25. 'Spreading out the earth and stretching out the heavens' is a common expression in the Prophets when the subject is man's regeneration, as in Isaiah,

Thus said Jehovah, your Redeemer, He who formed you from the womb, I am Jehovah who makes all things, who stretches out the heavens Alone, and who spreads out the earth by Myself. Isaiah 44:24.

Also, when it is speaking of the Lord's Coming,

A bruised reed He does not break off and a smoking wick He does not quench; He brings forth judgement towards truth; that is, He neither shatters man's illusions nor stifles his desires. Instead He bends them towards truth and good. This verse in Isaiah continues,

The God Jehovah creates the heavens and stretches them out: He spreads out the earth and what comes from it: He gives breath ¹ to the people upon it, and spirit to those who walk on it. Isaiah 42:3-5.

Such phrases recur several times elsewhere.

Footnotes:

7444. To the end that you may know that I am Jehovah in the midst of the land' means the [resulting] discernment that the Lord is the only God of the Church. This is clear from the meaning of 'knowing' as discernment; and from the meaning of 'the midst of the land' as the place where those who belong to the Lord's Church are in possession of truth and goodness, the inmost part being where truth grounded in good is, 3436, 6068, 6084, 6103. Thus 'the midst (or middle) of the land' means the Church, in the same way as 'the land of Goshen' does, referred to immediately above in 7443. 'I am Jehovah' means that He is the only I AM, thus the only God - 'Jehovah' in the Word being the Lord, see 1343, 1736, 2921, 3023, 3035, 5663, 6303, 6905, 6945, 6956. From all this it is evident that 'to the end that you may know that I am Jehovah in the midst of the land' means the discernment that the Lord is the only God of the Church.