6974. 'And do not hear your voice' means if they show no sign of obedience either. This is clear from the meaning of 'hearing' as obedience, dealt with in 2542, 3869, 5017; from the meaning of 'the voice' as that which has been declared and that which has been declared before-hand, dealt with in 6971, 6972; and from the representation of Moses, whose 'voice' they were to hear, as the Lord in respect of Divine Law, that is, Divine Truth, thus in respect of the Word since that is where Divine Truth is. From all this it is evident that 'if they do not hear your voice' means if they show no sign of obedience either. The present verse, and verses 1 and 8 above, use the expressions 'if they do not believe' and 'if they do not hear', when yet both expressions seem to be much the same as each other, for one who does not believe does not hear either. But the two are distinct from each other, for 'believing', which means [being in possession of] faith, is used with regard to truth which is the substance of faith, and so has reference to the understanding part of the mind, whereas 'hearing', which means obeying, is used with regard to good which is the substance of charity, and so has reference to the will part. For in the Word, especially the prophetical part, where truth is described by means of expressions particularly its own, so also is good described by means of those particularly its own, because of the heavenly marriage within each detail of the Word, which is a marriage of goodness and truth, see 683, 793, 801, 2173, 2516, 2712, 4138 (end), 6343.

793. From this point onwards to the end of the present chapter the subject is the people before the Flood who perished. This becomes clear from the details in the description given. People who possess the internal sense can recognize instantly, and indeed from any single word, what the subject is, better still from the combination of many. When the subject changes different words instantly appear, or else the same words combined differently. The reason is that some words are peculiar to spiritual matters, others peculiar to celestial; or what amounts to the same, some are peculiar to things of the understanding, others to those of the will. For example, 'desolation' is a word used of spiritual things, 'vastation' of celestial; 'city' is used of spiritual, 'mountain' of celestial; and so on. The same applies to combinations of words. And what is bound to amaze everybody, the difference in Hebrew is frequently just a matter of vocalization. In what belongs to the class of spiritual words the first three vowels [of the alphabet] are normally prominent, but in the case of what is celestial the last two. The fact that these verses contain a different subject is also discernible from the repetition discussed already. That is to say, the statement, 'And the waters grew stronger and stronger over the earth', is a repetition of what has already been stated in the previous verse. It is also discernible from everything that follows.