During the first state of things, Moses informs us, that “the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” The original terms תהו _tohoo_, and בהו _bohoo_, translated, “without form and void,” convey the idea of confusion and disorder. The translation by Paginus, is _desert and emptiness_; in the Vulgate, it is _empty and void_; in the Septuagint, _invisible and incomposed_; from the Syriac, _desert and uncultivated_; the Samaritan is the same as the Vulgate; the Arabic, _covered with abysses_: these translations are allowed by the learned Walton. There is but little difference in their real meaning, and all the Versions express the first state of things.[24] The whole collection of matter, created in a fluid state, was a crude, indigested chaos: all belonging to our system, as the sun, moon, stars, earth, and seas, lay blended together in one vast, confused mass, without any arrangement of their constituent particles, heavy and light, dense and rare, fluid and solid, being all mixed together; air, water, and earth, (which have since obtained the name of elements,) were promiscuously scattered throughout. The chaotic mass remained in this primitive state, till God was pleased to assimilate, assort, and arrange the materials,--out of which he built up, in the space of six days, the whole of creation.[25] _The Spirit of God_, represented us sitting upon the vast abyss, like a bird, while either in the act of incubation or fostering its young, _moved_ or brooded _upon the face of the waters_, communicating, by his vital energy, life and motion to the unformed chaos. Some writers understand by רוח אלהימ _the Spirit of God_, a “mighty sweeping wind,” a “tremendous tempest,” separating diversified particles of the elementary principles of matter, and combining those of the same kind together. But this is making an effect to be produced by a cause, which, as yet, had no existence; nor, as a cause, is it sufficient to produce so great an effect. To make an effect superior to its cause, is as absurd and contradictory as to say, a long line and a short one are equal. That the single Hebrew word רוח _ruach_, the Greek πνευμα _pneuma_, the Latin _spiritus_, and the ancient Saxon _ghost_ or _gast_, signifies _wind_, as well as the vital breath, the soul of man, a created spirit good or evil, is readily admitted. But concerning the phrase רוח אלהימ, _the Spirit of God_, so frequently used in the Scriptures of the Old Testament, there is not one instance that it signifies _wind_, and to attempt to force such meaning upon it, is a most manifest violation done to the text. By _the Spirit of God_, is meant the third subsistence in the Divine essence, distinguished from the person of the Father, and that of the Son; he is called a _Spirit_, to signify his spiritual and immaterial nature, as well as to express his mighty agency; and the works of which he is the author can only be effected by an omnipotent power.