6297. And his seed shall be the fullness of the nations. That this signifies that the truth which is of faith shall reign, is evident from the signification of “seed,” as being faith and charity (see n. 1025, 1447, 1610, 1940, 2848, 3187, 3310, 3373, 3671), here faith, because predicated of Ephraim; and from the signification of the “fullness of the nations,” as being abundance, thus that the truth of faith shall reign. “Fullness” in the Word signifies all, and where it does not signify all, it signifies abundant, and is predicated both of truth and of good; for “multitude” is predicated of truth, but “magnitude” of good, thus “fullness of both,” as in Jeremiah:

Behold waters rise up out of the north, which shall become an overflowing stream, and shall overflow the land and the fullness thereof, the city and them that dwell therein (Jeremiah 47:2);

“the land and the fullness” denote all, both truth and good, that is of the church. For this reason it is added, “the city and them that dwell therein;” for by “city” are signified truths, and by “them that dwell therein,” goods (n. 2268, 2451, 2712).

[2] In Ezekiel:

They shall eat their bread with solicitude, and drink their waters with amazement, that the land thereof may be devastated from its fullness (Ezekiel 12:19).

The “land” denotes the church, and the “fullness” the good and truth there. That both are signified is evident from what precedes, that “they should eat bread with solicitude, and drink waters with amazement;” for by “bread” is signified the good of love, and by “waters” the truth of faith, which are called the “fullness of the earth.”

[3] In like manner in Amos:

The pride of Jacob, and his palaces, I hate, therefore will I shut up the city and the fullness thereof (Amos 6:8).

In David:

The heavens are Thine, the earth also is Thine; the world and the fullness thereof Thou hast founded (Psalms 89:11).

The earth is Jehovah’s, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. For He hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the streams (Psalms 24:1-2); where also the “fullness” denotes truth and good; the “earth,” the church in a specific, and the “world,” the church in a universal sense. That “Jehovah founded the world upon the seas” denotes upon the things that are of memory-knowledge (n. 28); and that “He established it upon the streams” denotes upon the things that are of intelligence (n. 3051). Who cannot see that it is not meant that Jehovah founded the world upon the seas, and established it upon the streams, for the world is not founded and established thereon; and therefore he who reflects can see that by “seas” and by “streams” something else is signified, and that this something else is the spiritual or internal of the Word.

1940. In multiplying I will multiply thy seed. That this signifies the fruitfulness of the rational man when it submits itself to the sovereign control of the interior man when this is adjoined to good, is evident from the signification of “seed,” as being love and faith (spoken of before, n. 1025, 1447, 1610), but in the present case by “multiplying seed” is signified the fruitfulness of the celestial things of love in the rational, when the rational has submitted itself to interior or Divine truth. “Multiplication” is predicated of truth, and “fruitfulness” of good, as may be seen from what has already been said and shown (n. 43, 55, 913, 983). But as the Lord is here treated of, “multiplying” signifies becoming fruitful, because all the truth in His rational was made good, and thereby Divine, as is here declared concerning Him. It is otherwise in man, whose rational is formed by the Lord from truth or the affection of truth. This affection is his good, from which he acts.

[2] How the case is with man’s rational in regard to multiplication and fruitfulness cannot be understood unless we know how the case is with influx, of which it may be said in a general way that in everyone there is an internal man, a rational man which is intermediate, and an external man, as before said. It is the internal man that is his inmost from which he is man, and by which he is distinguished from brute animals, which have not such an inmost; and it is as it were the door or entrance for the Lord, that is, for what is celestial and spiritual from the Lord, into man. What is going on there cannot be comprehended by the man, because it is above all his rational, from which he thinks. That rational which appears as man’s own is subject to this inmost, or to this internal man, and into this rational through the internal man there inflow from the Lord the heavenly things of love and of faith, and through this rational they inflow into the memory-knowledges that are in the external man; but the things that inflow are received in accordance with the state of each person.

[3] Now unless the rational submits itself to the Lord’s goods and truths, it either suffocates, or rejects, or perverts the things that flow in; and this is still more the case when they flow into the sensuous knowledges of the memory. This is what is meant by seed falling on a highway, or upon a rocky place, or among thorns, as the Lord teaches (Matthew 13:3-7; Mark 4:3-7; Luke 8:5-7). But when the rational submits itself and believes the Lord, that is, His Word, the rational is then like good ground or earth, into which the seed falls and bears much fruit.