43. Verse 22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas; and let birds be multiplied upon the earth.

Everything that has life in it from the Lord is fruitful and multiplies without limit. This does not happen during a person's lifetime, but in the next life it does so to an astonishing extent. In the Word 'to be fruitful' has reference to matters of love, while 'to multiply' has reference to matters of faith. The fruit of love contains the seed by which it multiplies itself to so great an extent. The Lord' s blessing also means, in the Word, fruitfulness and multiplication, for they are the outcome of that blessing.

Verse 23 And there was evening, and there was morning, a fifth day.

2246. 'They went towards Sodom' means concerning the human race which was immersed in such great evil. This is clear from the meaning of 'Sodom' as evil that stems from self-love, dealt with above in 2220, and of 'looking towards the face of Sodom' as towards the state of the human race, 2219. The reason 'Sodom' means the state of the human race which was immersed in such great evil is that Sodom is not used to mean Sodom but all those throughout the world who are governed by self-love; and the description of Sodom represents the state of all who are immersed in that evil, as becomes clear from what follows. The fact that self-love is the source of all evils, and so of evil itself, is clear from what has been stated and shown about it already in 2045, 2057, 2219. This is why it is said here that they were immersed in such great evil.