6775. 'And the priest of Midian had seven daughters' means holy things belonging to that Church. This is clear from the meaning of 'a priest's daughters' as things that belong to the Church, for 'a daughter' means a Church, see 2362, 3963, 6729, and 'a priest' the good of love, 1728, 3670, 6148, so that 'a priest's daughters' means a Church so far as its good is concerned; from the meaning of 'Midian' as people who are guided by the truths that go with simple good, dealt with just above in 6773; and from the meaning of 'seven' as that which is holy, dealt with in 395, 433, 716, 881, 5265, 5268. Thus 'the priest of Midian had seven daughters' means holy things belonging to the Church among those who are guided by the truths that go with simple good. The people said to be governed by simple good are those who keep up the external practices of the Church and who in simplicity take the Word literally, each one believing it according to his own understanding. They also lead lives that accord with what they believe, and so are governed by good, depending on the nature of that good, which is determined by the truths that guide them. That good brings an internal dimension of the Church to these people, but because they are not guided by truths of a more internal kind, the good entering in becomes something general and accordingly vague, since spiritual light is unable to fall on particular aspects and thereby illuminate things distinctly. The kind of people spoken of here have heaven granted to them in the next life as determined by the nature of their good, which depends on their truths. People such as these are meant here by 'Midian'; but properly speaking they are those outside the Church who lead a good life in keeping with their type of religion.

6729. 'And the daughter of Pharaoh went down' means the kind of religion practised there. This is clear from the meaning of 'the daughter' as an affection for truth and good, and from this as the Church, dealt with in 2362, 3963, and in the contrary sense as an affection for falsity and evil, and from this as the kind of religion that springs from them, 3024. Here the kind of religion that springs from false factual knowledge is meant because the daughter is Pharaoh's; for 'Pharaoh' here represents false factual knowledge, 6651, 6679, 6683, 6692. In the Word Churches are meant by 'daughters', as may be recognized from the very many places in which the Church is called the daughter of Zion, and the daughter of Jerusalem. The false religions of quite a number of nations are also meant by 'daughters', as is evident from the places where those religions are called daughters, for example, the daughter of Tyre, Psalms 45:12; the daughter of Edom, Lamentations 4:22; the daughter of the Chaldeans and of Babel, Isaiah 47:1, 5; Jeremiah 50:41-42; Jeremiah 51:33; Zechariah 2:7, Psalms 137:8; the daughter of the Philistines, Ezekiel 16:27, 57; the daughter of Tarshish, Isaiah 23:10. 'The daughter of Egypt' is spoken of in Jeremiah,

Go up to Gilead and take balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt! Make for yourself vessels of migration, O inhabitant daughter of Egypt! The daughter of Egypt has been put to shame; she has been delivered into the hand of the people from the north. Jeremiah 46:11, 19, 24.

'The daughter of Egypt' stands for an affection for reasoning that relies, since a negative attitude of mind reigns, on factual knowledge - reasoning whether the truths of faith are indeed true. Thus she stands for the kind of religion which springs from that reasoning, a religion in which there is no belief in anything except what is false.