7112. 'You shall no longer give the people straw' means factual knowledge, the basest and most general kind of all. This is clear from the meaning of 'straw' as factual truths, dealt with in 3114, in particular the basest and most general kind of factual knowledge, for since 'straw' is the food of beasts 'straw' means the basest kind of food in the spiritual sense. Factual knowledge is said to be the basest when it is full of the illusions of the senses. It is what the evil misuse to pervert forms of good and truth and so lend support to evils and falsities; for on account of the illusions it contains that knowledge can be twisted round in favour of false suppositions and evil desires. That kind of factual knowledge is also the most general of all, and unless it is filled out with less general and more specific truths it can be of use to evils and falsities. But the more it is filled out with truths, the less it can have that kind of use. Such knowledge is the means by which the upright in the next life are molested by those who, when they were in the world, proclaimed belief in faith alone and yet led a life of evil. But because it is banished by the angels the narrative says at this point that they should no longer give the people straw to make bricks, that is, no longer provide such knowledge for producing fabrications and falsities which are to be introduced. This is the internal sense of these words, which does indeed seem remote from the sense of the letter; but it should be recognized that there is nothing in the natural world that does not correspond to some reality in the spiritual world. The angels present with a person understand in a spiritual way everything understood by the person in a natural way. They do not know what straw is, or what bricks are either. Such things were well known to those angels when they were in the world, but they forgot about them when they entered heaven, because there they moved on to spiritual things. This explains why when a person's ideas of such things in the natural world are perceived by angels they convert them into the corresponding spiritual realities. The fact that 'straw' or 'grass' means the basest kind of factual knowledge, and 'bricks' fabrications and falsities, may be seen from a number of considerations; for herbaceous plants, and also those that produce straw, are nothing else than such knowledge. But seeds, barley-grains, wheat-grains, and the like are interior truths and forms of good; and stones that are not man-made are truths.

6669. 'In clay and in bricks' means on account of the evils which they devised and the falsities which they fabricated. This is clear from the meaning of 'clay' as good, and in the contrary sense as evil, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'bricks' as falsities that people fabricate, dealt with in 1296. As regards the evils and falsities which those in hell devise and fabricate, see just above in 6666.

The fact that 'clay' means evil from which falsity is produced is evident from the following places in the Word: In Isaiah,

The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest; its waters throw out mud and clay. Isaiah 57:20.

'Mud' stands for falsity from which evil is derived, and 'clay' for evil from which falsity is produced.

[2] In Jeremiah,

Your feet have sunk into the clay, [your close friends] have turned away backwards. Jeremiah 38:22.

'Feet sunk into the clay' stands for the natural sunken in evil. In Nahum,

Draw yourself water for the siege, strengthen your fortifications; go into the mud and tread the clay; renew the brick-kiln. There the fire will devour you, and the sword cut you off. Nahum 3:14-15.

'Treading the clay' stands for being prompted by evil to think what is false. In Habakkuk,

He will say, Woe to him who multiplies what is not his - how long? And to him who loads clay onto himself, Will there not rise up suddenly those who will bite you? Habakkuk 2:6-7.

'Loading clay onto himself' stands for taking up evil.

[3] In David,

Jehovah caused me to come up out of the pit of devastation, out of the muddy clay, and He set my feet upon a rock. Psalms 49:2.

In the same author,

I sank in deep clay, and there was no standing; I came into the depths of the waters, and a wave overwhelmed me. Snatch me out of the clay lest I sink, and out of the depths of the waters; and do not let the depth swallow me up. Psalms 69:2, 14-15.

'Clay' stands for evil from which falsity is produced. In Isaiah,

He will come against prelates as though against clay, as a potter treads mud. ¹ Isaiah 41:15.

[4] But in the following places 'clay' stands for good: In Isaiah,

Now, O Jehovah, You are our Father, we are the clay, and You are our potter; and we are all the work of Your hands. Isaiah 64:8.

'The clay' stands for the member of the Church who is being formed, thus for the good of faith by means of which that person is formed, that is, reformed.

[5] Similarly in Jeremiah,

Jehovah said to Jeremiah, Arise and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause you to hear My words. I went down therefore to the potter's house, and behold, he made a work on the table. But the vessel that he was making was marred, like clay in the potter's hand. And he returned and made it into another vessel, as was right in the eyes of the potter to make it. Then the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Like this potter can I not do to you, O house of Israel? Said Jehovah. Behold, like the clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel. Jeremiah 18:1-6.

'The house of Israel' stands for the Church that is to be formed. And it is because the good of charity and the truth of faith are used in the forming of it, and because such good and truth are meant by 'the clay' and 'the potter's vessel', that the prophet was commanded to go to the potter's house. This would not have happened if 'the clay' and 'the potter's vessel' had not had those meanings.

[6] There are other places too in which Jehovah or the Lord is called 'the potter' and the person who is being reformed 'the clay', namely Isaiah 29:15-16; 45:9; Job 10:9; 33:6. The incident in which the Lord made clay with His saliva and anointed the eyes of the man born blind and then commanded him to wash in the pool of Siloam, with the result that the blind man was made to see, John 9:6-7, 11, took place because it represented the reformation of man, who is born without any knowledge of truth. And that reformation is effected by means of the good of faith, meant by 'the clay'.

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