624. It is clear that a state which is not a state of the Church is the subject here from the fact that in this verse and those that follow in chapter the name God is used, whereas in previous verses it was Jehovah. When the Church does not exist the name God is used, but when it does exist, it is Jehovah; for example in Genesis 1, when the Church did not exist, He was called God, but in the next chapter when it did, He was called Jehovah God. 'Jehovah' is the holiest of names, and belongs to the Church alone. Not so 'God', for no nation was without gods. Consequently the same holiness was not attached to the name God. Nobody was allowed to utter the name Jehovah except him who had knowledge of the true faith; but anyone was allowed to utter the name God.

909. 'Birds' means things of his understanding and 'beasts' those of his will, [both of] which belong to the internal man; and 'every creeping thing that creeps over the earth' means corresponding things of a like nature residing with his external man. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'a bird', dealt with already in 40, 776, and of 'a beast' in 45, 46, 142, 143, 246. That 'creeping thing that creeps over the earth' means corresponding things residing with the external man is clear from this. Indeed 'creeping thing that creeps' here stands in relation both to 'birds', or things of the understanding, and to 'beasts', or those of the will. The most ancient people used to call the sensory powers and the appetites of the body 'creeping things that creep' because they are indeed just like reptiles that creep along the ground. They also likened the human body to the earth or to the ground. Indeed they actually called it the earth or the ground, as in the present verse where nothing other than the external man is meant by 'the earth'.