7. The first state is the state which precedes, both the state existing from earliest childhood onwards and that existing immediately before regeneration; and it is called a void, emptiness, and thick darkness. And the first movement, which is the Lord's mercy, is 'the Spirit of God hovering over the face ¹ of the waters'.

Footnotes:

5086. The place where Joseph was bound' means the state of the celestial of the natural now in relation to these things. This is clear from the meaning of 'the place' as a state, dealt with in 2625, 2877, 3356, 3387, 4321, 4882; from the representation of 'Joseph' as the celestial of the spiritual from the rational, dealt with in 4286, 4585, 4592, 4594, 4963, at this point the celestial of the natural because it was now in the natural, from which temptations arise, 5035, 5039; and from the meaning of 'bound' as a state of temptations, dealt with in 5037. The subject in the previous chapter was the state of temptations undergone by the celestial of the spiritual within the natural, involving those things which belonged to the interior natural, whereas in this chapter it is the state of temptations involving things that belong to the exterior natural.