Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Joe Sprinkle" <jsprinkl AT tfc.edu>]

Actually Peter's rendering, "Now as for the earth, it was ... " may not be
too strong.  What I see here is an example of "Pending Case" as indicated
by the change of usual Hebrew word order (recognized by the Masoretes in
their accenting).  The usual word order in Hebrew is vav-consecutive +
verb + grammatical subject.  Here you have the noun coming before the verb
(vav conjunctive + subject + verb), which can be an indication of pending
case which in translation is to be treated as you suggested.

All this hints that Genesis 1:1 like Genesis 2:4 (with which it forms an
inclusio) is a summary statement of the whole seven days of creation, and
Genesis 1:2 is a jumping into some point of the creation process of
Genesis 1:1 to give further details.  There is no gap.  Only overlap.

Joe Sprinkle