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:

4615. 'Where Abraham and Isaac sojourned' means Divine life together with it. This is clear from the meaning of 'sojourning' as life, dealt with in 1463, 2025; from the representation of 'Abraham' as the Lord's Divine itself, 1989, 2011, 3245, 3251, 3439, 3703, 4206, 4207; and from the representation of 'Isaac' as His Divine Rational, 1893, 2066, 2072, 2083, 2630, 2774, 3012, 3194, 3210, 4180. It is because the joining together of the Divine Natural and the Divine Rational is the subject here that Abraham and Isaac are mentioned at this point and are said to have sojourned there [in Hebron], so as to mean Divine life together with it, that is to say, together with the Divine Natural meant by 'Jacob'. And because the Divine itself, the Divine Rational, and the Divine Natural are one within the Lord, the verb used in the phrase 'where Abraham and Isaac sojourned' is singular, not plural.