1165. In the Word 'Mizraim' or Egypt means knowledge, that is, various facts, by which people wish to probe into the arcana of faith and so confirm the false assumptions acquired in that way. 'Mizraim' also means simply knowledge, and so knowledge that is useful. This is clear not only from the places just quoted but also from very many others which would fill up page after page if they were all included. See Isaiah 19:1-end; Isaiah 30:1-3; 31:1-3; Jeremiah 2:18, 36; Jeremiah 42:14-end; Jeremiah 46:1-end; Ezekiel 16:26; 23:3; Ezekiel 29:1-end; Ezekiel 30:1-end; Hosea 7:11; 9:3, 6; 11:1, 5, 11; Micah 7:12 [NCBS: 7:15]; Zechariah 10:10-11; Psalms 80:8 and following verses.

9150. 'And it is taken away by theft out of the man's house' means the loss of them from there. This is clear from the meaning of 'theft' as taking away the kinds of things that compose a person's spiritual life, and therefore taking away the truths and factual knowledge meant by 'silver and vessels', 9149; and from the meaning of 'house' as the place where something is stored. So it is that 'house' has various meanings, such as the Church, what is good there, also a person, as well as both levels of the human mind, the natural level and the rational; but at this point it means the memory, because truths and factual knowledge reside in it as in their own house. Regarding 'house' and its various meanings, see 3128, 3142, 3538, 3652, 3720, 3900, 4973, 4982, 5023, 5640, 6690, 7353, 7848, 7929.