Food in the Bible represents the desire for good, and water and other drinks represent the understanding and true ideas we need to recognize what good is and how to bring it into being – or simple "truth," as Swedenborg puts it. When people (or animals) in the Bible drink, then, it represents learning true things and internalizing them so they can be used. In the contrary sense it can mean taking in false ideas instead, and allowing them to pollute the mind. When a person drinks clean water, it represents getting simple, external ideas from the Bible. Drinking good wine represents learning the deeper spiritual ideas that lie within the stories of the Bible. This is why Jesus said to the Samaritan woman that the water He gave would be a "well springing up to everlasting life" (John 4:14). The details of the instruction can also vary depending on who or what is drinking. When Rebekah gives water to the camels of Abraham's servant (Genesis 24) this means instruction about known facts from the Bible to the external part of the mind. When Jacob waters Laban's flock of sheep (Genesis 29), this means instruction from doctrine about loving what is good.

10415. 'And the people sat down to eat and drink' means making those things their own. This is clear from the meaning of 'eating and drinking' as making their own, 'eating' making evil their own and 'drinking' making falsity their own.

'Eating' means making good one's own, see 3168, 3513(end), 3596, 3832, 9412, so that in the contrary sense it means making evil one's own, 4745.

'Drinking' means making truth one's own, and in the contrary sense making falsity one's own, 3069, 3168, 3832, 8562, 9412.