8185. 'And let the children of Israel come into the middle of the sea on dry ground' means in order that those belonging to the spiritual Church may pass through in safety and without falsity flowing in. This is clear from the meaning of 'coming into (or entering) the middle' as passing through; from the representation of 'the children of Israel' as those belonging to the spiritual Church, dealt with often; and from the meaning of 'on dry ground' as in safety and without falsity flowing in. Falsities arising from evil are meant by 'the waters' of that sea, 8137, 8138, and therefore 'dry ground' means without falsity. 'Dry' and 'drying up' have a similar meaning in David,

You broke in pieces the heads of Leviathan, You split open fountain and river, You dried up rivers of strength. Psalms 74:14-15.

'Drying up rivers of strength' stands for dispersing quite powerful falsities.

[2] In Zechariah,

I will gather them, for I will redeem them. I will bring them back from the land of Egypt, and gather them from Assyria. And I will bring them to the land of Gilead and Lebanon. He will go through the sea of distress; but he will strike the waves in the sea, and dry up all the depths of the River. And the pride of Asshur will be thrown down, and the rod of Egypt will depart. And I will render them strong in Jehovah. Zechariah 10:8-end.

This refers to those who in spiritual matters trust in themselves and their own wisdom, also to the dispersing of falsities through temptations. 'The land of Egypt' stands for factual knowledge; 'Assyria' stands for reasonings based on that knowledge; 'going through the sea of distress' stands for temptations; 'striking the waves in the sea, and drying up the depths of the River' stands for dispersing falsities from there; and 'the pride of Asshur will be thrown down, and the rod of Egypt will depart' stands for trusting no longer in their own wisdom but in wisdom received from the Lord, which is meant by 'I will render them strong in Jehovah'.

[3] Likewise in Isaiah,

He who says to Jerusalem, You will be dwelt in, and to the cities of Judah, You will be built, and I will raise up her waste places. He who says to the abyss, Be dry! and I will dry up your rivers. Isaiah 44:26-27.

'Saying to the abyss, Be dry!' and 'drying up its rivers' stand for dispersing evils and falsities. But when 'waters' means truths, 'drying up' means a state that is truthless or devoid of truth, as in Isaiah,

I will pour out waters upon the thirsty land, and streams upon the dry. Isaiah 44:3.

'Waters' and 'streams' stand for truths, 'the dry land' for the place that is truthless.

[4] In Jeremiah,

O sword against the Chaldeans and against the inhabitants of Babel! O sword against its horses and against its chariots! A drought on its waters, in order that they may dry up! Jeremiah 50:35, 37-38.

'The Chaldeans' stands for those who render truths profane, and 'the inhabitants of Babel' for those who render forms of good profane, 1182, 1283, 1295, 1304, 1306-1308, 1321, 1322, 1326. 'Sword' stands for truth fighting against falsity, or for falsity fighting against truth, and from this for vastation, 2799, 4499, 6353, 7102; 'horses' stands for the power of understanding, 2761, 2762, 3217, 5321, 6125, 6534; 'chariots' stands for doctrinal teachings, 5321, 8146, 8148; and 'a drought on its waters, in order that they may dry up' stands for truths with no life at all in them owing to falsification.

But when the expressions 'dry' or 'drying up' are used in the Word in connection with other things, such as trees, plants, harvest, or bones, those things take on a contrary meaning. Also, in relation to the sea actual land is called the dry land; and in that case 'the dry land' has reference to good, and 'the sea' to truth.

1008. 'Requiring the soul of man' is avenging profanation. This is clear from what has been stated in the previous verse and in the present one, for the subject is the eating of blood, which means profanation. Few know what profanation is, still less what the penalty for it may be in the next life. Profanation takes many forms. A person who totally denies the truths of faith does not profane them any more than gentiles do who live outside of the Church and outside of all knowledge of them. That person profanes however who does know the truths of faith, and still more one who acknowledges them, bears them on his lips, proclaims them, and persuades others of the truth of them, while at the same time he leads a life of hatred, revenge, cruelty, robbery, and adultery, and confirms such behaviour in himself by many statements which he scrapes together from the Word. He profanes by perverting the truths of faith, and so immerses them in those foul deeds. This is the person who profanes, and these are the things that above all else spell death to a person. That they spell death becomes clear from the fact that in the next life unholy things are completely separated from holy, the unholy being in hell, and the holy in heaven. When this type of person enters the next life, every idea within his thought contains holy things clinging to unholy, as it was during his lifetime. There he is unable to produce one idea of what is holy without the unholy that clings to it being seen clear as daylight; for such perception of another person's ideas exists in the next life. So in every detail of his thinking profanation manifests itself, and because heaven has such a horror of profanation he is inevitably forced down into hell.

[2] The nature of ideas is hardly known to anyone. People imagine that there is nothing complex about them, when in fact every idea within thought contains countless elements variously linked together so as to produce a certain form and consequent picture image of the person, the whole of which is perceived and even seen with the eyes in the next life. Take this merely as an example: When the idea of a place comes to mind - whether of a region, or a city, or a house - the idea and an image of all the things the person has ever done in that place crop up at the same time, and spirits and angels see them all. Or, if the idea of somebody whom he has hated presents itself, the idea of all he has thought, said, and done against that person arises at the same time. The same applies to ideas of all things, but when these present themselves every single detail that he has conceived of and impressed upon himself regarding a particular matter becomes apparent. For instance, if he has been an adulterer, when the idea of marriage crops up, all the muck and filth of adultery, even of thought about it, does so too, likewise all the arguments used to confirm adulterous practices, whether based on the evidence of the senses, or on rational grounds, or on the Word. And the way in which he has adulterated and perverted the truths of the Word crops up too.

[3] Furthermore, the idea of one thing merges into the idea of the next and colours it just as a tiny quantity of black placed in water darkens the whole volume of water. Consequently a spirit is recognized by his ideas, and what is remarkable, each one of his ideas bears his own image or likeness. When such an idea is presented visually it is so ugly that it is horrible to look at. All this makes clear the nature of the state of people who profane holy things, and the image they present in the next life. But people who in simplicity have believed statements made in the Word can never be said to profane holy things, not even if they have believed statements which are not literally true; for what is said in the Word is expressed in accordance with appearances, about which see 589.