formlessness
to.hu denotes a trackless or unformed waste and, in several contexts, what is empty, futile, or without profit.
The term most often marks emptiness or futility in statements about vain objects, fruitless labor, corrupt speech, and rulers or nations reduced to nothing. It also describes a trackless wilderness and an unformed or desolated expanse, including the earth, a ruined city, and land without light.
Senses in use
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Emptiness, futility, or lack of worth · dominant
In 1 Samuel 12:21 the noun occurs twice in the warning against things that cannot profit or deliver; the APB renders the verse with “vain things” and “vain.” In Isaiah 40:17, Isaiah 40:23, Isaiah 41:29, Isaiah 49:4, and Isaiah 59:4, the surrounding clauses compare nations, rulers, works, labor, or trust to nothing, vanity, or evil.
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Trackless wilderness or waste · common
In Deuteronomy 32:10 the noun describes the setting where he found him, alongside a wilderness and Jeshimon; the APB calls it a “howling waste.” Job 6:18, Job 12:24, and Psalm 107:40 place it in clauses about paths turning aside or leaders wandering, with the APB rendering “waste,” “pathless waste,” and “trackless waste.”
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Unformed or desolated condition · common
Genesis 1:2 and Jeremiah 4:23 use the noun in descriptions of land together with void or lack of light; the APB renders these clauses “formless and void” and “formlessness and void.” Isaiah 24:10, Isaiah 34:11, Isaiah 45:18, and Job 26:7 likewise place it in descriptions of a chaotic city, a measured-over land, the earth not created for this condition, and the expanse beneath the north.
In the Anselm Project Bible: The APB varies its presentation among “vain,” “waste,” “formlessness,” “emptiness,” and “chaos,” as seen in 1 Samuel 12:21, Deuteronomy 32:10, Genesis 1:2, and Isaiah 24:10. These renderings confirm the clauses' overall pictures rather than establish fixed English equivalents.