7327 – 8657

sRef Ex@7 @19 S0′ 7327. ‘And there will be blood in all the land of Egypt’ means total falsification. This is clear from the meaning of ‘blood’ as the falsification of truth, dealt with immediately above in 7326; and from the meaning of ‘in all the land of Egypt’ as everywhere, thus total falsification. Total falsification takes place when falsity begins to reign, for a person then leads a life in keeping with his congenital and acquired evil, and finds delight in it. And since the truths of faith forbid such things he loathes them; and when he loathes truths wherever they exist, he casts them away from himself, or if he cannot do this he falsifies them.

sRef Ex@7 @19 S0′ 7328. ‘both in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone’ means of the good of charity and of the truth of faith – a total falsification of them. This is clear from the meaning of ‘vessels of wood’ as forms of the good of charity, dealt with in 2784, 2812, 3720; and from the meaning of ‘vessels of stone’ as forms of the truth of faith, dealt with in 1298, 3720, 6416.

sRef Ex@7 @20 S0′ 7329. ‘And Moses and Aaron did so, as Jehovah had commanded’ means putting it into effect. This is clear without explanation.

sRef Ex@7 @20 S0′ 7330. ‘And he lifted up the rod and struck the waters which were in the river’ means strong power directed against falsities. This is clear from what has been stated above in 7316. Strength is meant by his lifting up the rod and striking in that manner.

sRef Ex@7 @20 S0′ 7331. ‘Before the eyes of Pharaoh and before the eyes of his servants’ means to the discernment of all those who were molesting. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the eyes’ as discernment, dealt with in 4087, 4379; and from the representation of ‘Pharaoh’ as those who molest by means of falsities, dealt with previously. All those are meant when it says ‘before the eyes of Pharaoh and before the eyes of his servants’.

sRef Ex@7 @20 S0′ 7332. ‘And all the waters which were in the river were converted into blood’ means consequent falsification of all truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the waters which are in the river’ as falsities, dealt with above in 7707; and from the meaning of ‘blood’ as the falsification of truth, also dealt with above, in 7317, 7326. The reason why those in the next life who are steeped in falsities and engage in molestation are allowed to falsify truths is that then they are prevented from having contact through the truths of faith with those who are in heaven on one hand, and through evils of life with those who are in hell on the other. Therefore they cannot use such contact to acquire through truths any light at all from heaven, thus any intelligence, and make those truths serve the evils of their life. For if they could they would use the intelligence they had gained to justify evil, and so to subordinate the things of heaven residing with them to those of hell. They are also prevented in this way from leading astray simple and upright spirits with whom they have contact through truths. The evil in the next life among whom truths have not yet been falsified also know how to use those truths to gain control over others (for power resides within truths, so great that it is irresistible, 3091, 6344, 6427, 6948); and this is another way in which they would misuse truths. Furthermore the truths the evil know do not amend their lives in any way at all. They use them merely as means to do evil; when they cannot use them in this way the evil utterly deride truths. They are like wicked prelates who would ridicule the truths of doctrine if they could not use those truths for their own profit. These are the reasons why the evil are allowed to falsify the truths they know.

sRef Ex@7 @21 S0′ 7333. ‘And the fish which were in the river died’ means the destruction of factual knowledge of truth too. This is clear from what has been stated above in 7318, where the same words occur.

sRef Ex@7 @21 S0′ 7334. ‘And the river stank’ means aversion. This is clear from what has been stated above in 7319.

sRef Ex@7 @21 S0′ 7335. ‘And the Egyptians were unable to drink water from the river’ means that they wished to know as little as possible about it. This too is clear from what has been stated above, in 7320.

sRef Ex@7 @21 S0′ 7336. ‘And there was blood in the entire land of Egypt’ means total falsification, see above in 7327.

sRef Ex@7 @22 S0′ 7337. ‘And the magicians of Egypt did the same with their enchantments’ means that [by a misuse of order] the falsifiers among them produced something that looked the same. This is clear from the meaning of ‘Egyptian magic’ and ‘enchantments’ as misuses of Divine order, dealt with in 5223, 6052, 7296. As regards miracles, it should be recognized that Divine miracles are as different from miracles involving the use of magic as heaven is from hell. Divine miracles spring from Divine Truth and take place in accordance with true order. Effects on lowest levels are miracles when it pleases the Lord that they should present themselves in that form. Thus it is that all Divine miracles represent states of the Lord’s kingdom in heaven, and of the Lord’s kingdom on earth, which is the Church. And this is the inward form that Divine miracles take. This is the situation with all the miracles performed in Egypt, as it is with all the rest that are referred to in the Word. All the miracles too which the Lord Himself performed when He was in the world were signs of the future state of the Church. Opening the eyes of the blind, for example, and the ears of the deaf, loosing the tongues of the dumb, enabling the lame to walk, and making the maimed whole and the leprous too, were signs that the kind of people meant by the blind, deaf, dumb, lame, maimed, and leprous would receive the Gospel and be spiritually restored to health, which would be accomplished by the Lord’s Coming into the world.

[2] This is what Divine miracles are like as to the inward form they take. But miracles involving the use of magic hold nothing at all like that; they are performed by the evil to gain power over others, and in outward form seem to be the same as Divine miracles. The reason why they seem to be the same is that they start from order, and on its lowest level, where miracles present themselves, order always looks the same. Take for example the consideration that Divine Truth coming forth from the Lord has all power within it. This being so, truths also on the last and lowest levels of order have power within them, and therefore the evil use truths to gain power and exercise control over others.

[3] To give another example, it is in accordance with order that in the next life states of affection and thought give rise to people’s ideas of spatial position and distance, and that the distances seen to separate people from one another are determined by the differences in their states. The purpose behind this law of order from the Divine is that all within the Grand Man should be distinct from one another. But magicians in the next life misuse this law of order, for they bring about changes of state in others and then move them about, at one time to a position high up, at another to a position low down, and also force them into communities where they can serve as the magicians’ subordinates. They misuse order in countless other ways like this. From all this it is evident that although in outward form miracles involving the use of magic seem to be the same as Divine miracles, inwardly they nevertheless have a contrary end in view. That is to say, they have in view the destruction of things of the Church, whereas Divine miracles have inwardly as their end in view the building up of things of the Church. They are like two beautiful women, one of whom because of her promiscuity is wholly rotten within, while the other because of her chastity or true matrimonial love is wholly pure within. Outwardly those women are alike, but inwardly they are as different as heaven and hell.

sRef Ex@7 @22 S0′ 7338. ‘And Pharaoh’s heart was unyielding’ means obstinacy, as above in 7272, 7300.

sRef Ex@7 @22 S0′ 7339. ‘And he did not hear them’ means non-acceptance and disobedience, also as above, in 7224, 7275, 7301.

sRef Ex@7 @22 S0′ 7340. ‘As Jehovah had spoken’ means as accorded with what had been foretold, again as above, in 7302.

sRef Ex@7 @23 S0′ 7341. ‘And Pharaoh looked back and went to his house’ means thought and reflection based on falsities. This is clear from the meaning of ‘looking back’ as thought and reflection, for in the spiritual sense ‘looking back’ is not looking at something with one’s eyes but looking mentally, thus thinking and reflecting; and from the meaning of ‘Pharaoh’s house’ as falsity. For when ‘Pharaoh’ represents falsity his ‘house’ has the same meaning; and therefore ‘going to his house’ means [turning to] falsities. And since these words mean thought and reflection based on falsities, the phrase about his not taking this to heart follows. For a person whose thought is based on falsities does not take it to heart when the Divine warns him.

