The Bible generally uses two different terms for large groups: “people” and “nations.” When it uses “nation,” it is talking about a group with the desire for good as its ultimate underlying motivation; when it uses the term “people” it is talking about a group whose deep motivation is to seek true ideas and concepts. As with all symbolism in the Bible, this can be also used in a negative sense, to describe groups with the lust for evil or those driven by false concepts. It can also be used in the abstract, with “nation” representing desires for good themselves and “people” representing true ideas themselves. In a way, these meanings make sense if we look at the two words themselves. “People” brings to mind a collection of individuals, and that is somewhat how it is with ideas -- you can have many of them that inter-relate, but also stand somewhat on their own, individually. “Nation” is a more unified term, reflecting the way that a desire for good tends to unify other feelings.

The spiritual meaning of "sink" is relatively easy to see: It means to descend into lower spiritual states, especially into states where false reasoning and the desire for evil predominate. This can represent a permanent state for those confirmed in evil living in hell, and it can also represent states of temptation we all go through repeatedly, when our our desires to be good and our true beliefs from the Lord come under attack from the desire for evil and false reasoning. "Sinking," of course, often has to do with water. Water usually represents natural truth, or true ideas about day-to-day life. But in the reverse sense it can also represent falsity, twisted logic that assaults our belief.