44. Verses 24-25 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. 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.

Man, like the earth, can produce nothing good unless the cognitions of faith have already been sown in him enabling him to know what to believe and do. It is the function of the understanding to hear the Word, and of the will to do it. A person who hears the Word and does not do it is one who claims to believe, but he does not live according to it. Such a person separates hearing and doing, and splits his mind in two directions; and by the Lord he is called 'a foolish man',

Everyone who hears My words and does them I liken to a wise man who built his house upon the rock; but everyone who hears My words and does them not I liken to a foolish man who built his house upon the sand. Matthew 7:24, 26.

Matters of the understanding, as has been shown, are meant by 'creeping things which the waters produce', and by 'birds over the earth and over the face ¹ of the expanse'. Matters of the will are here meant by 'living creatures which the earth brings forth', and by 'beasts and creeping things', and also by 'the wild animals of the earth'.

Footnotes:

124. And ye shall have affliction ten days, signifies that infestation and temptation therefrom will last for some time. This is evident from the signification of "affliction," as being infestation and temptation of those who are in the spiritual affection of truth by those who are in falsities; (that this is meant by "affliction" is clear, since it is said in reference to such;) also from the signification of "ten days," as being duration for some time. Duration for some time is signified by "ten days," for the reason that the entire duration of infestation and temptation is signified by "forty days" (See Arcana Coelestia 2959, 7985, 7986), and "ten" means some part thereof; for all numbers in the Word signify things or states, with variety according to the relation to other numbers. The number "ten," without reference to other numbers, signifies what is full or much (Arcana Coelestia 3107, 4638); but in reference to a greater number, it signifies as much as is needed for uses (n. 9757); so here it signifies duration for some time, thus as use demands. (That all numbers in the Word signify things or states, see Arcana Coelestia 482, 487, 647, 755, 813, 1963, 1988, 2075, 2252, 3252, 4264, 4495, 4670, 5265, 6175, 9488, 9659, 10217, 10253.) He that considers, can see that by the "affliction of ten days" here, which they are to have who are cast into prison by the devil, something else must be meant than ten days' affliction.