Terra autem erat inanis et vacua, et tenebrae erant super faciem abyssi…
But the earth was devoid of matter and empty, and darkness was on the face of the abyss.
Autem usually takes second place in a sentence. I’ve started my translation with But. If you want to preserve the order you might choose “The earth, however…”
Inanis meant physically empty before it meant “inane.” I’ve chosen “devoid of matter” to avoid the exact repetition of “empty” for vacua.
Tenebrae (darkness) is plural in Latin. This is what the poet Longfellow evokes in “the shades of night.” Longfellow was a fluent Latinist.