7296. 'And Pharaoh also called the wise men and sorcerers' means a misuse of Divine order. This is clear from the meaning of 'the wise men' as those with a knowledge of spiritual realities and of their correspondence with natural things; (since these things were of a mystical nature those who studied and taught them were called 'the wise' among them. And because the Egyptians devoted themselves to such things they called themselves 'a son of the wise' and 'a son of the kings of old', as is evident in Isaiah,

How do you say to Pharaoh, I am a son of the wise, a son of the kings of old?

The Egyptians called a body of knowledge about spiritual realities wisdom, as did the Chaldeans also, Jeremiah 50:35;) and from the meaning of 'sorcerers' as those who pervert Divine order, thus those who pervert the laws of order. The fact that sorcery and magic have no other meaning than this may be recognized from sorcerers and magicians in the next life, where there are large numbers of them. For people who during their lifetime have used guile and devised many tricks to cheat others, and being successful have at length attributed all things to their own prudence, acquire a knowledge in the next life of magical practices. These are nothing but misuses of Divine order, especially of correspondences; for Divine order requires that every single thing should possess some correspondence. Hands, arms, and shoulders, for example, correspond to power, and therefore a rod does so too; and knowing this they fashion rods for themselves and also, in representative form, produce shoulders, arms, and hands, and then use them to exercise magical power. They can do the same with thousands of other things. A misuse of order and of correspondences exists when things that belong to order are not applied to good ends but to evil ones, for example to exercising control over others and bringing about their destruction; for salvation, thus the doing of good to all, is the end that order holds in view. From this one may see what one is to understand by a misuse of order, meant by 'the sorcerers'.

The meaning of "to seek" in the Bible is pretty straightforward, but there is a bit of nuance. In most cases "seek" or "look for" is connected with truth and knowledge, where "desire" is connected with love and affection. This makes sense; the idea of "seeking" is connected to sight, and sight corresponds to our intellect and capacity to understand truth.

(Odkazy: Apocalypse Explained 550; Apocalypse Revealed 429; Arcana Coelestia 4719, 6770, 6771, 7021, 8298)

3767. 'And behold, three droves of a flock there, lying nearby it' means the holy things that constitute the Churches and their matters of doctrine. This is clear from the meaning of 'three' as that which is holy, dealt with in 720, 901, and from the meaning of 'droves of a flock' as the things that constitute a Church, and so as matters of doctrine. Specifically 'a flock' means people who are within the Church, and who are learning and being endued with forms of good which are the goods of charity and forms of truth which are the truths of faith. In this case 'a shepherd' means one who teaches those things. In general however 'a flock' means all people who are governed by good and so belong to the Lord's Church throughout the whole world. And since they are all led into what is good and true by means of matters of doctrine, therefore 'a flock' also means matters of doctrine. For the things which make a person such, and the person himself who is such, are both meant in the internal sense by the same expression. For one's understanding of the subject - which in this case is the human being - begins with knowing what makes anyone a human being.

[2] This is why it is stated many times that names mean real things and also the people with whom these real things exist. For example, 'Tyre and Sidon' means cognitions concerning what is good and true and also the people who possess those cognitions. 'Egypt' means knowledge and 'Asshur' reasoning, but these names are used at the same time to mean people with whom that knowledge or reasoning is present. And the same is so with every other name. But speech among angels in heaven is composed of real things that do not involve any concept of persons, and so is composed of universal ideas. The reason for this is that in this way they include countless things in what they say, and in particular for the reason that they attribute everything good and true to the Lord and nothing to themselves. Consequently the ideas which compose their kind of speech know no limits except insofar as those ideas involve the Lord. From these considerations it is now evident why 'a flock' is said to mean the Churches and also their matters of doctrine. 'Droves of a flock' are said to be 'lying nearby the well' because the Word is the source of matters of doctrine - 'a well' meaning the Word, as stated just above in 3765.