6661. 'And they built cities of store-houses for Pharaoh' means teachings composed of falsified truths in the natural where alienated factual knowledge resides. This is clear from the meaning of 'cities' as teachings in both [the genuine and the contrary] senses, dealt with in 402, 2449, 2943, 3216, 4492, 4497; from the meaning of 'store-houses' as falsified truths, dealt with below; and from the representation of 'Pharaoh' as the natural, dealt with in 5160, 5799, 6015 (end), the natural being where alienated factual knowledge resides, see above in 6651, 6652. The reason why 'the cities of store-houses' which the people of Israel built for Pharaoh means teachings composed of falsified truths is that those preoccupied with factual knowledge alienated from the truth, who are meant here by Pharaoh and the Egyptians, pervert and falsify all of the Church's truths and formulate teachings for themselves out of those perverted, falsified truths.

[2] The word used in the original language for store-houses may also mean armouries, and treasuries too, which have virtually the same meaning in the internal sense. For store-houses are places where corn is collected, and 'corn' means truth, 5276, 5280, 5292, 5402, or in the contrary sense falsity. Armouries however are places where one stores weapons of war, by which are meant the kinds of things that truth uses in fighting against falsities, or in the contrary sense those that falsity uses in fighting against truths, 1788, 1686. Treasuries are places where wealth is deposited, and by wealth and riches are meant cognitions of goodness and truth, 4508, in the contrary sense cognitions of evil and falsity. In general therefore cities of store-houses, armouries, or treasuries mean teachings composed of falsified truths.

5276. 'A great abundance of corn in all the land of Egypt' means the multiplication of truth in both parts of the natural. This is clear from the meaning of 'an abundance of corn' as a multiplication of truth, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'the land of Egypt' as both parts of the natural. For knowledge is meant by 'Egypt', see 1164, 1165, 1186, 1462, 4749, 4964, 4966; and since knowledge is meant by that land, so also is the natural meant by it, for the reason that as the expression 'factual knowledge' is used to describe what is stored in the natural, 'the land of Egypt' therefore means the natural mind in which factual knowledge is stored. This being so, 'all the land of Egypt' means both parts of the natural - the interior natural and the exterior natural, regarding which, see 5118, 5126. The reason 'an abundance of corn' means a multiplication of truth is that the expression describes the opposite of 'famine', by which an absence of truth is meant. The word used in the original language to express an abundance of corn - an antonym to 'famine' - means in the internal sense a vast wealth and sufficiency of religious knowledge; for 'famine' means an absence of it. Religious knowledge consists in nothing else than the truths present in a person's natural man which have not yet been made his own by him. The multiplication of such truths is what is meant here. Religious knowledge does not come to be truths residing with a person until that knowledge finds acceptance in his understanding, which happens when he firmly embraces it; and what are then truths residing with him are not made his own until he lives in conformity with them. For nothing is made a person's own other than that which is made part of his life; thus because those truths form his life, his true self is invested in them.