sRef Ex@7 @23 S0′ 7342. ‘And he did not take this to heart’ means resistance arising in the will and consequent obstinacy. This is clear from the meaning of ‘not taking something to heart’ as paying no attention; and since among the evil paying no attention to Divine things is the result of resistance arising in the will, this too is meant by those same words. And since ‘not taking it to heart’ implies the same as being unyielding, obstinacy is also meant, as previously in 7272, 7300, 7338. With respect to resistance arising in the will, it should be recognized that the will is what rules a person. Some people think that the understanding rules; but the understanding does not do so unless the will has the same leanings. The understanding accords with the will, for regarded in itself the understanding is nothing other than the outward form which the will takes. The expression ‘the will’ is used here to mean the desires that belong to a person’s love, for his will is nothing other. Those desires are what rule a person, for they are his life. If a person’s desires are those of self-love and love of the world, then his entire life is nothing else than such desires. Nor can he resist them, for to do so would be to resist his own life. Fundamental ideas of truth make no impression whatever. If the desires belonging to those kinds of love predominate they haul truth over to their own side and so falsify it, or if it does not fully support them reject it. This explains why fundamental ideas of truth taught by faith have no effect whatever on a person unless the Lord instills desires belonging to spiritual love, that is, love towards the neighbour. And in the measure that he receives those desires he receives also the truths of faith. The desires belonging to this love are what constitute the new will. From all this it may now be seen that a person never takes any truth to heart if his will is resistant to it. So it is that those in hell, having an affection or desires for evil within them, cannot receive the truths of faith, consequently cannot undergo correction. So it is too that the evil falsify the truths of faith, so far as they can.

sRef Ex@7 @24 S0′ 7343. ‘And all the Egyptians dug round about the river for water to drink’ means searching out truth which they could apply to falsities. This is clear from the meaning of ‘digging’ as searching out, dealt with below; from the meaning of ‘water round about the river’ as truths (the reason why ‘water round about the river’ is truths is that this water was outside the river and had not become blood; for the meaning of ‘water’ as truths, see 739, 790, 2702, 3058, 3424, 4976, 5668); and from the meaning of ‘drinking’ as applying to falsities. For the meaning of ‘drinking’ as applying, see 5709; for anyone who drinks something applies it to himself. But it should be recognized that the nature of the application when it takes place is determined by the character and state of the one who applies that thing to himself. A person with an affection for truth applies truths to himself in accordance with the state and character of this affection; but a person with an affection for falsity perverts and falsifies truths when he applies them to himself. This may be seen from the consideration that Divine Truth flows into everyone, yet is varied with each individual according to the state and character of his life. Those in hell therefore turn it into falsities, just as they turn Divine Good into evil, heavenly forms of love into devilish ones, mercy into hatred and cruelty, conjugial love into adultery. Thus they turn things into their opposites, which they do because of the opposite character and state of their life. This now explains why ‘all the Egyptians dug round about the river for water [to drink]’ means searching out truths which they could apply to falsities.

[2] The fact that among those steeped in falsities and evils truth is turned into falsity and good into evil, and also vice versa, is evident from the proverbial saying that to the pure all things are pure, and to the impure all things are impure. This may also be illustrated by natural phenomena, for instance by the light coming from the sun. The light is white, but the objects it flows into convert it into colours. It is made beautiful by objects that are beautiful, and ugly by those that are ugly. The same proverb may also be illustrated by the grafting of branches into trees. A branch grafted into the trunk bears its own fruit, and therefore the sap of the tree, as soon as it passes into the engrafted branch, Is varied. It now becomes the branch’s sap, suited to the production of its leaves and fruit. The situation is similar with the things that enter a human being.

sRef Num@21 @17 S3′ sRef Num@21 @18 S3′ [3] The reason why ‘digging’ means searching out is that ‘water’, ‘spring’, and ‘well’ which are dug out mean truths, which are not dug out but searched out. This is why in the original language this same word, when it is used in connection with truths, also means to search for. In prophetical statements however either ‘water’ or ‘spring’ is used instead of truth, and ‘digging’ instead of searching for; for this is what prophetic language is like, as is evident in Moses, where the spring at Beer is referred to, about which Israel sang this song,

Rise up, O spring! Answer over it! The well* which the princes dug, which the chiefs of the people dug out, as directed by the lawgiver, with their staves. Num. 21:16-18.

Here ‘spring’ means teachings presenting God’s truth, ‘digging’ means searching for it.
* lit. spring

sRef Ex@7 @24 S0′ 7344. ‘For they could not drink from the waters of the river’ means non-application through the use of utter falsities. This is clear from the meaning of ‘being unable to drink’ as non-application, for ‘drinking’ is applying, see immediately above in 7343; and from the meaning of ‘the waters of the river’ as falsities, also dealt with above, in 7307. What is meant by ‘being unable to drink from the waters of the river’ – which is that truths cannot be applied to falsities, that is, be falsified through the use of utter falsities – follows on also from the internal sense of what comes immediately before. That is to say, this meaning follows on from that of ‘digging for water to drink round about the river’, which is a searching for truths that they could apply to falsities. The reason why utter falsities cannot be used to apply truths to falsities is that they are intermediaries are present to bind them together. The intermediaries which bind them together are the illusions of the outward senses, and also statements made in the Word in accordance with outward appearances. Take for example the truth that nothing but good comes from the Lord, and never anything evil. This truth is falsified through illusions, such as that by His almighty power the Lord is able, if He wills, to take away evil, and that because He does not take it away He is the cause of it, which implies that evil too comes from the Lord. It is falsified by the use of statements made in the Word in accordance with outward appearances, such as that Jehovah or the Lord is angry, punishes, condemns, and casts into hell, when in actual fact the people themselves who are engrossed in evil are the ones who cause these things to happen to them. Consequently they bring upon themselves the evil inflicted as punishment, for in the next life the evil inflicted as punishment and the evil of which a person is guilty go together. Countless other truths can be falsified in ways like these.

sRef Ex@7 @26 S0′ sRef Ex@7 @25 S0′ sRef Ex@7 @27 S0′ sRef Ex@7 @28 S0′ sRef Ex@7 @29 S0′ 7345. Verses 25-29 And seven days were fulfilled after Jehovah struck the river.* And Jehovah said to Moses, Go to Pharaoh, and you shall say to him, Thus says Jehovah, Send My people away, and let them serve Me. And if you refuse to send them away, behold, I will plague all your borders with frogs. And the river will cause the frogs to crawl forth, and they will rise up and come into your house, and into your bedchamber, and onto your bed, and into the house of your servants, and onto your people, and into your ovens, and into your kneading bowls. And onto you, and onto your people, and onto all your servants the frogs will rise up.

‘And seven days were fulfilled after Jehovah struck the river’ means the end of the state after truths were falsified. ‘And Jehovah said to Moses’ means new instruction. ‘Go to Pharaoh, and you shall say to him’ means a command to be addressed to the molesters. ‘Thus says Jehovah, Send My people away in order that they may serve Me’ means that they should leave those who belong to the Church in order that in freedom they may worship their God. ‘And if you refuse to send them away’ means should they fail to leave them… ‘Behold, I will plague all your borders with frogs’ means reasonings arising from utter falsities. ‘And the river will cause the frogs to crawl forth’ means the reasonings arising from those falsities. ‘And they will rise up and come into your house, and into your bedchamber’ means that they will fill the mind, all the way through to its more internal parts. ‘And onto your bed’ means to its inmost parts. ‘And into the house of your servants, and of your people’ means everything in the natural. ‘And into your ovens, and into your kneading bowls’ means into delights belonging to evil desires. ‘And onto you, and onto your people, and onto all your servants the frogs will rise up’ means that the reasonings arising from falsities will be in every single part.
* In English versions of the Scriptures the division of chapters is made here.

