18. 'The face ¹ of the deep' is that person's desires and resulting falsities, of which he consists and in which he is completely absorbed; and because he has no light at all he is like the deep, or something thoroughly obscure. Throughout the Word such people are also called 'the deep' and 'the depths of the sea' which are dried up or laid waste until a person's regeneration starts, as in Isaiah,

Awake as in the days of antiquity, the generations of long ago. Was it not You that did dry up the sea, the waters of the great deep; making the depths of the sea a road for the redeemed to go across? Let the ransomed of Jehovah return. Isaiah 51:9-11.

Furthermore, when looked at from heaven, this kind of person resembles a darkened mass with no life to it. The same expressions embody within them in general the vastation in man, described many times by the Prophets, which precedes regeneration. For before a person can know what truth is, or be moved by good, the things that hinder and offer resistance must be removed. Thus the old man must die before the new one can be conceived.

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8914. 'And all the people saw the voices and torches' means perception of God's truths that spring from good. This is clear from the meaning of 'seeing' as understanding and perceiving, dealt with in 2150, 2325, 2807, 3764, 3863, 3869, 4403-4421, 4567, 4723, 5400; from the meaning of 'voices', or claps of thunder, as God's truths, dealt with in 7573, 8813; and from the meaning of 'torches', or lightning, as the brilliant flashes emitted by truths that spring from the good of love, which have a sharp and penetrating effect, dealt with in 8813.

[2] The expression 'God's truths that spring from good' is used here to mean all the Ten Commandments which were declared from Mount Sinai amid thundering and lightning. These took place at that time because claps of thunder were signs of God's truths, which are also for that reason called voices, while flashes of lightning were signs of the brilliant flashes that truths from good possess, which are also for that reason called torches or flames, 'flames' being Divine Truths emanating from the Lord's Divine Good, see 6832.