1163. 'Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan' were just so many nations who in the internal sense mean cognitions, knowledge, and the forms of ritual which belong to faith separated from charity. This becomes clear from the Word where these nations are mentioned in various places, for these nations mean such things in those places. That is to say, 'Cush' or Ethiopia means interior cognitions of the Word by which people confirm false assumptions. 'Mizraim' or Egypt means knowledge, or the various facts by which they wish to probe into the arcana of faith and in so doing confirm assumptions that are false. 'Put' or Libya means cognitions drawn from the literal sense of the Word by means of which in a similar way they confirm false assumptions. 'Canaan' or the Canaanites means forms of ritual or external worship that are separated from internal. Since all of these have been separated from charity they are called 'the sons of Ham'. The same nations also mean simply cognitions and knowledge, 'Cush' meaning interior cognitions of the Word, 'Egypt' knowledge, 'Put' cognitions obtained from the literal sense of the Word. This is the reason they are used in both senses, bad as well as good, as becomes clear from the places quoted below.

8343. 'The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea' means that as a result simply of His presence falsities in faith and evils in life cast themselves into hell. This is clear from the meaning of 'horse and rider' as falsities arising from evil, dealt with in 8146, 8148; and from the meaning of 'throwing into the sea' as into hell, dealt with in 8099, 8137, 8138. As regards its happening as a result simply of the Lord's presence, see 8137 (end), 8265. The reason for saying that the falsities and evils cast themselves into hell is that falsities and evils themselves are what are cast into hell, and these drag down with them the people to whom they cling. For through evil in life a person becomes a form of the falsity that arises from evil; consequently when evils themselves accompanied by falsities are thrown down, forms to which they cling are dragged down together with them. Falsities and evils are emanations from the hells, flowing in among those who through evils in life have made their inner selves into forms that receive those emanations, since everything composing thought and will flows in, what is good from heaven, but what is bad from hell, see 2886-2888, 4151, 4249, 5846, 6189, 6191, 6193, 6203, 6206, 6213, 6324, 6325, 7147, 7343. These then are the reasons for saying that the falsities in faith and evils in life cast themselves into hell. On account of this when angels think and talk about the hells they think and talk about falsities and evils completely separate from the inhabitants there; for angels always banish ideas that focus on persons and confine themselves to those that focus on things, 5225, 5287, 5434.