Pots" and other large vessels in the Bible represent facts and factual ideas, which serve as containers for truth the same way pots serve as containers for water or wine. Pots fill their function because they are hard, strong and impervious; facts are also absolute and unchanging, filling their function the same way. And pots must be filled to serve any use, just as facts must be filled with truth to serve any purpose. To some extent this meaning also applies to cups, bowls and other smaller vessels, though it is a little more immediate. Generally you don't fill a cup so you can store a liquid; you fill it to drink it. Smaller vessels then often take more of their meaning from the substance they contain, and in many cases ("cup" and "wine" especially) actually mean the same thing.

3926. 'A second son to Jacob' means a second general truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'son' as truth, dealt with in 489, 491, 533, 1147, a general truth being meant at this point, as is clear from what has been stated and shown above concerning the twelve sons of Jacob and concerning the twelve tribes named after them; that is to say, the general aspects of the Church, and consequently the general aspects of faith and love, or of truth and good, are meant and represented by those sons. They also mean in the contrary sense every general aspect of that which is not faith or love, that is, every aspect of falsity and evil, as will be evident from what is said further on.