1672. And the kings that were with him. That this signifies the apparent truth which is of that good, is evident from the signification of “kings” in the Word. “Kings,” “kingdoms,” and “peoples,” in the historical and the prophetical parts of the Word, signify truths and the things which are of truths, as may be abundantly confirmed. In the Word an accurate distinction is made between a “people” and a “nation;” by a “people” are signified truths, and by a “nation” goods, as before shown (n. 1259, 1260). “Kings” are predicated of peoples, but not so much of nations. Before the sons of Israel sought for kings, they were a nation, and represented good, or the celestial; but after they desired a king, and received one, they became a people, and did not represent good or the celestial, but truth or the spiritual; which was the reason why this was imputed to them as a fault (see 1 Samuel 8:7-22, concerning which subject, of the Lord’s Divine mercy elsewhere). As Chedorlaomer is named here, and it is added, “the kings that were with him,” both good and truth are signified; by “Chedorlaomer,” good, and by “the kings,” truth. But what was the quality of the good and truth at the beginning of the Lord’s temptations has already been stated.

7226. 'And Jehovah spoke to Moses and to Aaron' means instruction once again from the law of God and at the same time from doctrinal teachings. This is clear from the meaning of 'speaking to' as instruction once again, for in what follows next they are given instructions about what they are to do; from the representation of 'Moses' as the law of God, dealt with in 6723, 6752; and from the representation of 'Aaron' as teachings presenting what is good and true, dealt with in 6998. For the difference between the law of God and doctrinal teachings, see 7009, 7010, 7089.

6987. 'Who makes man's mouth' means utterance. This is clear from the meaning of 'mouth' as voice, dealt with above in 6985; and since it means voice it means utterance. What the specific meaning of 'mouth' is can be recognized only from correspondence. The mouth including the lips corresponds to inward speech that belongs to thought; and a person's thought is active or passive. Active thought is the thought a person engages in when he is speaking and may be called vocal thought; but passive thought is the thought a person engages in when he is not speaking. The nature of the difference between the two becomes clear to anyone who stops to reflect. 'Man's mouth' means active or vocal thought, and so means utterance.

[2] As regards active thought, meant by 'mouth', it should be recognized that such thought is also in its own kind of way a form of speaking, and that through the activity of this speech it activates the physical organs that correspond to it. Verbal expressions are seemingly present in thought, but that is an illusion; solely the meaning embodied in speech is present there. Man can have scarcely any idea of the nature of such meaning, for it is the speech that his spirit possesses, which is a universal kind of speech such as spirits in the next life employ. When this kind of speech passes into corresponding physical organs it gives rise to speech consisting of words, which is exceedingly different from the thought that produces it. That very great difference is plainly evident from the consideration that a person is able to envisage in a minute what will take him a long time to speak or write about. It would be different if that thought consisted of words such as speech in the mouth consists of. By virtue of the correspondence between speech intrinsically within thought and speech uttered by the mouth a person knows how to talk in the universal language as soon as he comes after death among spirits, and so can talk to any spirits, no matter what language they may have spoken in the world; and by the same virtue, as he talks to them there he is scarcely aware that he is not talking the same way he did in the world. Yet the words of which their speech consists are not words such as a person employs when he is in the body. Rather they are the ideas that have composed his thought, and one idea contains very much detail within it. Spirits are therefore able to declare in an instant what man can scarcely express in half an hour; and there is still more contained in the same idea, such as cannot find expression in physical speech.

[3] Yet angels in heaven speak in a different way from spirits. Angels in heaven possess speech consisting of intellectual concepts, which are called immaterial ideas by philosophers, whereas spirits possess speech consisting of mental pictures, which are called material ideas. Consequently one idea belonging to angels' thought contains very much that spirits cannot fully describe even with very many lines of thought, in addition to much that they cannot begin to express. But when a spirit becomes an angel he uses angelic speech, just as a person uses spirits' speech when he becomes a spirit after death, and for a similar reason. From all this one may now see what active thought is - that it is the speech a person's spirit possesses.