387. And with death. That this signifies the consequent extinction of spiritual life, is plain from the signification of death, as denoting the extinction of spiritual life (concerning which see above, n. 78, 186). That this is here signified by death is plain from the series of things in the internal sense; for it is said that power was given unto them to kill with the sword, with famine, and with death: and by the sword is signified falsity destroying truth; by famine, the deprivation of the knowledges of truth and good; whence by death is signified the extinction of spiritual life, for where falsity reigns, and where there are no knowledges of truth and good, there is no spiritual life; for it is acquired by the knowledges of truth and good applied to the uses of life. For man is born into all evil and the falsity thence, therefore he is also born entirely ignorant of all spiritual knowledges; in order, therefore, that he may be led from the evils and the falsities thence, into which he is born, and be led into the life of heaven, and be saved, it is necessary that he should learn the knowledges of truth and good, by which he can be introduced [into spiritual life] and become spiritual. From this series of things in the internal sense it is evident, that by death is here signified the extinction of spiritual life; this also is signified by spiritual death.

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.