10465. 'And sprinkled it on the face of the water' means a mixing together with truths. This is clear from the meaning of 'the water' as truths, dealt with in the places referred to in 10238; and since it says that the powder into which the calf was ground up was sprinkled on the water the meaning is that the falsity resulting from hellish delight was mixed together with the truths coming from heaven. The reason why truths coming from heaven are meant by this water is that the water descended from Mount Sinai, and 'Mount Sinai' means heaven, from which Divine Truth comes, 9420. The fact that this water came from there is clear elsewhere in Moses,

I took your sin which you had made, the calf, and burnt it in the fire, and crushed it by grinding it right down until it was fine dust; and I threw its dust into the brook descending out of the mountain. Deuteronomy 9:21.

8562. 'And there was no water for the people to drink' means a lack of truth and consequently of refreshment. This is clear from the meaning of 'water' as the truth of faith, dealt with in 2702, 3058, 3424, 4976, 5668; and from the meaning of 'drinking' as receiving instruction in the truths of faith and accepting them, dealt with in 3069, 3772, 4017, 4018, at this point being refreshed, because just as water and drink refresh a person's natural life, so truths and cognitions of truth refresh his spiritual life. For one whose life is spiritual desires to sustain that life with such things as are called heavenly food and drink, which are the forms of good and the truths of faith, even as one whose life is natural desires to sustain this with such things as constitute natural food and drink.

[2] The reason why the subject now is a temptation having to do with truth is that the subject immediately before was a temptation which had to do with good, after which temptation the people received the manna, by which good is meant. When the Lord imparts good to someone that person comes to have a desire for truth, and this desire is aroused according to the lack of it; for good craves truth continually. Every genuine affection for truth springs from good. The situation is as it is with food. Without drink food is unable to supply nourishment to natural life; furthermore food creates a craving for drink, in order that, when combined with it, it may serve its purpose. This then is the reason why a temptation having to do with truth comes immediately after a temptation having to do with good. Temptation attacks what a person loves and desires, 4274, 4299.