2089. Twelve princes shall he beget. That this signifies the primary precepts which are of charity, is evident from the signification of “twelve,” as being all things of faith; and from the signification of “princes,” as being primary things. “King” and “princes” are mentioned in various parts of the Word; but in the internal sense they never signify king or princes, but the primary things of the matter in connection with which they are mentioned. (That “kings” signify truths in one complex has been already shown, n. 2015; also that “princes” are the primaries of truth, which are precepts, n. 1482.) Hence the angels-in fact the spiritual angels-are called “principalities,” because they are in truths. The term “princes” is predicated from the truths which are of charity; for, as before said (n. 1832), the spiritual, by means of the truths that appear to them as truths, receive charity from the Lord, and through this, conscience.

[2] That “twelve” signifies all the things of faith, has been hitherto unknown to the world; and yet whenever the number “twelve” occurs in the Word, whether in the historic or the prophetic part, it signifies nothing else. By the “twelve sons” of Jacob, and derivatively by the “twelve tribes” named from them, the same is signified; and also by the “twelve disciples” of the Lord. Each son of Jacob, and each of the twelve disciples, represented an essential and primary of faith. (What was represented by each son of Jacob, and so by each tribe, will of the Lord’s Divine mercy be told in what follows, where the sons of Jacob are treated of, Genesis 29 and 30.)

120. As by “Egypt” so also by “Euphrates” are signified memory-knowledges [scientiae seu scientifica], and also the sensuous things from which these knowledges come. This is evident from the Word in the Prophets, as in Micah:

My she-enemy hath said, Where is Jehovah thy God? The day in which He shall build thy walls [macerias], that day shall the decree be far removed; that day also He shall come even to thee from Asshur, and to the cities of Egypt, and to the river [Euphrates] (Micah 7:10-12).

So did the prophets speak concerning the coming of the Lord who should regenerate man so that he might become like the celestial man.

In Jeremiah:

What hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? Or what hast thou to do in the way of Asshur, to drink the waters of the river [Euphrates]? (Jeremiah 2:18), where “Egypt” and “Euphrates” likewise signify memory-knowledges, and “Asshur” reasonings thence derived.

In David:

Thou hast made a vine to go forth out of Egypt; Thou hast cast out the nations; Thou hast planted her; Thou hast sent out her shoots even to the sea, and her twigs to the river (Euphrates) (Psalms 80:8, 11), where also the “river Euphrates” signifies what is sensuous and of the memory [sensuali et scientifico]. For the Euphrates was the boundary of the dominions of Israel toward Assyria, as the knowledge of the memory is the boundary of the intelligence and wisdom of the spiritual and celestial man. The same is signified by what was said to Abraham:

Unto thy seed will I give this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates (Genesis 15:18).

These two boundaries have a like signification.