8343. 'The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea' means that as a result simply of His presence falsities in faith and evils in life cast themselves into hell. This is clear from the meaning of 'horse and rider' as falsities arising from evil, dealt with in 8146, 8148; and from the meaning of 'throwing into the sea' as into hell, dealt with in 8099, 8137, 8138. As regards its happening as a result simply of the Lord's presence, see 8137 (end), 8265. The reason for saying that the falsities and evils cast themselves into hell is that falsities and evils themselves are what are cast into hell, and these drag down with them the people to whom they cling. For through evil in life a person becomes a form of the falsity that arises from evil; consequently when evils themselves accompanied by falsities are thrown down, forms to which they cling are dragged down together with them. Falsities and evils are emanations from the hells, flowing in among those who through evils in life have made their inner selves into forms that receive those emanations, since everything composing thought and will flows in, what is good from heaven, but what is bad from hell, see 2886-2888, 4151, 4249, 5846, 6189, 6191, 6193, 6203, 6206, 6213, 6324, 6325, 7147, 7343. These then are the reasons for saying that the falsities in faith and evils in life cast themselves into hell. On account of this when angels think and talk about the hells they think and talk about falsities and evils completely separate from the inhabitants there; for angels always banish ideas that focus on persons and confine themselves to those that focus on things, 5225, 5287, 5434.

8138. 'In Pharaoh and in all his army' means the submersion into hell of those steeped in falsities arising from evil, and their encompassment there by falsities as if by waters. This is clear from what has been mentioned immediately above in 8137, that 'Pharaoh' means those who were cast into hell, as also does 'his army', 'Pharaoh' being those steeped in falsities arising from evil, and 'his army' the falsities themselves. 'Armies' are truths springing from good, see 3448, 7236, 7988, and therefore in the contrary sense they are falsities arising from evil, 3448. The expression 'encompassment by falsities as if by waters' is used because falsities that arise from evil - the kind of falsities that exist with those belonging to the Church who have championed separated faith and have led a life of evil - are seen there as waters, 8137. This also is why deluges of water mean situations in which truth is laid waste while the water present in them means falsities, 705, 739, 756, 6346, 6853.