Tohu means “vain” — full meaning, definition, and every linked Bible usage across the indexed canon.
Strong's H8414 תּוֹהוּ (tohuw) is a Hebrew Strong's word-study entry. tohuw (to'-hoo) n-m. 1. a desolation (of surface), i.e. desert 2. (figuratively) a worthless thing It has 19 linked Bible usages across 7 books. Visible English usage signals include things, vain, desert, thing, and lies. Indexed coverage on this page includes Old Testament.
tohuw (to'-hoo) n-m. 1. a desolation (of surface), i.e. desert 2. (figuratively) a worthless thing 3. adverbially, in vain [from an unused root meaning to lie waste] KJV: confusion, empty place, without form, nothing, (thing of) nought, vain, vanity, waste, wilderness.
How independent scholarly lexicons define Strong's H8414. Each definition is shown with its source so you can compare and cite the original reference works.
formlessness
Usage: 1) formlessness, confusion, unreality, emptiness 1a) formlessness (of primeval earth) 1a1) nothingness, empty space 1b) that which is empty or unreal (of idols) (fig) 1c) wasteland, wilderness (of solitary places) 1d) place of chaos 1e) vanity
The English word each shown verse actually uses to render tohuw, taken from the interlinear word alignment (the same word underlined in the excerpts below). Where a rendering is used more than once, the count is shown.
Indexed coverage includes Old Testament. Each section below keeps corpus counts and sample passages visible so readers can compare the word across contexts instead of reading one flat concordance list.
Indexed usage grouped by testament and extended corpus so readers can compare this word across the Bible, Septuagint, deuterocanonical books, and 1 Enoch where present.
19 indexed usages in Old Testament.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
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.
And turn ye not aside: for then should ye go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver; for they are vain.
First 19 linked usage excerpts for Strong's H8414.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
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.
And turn ye not aside: for then should ye go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver; for they are vain.
The paths of their way are turned aside; they go to nothing, and perish.
He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth, and causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way.
He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing.
He poureth contempt upon princes, and causeth them to wander in the wilderness, where there is no way.
The city of confusion is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may come in.
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.
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 the stones of emptiness.
All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.
That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.
Behold, they are all vanity; their works are nothing: their molten images are wind and confusion.
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; that they may be ashamed.
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 it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.
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 things that are right.
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.
None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.
Every indexed verse link for Strong's H8414, grouped by book.
Tohu (Strong's H8414) is a Hebrew word most simply glossed "vain". tohuw (to'-hoo) n-m. 1. a desolation (of surface), i.e. desert 2. (figuratively) a worthless thing
This page currently indexes 19 linked usages for Strong's H8414 across 7 books.
Use the linked verse references on this page to study Strong's H8414 in context. The indexed coverage includes Old Testament.
The visible usage excerpts most often surface English words such as things, vain, desert, thing, and lies. These are scanning signals from the displayed verses, not replacements for the original-language definition.