47. That these words contain arcana concerning regeneration becomes additionally clear from the fact that verse 24 above spoke of the earth bringing forth 'living creatures, beasts, and wild animals of the earth', while in the verse that followed the order was different, namely that God made the wild animals of the earth first and then the beasts. Indeed a person does first produce things so to speak from himself, and continues to do so until he becomes celestial. And so regeneration begins with the external man and moves on to the internal. This is why there is a different order here, with external things coming first.

909. 'Birds' means things of his understanding and 'beasts' those of his will, [both of] which belong to the internal man; and 'every creeping thing that creeps over the earth' means corresponding things of a like nature residing with his external man. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'a bird', dealt with already in 40, 776, and of 'a beast' in 45, 46, 142, 143, 246. That 'creeping thing that creeps over the earth' means corresponding things residing with the external man is clear from this. Indeed 'creeping thing that creeps' here stands in relation both to 'birds', or things of the understanding, and to 'beasts', or those of the will. The most ancient people used to call the sensory powers and the appetites of the body 'creeping things that creep' because they are indeed just like reptiles that creep along the ground. They also likened the human body to the earth or to the ground. Indeed they actually called it the earth or the ground, as in the present verse where nothing other than the external man is meant by 'the earth'.