18. 'The face ¹ of the deep' is that person's desires and resulting falsities, of which he consists and in which he is completely absorbed; and because he has no light at all he is like the deep, or something thoroughly obscure. Throughout the Word such people are also called 'the deep' and 'the depths of the sea' which are dried up or laid waste until a person's regeneration starts, as in Isaiah,

Awake as in the days of antiquity, the generations of long ago. Was it not You that did dry up the sea, the waters of the great deep; making the depths of the sea a road for the redeemed to go across? Let the ransomed of Jehovah return. Isaiah 51:9-11.

Furthermore, when looked at from heaven, this kind of person resembles a darkened mass with no life to it. The same expressions embody within them in general the vastation in man, described many times by the Prophets, which precedes regeneration. For before a person can know what truth is, or be moved by good, the things that hinder and offer resistance must be removed. Thus the old man must die before the new one can be conceived.

Voetnoten:

5162. 'And he lifted up the head' means [according to] what was of providence and what was of foresight. This is clear from the meaning of 'lifting up the head' as a decision attributable to providence and also to foresight, dealt with above in 5124, 5155. Providence is at work in the case of that power of sensory perception which is subject to the understanding part and is retained as something good, this being represented by 'the cupbearer'; but foresight is at work in the case of that sensory perception which is subject to the will part and is cast aside as something evil, this being represented by 'the baker'. That which is good is of providence while that which is evil is of foresight because everything good originates in the Lord but everything evil in hell or in the human proprium. As regards the human proprium being nothing but evil, see 210, 215, 694, 874-876, 987, 1023, 1044, 1047, 1581, 3812 (end), 4328.