Genesis 1:2a

Hebrew:
וְהָאָרֶץ הָיְתָה תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ

KJV:
And the earth was without form, and void;

Comments:
And the earth was: When the "and" in Hebrew is attached to a noun ("earth") rather than a verb (like "was"), it is disjunctive rather than conjunctive. That is, the wording of the text implies a break between verses 1 and 2. However, there is no reason in this text for asserting a gap in history rather than simply in the narrative. For instance, reading verse 1 as a heading and everything following as an account of what the heading introduces makes a much plainer interpretation than construing a epochal gap with a fallen race between verses 1 and 2.

without form, and void: These words are also used in proximity to one another in Jeremiah 4:22-28 (23). There, the Lord appeals to Judah to repent in order to avoid the kind of judgment which would return their land to its state before it was prepared for them. It is not, as some have seen it, a mystical description of the world after an intervening fall before the creation of Adam. Without form and void means just what it says: undefined and empty. "Without form" appears as "desert" in Deuteronomy 32:10 while "void" appears as "emptiness" in Isaiah 34:11. The fact that the cosmos (the heavens and the earth) is primitively without form and void also explains why the days of creation are paralleled as they are. The first three days give form; the last three days fill each form created in the first three. So the first day is light and dark, the fourth day (the first day of the last three) is the sun, moon, and stars--the objects for the form of light. The second day is waters and firmament; the fifth day fish and fowl. The third and sixth days (each of which has two declarations of good rather than one like all the other days) are land/plants and animals/man respectively.

Expanded Paraphrase:
But God had not yet given shape or content to the creation, so it was undefined and empty.