1261. As nations signified goods, so also did families, for each nation consisted of families; and so in like manner did households, for each family consisted of a number of households. (Concerning a “household” or “house,” see above, n. 710.) “Families,” however, signify goods when predicated of nations, and truths when predicated of peoples, as in David:

All the families of the nations shall bow themselves before Thee; for the kingdom is Jehovah’s, and He is the ruler over the nations (Psalms 22:27-28).

Again:

Give unto Jehovah, ye families of the peoples, give unto Jehovah glory and strength (Psalms 96:7).

In the verse now before us, and also in the preceding verse of this tenth chapter of Genesis, “families” are predicated of goods, because they were families of the nations.

710. Enter thou end all thy house into the ark. That this signifies the things that are of the will, is therefore evident. In the preceding chapter, where the things of the understanding are meant, it is expressed differently, namely: “Thou shalt come into the ark, thou and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee” (verse 18). That a “house” signifies the will and what is of the will, is evident in various places in the Word; as in Jeremiah:

Their houses shall be turned over unto others, their fields and their wives together (Jeremiah 6:12).

Here “houses” and also “fields” and “wives” relate to things which are of the will. Again:

Build ye houses and dwell in them; and plant gardens and eat the fruit of them (Jeremiah 29:5, 28).

Here “building houses and dwelling in them” relates to the will; “planting gardens” to the understanding: and it is the same in other passages. And the “house of Jehovah” is frequently mentioned as signifying the church wherein love is the principal; the “house of Judah” as signifying the celestial church; and the “house of Israel” as signifying the spiritual church. As “house” signifies the church, the mind of the man of the church (wherein are the things of the will and of the understanding, or of charity and faith), is also signified by “house.”