And the earth was waste and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep: and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
The earth was an unformed lump without creature or distinction, covered wholly by waters and darkness. Yet the Spirit of God maintained this disordered mass by His secret power, holding it until the work of ordering should commence.
AI summary
The world is a great house, stately and magnificent in every room, the upper and lower stories well furnished. We confess God the Father Almighty as the Maker of heaven and earth; yet the visible heavens hold invisible glory, celestial beings more precious than gold or sapphires, of which Moses here says nothing, fixing on the visible alone.
AI summary
Commenting on Genesis 1:1-2
The Spirit brooded over the dark watery waste like a fowl hatching eggs, His power working on dead and discordant elements, combining and arranging them into a state fit for creation. The new creation properly begins here; what follows shows the successive changes an observer would have witnessed.
AI summary