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.

1600. That 'the men of Sodom were evil and great sinners before Jehovah' means the evil desires towards which facts were reaching out becomes clear from the meaning of 'Sodom' as evil desires, dealt with already, and from the meaning of 'men' (vir) as intellectual concepts and rational concepts, here factual knowledge since they are spoken of in reference to the external man when separated from the internal. That 'men' means intellectual concepts or rational concepts has been shown already in 265, 749, 1007. Facts are said to reach out towards evil desires when they are learned for no other purpose than that one may become great, and not so that they may serve the use of making one good. All facts exist to enable a person to become rational and thereby wise, and so to enable him to serve the internal man.