8300. Verses 11-13 Who is like You among the gods, O Jehovah? Who is like You, magnificent in holiness, to be venerated with praises, doing wonders? You stretched out Your right hand, the earth swallowed them. In Your mercy You have led this people [whom] you have redeemed; in Your strength You have brought them to the dwelling-place of Your holiness.

'Who is like You among the gods, O Jehovah?' means that every truth of good emanates from the Lord's Divine Human. 'Who is like You in holiness' means that He is the Source of everything holy. 'To be venerated with praises' means that to Him alone belong glory and thanksgiving. 'Doing wonders?' means that He is the Source of all the means through which comes power. 'You stretched out Your right hand' means that the exercising of power over all things became apparent from this. 'The earth swallowed them' means that as a result simply of His presence damnation and hell befell them. 'In Your mercy You have led this people' means the Divine flowing in among those who have been refraining from evils and consequently receiving good. 'You have redeemed' means those whom He has delivered from hell. 'In Your strength You have brought them to the dwelling-place of Your holiness' means that the Lord's Divine power has raised them to heaven, to the Divine there.

8210. 'All Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen - into the middle of the sea' means factual knowledge belonging to a perverted understanding, doctrinal teachings upholding falsity, and reasonings - that they filled hell. This is clear from the meaning of 'Pharaoh's horses' as factual knowledge belonging to a perverted understanding, from the meaning of 'Pharaoh's chariots' as doctrinal teachings upholding falsity, and from the meaning of 'Pharaoh's horsemen' as reasonings based on these, all dealt with above in 8146, 8148; and from the meaning of 'into the middle of the sea' as filling hell.

[2] The reason why these three that were constituents of Pharaoh's army - horses, chariots, and horsemen - are now mentioned again here is that the final state in the vastation of those belonging to the Church who have championed faith separated from charity and led a life of evil is now at hand. This state is one of being cast into hell; and being cast into hell is being crowded around by falsities arising from evil. For when all the truth and goodness residing with the evil have been laid waste and those people have been abandoned to the evil and the falsity arising from it that have ruled their lives, the hells with which they have been in contact through the evils ruling their lives are opened. From there all the evils which they have made their own rapidly converge on them, and the falsities which well out of the evils constitute then the sphere surrounding them, a sphere which looks like a thick cloud, or like water. Once all this has taken place they are in hell, for now they have been shut off from all contact with heaven, and also have been separated from other hells.

[3] The expression 'being cast into hell' is used to mean this. This is the reason why the horses, chariots, and horsemen are mentioned now, when they went into the middle of the sea; for as has been stated, 'the Sea Suph' means hell, and 'horses, chariots, and horsemen' all the falsities and everything constituting falsity arising from evil which were loosed onto those people, in order that the falsity arising from evil, by its very nature, might separate them from all other hells. These are the matters which are dealt with specifically in verses 24-28 that immediately follow.