When Jehovah saw that the wickedness of man was multiplied in the world, and moreover every imagination of his heart only evil every day, it repented Jehovah that He had made man on the earth. Therefore Jehovah said, I will blot out man whom I have created from upon the faces of the earth; only Noah found grace in the eyes of Jehovah (Gen. 6:5-8). But the Last Judgment upon them is described by "the flood." It is described by a "flood" for the reason that "waters" in the Word signify truths, and in the opposite sense falsities. Truths are signified by the waters of a fountain, the waters of a river, the waters of rain, and by the waters of the washings in time past, and the waters of baptism at this day. That correspondence arises from the circumstance that truths purify man's soul from uncleanness as waters do his body; hence they are called "living waters." But in the opposite sense, by "waters" are signified falsities; but by impure waters, such as those of marshes, malodorous cisterns, urine, and sewage, in general by all hurtful and death-producing waters, therefore also by waters from an inundation of which man dies, consequently by the Noahian flood. [2] That falsities in a mass are described by "inundations," may he evident from the following passages:

Jehovah* is causing to come up upon them the waters of the river (Euphrates) strong and many it shall pass through Judah, it shall inundate, it shall pass through, it shall reach even to the neck (Isa. 8:7, 8). By the "waters of the river Euphrates," are signified reasonings from falsities, because by Assyria, whose river it was, reasoning is signified. The spirit of Jehovah, like an inundating stream, shall divide in two even to the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity (Isa. 30:28, 30). By "an inundating river" here in like manner is signified reasoning from falsities. Behold waters are rising up out of the north, which are like an inundating stream, and shall inundate the land and the fullness thereof (Jer. 47:2). Here the Philistines are treated of, by whom are meant those who are not in charity, and hence not in truths; the falsities of these are signified by "the waters coming up from the north," and the devastation of the church in consequence thereof, by "an inundating stream that shall inundate the land and the fullness thereof;" "the land" is the church, and its " fullness" all things of it. Say unto those who daub what is unfit, There shall be an inundating rain, in which hail-stones shall fall upon you (Ezek. 13:11, 13). The "daubing of what is unfit" is the confirmation of falsity, and "hail-stones" are falsities. In an overrunning inundation He shall make a consummation of the place thereof, and thick darkness shall pursue His enemies (Nah. 1:8). By "the inundation" which shall consummate, is signified the falsification of truth, and by "thick darkness," truths themselves in the night. Ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell have we made a vision when the scourge of inundation shall pass through, it shall not come unto us we have made a lie our trust, and in falsity we will hide (Isa. 28:15). Here "inundation" manifestly stands for destruction by falsities; for it is said that they placed confidence in "a lie," and that they would hide in "falsity." After sixty-two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself; then the people of the Prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, so that the end thereof shall be with an inundation even to desolations (Dan. 9:26). [3] These things are concerning the Christian Church that was to come, in which the worship of the Lord would perish; which is meant by "Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself": that it would perish by falsifications, is meant by "the end thereof shall be with an inundation even to desolations;" "desolation" is that falsification. Hence it is that after the Lord spoke of "the abomination of desolation foretold by Daniel the prophet," and of the "consummation of the age" thereby, He said, that:

His coming would be as in the days when the flood came, and took them all away (Matt. 24:15, 39). The drowning of Pharaoh and the Egyptians in the sea Suph (Exod. 14), means in the spiritual sense destruction by falsities, has been demonstrated in the Arcana Coelestia, in the explanation of that chapter. * Dr. Worcester has "dominus," which agrees with the Hebrew.