3266. 'These are the names of the sons of Ishmael' means the essential characteristics of those people's forms of doctrine, that is to say, of those who are spiritual. This is clear from the meaning of 'name' as the essential nature, dealt with in 144, 145, 1754, 1896, 2009, 2724, 3006, from the meaning of 'sons' as truths, and also matters of doctrine, dealt with in 489, 491, 533, 1147, 2623, and from the representation of 'Ishmael' as those who are spiritual, dealt with above in 3263.

533. Since nothing further is mentioned about Lamech apart from the fact that be beget sons and daughters, who are the conceptions and births of such a Church, there is no need to pause any longer over him. What these births, or sons and daughters, were, becomes clear from the Church, for the character of a Church determines that of its offspring. Both those Churches called Methuselah and Lamech breathed their last just before the flood.