3068. 'Let down now your pitcher' means submitting facts. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'letting down' as submitting, and from the meaning of 'a pitcher' as facts. The reason why a water-pot or a pitcher means facts is that 'water' means truth, 680, 739, 2702, and a pitcher is a vessel with water in it, even as factual knowledge is a vessel with truth in it. All factual knowledge is a vessel for truth, and all truth is a vessel for good. Factual knowledge without truth is an empty vessel, and so is truth without good; but factual knowledge in which truth is held is a vessel that is filled, as is truth in which good is held. Affection which is an attribute of love is what joins them together so that they may exist in order. For love is spiritual conjunction.

10472. 'You know the people, that they [are set] on evil' means that that nation's interest lies in what is external separated from what is holy and internal. This is clear from the meaning of 'evil' and 'sin' as severance, separation, and turning away from the Divine, dealt with in 4997, 5746, 5841, 9346. The words 'separated from what is holy and internal' are used because when that which is external is separated from what is internal it is also separated from what is holy; for what is holy in a person resides in his internal. That is called holy which flows in from heaven and resides with a person, that is, comes from the Lord by way of heaven. Heaven flows into a person's internal, and by way of this into his external; for a person's internal has been created so as to conform to an image of heaven, thus to receive spiritual things that belong there, and the external to conform to an image of the world, thus to receive natural things that belong there, 9279, 10156. From this it is evident what a person whose external has been separated from his internal is like, that is to say, his interest lies solely in worldly, earthly, and bodily things. Those whose interest lies solely in these have no understanding of what the internal is, nor thus of what a concern for heavenly and Divine things is. They suppose that when they are engaged in doing the things that compose the external worship of the Church they are also involved in things that are Divine. But this is not so; for at such times either the bodily delights to which they have been accustomed since they were young children rule their minds, or the worldly aim that they may seen by others spurs them on, or the gain to be made or the prestige to be won out of performing the duties of their office motivates them. Thus they too are interested in worldly, earthly, and bodily things, and not in heavenly and Divine ones. It is different with those who are interested in external things from a concern for what is internal.