917. And he cried with a great cry to him who had the sharp sickle. That this signifies annunciation after exploration or visitation, is evident from the things which follow, also from what was said and explained above (n. 910), where almost similar words occur.

7648. 'And your houses will be filled, and the houses of all your servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians' means that falsity will reign in every single thing in the natural from the inner part of it to the outermost. This is clear from the meaning of 'being filled' as reigning, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'Pharaoh's houses, the houses of all his servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians' as every single thing in the natural, dealt with in 7753, 7355, at this point from the inner part of it to the outermost, in keeping with the explanation above in 7645. The reason why 'being filled' means reigning is that when a person's mind is filled with falsities arising from evils, filled so completely that leading others astray by means of falsities and doing evil give him delight, he is said to be ruled by this delight; and the actual affection that controls him is called his reigning affection. That which fills a person's entire mind, that is, both his thought and his will, is said to reign everywhere; what a person loves above all else and has as his end in view reigns in that universal way. It is present within every smallest part of his will and thought. What it is exactly that reigns everywhere may be recognized from the person's pleasure when he attains his ends, or his disappointment when he does not. That which reigns everywhere in a person shapes the contours of his spirit; the face of his spirit is in exact accord with it. If evil and falsity reign, his spirit is clothed with a devilish form; but if goodness and truth reign the form is angelic. For regarded in itself the spirit is affection embodied in a form; and the dominant affection is the essential form itself, while all its other affections adapt themselves to this.