1. As a noun בהו Beoo—Hollow, empty, having nothing in it but air, filled only vacuo aere, with empty air, as Lucan calls it, Lib. 5, line 94.
2. As a noun fem: in reg: בת, בת עין Bet, Bethoin, the apparent hollow, or pupil of the eye, &c. Comp. בבת Bebath, under, בב Beb.
3. As a noun fem: תבה Thebe in Reg: תבת Thebeth, an ark, a hollow vessel, under 2d head of בב Beb. occurs not as a verb in kab, but
1. As a participial noun, or participle in Nipth נבוב Neboob, hollow, made hollow, &c.
2. It is applied spiritually, hollow, empty, vain.
3. To the sight, or pupil of the eye; that part of the eye which appears hollow, and admits the light. See Parkhurst's Hebrew Lexicon.
Had the learned translators of our bible possessed a knowledge of the theory of concentric spheres, it is probable they would have given the English reader the most correct meaning of the words, תהו ובהו "without form and hollow," or "shapeless and hollow."
[45] The application which the Dr. makes of this structure of the earth is this: that the concave sides of the spheres are made up of magnetic matter; that they revolve about their diurnal axes in about twenty-four hours; that the outer sphere moves either a little faster or a little slower than the internal ball; that the magnetic pole, both of the external shell and included globe, are distant from the poles of rotation; and that the variation arises from a change of the relative distances of the external and internal poles in consequence of the difference of their revolutions. [See life of Dr. Halley.]
In Rees' Cyclopedia, under the article 'ring,' is the following sentence; by which it appears that Kepler first suggested the earth to be composed of concentric crusts. "Kepler, in his Epitom. Astron. Copern. (as after him Dr. Halley, in his enquiry into the causes of the variation of the needle, Phil. Trans. No. 195.) supposes our earth may be composed of several crusts or shells, one within another, and concentric to each other. If this be the case, it is possible the ring of Saturn may be the fragment or remaining ruin of his former exterior shell, the rest of which is broken or fallen down upon the body of the planet."
[46] Maclaurin, in his fourteenth chapter of the second volume on Fluxions, investigates the theory of Dr. Halley at considerable length; and in conclusion, appears to consider the existence of a hollow globe as very possible.