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.

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1232. That 'Aram' or Syria means cognitions of good follows from what has been said above as well as from the Word: in Ezekiel,

Aram was your merchant in the multitude of your handiworks; they exchanged for your wares chrysoprase, purple, and embroidered work, and fine linen, and ramoth, ¹ and rubies. Ezekiel 27:16.

This refers to 'Tyre' or the possession of cognitions. Here 'handiworks, chrysoprase, purple, embroidered work, fine linen, ramoth, and rubies' means nothing else than cognitions of good. In Hosea,

Jacob fled into the field of Aram and served for a wife, and for a wife kept guard. And by a prophet Jehovah brought Israel up out of Egypt, and by a prophet he was preserved. Ephraim has provoked to anger most bitterly. Hosea 12:12-14.

Here 'Jacob' stands for the external Church, and 'Israel' for the internal spiritual Church. 'Aram' stands for cognitions of good, 'Egypt' for knowledge that debases, 'Ephraim' for debased intelligence. What these mean in this context cannot possibly be deduced from the literal sense, only from the internal sense where, as has been stated, names mean things of the Church. In Isaiah,

Behold, Damascus has been rejected so that it is not a city; it has become a heap of ruins. The fortress will disappear from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus; and the remnant of Aram will be like the glory of the children of Israel. Isaiah 17:1, 3.

Here 'the remnant of Aram' stands for cognitions of good which are called 'the glory of Israel'. 'Aram' or Syria also stands in the contrary sense for cognitions of good that have been debased, for it is usual in the Word for an expression to be used in both senses, see Isaiah 7:4-6; 9:12; Deuteronomy 26:5.

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