9817. 'And you shall speak to all the wise at heart' means an influx from the Lord through the Word into all who are governed by the good of love. This is clear from the meaning of 'speaking' as influx, dealt with in 2951, 5481, 5743, 5797, 7270; and from the meaning of 'the wise at heart' as those who are governed by the good of love, dealt with below. The reason why influx from the Lord through the Word is meant is that for members of the Church the main channel by which the Lord flows in is the Word. This is so because the nature of the Word is such that all things without exception there correspond to the Divine spiritual and Divine celestial realities that exist in the heavens; and as a result of this a person shares affections and thoughts with angels, in so complete a manner that he and they are seemingly one. So it is that the world has been joined to heaven through the Word, but only among those who are governed by the good of faith and love. From all this it becomes clear that for members of the Church the Lord flows in through the Word; for the Lord is the all in the heavens, since what is Divine and emanates from the Lord, and is received by angels, composes heaven.

[2] The reason why 'the wise at heart' means those who are governed by the good of love is that the presence of wisdom in a person is attributable to the life of heaven in him, also that 'heart' means the good of love. In the Word 'spirit' and 'heart' are expressions that have regard to the life of heaven present with a person, 'spirit' being used to mean that life in the understanding part of the person's mind and 'heart' that life in the will part. To the understanding part belongs truth, but to the will part belongs good; the former has to do with faith, but the latter with love. For the understanding receives truths that constitute faith, and the will forms of good that are aspects of love. From this it is evident that by 'the wise at heart' those governed by the good of love received from the Lord are meant. The good of love is celestial good, through which spiritual good comes into being; and spiritual good is that which covers celestial good, like garments the body. And since Aaron's garments represented the Lord's spiritual kingdom lying adjacent to His celestial kingdom, and the former comes into being through the latter, the present verse goes on to say that 'the wise at heart', that is, those governed by the good of love received from the Lord, should make the garments for Aaron and his sons. As regards 'heart', that it means the good of love or celestial good, see 3635, 3880, 3883-3896, 9050; and that it therefore means the will, 2930, 3888, 7542, 8910, 9113, 9300, 9495.

793. From this point onwards to the end of the present chapter the subject is the people before the Flood who perished. This becomes clear from the details in the description given. People who possess the internal sense can recognize instantly, and indeed from any single word, what the subject is, better still from the combination of many. When the subject changes different words instantly appear, or else the same words combined differently. The reason is that some words are peculiar to spiritual matters, others peculiar to celestial; or what amounts to the same, some are peculiar to things of the understanding, others to those of the will. For example, 'desolation' is a word used of spiritual things, 'vastation' of celestial; 'city' is used of spiritual, 'mountain' of celestial; and so on. The same applies to combinations of words. And what is bound to amaze everybody, the difference in Hebrew is frequently just a matter of vocalization. In what belongs to the class of spiritual words the first three vowels [of the alphabet] are normally prominent, but in the case of what is celestial the last two. The fact that these verses contain a different subject is also discernible from the repetition discussed already. That is to say, the statement, 'And the waters grew stronger and stronger over the earth', is a repetition of what has already been stated in the previous verse. It is also discernible from everything that follows.