Actually according to a couple of Hebrew scholars I know.. The word is retreated.. or updated... "remodeled" in our terms.. They could be right.. If so then there could have been "a society" of "something" pre-Adam.. Angel?.. whatever.. Its an interesting supposition.. At least they say the word created in some places in Genesis ch 1 could NOT mean created from nothing.. If the earth had to be remodeled then something could have happened(before Adam) to make that needed... for proto-humans..
Why not in scripture?.. need to know maybe..
corr: re-created..
I have a friend who’s very knowledgeable about Hebrew and he told me much the same thing some 30 years ago.
He said in the Hebrew, there’s a change in verb tense between the first and second verses of Genesis. In the first verse, it does indicate creation of something new, never created before.
In the second verse, it’s a remaking of what was there.
His speculation, and it makes sense to me, is that what happened between the first and second verses was the fall of Satan. When Satan fell, he deliberately destroyed the earth, likely in an attempt to thwart God’s purposes. So God had to make it habitable for man again. He remodeled it.