sRef Ex@7 @25 S0′ 7346. ‘And seven days were fulfilled after Jehovah struck the river’ means the end of the state after truths were falsified. This is clear from the meaning of ‘seven days’ as a whole period from start to finish, thus a complete state, dealt with in 728, 6508 (the same meaning that ‘a week’ has, 2044, 3845) so that ‘seven days were fulfilled’ means the end of that period or state; and from the meaning of ‘after Jehovah struck the river’ as after truths were falsified. For when it says that the river was struck with Aaron’s rod and the waters became blood the meaning is that truths were falsified, see 7316, 7317, 7330, 7372.

sRef Ex@7 @26 S0′ 7347. ‘And Jehovah said to Moses’ means new instruction. This is clear from the meaning of ‘Jehovah said’, when something is commanded anew, as new instruction, dealt with in 7186, 7267, 7304.

sRef Ex@7 @26 S0′ 7348. ‘Go to Pharaoh, and you shall say to him’ means a command to be addressed to the molesters. This is clear from the meaning of ‘going (in) and saying’, when spoken by Jehovah, as a command; and from the representation of ‘Pharaoh’ as those who molest by means of falsities, dealt with in 7107, 7110, 7126, 7142.

sRef Ex@7 @26 S0′ 7349. ‘Thus says Jehovah, Send My people away in order that they may serve Me’ means that they should leave those who belong to the Church in order that in freedom they may worship their God. This is clear from the meaning of ‘sending’ as leaving; from the representation of the children of Israel, to whom ‘My people’ refers here, as those who belong to the spiritual Church, dealt with in 6426, 6637, 6862, 6868, 7075, 7062, 7198, 7201, 7215, 7223; and from the meaning of ‘serving Me’ as worshipping their God. The reason for saying ‘worship in freedom’ is that no worship was possible where falsities were molesting them; and a further reason is that all worship that is truly worship must take place in freedom, 1947, 2875, 2876, 2880, 2881, 3145, 3146, 3158, 4031.

sRef Ex@7 @27 S0′ 7350. ‘And if you refuse to send them away’ means should they fail to leave them . . . This is clear from the meaning of ‘sending’ as leaving, as immediately above in 7749, so that ‘if you refuse to send’ means should they not leave them.

sRef Ex@7 @27 S0′ 7351. ‘behold, I will plague all your borders with frogs’ means reasonings arising from utter falsities. This is clear from the meaning of ‘frogs’ as reasonings. Their arising from utter falsities is meant by their crawling forth from the river, as the next phrase in the verse declares, ‘the river of Egypt’ being falsity, see 6699, 7307; and because the words used here say that all their borders would be plagued with them, they also mean that the reasonings will arise not from falsified truths but from utter falsities. The reason for this is that reasonings which arise from falsified truths are turned at length into blasphemous contradictions of what is good and true. Furthermore real truths reject falsification from themselves since they cannot coexist with falsities, and all the time they are present with them they fight against them and at length free and separate themselves from them. This explains why after a person has falsified truths he at length renounces them altogether. If he did not do that falsities would have dominion over truths. So it is that after the evil in the next life have been cast into hell they are not allowed to use reasonings that arise from falsified truths, only those arising from utter falsities.

sRef Rev@16 @14 S2′ sRef Rev@16 @13 S2′ [2] The fact that ‘frogs’ are reasonings arising from falsities is clear in John,

I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet three unclean spirits, like frogs. For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, to go out to the kings of the land and of the whole earth, to assemble them for the war of that great day of God Almighty. Rev. 16:13, 14.

‘Frogs’ are reasonings arising from falsities in opposition to truths, as is evident from every detail here; for it says that they came ‘out of the mouth of the dragon’, ‘out of the mouth of the beast’, and ‘out of the mouth of the false prophet’, and also that they were to go out ‘to the kings of the land, to assemble them for war’. ‘The kings of the land’ are the Church’s truths, for ‘kings’ are truths, and in the contrary sense falsities, see 1672, 1728, 2015, 2069, 3009, 3670, 4575, 4581, 4966, 5044, 5068, 6148, and ‘the land’ is the Church, 662, 1067, 1262, 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118, 3355, 4447, 4535, 5577. ‘War’ is spiritual conflict, 2686, thus war against the truths and forms of the good of faith. From all this it is evident that ‘frogs’ are reasonings arising from falsities in opposition to truths. In David,

He turned their waters into blood, and killed their fish. He caused frogs to crawl forth onto their land, into the chambers of their kings. Ps. 105:29, 30.

The expression ‘into the chambers of their kings’ is used because reasoning arising from falsities in opposition to truths is meant, ‘the chambers of kings’ being truths of a more internal nature, and in the contrary sense falsities of a more internal nature. For the meaning of ‘kings’ as truths, and in the contrary sense falsities, see immediately above.

sRef Ex@7 @28 S0′ 7352. ‘And the river will cause the frogs to crawl forth’ means the reasonings arising from those falsities. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the river of Egypt’ as falsity, dealt with in 6693, 7307; and from the meaning of ‘the frogs’ as reasonings, dealt with immediately above in 7351. The reason why ‘frogs’ are reasonings is that they live in water, in which they make talkative sounds and croak, and also live in unclean surroundings. What reasoning arising from utter falsities is will be illustrated by several examples. Reasoning arising from utter falsities takes place if a person attributes everything to natural forces and scarcely anything to the Divine, when in fact everything owes its existence to the Divine, and natural forces are merely the means by which it is brought into being. Reasoning arising from utter falsities takes place if a person believes that a human being is similar to an animal, being more perfect only by virtue of his ability to think, and for this reason believes that when he dies a human being is similar to an animal. Because he refuses to believe that a human being is linked to the Divine through thought which belongs to faith, and through affection which belongs to love, and as a consequence refuses to believe in resurrection and eternal life, what he says arises from utter falsities. It is similar with a person who believes that hell has no existence, and also with him who believes that a person has the pleasurable gift of life only while he is in the world and should therefore take full advantage of it, because when he dies he dies completely. Reasoning arising from utter falsities takes place if a person believes that all things are attributable to one’s own prudence and good fortune, and not to Divine Providence except on a very general level. It also takes place if a person believes that religion exists for no other reason than to keep the simple in check. Reasoning arising from utter falsities takes place in particular if people believe that the Word is not Divine. In short reasoning arising from utter falsities takes place if people refuse completely to believe God’s truths.

sRef Ex@7 @28 S0′ sRef Isa@26 @20 S0′ sRef Deut@32 @25 S0′ sRef Ezek@8 @12 S0′ sRef 2Ki@6 @12 S0′ 7353. ‘And they will rise up and come into your house, and into your bedchamber’ means that they will fill the mind, all the way through to its more internal parts. This is clear from the meaning of ‘house’ as a person’s mind, dealt with in 3538, 4973, 5023; and from the meaning of ‘bedchamber’ as the more internal parts of the mind. The reason why ‘bedchamber’ means the more internal parts of the mind is that it is a more internal part of the house. The more internal parts are meant by ‘chambers’, and those that are even more internal by ‘bedchambers’, in the following places: In Isaiah,

Go away, O people, enter your bedchambers, and shut your door behind you. Hide yourself, so to speak, for a little moment, until the anger passes over. Isa. 26:20.

In Ezekiel,

He said to me, Have you not seen, son of man, what the elders of the house* of Israel do in the dark, each in the chambers of his own idol? Ezek. 8:12.

In Moses,

Outside the sword will bereave and out of the chambers terror. Deut. 31:25.

In the second Book of Kings,

Elisha the prophet, who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bed chamber. 2 Kings 6:12.

