7766. 'One more plague I will bring onto Pharaoh and onto Egypt' means the final stage of vastation, which is damnation. This is clear from the meaning of 'one more plague' as the last stage of vastation. It is evident from the explanation of what has gone before that the plagues brought onto Egypt meant consecutive states of vastation. The fact that the last stage is damnation - the damnation of faith separated from charity - will be evident from what is to follow; for the killing in Egypt of the firstborn means the damnation of that faith, 'death' being damnation and 'the firstborn' faith. Faith is said to be damned when matters of faith are used to support falsities and evils. When used in support of these, matters of faith go over to their side and become endorsements of them. This happens with those who separate faith from charity in both doctrine and life. But no faith in fact resides with them, only knowledge of such things as are matters of faith, though they call that knowledge faith. This is what one should understand by faith that is damned. Furthermore the people themselves in whom such matters of faith have been linked to falsities and evils end up in damnation after undergoing stages of vastation. Their damnation is made perceptible by the rotten and foul stink that emanates from them, worse than any emitted by those who have never subscribed to matters of faith. Their situation in particular is the same as that which arises in a general way. Generally, if an evil spirit approaches a heavenly community, where charity exists, its inhabitants smell plainly the foul stink emanating from him. They do so in particular situations in which such things as belong to heaven, that is, matters of faith, have co-existed in a person with such things as belong to hell. From all this it is now evident that 'one more plague which will be brought onto Pharaoh and onto Egypt' means the last stage of vastation, which is damnation. For 'Pharaoh' represents those who have been molesters, at this point those who are damned, and 'Egypt' means the natural mind, 5276, 5278, 5280, 5288, 5301, 6147, 6252.

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.