The Bible

 

Genesis 1:3

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3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

Commentary

 

Void

  

A 'void', or 'Vacuity' denotes a person's state before regeneration. From Arcana Coelestia 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.

In Genesis 1:2, this signifies lacking good, as with man's state before regeneration. (Arcana Coelestia 17)

In Psalm 89:39, this signifies that the Jewish nation had destroyed its conjunction with the Lord and the church. (The Inner Meaning of the Prophets and Psalms 339)

From Swedenborg's Works

 

The Inner Meaning of the Prophets and Psalms #339

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339. Internal Meaning of Psalm 89

1-2 All Divine truth is from the Lord (13, 10)

3-5 The Divine truth is from Him because there is oneness with the Divine Human (10, 16, 16)

6-9, 13 Thus the Lord has all power (10, 16)

10-14 All of heaven and the church is from Him, (10, 16)

15-18 Happy is he who trusts in the Lord (12, 16)

19-25 The Father to the Lord, or His Divine to His Human that by oneness with Him He has omnipotence over the hells (10, 16)

26-29 N. B. There will be eternal oneness with Him (10, 16)

30-37 Even if those of the church should fail there will be eternal oneness with Him. (10)

38-42 Of the Jewish nation: It has destroyed conjunction with Him, because it has destroyed the church. (4)

43-45 It has utterly repudiated Him. (4)

46-48 Prayer to the Father, that, unless He assist, no one will have eternal life. (13)

49 Unless oneness be effected, (10)

49-51 the hells will otherwise prevail. (10, 8)

52 He assists. (10, 8)

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for the permission to use this translation.