The ancients compared a person’s mind to a house, and the inward parts of a person to chambers. The human mind is indeed like a house, for the things it contains are virtually as distinct from one another as the chambers within a house. Those at the centre are the inmost parts of the mind, while those to the sides are the more external parts there. The ancients compared the latter to forecourts, and the parts which were outside but adjoining parts more internal they compared to porticos.
* The Latin means children but the Hebrew means house, which Sw. has in another place where he quotes this verse.

sRef Ex@7 @28 S0′ 7354. ‘And onto your bed’ means to its inmost parts. This is clear from the meaning of ‘bed’ as the inmost part; for when ‘bedchambers’ are the more internal parts, ‘bed’ is the inmost part within them.

sRef Ex@7 @28 S0′ 7355. ‘And into the house of your servants, and of your people’ means everything in the natural. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the house’ as a person’s mind the natural mind since it is used in reference to the Egyptians and Pharaoh’s servants (for the meaning of ‘house’ as the mind, see just above in 7353); and from the meaning of ‘Pharaoh’s servants and people’ as everything in the natural. Things present in the natural which serve to substantiate falsities are called ‘servants’; and for the use of ‘people’ to refer to truths, or in the contrary sense falsities, see 1259, 1260, 3295, 3581, 4619, 6451, 6465. From all this it is evident that ‘into the house of your (Pharaoh’s) servants and people’ means into everything in the natural.

sRef Ex@7 @28 S0′ 7356. ‘And into your ovens, and into your kneading bowls’ means into delights belonging to evil desires. This is clear from the meaning of ‘ovens’, since they are what bread is baked in, as forms of exterior good (forms of exterior good being those which exist in the natural and are as a general rule called delights; for when forms of interior good, which are offshoots of [heavenly] kinds of love and resulting affections, pass into the natural they are experienced as delights there, and these delights are meant in a good sense by ‘ovens’) or in the contrary sense, in which ‘ovens’ is used here, as delights belonging to evil desires, that is, delights springing from hellish kinds of love, which are self-love and love of the world; and from the meaning of ‘kneading bowls’ too as delights belonging to evil desires in the natural, but even more external ones since kneading bowls are the vessels in which the dough is prepared when bread is made. Another way of saying that reasonings will enter into delights belonging to evil desires is to say that it will be the delight of their life to use reasonings arising from falsities to deceive others and lead them astray. Indeed the evil take very great delight in spreading falsities around, proving that they are well-founded, mocking truths, and especially leading others astray.

sRef Hos@7 @7 S2′ sRef Hos@7 @6 S2′ sRef Hos@7 @4 S2′ [2] The fact that ‘an oven’ means delight belonging to affections that go with charity and faith, and in the contrary sense delight belonging to evil desires that go with selfish and worldly love, is evident in Hosea,

They are all committing adultery, like an oven heated by a baker; the raiser* ceases from kneading his dough. When like an oven they transform** their desire (animus) while they lie in wait, their baker being sleepy all night, in the morning it is burning, like a flaming fire. All become hot, like an oven, and devour their judges; all their kings fall. Hosea 7:4, 6, 7.

‘Oven’ stands for delight belonging to evil desires, which are evil people’s desires. ‘Burning’, ‘becoming hot’, and ‘flaming fire’ stand for the desires themselves, ‘fire being the desire for evil, see 1297, 1861, 2446, 5071, 5215, 6314, 6832, 7324 (end). ‘They devour their judges; all their kings fall’ stands for the fact that they destroy forms of good and truths. Anyone may see that without the internal sense in which such things are meant nobody can know what ‘they are all committing adultery, like an oven heated by a baker’ is, or ‘all become hot, like an oven, and devour their judges’, and ‘their kings fall’.

sRef Isa@31 @9 S3′ [3] ‘Oven’ is used in the good sense in Isaiah,

The saying of Jehovah, whose hearth is in Zion, and His oven in Jerusalem. Isa. 31:9.

‘Zion’ stands for the celestial Church, thus for the good of love, which is the good of this Church, ‘Jerusalem’ for the spiritual Church, thus for the good of love in this Church, which is the good of charity and consequently of faith, while ‘oven’ here stands for more internal delight belonging to affections for goodness and truth. ‘Oven’ has this meaning because the bread which is baked in an oven means the good of celestial and spiritual love, for which meaning of ‘bread’ see 276, 680, 2165, 2177, 3464, 3478, 3775, 3813, 4211, 4217, 4735, 4976, 5915. And as ‘oven’ receives its meaning from this, the bread called a minchah that was baked for sacrifices in an oven was distinguished from the minchah baked on a griddle, and from the minchah baked in a covered pan, Lev. 2:4, 5, 7. Different forms of the good of love were meant by these varieties of minchah.
* Whether the raiser means stirrer of the fire or raiser of the dough is not clear.
** lit. convert

sRef John@8 @44 S0′ sRef Ex@7 @29 S0′ 7357. ‘And onto you, and onto your people, and onto all your servants the frogs will rise up’ means that the reasonings arising from falsities will be in every single part. This is clear from what has been stated above in 7355. Every single person who is in the land of Egypt is meant by ‘Pharaoh, his people, and his servants’, thus falsities in every single part (it has often been shown above that falsities are meant by ‘Pharaoh and the Egyptians’). It should be recognized that those in hell, from whom the truths which they knew in the world have been taken away, cannot do anything other than speak falsities. This accounts for what happens when they appear in the world of spirits – when anyone of their sort speaks, what he says is known instantly to be false. The upright in the next life know it from ordinary experience. The fact that such people speak nothing but falsity is also plain from the Lord’s words in John,

You are from your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has not stood in the truth because the truth is not in him. When he speaks a lie he speaks from the things that are his own, for he is the teller of a lie and the father of it. John 8:44.

For everyone speaks in keeping with the impulses of his love; no one can speak contrary to them unless pretence, hypocrisy, fraudulence, or deceitfulness prompt him to do so, as is usually the case with the evil when they speak truths. But these truths which they speak are nevertheless falsities with them. On the other hand those who are guided by truth because they are motivated by good cannot do other than speak truths.

7358. INHABITANTS AND SPIRITS OF THE PLANET MARS

The mental picture that spirits and angels have places the planet Mars, as it places each of the other planets, in its own fixed position. Mars is placed on the left, out in front, and some distance away at breast level, thus outside the sphere where spirits belonging to our planet are. The spirits belonging to one planet are separated from those belonging to another because the spirits belonging to each planet are associated with some particular province in the Grand Man and consequently they have different and divergent modes of being. This divergence in their modes of being is what causes their visible separateness in positions either to the right or left of one another, and closer or further away.

7359. Some spirits once came to me from there and positioned themselves towards my left temple. In that position they breathed their speech onto me, but I did not understand it. It was, as it flowed, rather gentle; I had not, so far as I could remember, experienced a gentler flow before. It was like a very gentle breeze. It blew first onto my left temple and the upper part of my left ear, and from there went on towards my left eye, and little by little towards my right eye. After that it passed down, especially from my left eye, towards my lips; and on reaching my lips it went into and through my mouth. Indeed it went through my Eustachian tube into my brain. When that ‘breath’ from those spirits reached my brain I then understood their speech, and this enabled me to talk to them. I noticed that while they spoke to me my lips were made to move, and my tongue also to a small extent. This happened because of the correspondence of inward speech with outward speech. Outward speech consists of articulated sound which falls on the external membrane of the ear, [called the ear-drum,] and is conveyed from there into the brain by means of small organs, membranes, and fibres inside the ear.

7360. From all this I was allowed to know that the speech of the inhabitants of Mars was different from that of the inhabitants of our planet. That is to say, it was not audible but virtually soundless, introducing itself into inward hearing and sight by a shorter route, and being of such a nature was fuller and more perfect – fuller of ideas comprising thought – and so was by nature closer to the speech of spirits and angels. The actual affections which their speech contains are represented in their faces, while the thought contained in it is represented in their eyes. For with those people thought and speech act in unison with each other, as do affection and facial expressions. They consider it wicked to think one thing but say another, and to desire one thing but express another on their faces. They do not know what hypocrisy is, or what fraudulent pretence and deception are.

