Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
the earth was without form and void—or in "confusion and emptiness," as the words are rendered in Isaiah 34:11. This globe, at some undescribed period, having been convulsed and broken up, was a dark and watery waste for ages perhaps, till out of this chaotic state, the present fabric of the world was made to arise.
the Spirit of God moved—literally, continued brooding over it, as a fowl does, when hatching eggs. The immediate agency of the Spirit, by working on the dead and discordant elements, combined, arranged, and ripened them into a state adapted for being the scene of a new creation. The account of this new creation properly begins at the end of this second verse; and the details of the process are described in the natural way an onlooker would have done, who beheld the changes that successively took place.
Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing Genesis 1:2:
Genesis 1:1
Job 3:5
Job 10:22
Isaiah 45:7
Jeremiah 4:23
Ezekiel 2:2
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