6729. 'And the daughter of Pharaoh went down' means the kind of religion practised there. This is clear from the meaning of 'the daughter' as an affection for truth and good, and from this as the Church, dealt with in 2362, 3963, and in the contrary sense as an affection for falsity and evil, and from this as the kind of religion that springs from them, 3024. Here the kind of religion that springs from false factual knowledge is meant because the daughter is Pharaoh's; for 'Pharaoh' here represents false factual knowledge, 6651, 6679, 6683, 6692. In the Word Churches are meant by 'daughters', as may be recognized from the very many places in which the Church is called the daughter of Zion, and the daughter of Jerusalem. The false religions of quite a number of nations are also meant by 'daughters', as is evident from the places where those religions are called daughters, for example, the daughter of Tyre, Psalms 45:12; the daughter of Edom, Lamentations 4:22; the daughter of the Chaldeans and of Babel, Isaiah 47:1, 5; Jeremiah 50:41-42; Jeremiah 51:33; Zechariah 2:7, Psalms 137:8; the daughter of the Philistines, Ezekiel 16:27, 57; the daughter of Tarshish, Isaiah 23:10. 'The daughter of Egypt' is spoken of in Jeremiah,

Go up to Gilead and take balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt! Make for yourself vessels of migration, O inhabitant daughter of Egypt! The daughter of Egypt has been put to shame; she has been delivered into the hand of the people from the north. Jeremiah 46:11, 19, 24.

'The daughter of Egypt' stands for an affection for reasoning that relies, since a negative attitude of mind reigns, on factual knowledge - reasoning whether the truths of faith are indeed true. Thus she stands for the kind of religion which springs from that reasoning, a religion in which there is no belief in anything except what is false.

10503. 'And they have made gods of gold for themselves' means, and they cultivate a hellish delight. This is clear from the meaning of 'making gods for themselves' as cultivating; and from the meaning of 'gold' as delight belonging to external kinds of love, thus delight that is hellish, dealt with above in 10402. Four kinds of idols are mentioned in the Word - those made of stone, those made of wood, those made of silver, and those made of gold. Idols made of stone served to mean a cult consisting of falsities contained in religious teachings, and those made of wood a cult consisting of evils contained in them; idols made of silver served to mean the cult of what was false in both teachings and life, and those made of gold the cult of what was evil in both. Consequently idols made of gold served to mean the worst cult of all. Those who practised it not only falsified truths but also adulterated forms of good; for they called evils forms of good, and resulting falsities truths. All people who are ruled by self-love and nevertheless believe the Word practise this cult; for they use the literal sense of the Word to lend support to everything they think and do, thus to the cult or worship of themselves.