7361. I have also been allowed to know about the existence of this kind of speech among the most ancient people on our planet through my mixing with some of them, regarding which see 607, 608. To make this matter clearer let me repeat what I have been allowed to know through experience about the speech of the most ancient people belonging to our planet, namely the following told in 1118. By means of a certain influx that I am unable to describe I have been shown the type of speech which those people who belonged to the Most Ancient Church employed. It was not articulated, like the vocal speech of our own times, but was non-audible, produced not by external breathing but by means of internal breathing. I have also been allowed to ascertain the nature of their internal breathing. It came from between the navel and the heart and so through the lips without any sounds when they were speaking.

[2] It did not enter someone else’s ear by an external route, striking what is called the ear-drum, but by a certain internal route, and in point of fact by that part there which is nowadays called the Eustachian tube. I have been shown that by means of this type of speech they were able to express far more fully the feelings present in the mind (animus) and the ideas comprising their thought (cogitatio) than can possibly be done by articulated sounds or spoken words, which are similarly delivered by means of breath, which however is external. For not one word nor even any part of a word is delivered without the use of breath. But with those people of the Most Ancient Church it was delivered in a far more perfect way because it was done by means of internal breathing. And because this interior breathing is also far more perfect, it is more applicable and appropriate to the actual ideas comprising thought. In addition they even communicated by movements of the lips and by corresponding changes of facial expression. For, being celestial people, whatever they were thinking shone out of their face and eyes which altered correspondingly; the shape of their face and the life expressed in it would alter, and the light seen in their eyes would change. They were quite incapable of assuming facial expressions that did not accord with what they were thinking. Pretence, and still more deception, was to them something absolutely outrageous. Because that type of speech existed with them, and because they had internal breathing, they were therefore able to live in company with angels.

7362. The breathing of the spirits belonging to the planet Mars was also made known to me (for the fact that spirits and angels actually breathe, see 3884-3894). I perceived that their breathing was interior; starting from the region of the chest down towards the navel it rolled upwards from there by way of the breast towards the mouth where the breath was imperceptible. This proved to me, together with other evidence gained from experience, that they were of the celestial genius, and so were not unlike those who belonged to the Most Ancient Church on our planet.

7363. They talked to me about the life of the inhabitants on their planet. They said that people there are not under the control of any regime; rather they are divided into individual communities, large and small, and in these they associate with the kind of people whose minds match their own. They know in an instant from another’s face and speech whether his mind matches theirs, and in this they are rarely mistaken. Such people become friends in an instant; but they feel no aversion to everyone else, for there is no aversion, still less any hatred. They went on to say that their associations are delightful, and that they discuss with one another things that are happening in their communities, and especially those that are happening in heaven, since a large number of them enjoy open contact with the angels in heaven. One can also well believe this because they are such, and their manner of associating with one another is such, that all their communities throughout that planet taken together represent a general angelic community. For all the communities vary from one another, but the Lord links them all together by means of the heavenly form to make a single whole; for a single whole is made up of various parts properly assembled to produce the overall form.

7364. Those in their communities who begin to think what is wrong, and then go on to will it, are banished from their community and left alone on their own. As a consequence they lead a very wretched existence outside society, living among rocks or whatever; for their communities are no longer interested in them. Some such communities do try in various ways to compel those people to come to their senses; but when this proves to be all to no avail they sever their connection with them. In doing this they are taking precautions to prevent the desire to exercise control and the desire for gain from creeping in, that is, to prevent any who are moved by a desire to exercise control from setting themselves up over the community they are in, and after that over many other communities, and to prevent any moved by a desire for gain from seizing others’ possessions from them. Everyone there lives satisfied with what he has, and everyone lives satisfied with the respect in which he is held for being righteous and showing love towards the neighbour. This delightful and peaceful state of mind would be destroyed if those who think what is bad and will it were not cast out, and if judicious and firm steps were not taken to counteract in their earliest beginnings self-love and love of the world with whomever they exist. For these loves are what have been responsible for the conversion of communities into empires and kingdoms, within which there are few people who do not wish to exercise control and possess everything belonging to others. Few are they who do what is just and fair from a desire for what is just and fair, fewer still those who do what is good from charity, and what is true from faith. Those things are done instead from fear of the law, damnation, loss of life, loss of gain and position, and loss of reputation on account of these last.

7365. ‘Inhabitants and spirits of the planet Mars’ is continued at the end of the next chapter.

7366. 8

TEACHINGS ABOUT CHARITY

It has been stated above that self-love and love of the world residing with a person constitute hell. Now the nature of those loves must be stated, in order that a person may know whether he is ruled by those kinds of love, and consequently whether he has hell within himself or heaven; for a person has within himself either hell or heaven. The Lord teaches in Luke 17:21 that the kingdom of God resides within a person; therefore that is also where hell resides.

7367. Self-love reigns with a person, that is, a person is immersed in self-love, when in what he thinks and does he has no regard for his neighbour, thus no regard for the public, let alone the Lord, only for himself and for kith and kin. Consequently that love reigns when everything is done for his and their sakes alone; or if he does act for the public and his neighbour’s sake it is merely in order that others may see him doing it.

7368. That person is said to act for his own sake and that of kith and kin because he makes one with them, and they make one with him. When for instance anyone does something for the sake of his wife, children, grandchildren, sons-in-law, and daughters-in-law, he does it for his own sake since they are his own. The same is true of him who does it for the sake of other relatives, and for the sake of friends who go along with his love and thereby link themselves to him. For by being linked to him in that way they make one with him, that is, they see themselves bound up with him, and him with them.

7369. To the extent that a person is immersed in self-love he departs from love of the neighbour; consequently to the extent that a person is immersed in self-love he departs from heaven, for heaven is filled with love of the neighbour. From this it also follows that to the extent that a person is immersed in self-love he is in hell, for hell is filled with self-love.

7370. The person immersed in self-love is one who despises his neighbour in comparison with himself, and who regards his neighbour as an enemy if he is not favourably disposed towards him and does not defer to him. Immersed more deeply in self-love is one who therefore hates and persecutes his neighbour; and immersed even more deeply than that is one who is therefore consumed with vengeance against him and longs to ruin him. People like this at length love to vent their rage on their neighbour; and if these people are also adulterers they become cruel.

7371. The delight felt by those people in such attitudes of mind is the delight that belongs to self-love; and this delight when present with a person is hellish delight. Everything done by a person in accordance with his love is a form of delight, and therefore from such delight the nature of his love can also be known.

7372. The attitudes mentioned just above in 7370 serve as signs by which to recognize who exactly are immersed in self-love. What people seem like to outward appearance, no matter whether they are proud or submissive, is of no significance. For such attitudes reside in the interior man, and the interior man is hidden by the majority of people at the present day. The exterior man is taught to display behaviour that expresses love of the public and the neighbour, thus the opposites of those attitudes, and to do so for selfish and worldly reasons.

7373. Love of the world reigns with a person however, that is, a person is immersed in love of the world, when in what he thinks and does he looks for and is intent only on making gain, with no concern at all about whether it may do harm to the neighbour or to the public.

7374. Those people are immersed in love of the world who wish to rake in other people’s goods by artful moves they have devised, especially those who resort to trickery and deceit. Those immersed in that love are envious of others’ goods and covet them; and to the extent that they have no fear of laws they divest, indeed ransack them of their goods.

sRef Isa@14 @15 S0′ sRef Isa@14 @14 S0′ sRef Isa@14 @13 S0′ sRef Ex@9 @24 S0′ 7375. These two kinds of love grow in the measure that the restraints placed on them are loosened and in the measure that a person is carried away into them. They eventually grow beyond measure; they become so great that those people wish to have control not only over everything in their own kingdom but also over everything beyond it, even to the ends of the earth. Indeed when the restraints placed on those kinds of love are loosened they reach even up to the God of the universe, that is, they become so great that the people immersed in those loves wish to mount God’s throne and be worshipped as God Himself. Their desire is in keeping with the following words in Isaiah regarding Lucifer, by whom are meant those who are immersed in those loves and who are called ‘Babel’,

You said in your heart, I will go up the heavens, above the stars of God I will raise my throne, and I will sit on the mount of assembly, in the farthest parts of the north. I will go up above the heights of the clouds, and I will make myself like the Most High. But you have been sent down to hell. Isa. 14:13-15.

