7324. And over their pools. That this signifies against the memory-knowledges that were of service to them, is evident from the signification of "pools," as being memory-knowledges that are of service to the truths of doctrine, and in the opposite sense memory-knowledges that are of service to falsities of doctrine. "Pools," when mentioned in the Word, in the spiritual sense signify intelligence from the knowledges of good and truth, for "pools" there mean waters gathered together, or lakes; and waters gathered together, and lakes, denote in the complex the knowledges through which is intelligence, as in Isaiah:
Out of the wilderness shall waters break out, and rivers in the plain of the wilderness, and the dry place shall become a pool, and the thirsty one springs of waters (Isa. 35:6-7). [2] In the same:
I will open rivers upon the hillsides, and I will set fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of waters, and the dry land springs of waters (Isa. 41:18). where "to make the wilderness a pool of waters," denotes to give the knowledges of good and truth, and thence intelligence, where before they were not. In the same:
I will lay waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbage; and I will make the rivers islands, and will dry up the pools (Isa. 42:15);
where "pools" have a like signification. [3] So in David:
Jehovah turneth rivers into a wilderness, and watersprings into a dry place; He turneth a wilderness into a pool of waters, and a land of drought into watersprings (Ps. 107:33, 35). Thou travailest, O earth, from before the Lord, from before the God of Jacob; who turned the rock into a pool of waters, the flint into a fountain of waters (Ps. 114:7-8). The streams of Egypt shall be diminished and dried up, therefore the fishers shall mourn, and all that cast a hook into the stream; thence shall the foundations thereof be broken to pieces; all that make wages out of the pools of the soul (Isa. 19:6, 8, 10);
"the pools of the soul" denote things which belong to intelligence from knowledges; but as this is said of Egypt, "the pools of the soul" denote things which belong to intelligence from the memory-knowledges of the church; for "Egypt" denotes these memory-knowledges. Memory-knowledges are knowledges, but in a lower degree. [4] That "pools of waters," in the opposite sense, denotes evils from falsities, and the consequent insanity, is plain in Isaiah:
I will cut off from Babel name and residue, and son and son's; and I will make it an inheritance of the bittern, and pools of waters (Isa. 14:22-23). And as "pools" in the opposite sense denote evils from falsities, and the consequent insanities, they also signify hell, where such things reign; but in this case the pool is called a "lake of fire," and a "lake burning with fire and brimstone" as in Rev. 19:20; 20:10, 14, 15; 21:8. "Fire and brimstone" denote the love of self and the derivative cupidities, for the love of self and its cupidities are nothing but fire-not elementary fire, but fire from spiritual fire, which spiritual fire causes man to live. That loves are vital fires is plain to him who considers the matter. These fires are what are meant by the sacred fires which are in the heavens, and by the fires of hell; elementary fire does not exist there.
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