1610. I will make your seed like the dust of the earth means multiplying beyond measure, as can be seen without explanation. This verse says that his seed would be made like the dust of the earth; other passages in the Word say "like the sand of the sea," or "like the stars of the heavens." ¹ Each has its own particular symbolism. The dust of the earth has to do with heavenly qualities, because the earth symbolizes the heavenly aspect of love, as shown earlier [§§620, 1413, 1437, 1585]. The sand of the sea has to do with spiritual qualities, because the sea symbolizes the spiritual aspect of love, as also shown. ² "Like the stars of the heavens" symbolizes both, in a higher degree. Because these items are incapable of being counted, it became customary to use them to express the idea of immeasurable reproducing and multiplying.

[2] The multiplying of the seed — the faith that comes of love, or love itself — beyond measure symbolizes the Lord in the highest sense. Specifically, it symbolizes his human quality, because the Lord's human quality is called the "seed of a woman," as discussed in §256. ³ And since the Lord's human quality is meant, multiplication beyond measure means infinite heavenliness and spirituality.

On the other hand, when seed symbolizes the faith that comes of charity (or charity itself) in the human race, the meaning is that the seed in each individual who lives a life of charity would multiply beyond measure. This actually happens in the other world to everyone who lives a life of neighborly love. Charity and the faith that results from charity, along with happiness, increase so abundantly in such people that it can be depicted only by something immeasurable and inexpressible.

When seed symbolizes the human race itself, its multiplication in the Lord's kingdom is again beyond measure and comes not only from people inside the church and their children but also from people outside the church and their children. As a result, the Lord's kingdom, or heaven, is immeasurable, as will be discussed elsewhere, the Lord in his divine mercy willing. ⁴

Footnotes:

991. As for all the fish of the sea symbolizes facts, as the symbolism of a fish indicates.

Fish in the Word symbolize facts that rise out of sensory information. There are three kinds of fact: facts truly understood, facts seen rationally, and facts coming from the senses. All three kinds are sown in the memory, or rather in different types of memory, ¹ and in a regenerate person it is from the memory by way of the inner self that the Lord calls on them. The last type — facts gleaned from sensory evidence — comes to our awareness or notice while we are physically alive, because we base our thinking on it. The other two, which are deeper, do not do so until we have put off our bodies and entered the other world.

For the symbolism of fish, or the creeping things that the waters produce, as facts, see §40 above. For the symbolism of a large sea creature, or whale, as general categories of fact, see §42.

The symbolism can be further established by the following passages in the Word. In Zephaniah:

I will make human and animal die out, I will make the bird in the heavens and the fish in the sea die out. (Zephaniah 1:3)

The bird in the heavens stands for rational concepts, the fish in the sea for rational concepts on a lower plane, that is, for human thought that develops out of facts supplied by the senses.

[2] In Habakkuk:

You will make humankind like the fish of the sea, like a creeping thing, which has no ruler. (Habakkuk 1:14)

Making humankind like the fish of the sea stands for making us entirely sense-oriented. In Hosea:

The earth will mourn, and everything living in it will lose strength, including the wild animal of the field and the bird of the heavens; and the fish of the sea will also disappear. (Hosea 4:3)

The fish of the sea stand for facts yielded by sensory evidence. In David: ²

All things you have put under his feet: the animals of the fields, the flying thing in the heavens, and the fish in the sea — that which travels the thoroughfares of the seas. (Psalms 8:6-7, 8)

This is about the Lord's power to rule in us. The fish in the sea stand for facts. Seas symbolize facts — knowledge — gathered together, as may be seen earlier, in §28. In Isaiah:

The fishers will lament, and all who cast a hook into the river will mourn, and those spreading a net on the face of the water will languish. (Isaiah 19:8-9)

The fishers stand for those who rely exclusively on the testimony of the senses, from which they hatch false ideas. The passage has to do with Egypt, or factual knowledge.

Footnotes: