71.And his voice as the voice of many waters. That this signifies Divine truth in ultimates, is evident from the signification of a voice, when it is from the Lord, as denoting Divine truth (concerning which see Arcana Coelestia 219, 220, 3563, 6971, 8813, 8914, and above, n. 55), and from the signification of the waters, as denoting the truths of faith, and also the knowledges (cognitiones) of truth (concerning which see n. 2702, 3058, 5668, 8568, 10238); and because the knowledges (cognitiones) of truth are in ultimates, therefore by His voice as the voice of many waters, because it relates to the Lord, is signified Divine truth in ultimates. (That knowledges (cognitiones) and scientifics (scientifica) belong to the external or natural man, because they are in the light of the world, thus, in ultimates, may be seen,Arcana Coelestia 5212, and in general from what is said in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 51.) As it is not yet known that waters in the Word signify the truths of faith and the knowledges (cognitiones) of truth, and, perhaps, because it appears far-fetched, I wish here briefly to show that such things are meant by waters in the Word. This is also necessary because without a knowledge of the signification of waters, it cannot be known what is signified by baptism, nor what by the washings observed in the Israelitish Church, of which mention is so frequently made. Waters signify the truths of faith, because bread signifies the good of love; the reason why waters and bread have such a signification is that the things that pertain to spiritual nourishment are expressed, in the sense of the letter, by those things that have reference to natural nourishment. For bread and water, by which are meant all food and drink in general, nourish the body, and the truths of faith and the good of love nourish the soul. This is also from correspondence; for when bread and water are read in the Word, the angels, being spiritual, understand those things which nourish them; these are the goods of love and the truths of faith.

[2] But some passages shall be here adduced, whence it may be known that waters signify the truths of faith, likewise the knowledges (cognitiones) of truth.

Thus in Isaiah:

"The earth shall be full of the knowledge (scientia) of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea" (11:9).

Again:

"With joy shall ye draw water out of the fountains of salvation" (12:3).

Again:

"He that walketh in justice, and speaketh uprightnesses, bread shall be given him, and sure waters" (33:15, 16).

Again:

"The poor and the needy seek water, but there is none; their tongue faileth for thirst. I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of waters, and the dry land springs of waters. That they may see, and know, and hearken, and understand" (41:17, 18, 20).

Again:

"I will pour out waters upon him that is thirsty; and, floods upon the dry ground; I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring" (44:3).

Again:

"Thy light shall arise in obscurity, and thy darkness as the noon-day; that thou mayest be as a watered garden, and as the going forth of waters, whose waters shall not lie" (58:10).

In Jeremiah:

"My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, to hew out for themselves pits that hold no water" (2:13).

Again:

"Their nobles sent their little ones for water; they came to the pits, and found no waters; they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded" (14:3).

Again:

"They have forsaken Jehovah, the fountain of living waters" (17:13).

Again:

"They shall come with weeping, and with weeping will I lead them; I will lead them to fountains of waters, in a way of rectitude" (31:9).

And in Ezekiel:

"I will break the staff of bread, and they shall eat bread by weight, and with care; and they shall drink water by measure, and with astonishment. That they may want bread and water, and be desolated, a man and his brother, and consume away for their iniquities" (4:16, 17; 12:18, 19; Isaiah 51:14).

And in Amos:

"Behold, the days come, in which I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for waters, but for hearing the Word of Jehovah. They shall wander from sea to sea, they shall run to and fro, to seek the Word of Jehovah, and shall not find it; in that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst" (8:11-13).

And in Zechariah;

"In that day living waters shall go out from Jerusalem" (14:8).

And in David:

"Jehovah is my shepherd, I shall not want. He will lead me to the waters of rest" (Psalm 23:1, 2).

In Isaiah:

"They shall not thirst; he will make waters to flow for them out of the rock, and he will cleave the rock, that the waters may flow out" (48:21).

In David:

"O God, early will I seek thee; my soul thirsteth, weary without waters" (Psalm 63:1).

Again:

Jehovah "sendeth his Word, he maketh the wind to blow, that the waters may flow" (Psalm 147:18).

Again:

"Praise Jehovah, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters which are above the heavens" (148:4).

In John:

Jesus came to the fountain of Jacob; "A woman of Samaria came to draw water, to whom Jesus said, Give me to drink; - if thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith unto thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest ask of him, and he would give thee living water. The woman said unto him, Whence hast thou that living water? Jesus said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again; but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him, shall be in him a fountain of water, springing up into everlasting life" (4:7-15).

Again:

Jesus said, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture saith, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water" (7:37, 38).

And in the Apocalypse:

"Unto him that is athirst shall be given of the fountain of the water of life freely" (21:6).

And in another place:

The angel showed him "a river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb" (22:1).

And again:

"The spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst, come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely" (22:17).

[3] These passages are adduced, that it may be known that by waters in the Word are signified the truths of faith, and hence what is signified by the water of baptism, concerning which the Lord thus teaches in John:

"Except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (3:5);

where water denotes the truths of faith, and the spirit a life according to them (as may be seen in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 202-209, and the following numbers). Because it has not hitherto been known that waters signify the truths of faith, and that all things that were instituted amongst the sons of Israel were representative of spiritual things, it has therefore been believed, that by the washings commanded them their sins were wiped away, although they were in no sense wiped away; those washings only represented purification from evils and falsities, by means of the truths of faith and a life according to them (as may be seen in Arcana Coelestia 3147, 5954, 10237, 10240). From these considerations it is now clear, that by His voice as the voice of many waters, is meant Divine truth; as also in Ezekiel:

"Behold the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east, and his voice was as the voice of many waters; and the earth was enlightened by his glory" (43:2).

