24. Verse 6 And God said, Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let there be a distinguishing of the waters from the waters.

After the Spirit of God, which is the Lord's mercy, has brought out into the daylight cognitions of truth and good, and has shed the light of dawn to reveal that the Lord does exist, and that He is good itself and truth itself, and that no good or truth exists except from the Lord, a distinction is at that point made between the internal man and the external man, and so between cognitions which reside with the internal man and the facts which belong to the external man. The internal man is called 'an expanse, and the cognitions residing with the internal man are called 'the waters above the expanse', while the facts belonging to the external man are called 'the waters below the expanse'.

[2] Until his regeneration starts a person is not aware of even the existence of the internal man, let alone the identity of the internal man. Submerged in bodily and worldly concerns he imagines there is no difference between the two. Furthermore he has submerged in those same concerns the things that belong to the internal man and has made one thorough obscurity out of things that are distinct and separate. For this reason it is first said, 'Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters', and then, 'Let there be a distinguishing of the waters from the waters', and not a distinguishing of the waters. But this is followed immediately by the statement, Verses 7-8, And God made the expanse and He made a distinction between the waters that were under the expanse and the waters that were above the expanse; and it was so. And God called the expanse Heaven.

[3] The second thing therefore that a person notices when being regenerated is that he is starting to become aware of the existence of the internal man, or that what reside in the internal man are goods and truths which are the Lord's alone. And since the external man during regeneration is such as still imagines that he is the source of the good deeds he performs, or of the truth he utters, and since such a person, by means of them, is led by the Lord to do good and to speak truth as if they were his own, therefore the identification of those under the expanse comes first, and the identification of those above the expanse follows. It is also a heavenly arcanum that the Lord uses those things that are man's own - both his illusions of the senses and his desires - to lead and direct him towards the things that are goods and truths. Every single movement of regeneration is accordingly a progression from evening to morning - from external man to internal, that is, from earth to heaven. This is why the expanse, or internal man, is now called 'heaven'.

657. And they of the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations shall see.- That this signifies with all who are in falsities and evils of religion, of doctrine, and of life, is evident from the signification of seeing, as denoting to know, to perceive, and to understand; and from the signification of peoples and tribes as denoting those who are in falsities of doctrine and of religion; for by peoples, in the Word, are meant all those who are in truths or in falsities, whether they are of the church or of some religion out of the church (see 175, 331, 625), and by tribes, in the Word, are meant all those who are in truths or in falsities of doctrine, for tribes denote all truths and falsities of doctrine (see above, n. 330, 430, 431, 454), from which it is evident that peoples and tribes signify all those who are in truths or falsities of religion and of doctrine, in this case those who are in falsities, because it is said that they shall see the bodies of the witnesses three days and a half, and shall not suffer them to be placed in sepulchres; and from the signification of tongues and nations as denoting those who are in evils of doctrine and of life, for by tongues are signified goods or evils of doctrine, and thus of religion (see above, n. 330, 455, 625); and by nations are signified goods or evils of life (see also above, n. 175, 331, 625); from which it is evident that tongues and nations signify all those who are in goods or evils of doctrine and of life, in this case those who are in evils, because it is said of them that they shall see the bodies of the witnesses upon the street of the great city, and shall not suffer them to be put in sepulchres.