Ezekiel 36:36

³⁶ Then the heathen that are left around you shall know that I the LORD build the ruined places, and plant that which was desolate: I the LORD have spoken it, and I will do it.

Isaiah 34:5

⁵ For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Edom, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment.

'Spreading themselves on the earth,' as in Genesis 8:17, signifies the internal self operating on the external.