8278. The abysses have covered them. That this signifies that falsities from cupidities have enveloped them, is evident from the signification of “the abysses,” as being falsities which are from cupidities. By “abysses” in the Word are meant waters and abundance of waters in the deeps; and by “waters” in a good sense are signified truths, and in the opposite sense falsities (see n. 739, 790, 2702, 3058, 3424, 4976, 5668), and by “deeps” are signified the hells. Hence it is that “abysses” denote falsities from cupidities; also that they denote the hells. That by “abysses” in the Word are meant waters in the deeps and abundance of waters, is evident in Ezekiel:

The waters made the cedar to grow, the abyss made it high; so that with its rivers it went round thy plant, and it sent out water-channels unto all the trees of the field (Ezekiel 31:4).

He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and made them drink the great abysses; He brought forth streams out of the rock, and made the waters to come down like streams (Psalms 78:15-16).

A good land, a land of rivers of water, of fountains and abysses, going forth from valley and from mountain (Deuteronomy 8:7).

In these passages “abysses” denote waters in abundance; and waters in abundance, or “abysses,” denote truths of faith in abundance. “He made them to drink great abysses out of the rock” denotes that He made them receive truths of faith without lack, for “rock” denotes faith from the Lord, thus the Lord as to faith; “the abysses going forth from valley and from mountain” denote truths of faith from love. Consequently also among the blessings of Joseph were “blessings of the abyss that lieth beneath” (Genesis 49:25; Deuteronomy 33:13).

[2] That “abysses” denote falsities from cupidities, consequently also the hells, is evident in Isaiah:

Awake, as in the days of old, the generations of eternity; dost Thou not dry up the sea, the waters of the great abyss, and make the depths of the sea for a way, that the redeemed may pass over? (Isaiah 51:9-10).

Jehovah who cleft asunder the waters before them, who led them through the abysses, like a horse in the wilderness; they stumbled not (Isaiah 63:12-13).

Thus said the Lord Jehovih, When I shall make thee a desolate city, like the cities that are not inhabited; when I shall make the abyss to come up against thee, and many waters shall cover thee (Ezekiel 26:19).

I saw a star from heaven fallen to the earth, to which was given the key of the pit of the abyss, and he opened the pit of the abyss (Revelation 9:1-2, 11).

The beast that cometh up out of the abyss made war with them (Revelation 11:7).

The beast that thou sawest was, and is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss, and go into perdition (Revelation 17:8).

In these passages the “abyss” denotes the hells, thus also falsities from cupidities, for these are in the hells and make them.

[3] As these things are signified by “abysses,” by them are also signified temptations, for temptations are effected by means of falsities and evils that are injected by the hells. In this sense “abyss” is used in Jonah:

The waters compassed me about, even to the soul; the abyss was round about me (Jonah 2:5).

Abyss crieth unto abyss at the voice of thy water-channels; all thy breakers and thy waves have passed over me (Psalms 42:7).

Who hast shown me many and evil straitnesses, return and quicken me, and make me return and come up from the abysses of the earth (Psalms 71:20).

28. Verse 10. And God called the dry [land] earth, and the gathering together of the waters called He seas; and God saw that it was good. It is a very common thing in the Word for “waters” to signify knowledges [cognitiones et scientifica], and consequently for “seas” to signify a collection of knowledges. As in Isaiah:

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

And in the same Prophet, where a lack of knowledges [cognitionum et scientificorum] is treated of:

The waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be dried up and become utterly dry, and the streams shall recede (Isaiah 19:5-6).

In Haggai, speaking of a new church:

I will shake the heavens and the earth, and the sea and the dry [land]; and I will shake all nations; and the desire of all nations shall come; and I will fill this house with glory (Haggai 2:6-7).

And concerning man in the process of regeneration, in Zechariah:

There shall be one day, it is known to Jehovah; not day, nor night; but it shall come to pass that at evening time it shall be light; and it shall be in that day that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem, part of them toward the eastern sea, and part of them toward the hinder sea (Zechariah 14:7-8).David also, describing a vastated man who is to be regenerated and who will worship the Lord:

Jehovah despiseth not His prisoners; let the heavens and the earth praise Him, the seas and everything that creepeth therein (Psalms 69:33-34).

That the “earth” signifies a recipient, appears from Zechariah:

Jehovah stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man in the midst of him (Zechariah 12:1).