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:

510. And as it were a great mountain burning with fire.- That this signifies the love of self, and thence of [one's] own intelligence, is evident from the signification of a mountain burning with fire, which denotes the love of self and thence the love of [one's] own intelligence. The reason why this love is signified by the mountain here named, is, that a mountain, in the Word, signifies love in both senses, or celestial love and infernal love, as may be seen above (n. 405); fire has a similar signification. See also above (n. 504). The subject here dealt with is the evil, who were to be separated from the good, and cast into hell, and with these, all truth is turned into falsity by means of that love. This effect resulting from the mountain cast into the sea, is described in what follows; for the mountain cast into the sea, whence the third part of the sea became blood, signifies, that in the natural man everything was changed into the falsity of evil. It is therefore evident, that here the great mountain burning with fire signifies the love of self, and thence the love of [man's] own intelligence; for all man's own intelligence is from the love of self.

[2] The reason why a mountain means love in both senses, is, that the angels of the third heaven, who are in celestial love, dwell upon mountains in the spiritual world; when therefore a mountain is mentioned, that heaven is meant, and, according, to the ideas of angelic thought, which are abstracted from persons and places, celestial love which makes that heaven is meant. But the reason why a mountain in the opposite sense, signifies the love of self, is, that those who are in the love of self continually desire to ascend mountains, by making themselves equal to those who are in the third heaven. Because they revolve this in their imagination they also attempt it while they are out of the hells; for this reason a mountain, in the opposite sense, signifies the love of self. In a word, those who are in the love of self always aspire after high things, therefore, after death, when all the states of the love are changed into things correspondent, they also in imagination mount on high, believing themselves, while in such state of imagination, to be upon lofty mountains, although, with the body, they are in the hells.

[3] Hence it is that those who are of Babylon, and are in such love of self as to desire not only to rule over all the earth, but also over the heavens, are called in the Word mountains, and are said to sit upon a mountain, and to ascend above the heights of the clouds. Thus it is said in Jeremiah:

"Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, which destroyest all the earth; and I will stretch out my hand against thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a mountain of burning" (51:25).

And in Isaiah:

"For thou hast said in thy heart, I will ascend the heavens, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, I will ascend above the heights of the cloud; I will become like the Most High. Yet thou shalt be cast down to hell" (14:13-15).

These things are said concerning Babylon.