7376. From all this it may now be seen that those two kinds of love are the sources of all evils, for they are diametrically opposed to love towards the neighbour and love to the Lord. Accordingly they are diametrically opposed to heaven, where love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour reign. Consequently those kinds of love – self-love and love of the world – are what constitute hell with a person; for in hell these two kinds of love are what reign.

7377. But people are not immersed in those kinds of love if they aspire to important positions not for selfish reasons but for the sake of their country, or if they aspire to wealth not for its own sake but the sake of having the necessities of life both for themselves and their dependents, and for the sake of the good use it is put to, which gives them pleasure in being wealthy. Important positions and wealth with these people are means to doing good.

EXODUS 8*

1 And Jehovah said to Moses, Say to Aaron, Stretch out your hand with your rod over the rivers, over the streams, and over the pools, and cause frogs to rise up onto the land of Egypt.

2 And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and frogs rose up and covered the land of Egypt.

3 And the magicians of Egypt did the same with their enchantments, and they caused frogs to rise up onto the land of Egypt.

4 And Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron, and said, Plead with Jehovah to remove the frogs from me, and from my people; and I will send the people away to sacrifice to Jehovah.

5 And Moses said to Pharaoh, Have honour over me. Till when shall I plead for you, and for your servants, and for your people, so as the frogs will be eliminated from you, and from your houses, and survive only in the river?

6 And he said, Until tomorrow. And he said, Let it be according to your word, so that you may know that there is none like Jehovah our God.

7 And the frogs will be removed from you, and from your houses, and from your servants, and from your people, and survive only in the river.

8 And Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh; and Moses cried out to Jehovah about** the frogs which He had brought on Pharaoh.

9 And Jehovah did according to the word of Moses; and the frogs died out of the houses, out of the courtyards, and out of the fields.

10 And they gathered them into heaps [upon] heaps; and the land stank.

11 And Pharaoh saw that he could breathe again,*** and he made his heart stubborn, and did not hear**** them, as Jehovah had spoken.

12 And Jehovah said to Moses, Say to Aaron, Stretch out your rod and strike the dust of the land, and it will then be lice in all the land of Egypt.

13 And they did so; and Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod and struck the dust of the land, and there were lice on man and on beast. All the dust of the land became lice in the whole land of Egypt.

14 And the magicians did the same with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not; and there were lice on man and on beast.

15 And the magicians said to Pharaoh, The finger of God is this. And Pharaoh’s heart was unyielding, and he did not hear**** them, as Jehovah had spoken.

16 And Jehovah said to Moses, Rise up in the morning early to stand before Pharaoh; behold, he goes out to the water. And you are to say to him, Thus says Jehovah, Send My people away and let them serve Me.

17 For if you do not send My people away, behold, I send onto you, and onto your servants, and onto your people, and into your houses, noxious flying insects; and the houses of the Egyptians will be full of the noxious flying insects, and also the land on which they are.

18 And I will set apart on that day the land of Goshen, on which My people stand, so that the noxious flying insects are not there; to the end that you may know that I am Jehovah in the midst of the land.

19 And I will place redemption between My people and your people; by tomorrow will this sign be.

20 And Jehovah did so; and extremely noxious flying insects came to the house of Pharaoh, and to the houses of his servants, and into all the land of Egypt. The land was ruined by the presence of the noxious flying insects.

21 And Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron, and said, Go, sacrifice to your God in the land.

22 And Moses said, It is ill-advised to do so, for we would be sacrificing the abomination of the Egyptians to Jehovah our God. Behold, should we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, will they not stone us?

23 We will go a way of three days***** into the wilderness, and sacrifice to Jehovah our God, as He has said to us.

24 And Pharaoh said, I will send you away to sacrifice to Jehovah your God in the wilderness; only you must certainly not go far away. Plead for me.

25 And Moses said, Behold, I go out from you, and I will plead with Jehovah to remove the noxious flying insects from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people, tomorrow; only do not let Pharaoh act deceitfully again in not sending the people away to sacrifice to Jehovah.

26 And Moses went out from Pharaoh and pleaded with Jehovah.

27 And Jehovah did according to the word of Moses; and He removed the noxious flying insects from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people. Not one was left.

28 And Pharaoh made his heart stubborn this time also, and did not send the people away.
* In English versions of the Scriptures the division of chapters is made at 7:26.
** lit. over the matter (or word) of
*** lit. respiration had come about, i.e. there was a respite from the plagues
**** lit. hear towards
*****i.e. a three days’ journey

sRef Ex@8 @0 S0′ 7378. CONTENTS

This chapter continues to deal in the internal sense with the vastation of those steeped in falsities who molest the upright in the next life. The first two stages of vastation were described in the previous chapter, and also the third stage partly, a stage in which they did nothing else than use reasonings arising from utter falsities – reasonings arising from utter falsities being meant by the frogs. This chapter continues to deal with these, and then goes on to deal with the fourth and fifth stages of the vastation of those steeped in falsities who molest the upright in the next life. The fourth stage was when they were subjected to evils which ruined all good present with them, including whatever natural good they had – these evils being meant by the lice produced from the dust of the land. The fifth stage was when they were subjected to the falsities arising from those evils, which ruined all truth – these falsities being meant by the noxious flying insects.

sRef Ex@8 @8 S0′ sRef Ex@8 @7 S0′ sRef Ex@8 @10 S0′ sRef Ex@8 @2 S0′ sRef Ex@8 @1 S0′ sRef Ex@8 @3 S0′ sRef Ex@8 @5 S0′ sRef Ex@8 @9 S0′ sRef Ex@8 @6 S0′ sRef Ex@8 @4 S0′ 7379. THE INTERNAL SENSE

Verses 1-10 And Jehovah said to Moses, Say to Aaron, Stretch out your hand with your rod over the rivers, over the streams, and over the pools, and cause frogs to rise up onto the land of Egypt. And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and frogs rose up and covered the land of Egypt. And the magicians of Egypt did the same with their enchantments, and they caused frogs to rise up onto the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron, and said, Plead with Jehovah to remove the frogs from me, and from my people; and I will send the people away to sacrifice to Jehovah. And Moses said to Pharaoh, Have honour over me. Till when shall I plead for you, and for your servants, and for your people, so as the frogs will be eliminated from you, and from your houses, and survive only in the river? And he said, Until tomorrow. And he said, Let it be according to your word, so that you may know that there is none like Jehovah our God. And the frogs will be removed from you, and from your houses, and from your servants, and from your people, and survive only in the river. And Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh; and Moses cried out to Jehovah about* the frogs which He had brought on Pharaoh. And Jehovah did according to the word of Moses; and the frogs died out of the houses, out of the courtyards, and out of the fields. And they gathered them into heaps [upon] heaps; and the land stank.

