Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Harold Holmyard <hholmyard AT ont.com>]

Dear Don,

> Can the word "was" in the verse "Now the earth was unformed and void" be translated 
> "became"?
>
> This is one response from a Hebrew Scholar:
>
> When the word hayah refers to a change in state, then it takes a le- before the noun; 
> here we have no le- so this is a report of a state that was, not that became something 
> from something else.  At this stage in the Creation story, we are just getting the 
> first reports on the initial state of chaos (an early mix of time/space/energy/matter), 
> which only later "became" something else more ordered.
>  

HH: That's a good comment.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard