17. Verse 2 And the earth was a void and an emptiness, and there was thick darkness over the face ¹ of the deep; and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face ¹ of the waters. The person who has yet to be regenerated is called 'a void and an empty earth', and also 'ground', in which no good or truth at all has been sown - 'void' where there is no good, and 'empty' where there is no truth. Consequently there is 'thick darkness', or stupidity and lack of knowledge about anything that has to do with faith in the Lord and so anything that has to do with spiritual and celestial life. This kind of person is described by the Lord through Jeremiah,

My people are foolish, they know Me not; they are stupid children, having no understanding; they are wise to do evil, and know not how to do good. I looked to the earth, and, behold, a void and an emptiness; and towards the heavens, and they had no light. Jeremiah 4:22-23, 25.

Footnotes:

684. THE COMMUNITIES THAT CONSTITUTE HEAVEN

There are three heavens, the first where good spirits are, the second where angelic spirits are, and the third where angels are. One heaven is interior to and purer than the next, which means that they are entirely distinct and separate from one another. The first heaven divides into countless communities, as do the second and the third, and each community consists of many individuals who, because of the harmony and unanimity that exist among them, in effect constitute one person. At the same time, all the communities in effect constitute one human being. Communities differ in nature from one another according to the way their mutual love and faith in the Lord varies. These differences are so countless that it is not possible to count up even the most general kinds of them. Even the smallest of differences fits into the perfectly ordered arrangement of the whole, and so contributes in perfect unanimity to a general unity, as does the general unity to the unanimity among individuals. Each individual therefore contributes to the happiness of all, and all to that of each individual. Consequently every angel and every community is an image of the whole of heaven and is so to speak heaven in miniature.