2629. 'Whom Sarah bore to him' means its essential being received from, and its manifestation given by, the Divine spiritual united to the Divine celestial. This is clear from the meaning of 'bearing' as giving manifestation to, dealt with in 2621; and since childbirth implies conception - and the giving of birth, or manifestation, rests with the Divine spiritual, while conception or the imparting of being rests with the Divine celestial, and these are united here - 'bearing' here means the receipt of being as well as the gift of manifestation; and also from the representation of 'Sarah' as the Divine spiritual united to the Divine celestial, dealt with in 1468, 1901, 2063, 2065, 2172, 2173, 2198, 2507. These arcana are so deep that they defy description, so deep in fact that they cannot be illustrated by anything at all in this world. They are intended for the minds of angels, to which they are presented in the light of heaven by means of things which lie beyond description.

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.