‘And Jehovah said to Moses’ means instruction. ‘Say to Aaron’ means an influx of inward law into outward law. ‘Stretch out your hand with your rod’ means the power of inward truth directed through outward truth. ‘Over the rivers, over the streams, and over the pools’ means against falsities. ‘And cause frogs to rise up onto the land of Egypt’ means reasonings arising from utter falsities. ‘And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt’ means the effect of the power of inward truth directed through outward truth against falsities. ‘And frogs rose up’ means reasonings arising from utter falsities. ‘And covered the land of Egypt’ means that the natural mind became such. ‘And the magicians of Egypt did the same with their enchantments’ means a misuse of Divine order, whereby something that to outward appearances looks the same is produced. ‘And they caused frogs to rise up onto the land of Egypt’ means in the form of reasonings springing from the natural mind. ‘And Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron’ means the presence of the law of God. ‘And said, Plead with Jehovah’ means self-abasement resulting from weariness. ‘To remove the frogs from me, and from my people’ means in order that they might not be compelled to use reasonings arising from utter falsities. ‘And I will send the people away to sacrifice to Jehovah’ means that they would then leave those who belonged to the spiritual Church, so that they could worship their God. ‘And Moses said to Pharaoh’ means the reply. ‘Have honour over me’ means that the law of God was to be trusted. ‘Till when shall I plead for you, and for your servants, and for your people’ means intercession made for those steeped in falsities who engage in molestation. ‘So as the frogs will be eliminated from you, and from your houses’ means in order that the reasonings may come to an end. ‘Survive only in the river?’ means that they are destined to remain with falsities, in the place where these reside. ‘And he said, Until tomorrow’ means for evermore. ‘And he said, Let it be according to your word’ means an ensuing endorsement. ‘So that you may know that there is none like Jehovah our God’ means that there is one God and none besides Him. ‘And the frogs will be removed from you, and from your houses, and from your servants, and from your people’ means that they would not be compelled to use reasonings arising from utter falsities. ‘Survive only in the river’ means that they were to remain with falsities, in the place where these reside. ‘And Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh’ means a separation from those who used reasonings arising from utter falsities. ‘And Moses cried out to Jehovah about the frogs which He had brought on Pharaoh’ means intercession. ‘And Jehovah did according to the word of Moses’ means that it was so done according to the Lord’s word. ‘And the frogs died out of the houses, out of the courtyards, and out of the fields’ means that with those people reasonings arising from utter falsities, wherever they were present in the natural, came to an end. ‘And they gathered them into heaps [upon] heaps’ means that those false reasonings were arranged into bundles in the natural. ‘And the land stank’ means what was as a result foul and repulsive.
* lit. over the matter (or word) of

sRef Ex@8 @1 S0′ 7380. ‘And Jehovah said to Moses’ means instruction. This is clear from the meaning of ‘saying’ as instruction, dealt with in 7186, 7304. What is meant by the verb ‘say’ when used in the historical narratives of the Word is evident from what comes after it, for whatever follows goes together with it. The reason why at this point it means instruction is that Jehovah says what further things had to be done. Also ‘Moses’ represents the law of God, through which instruction is given by Jehovah.

sRef Ex@8 @1 S0′ 7381. ‘Say to Aaron’ means an influx of inward law into outward law. This is clear from the representation of ‘Moses’ as the law of God, dealt with in 6713, 6752; from the representation of ‘Aaron’ as teachings presenting what is good and true, dealt with in 6998, 7089, these teachings represented by ‘Aaron’ being nothing other than outward law emanating from inward law, that is, from the Divine through inward law; and from the meaning of ‘saying’ as influx, as in 6152, 6291, 7291. The reason why at this point ‘saying’ means influx is that Moses is commanded to ‘Say to Aaron’; ‘Moses’ is inward law, and ‘Aaron’ outward law, and influx from the Divine takes place through what is inward into what is outward. Inward law is God’s truth itself as it exists in heaven, while outward law is God’s truth as it exists on earth. Thus inward law is truth suited to angels, while outward law is truth suited to men.

aRef Isa@64 @4 S2′ [2] Since inward law, represented by ‘Moses’, is truth suited to angels, while outward law, represented by ‘Aaron’, is truth suited to men, let something be said about them here. Truth suited to angels is for the most part beyond the comprehension of men. This is clear from the consideration that in heaven things are seen and spoken such as eye has never seen, nor ear ever heard. The reason for this is that the things spoken of among angels are spiritual, which are withdrawn from natural things and consequently are far removed from the ideas and words belonging to man’s speech. For man has formed his ideas from things in the natural order, especially its grosser aspects, that is, from things which he has seen in the world and on earth, and has had physical contact with, that is, material things. Even though the ideas belonging to a person’s inward thought exist on a level above material things they are nevertheless founded on material things; and the level that ideas are founded on is the level on which they seem to exist. That is the level on which a person perceives the things he thinks about. From this one may see what the situation is with the truth of faith, and also the nature of that which comes within man’s range of thought, namely that which is called outward law and is represented by ‘Aaron’.

[3] Let the following example serve to shed light on this. Man can have no thought at all without ideas involving time and space; such ideas cling to practically every detail of what man thinks. If ideas formed from time and space were taken away from man he would not know what he thinks, and scarcely whether he thinks. Yet angels’ ideas have nothing of time or space within them, but states instead. The reason is that the natural world marks itself off from the spiritual world by the existence of time and space within it. The reason why time and space exist in the natural world, but states instead in the spiritual world, is this: In the natural world the sun appears to give rise to days and years by its apparent revolutions. It divides the days up into the four periods of night, morning, midday, and evening, and the years too into the four seasons of winter, spring, summer, and autumn, which it effects by means of variations of light and shade, as well as of warmth and coldness. And these divisions are the source of ideas of time and varying periods of it. Ideas of space arise from the use of periods as measurements; therefore where one exists, so does the other.

[4] But in the spiritual world the Sun of heaven, which is the source of spiritual light and spiritual heat, does not make circuits and revolutions which give rise to ideas of time and space. The light which flows from that Sun is God’s truth, and the heat which flows from that Sun is God’s goodness. These give rise to ideas of states among the angels, states of intelligence and faith being the product of God’s truth, and states of wisdom and love the product of God’s goodness. Variations in these states among the angels are what states of light and shade in the world, and also of warmth and coldness, correspond to, which are attributable to the sun since it is responsible for the existence of times and seasons and of spatial measurements. This example demonstrates to some extent what inward truth or truth suited to angels, called inward law, is like, and what outward truth or truth suited to men, referred to as outward law, is like. It also goes to explain why the things that angels discuss with one another are beyond man’s comprehension and also indescribable.

sRef Ex@8 @1 S0′ 7382. ‘Stretch out your hand with your rod’ means the power of inward truth directed through outward truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘hand’ as spiritual power, which belongs to inward truth, and from the representation of ‘rod’ as natural power, which belongs to outward truth, both dealt with in 6947, 6948. For the fact that all power in the spiritual world belongs to truth, see 3091, 3787, 4931, 6344, 6423, 6948. Since ‘Moses’ represents inward law, which is the same as inward truth, and ‘Aaron’ represents outward law, which is the same as outward truth, and since inward truth flows into outward truth and gives it power, 7381, Moses’ word of command to Aaron ‘stretch out your hand with your rod’ means the power of inward truth directed through outward truth.

sRef Ex@8 @1 S0′ 7383. ‘Over the rivers, over the streams, and over the pools’ means against falsities. This is clear from the meaning of Egypt’s ‘rivers’ and ‘streams’ as teachings that consist of falsity, dealt with in 7323; and from the meaning of ‘pools’ as factual knowledge that is subservient to those teachings, dealt with in 7324. Accordingly, falsities are what are meant by ‘rivers, streams, and pools’.

sRef Ex@8 @1 S0′ 7384. ‘And cause frogs to rise up onto the land of Egypt’ means reasonings arising from utter falsities. This is clear from the meaning of ‘frogs’ as reasonings arising from utter falsities, dealt with in 7351, 7352. Frogs also correspond to reasonings arising from falsities, for all things without exception in the natural world have a correspondence with those in the spiritual world; and the reason for this is that what is natural comes into existence through what is spiritual. The whole natural system is therefore a theatre representative of the spiritual world, 2758, 3487, 4939.

