The Cosmogony of Genesis is in flat contradiction to that of the so-called "Creation Tablets," preserved in an epic poem in honor of Merodach, the patron god of Babylon. If Genesis looks back to Creation, it is to put on record the profound contrast between them, and to give, instead of the corruption of primitive truth, which had been handed down by tradition, the Divine account by Him Who created all things, by the hand and pen of Moses.

  The word "without form" (Hebrew tohu) is used of a subsequent event which, we know not how long after the Creation, befell the primitive creation of Genesis 1:1. It occurs in Genesis 1:2. Deuteronomy 32:10. 1Samuel 12:21 (twice). Job 6:18; 12:24; 26:7. Psalm 107:40. Isaiah 24:10; 29:21; 34:11; 40:17, 23; 41:29; 44:9; 45:18, 19; 49:4; 59:4. Jeremiah 4:23.

  The Hebrew bohu, rendered "void", means desolate, and occurs in Genesis 1:2. Isaiah 34:11. Jeremiah 4:23.
  The two words together occur in Genesis 1:2. Isaiah 34:11. Jeremiah 4:23.

1. The Tablets begin with chaos.
   The Bible with perfection (Genesis 1:1).
2. The Tablets make the heavenly bodies to be gods.
   Genesis makes them created matter.
3. The Tablets are all polytheistic mythology.
   Genesis is monotheistic truth.
4. The Tablets make all the work of a craftsman.
   In Genesis, God speaks, and it is done.
5. In the Tablets we meet everywhere with the puerilities of a grotesque superstition.
   In Genesis we find the grand and solemn realities of righteousness and holiness.