Arcana Coelestia #42
42. Verse 21 And God created the great sea monsters, and every living creature that creeps, which the waters produced abundantly according to their kinds; and all winged birds according to their kinds; and God saw that it was good.
As has been stated, 'fish' means facts, here facts quickened and brought to life through faith from the Lord. 'Sea monsters' means those facts' general sources, below which and from which details derive. Nothing whatever exists in the universe that does not depend on some general source for its commencement and continuance. In the Prophets sea monsters or whales are mentioned several times, and in those places they mean those general sources of facts. Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, who represents human wisdom or intelligence - that is, knowledge in general - is called 'a great sea monster', as in Ezekiel,
Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great monster lying in the midst of his 1 rivers, who has said, It is my river and I have made myself. Ezekiel 29:3.
[2] And elsewhere in Ezekiel,
Raise a lamentation over Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and say to him, You are like a monster in the seas, and you have come forth in your rivers, and have troubled the waters with your feet. Ezekiel 32:2
These words mean people who wish to penetrate the mysteries that are part of faith by means of facts, and so from themselves. In Isaiah,
On that day Jehovah will make a visitation with His hard and great and strong sword upon Leviathan the full-length serpent, 2 and upon Leviathan the twisting serpent, and He will slay the monsters that are in the sea. Isaiah 27:1.
'Slaying the monsters in the sea' means preventing people's knowing facts even in their general aspects. In Jeremiah,
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babel has devoured me, he has troubled me, he has made me an empty vessel, he has swallowed me up like a sea monster, he has filled his belly with my delicacies, he has cast me out. Jeremiah 51:34.
This stands for the fact that mankind did swallow cognitions of faith, which are 'the delicacies' here, just as the sea monster swallowed up Jonah. In that story the sea monster stands for people who treat general cognitions of faith as mere facts, and behave accordingly.
Footnotes:
1. The Latin means your; but the Hebrew means his which Swedenborg has in other places where he quotes this verse.
2. i.e. a serpent that is on the move and not coiled up
Genesis 10
1
Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood.
2
The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras.
3
And the sons of Gomer; Ashkenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah.
4
And the sons of Javan; Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim.
5
By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations.
6
And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan.
7
And the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtecha: and the sons of Raamah; Sheba, and Dedan.
8
And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth.
9
He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD.
10
And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.
11
Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah,
12
And Resen between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city.
13
And Mizraim begat Ludim, and Anamim, and Lehabim, and Naphtuhim,
14
And Pathrusim, and Casluhim, (out of whom came Philistim,) and Caphtorim.
15
And Canaan begat Sidon his firstborn, and Heth,
16
And the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgasite,
17
And the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite,
18
And the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite: and afterward were the families of the Canaanites spread abroad.
19
And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as thou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza; as thou goest, unto Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboim, even unto Lasha.
20
These are the sons of Ham, after their families, after their tongues, in their countries, and in their nations.
21
Unto Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth the elder, even to him were children born.
22
The children of Shem; Elam, and Asshur, and Arphaxad, and Lud, and Aram.
23
And the children of Aram; Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Mash.
24
And Arphaxad begat Salah; and Salah begat Eber.
25
And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided; and his brother's name was Joktan.
26
And Joktan begat Almodad, and Sheleph, and Hazar-maveth, and Jerah,
27
And Hadoram, and Uzal, and Diklah,
28
And Obal, and Abimael, and Sheba,
29
And Ophir, and Havilah, and Jobab: all these were the sons of Joktan.
30
And their dwelling was from Mesha, as thou goest unto Sephar a mount of the east.
31
These are the sons of Shem, after their families, after their tongues, in their lands, after their nations.
32
These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations: and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.
