5038. The place where the king’s bound ones were bound. That this signifies the state in which those are who are in falsities, is evident from the signification of “place,” as being state (n. 2625, 2837, 3356, 3387, 4321, 4882); and from the signification of the “king’s bound ones,” as being those who are in falsities, and because they are in falsities they are in vastation, and who are being regenerated in the world in temptation; for temptation is the vastation of what is false, and at the same time the confirmation of what is true. They are called the “king’s bound ones,” because a “king” in the internal sense is truth (n. 1672, 1728, 2015, 2069, 3009, 3670, 4575, 4581, 4789, 4966), and his “bound ones” are therefore those who are in falsity. Moreover the places where the king’s bound ones were kept, were called “pits;” wherefore Joseph says, “I was taken away out of the land of the Hebrews; and here also have I done nothing that they should put me into the pit” (Genesis 40:15). That a “pit” denotes a place of vastation may be seen above (n. 4728, 4744).

4744. And the pit was empty, there was no water in it. That this signifies that there was then nothing true, is evident from the signification of a “pit,” as being falsities (see n. 4728); from the signification of “being empty, “as being where there is nothing true because nothing good (of which hereafter); and from the signification of “water,” as being truth (n. 680, 2702, 3058, 3424). That “being empty” denotes where there is nothing true because nothing good, is evident from other passages in the Word, as in Jeremiah:

Their great ones have sent their little ones for waters; they came unto the pits, and found no waters; they returned with their vessels empty; they were affected with shame and ignominy, and covered their head (Jeremiah 14:3); where “empty vessels” denote truths in which there is no truth from good. Again:

Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath troubled me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up (Jeremiah 51:34); where an “empty vessel” denotes where there is no truth; and “Babylon,” those who vastate, that is, deprive others of truths (n. 1327 at the end). Again:

I beheld the earth, and lo it was void and empty; and the heavens, and they had no light (Jeremiah 4:23).

In Isaiah:

The cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; and the owl and the raven shall dwell therein; and they shall stretch over it the line of a void, and the plummet of emptiness (Isaiah 34:11).

[2] Again:

The city of emptiness shall be broken; every house shall be shut up, that no one may come in. There is a cry in the streets upon the one, the joy of the land shall be exiled, what is left in the city shall be a waste (Isaiah 24:10-12);

here “emptiness” is expressed by another word in the original tongue, which, however, involves a similar meaning. That “emptiness” is where there is no truth because no good, is evident in the internal sense from the particulars mentioned, as from the signification of a “city,” of a “house,” of a “cry,” of “wine,” and of “streets.”

In Ezekiel:

Hath said the Lord Jehovih, Woe to the city of bloods! I will also make the hearth great, setting the pot empty upon the coals that it may be hot, and the brass thereof may be heated, and that the uncleanness thereof may melt therein, the scum thereof be consumed (Ezekiel 24:9, 11);

it is evident here what “being empty” signifies; an “empty pot” is that in which there is uncleanness and scum, that is, evil and falsity.

[3] So in Matthew:

When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, but findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and prepared for him. Then goeth he, and joineth to himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there (Matthew 12:43-45).

The “unclean spirit” denotes uncleanness of life in man, and also the unclean spirits with him, for unclean spirits dwell in the uncleanness of man’s life; “dry places,” or where there is no water, denote where there are no truths; the “empty house” denotes the interiors of man again filled with uncleanness, that is, with falsities from evil.

In Luke:

God hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He hath sent empty away (Luke 1:53);

“the rich” denote those who know many things; for “riches” in the spiritual sense are memory-knowledges, doctrinal things, and the knowledges of good and truth. They are called the “empty rich” who know these things, and do not do them; for truths to them are not truths, because without good (see n. 4736).