Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
Moses calls the earth shapeless and empty to show it lacked all the order, ornament, and perfection God would add. Strip away everything God created after this chaos, and you have only a rude, formless mass. Darkness covered the abyss because light had not yet given the world any visible form.
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 earth was not yet arranged into the terraqueous globe we know, with sea apart and land distinct; it was fluid matter, earth and water blended together, waste and empty of all creatures. This chaotic state matches what ancient pagan poets and nations conceived of chaos before order arose.
AI summary