And in David:

"The voice of Jehovah is upon the waters, Jehovah is upon many waters" (Psalms 29:3).

And in the following words in the Apocalypse:

"I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters" (14:2).

[4] I know that some will wonder why waters are mentioned in the Word, and not the truths of faith, although the purpose of the Word is to teach man about his spiritual life; and if the truths of faith had been mentioned instead of waters, men would have known that the waters of baptism and of washings contribute nothing to his purification from evils and falsities. But it must be noted, that the Word, to be Divine, and at the same time to be for heaven and the church, must be altogether natural in the letter; for unless this were the case, it could not be the medium of effecting the conjunction of heaven with the church; for it would be like a house without a foundation, and like a soul without a body; for the ultimates include all the interiors, and are their foundation (as may be seen above, n. 41). Man also is in ultimates, and heaven has its foundation upon the church in him. This is why the style in which the Word is written is of such a character; therefore, when man thinks spiritually from the natural things which are in the sense of the letter of the Word, he is conjoined with heaven which could not otherwise be the case.

3316. 'Jacob boiled pottage' means matters of doctrine when massed together. This is clear from the representation of 'Jacob' as the doctrine of natural truth, dealt with in 3305, and so as matters of doctrine within the natural man, and from the meaning of 'pottage' as a massing together of such matters of doctrine. Indeed 'boiling pottage' is massing together; for the verb in the original language is strictly speaking the noun for 'pottage' - as if you were to say 'he pottaged pottage', that is, he massed it together. It is the first state in the joining together of good and truth that is described in this verse and in those that follow to the end of the chapter. The first state of one who is being regenerated - that is, with whom truth is being joined to good - is a state in which first of all matters of doctrine regarding what is true are massed together, without any definite order, in his natural man, that is, in the storehouse there called the memory. The matters of doctrine present there at that time may be compared to the undigested particles of some ingredient, not compounded with anything else but massed together, and may be compared to a kind of chaos. But the chaos exists to the end that they may be brought into an ordered condition; for with anything that is brought into an ordered condition chaos exists at first. This is what is meant by the pottage that Jacob boiled, that is, massed together. Those matters of doctrine are not brought into an ordered condition by anything within themselves but by the good that must enter into them; and the amount of good entering into them, also the essential nature of that good, determine how far they become ordered and the nature of their then ordered condition. When good first craves and desires matters of doctrine, to the end that they may be joined to itself, it is seen in the form of an affection for truth. These are the considerations meant by 'Esau said to Jacob, Let me sip now from the red [pottage], this red [pottage]'.

[2] Such considerations do indeed appear to be quite remote from the sense of the letter, but nevertheless when man reads these words and understands them according to the sense of the letter, the angels who reside with him at the time do not have any [natural] idea at all of pottage, or of Jacob, or of Esau, or of red, or of sipping from red [pottage]. Instead they have a spiritual idea of them, which is altogether different and remote from that natural idea. The idea of those persons and objects is instantly converted into a spiritual idea. And so it is with everything else in the Word, such as, for example, when one reads of bread there the angels do not perceive bread but instead of bread instantly perceive celestial love and things that belong to celestial love, which is love to the Lord. And when one reads in the Word of wine they do not perceive wine but instead of wine spiritual love and the things that belong to that love, which is love towards the neighbour. Accordingly when one reads of pottage or soup they do not perceive pottage or soup but matters of doctrine that are not as yet joined to good, and thus a disordered massing together of them. This shows the essence and character of angels' thought and perception, and how remote these are from man's thought and perception. If a person when in a holy frame of mind were to think as they do - such as during the Holy Supper - and instead of bread were to perceive love to the Lord, and instead of wine love towards the neighbour, his thought and perception would then be similar to the angels' who in that case would draw nearer to him till at length it would be possible for them to share their thoughts with him, though only insofar as good was at the same time present in that person.

[3] That 'pottage' or soup means a massing together may be seen also from what is said about the sons of the prophets and Elisha in the Book of Kings,

Elisha came again to Gilgal, and there was a famine in the land. And the sons of the prophets were sitting before him, and he said to his servant, Set on the great pot, and boil pottage for the sons of the prophets. And one of them went out into the field to gather herbs and found a wild vine, and gathered from it wild gourds his lap full, and came and cut them up into the pot of pottage, for they did not know [what they were]. And they poured out for the men to eat. And it happened, while they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out and said, There is death in the pot, O man of God! And they could not eat it. And he said, Then bring flour. And he threw it into the pot, and said, Pour out for the people. And they ate, and there was no harm in the pot. 2 Kings 4:38-41.

In the internal sense these words have an altogether different meaning from what they do in the sense of the letter, that is to say, 'a famine in the land' means a dearth of cognitions of good and truth, 1460; 'the sons of the prophets' means those who teach, 2543; 'pottage' facts badly massed together; 'flour' truth which is obtained from good, or that which is spiritual obtained from that which is celestial, 2177. Thus the description of Elisha throwing the flour into the pot, at which point it ceased to contain anything harmful, means that those facts, massed together so, were put right by means of spiritual truth from the Lord's Word - for 'Elisha' represented the Lord as to the Word, 2762. Devoid of this spiritual sense the story about the pottage and the change effected by the flour would not have been worthy of mention in the most holy Word. As with the rest of the miracles in the Word, all of which conceal what is Divine within them, this miracle was performed for the sake of representing those things.