yaal “to gain” 2
• אֶפֶס ephes “end” 2
• תָּעָה taah “to go astray” 2
• יָצַר yatsar “to form” 2
• חֹשֶׁךְ choshekh “darkness” 2
• אָוֶן aven “evil” 2
• דֶּרֶךְ derekh “way” 3
• צֶדֶק tsedeq “righteousness” 2
• אֲנִי ani “I” 3

Key verses

The verses using tohu that are most connected by cross-references (King James Version):

• Deuteronomy 32:10 — He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.
• 1 Samuel 12:21 — And turn ye not aside: for then should ye go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver; for they are vain.
• Psalms 107:40 — He poureth contempt upon princes, and causeth them to wander in the wilderness, where there is no way.
• Isaiah 24:10 — The city of confusion is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may come in.
• Isaiah 29:21 — That make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nought.
• Isaiah 34:11 — But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and…
• Isaiah 44:9 — They that make a graven image are all of them vanity; and their delectable things shall not profit; and they are their own witnesses; they see not, nor know;…
• Isaiah 45:18 — For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed…
• Isaiah 45:19 — I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain: I the LORD speak righteousness, I declare…
• Isaiah 49:4 — Then I said, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain: yet surely my judgment is with the LORD, and my work with my God.
• Isaiah 59:4 — None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
• Jeremiah 4:23 — I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.

See all 19 verses in the Word Atlas

Hebrew and Greek text, tagging, glosses and lexicon definitions: STEPBible.org, Tyndale House Cambridge (TAHOT, TAGNT, TBESH, TBESG; CC BY 4.0), adapted. Counts follow King James verse numbering; a word counts each time it is written.