Pots" and other large vessels in the Bible represent facts and factual ideas, which serve as containers for truth the same way pots serve as containers for water or wine. Pots fill their function because they are hard, strong and impervious; facts are also absolute and unchanging, filling their function the same way. And pots must be filled to serve any use, just as facts must be filled with truth to serve any purpose. To some extent this meaning also applies to cups, bowls and other smaller vessels, though it is a little more immediate. Generally you don't fill a cup so you can store a liquid; you fill it to drink it. Smaller vessels then often take more of their meaning from the substance they contain, and in many cases ("cup" and "wine" especially) actually mean the same thing.

4501. 'And [they killed] Hamor and Shechem [his son] with the edge of the sword' means the Church itself. This is clear from the representation of 'Hamor' as the Church among the Ancients as regards good, dealt with in 4447; from the representation of 'Shechem' as the Church among the Ancients as regards truth, dealt with in 4454, 4472, 4473, and from the meaning of 'with the edge of the sword' as falsity and evil engaged in conflict, dealt with in 4499, and so by means of which they annihilated the Church among themselves.