19. 'The Spirit of God' is used to mean the Lord's mercy, which is said 'to hover', like a hen over eggs, over what the Lord stores away in man and which in the Word are frequently called 'remnants'. These remnants are cognitions of truth and good which never come to light or into daylight until external things have been laid waste. These cognitions are here called 'the face ¹ of the waters'.

Footnotes:

7062. 'And gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel' means the chief characteristics of wisdom which the spiritual Church possessed. This is clear from the meaning of 'the elders' as the chief characteristics of wisdom, thus things that accord with good, dealt with in 6524; and from the representation of 'the children of Israel' as the spiritual Church, dealt with in 6426, 6637.