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:

9484. Verses 10-16 And they are to make an ark of shittim wood; two cubits and a half shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height. And you shall overlay it with pure gold, on the inside and on the outside you shall overlay it; and you shall make on it a rim of gold round about. And you shall cast four rings of gold for it, and put them on its four corners; and two rings shall be on one side of it and two rings on the other side of it. And you shall make poles of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold. And you shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, to carry the ark on them. The poles must be in the rings of the ark; they must not be removed from it. And you shall put into the ark the Testimony which I shall give you.

'And they are to make an ark' means the inmost heaven. 'Of shittim wood' means righteousness. 'Two cubits and a half shall be its length' means all so far as good is concerned. 'And a cubit and a half its breadth' means what is complete so far as truth is concerned. 'And a cubit and a half its height' means what is complete so far as degrees are concerned. 'And you shall overlay it with pure gold' means that all those aspects must be founded on good. 'On the inside and on the outside you shall overlay it' means everywhere. 'And you shall make on it a rim of gold round about' means a border of good, serving to defend them from the approach of evils and the harm these can do. 'And you shall cast four rings of gold for it' means Divine Truth joined to Divine Good, which lie in every direction round about. 'And put them on its four corners' means firmness. 'And two rings shall be on one side of it and two rings on the other side of it' means the marriage of truth to good and of good to truth. 'And you shall make poles of shittim wood' means power derived from this. 'And overlay them with gold' means good in all directions. 'And you shall put the poles into the rings' means the power of the Divine sphere. 'On the sides of the ark' means in the outermost parts. 'To carry the ark on them' means thereby bringing heaven into being and keeping it in being. 'The poles must be in the rings of the ark' means that the power must be established by the Divine sphere of goodness and truth. 'They must not be removed from it' means everlastingly and unalterably so. 'And you shall put into the ark the Testimony' means Divine Truth, which is the Lord in heaven. 'Which I shall give you' means its representative.