6. Genesis 1

1. In the beginning God created heaven and earth.

2. And the earth was a void and an emptiness, and there was thick darkness over the face ¹ of the deep; and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face ¹ of the waters.

3. And God said, Let there be light; and there was light.

4. And God saw that the light was good; and God made a distinction between the light and the darkness.

5. And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And there was evening, and there was morning, the first day.

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.

7. 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.

8. And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening, and there was morning, a second day.

9. And God said, Let the waters under heaven be gathered together to one place, and let the dry land appear; and it was so.

10. And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas; and God saw that it was good.

11. And God said, Let the earth cause tender plants to spring up, seed-bearing plants, fruit trees bearing fruit, each according to its kind, in which is its seed, upon the earth; and it was so.

12. And the earth brought forth tender herbs, seed-bearing plants, each according to its kind, and trees bearing fruit, in which is their seed, each according to its kind; and God saw that it was good.

13. And there was evening, and there was morning, a third day.

14. And God said, Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens, to make a distinction between the day and the night; and they will be for signs, and for set times, and for days and years.

15. And they will be for lights in the expanse of the heavens, to give light upon the earth; and it was so.

16. And God made the two great lights, the greater light to have dominion over the day, and the lesser light to have dominion over the night; and the stars.

17. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth;

18. And to have dominion over the day and the night, and to make a distinction between the light and the darkness; and God saw that it was good.

19. And there was evening, and there was morning, a fourth day.

20. And God said, Let the waters bring forth creeping things, living creatures; and let birds fly above the earth, upon the face ¹ of the expanse of the heavens.

21. And God created the great sea monsters, and every living creature that creeps, which the waters produced abundantly according to their kinds; and all winged birds according to their kinds; and God saw that it was good.

22. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas; and let birds be multiplied upon the earth.

23. And there was evening, and there was morning, a fifth day.

24. And God said, Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds, beasts and creeping things and wild animals of the earth according to their kinds; and it was so.

25. And God made wild animals of the earth according to their kinds, and beasts according to their kinds, and everything that creeps along the ground according to its kind; and God saw that it was good.

26. And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and they will have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, ² and over the beasts, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

27. And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

28. And God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, ² and over every living thing that creeps on the earth.

29. And God said, Behold, I give you every plant yielding seed which is upon the face ¹ of the whole earth, and every tree in which there is fruit, the tree producing seed will be for you for food.

30. And to every wild animal of the earth and to every bird of the air, ² and to everything creeping over the earth in which there is a living soul, [I give] every green plant for food; and it was so.

31. And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning, a sixth day.

CONTENTS

The six days or periods of time, which are so many consecutive states in man's regeneration, are in general as follows:

V:

68. And his eyes were as a flame of fire. That this signifies Divine providence from His Divine love, is evident from the signification of eyes, as denoting the understanding (concerning which see above, n. 37), and when said of the Lord, as denoting presence, and thence providence (see Arcana Coelestia 3869, 10569); concerning which more will be said in what follows; and from the signification of a flame of fire, when said of the Lord, as denoting Divine love. The reason why a flame of fire denotes the Divine love is, that the Lord appears from heaven as a Sun, and the Divine which proceeds from Him as light, flame-coloured in the inmost or third heaven, and shining white in the middle or second heaven; the Divine love itself is what thus appears. For this reason fire and flame in the Word signify love. (As may be evident from what is shown in Arcana Coelestia, viz., that fire in the Word signifies love in each sense, n. 934, 4906, 5215. That sacred and heavenly fire is Divine love, and every affection which belongs to that love, see n. 934, 6314, 6832. That there are two origins of heat, one from the sun of the world, by virtue of which all things upon the earth vegetate, the other from the Sun of heaven, which is the Lord, from which angels and men derive all that pertains to their life, see n. 3338, 5215, 7324. That love is the fire of life, and that life itself is actually therefrom, see n. 4906, 5071, 6032, 6314. That flame is truth from the good of the inmost heaven, and light truth from the good of the middle heaven, see n. 3222, 6832; the reason is, that light in the inmost heaven appears as flaming, and in the middle heaven, shining white, see n. 9570; and also in the work, Heaven and Hell 116-140.) The reason why eyes, when said of the Lord, signify Divine providence, is, because when said of man, they signify understanding; and the Divine understanding, because it is infinite, is Divine providence. Nothing else is signified by the eyes of Jehovah, in the following passage in Isaiah:

"Incline thine ear, O Jehovah, and hear; open thine eyes, O Jehovah, and see" (37:17).

In Jeremiah:

"I will set mine eye upon them for good, and I will bring them back upon this land, and I will build them" (24:6).

And in David:

"Behold the eye of Jehovah is upon them that fear him" (Psalms 33:18);

and in the same:

"Jehovah is in the temple of his holiness, his eyes behold, and his eyelids prove the sons of man" (Psalms 11:4.);

and in other places. (Concerning the Divine providence, see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 267-279.)