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.

脚注:

水在《圣经》中代表了关于自然、外部事物的真实想法--日常生活和物质存在。大海代表我们对这些自然真理的全部集合（使用《圣经》中的一个常用术语）。这些代表--就像《圣经》中的所有其他代表--既可以是消极的，也可以是积极的；海里的水也可以代表错误的思维和扭曲的逻辑。当风暴搅动海面并引起波浪时，情况尤其如此；波浪代表来自错误和扭曲思维的论点，它们攻击我们对真实事物的信仰。在大多数情况下，这以诱惑的形式出现，当错误的思维试图与我们的邪恶欲望联系在一起，并说服我们去做我们想做的事情是可以的--甚至是好的。

(参考: 详解启示录419 [23-24], 538 [5])