sRef Ex@8 @2 S0′ 7385. ‘And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt’ means the effect of the power of inward truth directed through outward truth against falsities. This is clear from the representation of ‘Aaron’ as teachings presenting what is true and good, thus outward truth, dealt with in 6998, 7009, 7089; from the meaning of ‘hand’ as power, dealt with in 878, 4931-4937, at this point the power of inward truth directed through outward truth, as above in 7382; and from the meaning of ‘the waters of Egypt’ as falsities, dealt with in 6693, 7307, the effect being meant by the fact that he did stretch out his hand and the frogs rose up. From all this it is evident that ‘Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt’ means the effect of the power of inward truth directed through outward truth against falsities.

sRef Ex@8 @2 S0′ 7386. ‘And frogs rose up’ means reasonings arising from utter falsities. This is clear from what has been stated above in 7384.

sRef Ex@8 @2 S0′ 7387. ‘And covered the land of Egypt’ means that the natural mind became such. This is clear from the meaning of ‘covering’, since it is used in regard to the natural mind, as the fact that it became filled with falsities and consequent reasonings, thus became such; and from the meaning of ‘the land of Egypt’ as the natural mind, dealt with in 5276, 5278, 5280, 5288, 5301.

sRef Ex@8 @3 S0′ 7388. ‘And the magicians of Egypt did the same with their enchantments’ means a misuse of Divine order, whereby something that to outward appearances looks the same is produced – see 7296, 7297, 7337, where similar words occur.

sRef Ex@8 @3 S0′ 7389. ‘And they caused frogs to rise up onto the land of Egypt’ means in the form of reasonings springing from the natural mind. This is clear from the meaning of ‘frogs’ as reasonings arising from utter falsities, dealt with in 7351, 7352, 7384; and from the meaning of ‘the land of Egypt’ as the natural mind, dealt with just above in 7387.

sRef Ex@8 @4 S0′ 7390. ‘And Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron’ means the presence of the law of God. This is clear from the meaning of ‘calling’ as presence, dealt with in 6177 (the reason why ‘calling’ means presence is that a person calls someone when he wishes to speak to him or to convey his thoughts, and in the next life it is in keeping with the law of order that the person to whom someone wishes to speak and desires to convey his thoughts comes to be present); from the representation of ‘Pharaoh’ as those who are steeped in falsities and engage in molestation, often dealt with already; and from the representation of ‘Moses’ as inward law, and the representation of ‘Aaron’ as outward law, both dealt with above in 7381.

sRef Ex@8 @4 S0′ 7391. ‘And said, Plead with Jehovah’ means self abasement resulting from weariness. This is clear from the meaning of ‘pleading with Jehovah’ as self-abasement, for one who pleads is self-abased, as likewise is one who asks another to plead on his behalf. The reason why ‘pleading’ means self-abasement is that angels pay no attention to the pleas, only to the self-abasement present in the person making them. For pleas made without self-abasement are no more than sounds made by the voice which do not penetrate the angels’ hearing and perception. The fact that weariness is the cause of the self-abasement, that is to say, a weariness that comes as a result of using reasonings arising from utter falsities, will be seen in what follows immediately below.

sRef Ex@8 @4 S0′ 7392. ‘To remove the frogs from me, and from my people’ means in order that they might not be compelled to use reasonings arising from utter falsities. This is clear from the meaning of ‘removing’ as not being compelled, for what caused the pleading was weariness resulting from their being compelled to use reasonings arising from utter falsities; from the meaning of ‘the frogs’ as reasonings arising from utter falsities, dealt with in 7351, 7352; and from the representation of Pharaoh, and also of the Egyptians, as those who are steeped in falsities and engage in molestation, dealt with often.

[2] With regard to that weariness which is the cause of the pleading or self-abasement in those who engage in molestation, it should be recognized that those people find this undelightful; for they are unable to do evil by the use of reasonings that arise from utter falsities, since the upright – who at this point are those members of the Lord’s spiritual Church whom they were molesting – laugh at utter falsities, which are contradictions of the truth. But they were able to do evil through their use of falsities based on illusions and appearances, by which they falsify truths, such truths being meant by ‘the blood’ into which the waters of Egypt were turned, 7317, 7326; for illusions and appearances mislead people since they cast a sort of shadow or veil over truths. Because they are unable to do any evil through their use of reasonings arising from utter falsities, that is, arising from total contradictions of the truth, they have found them to be undelightful and therefore beg to have them taken away. For nothing delights those in hell except doing evil, in whatever possible way. Indeed doing evil is the very delight of their life; so great is it that it constitutes their whole life. When therefore they are not allowed to do it weariness overtakes them. This is the reason why Pharaoh begged to have the plague of frogs taken away, but not that of blood described above, nor that of the lice described below. For ‘the plague of frogs’ means molestation through the use of reasonings arising from utter falsities, by the use of which however they are unable to do any evil; but ‘the plague of blood’ means molestation by the use of falsities arising from illusions and appearances, a molestation which gives them delight because they are able to do ill by means of it. And ‘the plague of lice’ means evils which give them delight because they are evils.

[3] A feeling of delight in doing evil exists in the next life with all those who in the world do not do good to their neighbour for their neighbour’s sake, to their country for their country’s sake, or to the Church for the Church’s sake, but for their own sake. Consequently they do not do what is true and good for the sake of what is true and good. The fact that their delight consists in doing evil is not evident in the world because the external man conceals it. But in the next life, when superficial things are taken away and a person is left with what he is inwardly, that delight then emerges and reveals itself. So it is that such people are in hell; for those who are there all love to do evil, whereas those in heaven all love to do good.

sRef Ex@8 @4 S0′ 7393. ‘And I will send the people away to sacrifice to Jehovah’ means that they would then leave those who belonged to the spiritual Church, so that they could worship their God. This is clear from the meaning of ‘sending away’ as leaving, as in 7311, 7349, 7350; from the representation of ‘the children of Israel’ as those belonging to the spiritual Church, as in 6426, 6637, 6862, 6868, 7035, 7062, 7198, 7201, 7215, 7123; and from the meaning of ‘sacrificing to Jehovah’ as worshipping their God. Sacrifices were signs of all worship as a general whole, see 6905, thus worship is mean thereby ‘sacrificing’.

sRef Ex@8 @5 S0′ 7394. ‘And Moses said to Pharaoh’ means the reply. This is clear from the meaning of ‘saying’, since it introduces words addressed to Pharaoh who has just spoken, as the reply, as also in 7103.

sRef Ex@8 @5 S0′ 7395. ‘Have honour over me’ means that God’s truth was to be trusted. This is clear from the meaning of ‘having honour’ as trusting; and from the representation of ‘Moses’ as the law of God, dealt with in 6723, 6752, and therefore as God’s truth, dealt with in 6771, 7014, 7382.

sRef Ex@8 @5 S0′ 7396. ‘Till when shall I plead for you, and for your servants, and for your people’ means intercession made for those steeped in falsities who engage in molestation. This is clear from the meaning of ‘pleading’, since it is done on behalf of another, as intercession; and from the representation of ‘Pharaoh’ as those who are steeped in falsities and engage in molestation, dealt with in 7107, 7110, 7126, 7142, 7717. Since these are represented by Pharaoh, ‘his servants’ and ‘his people’, when mentioned in addition, mean each and every one of them; for ‘servants’ are those who belong to a lower rank and minister, while ‘people’ are the individual ones. Empires and kingdoms are represented in heaven as a person, and the communities within them are represented as the parts of that person’s body, the monarch being so to speak its head. The reason why they are represented in that way traces back to this: The whole of heaven represents one human being, and the communities there represent the parts of his body, in accordance with the functions they perform. From this one may see how beautiful and delightful the representation in heaven of an empire, kingdom, or community would be if its citizens were linked to one another by charity and faith to form a body like that. Whenever possible the Lord also links communities together into that kind of body; for Divine Truth itself, which emanates from the Lord, introduces that state of order wherever that order is accepted. This is the origin of the state of order that exists in heaven. It exists on earth too, but the communities constituting it are scattered all over the earth and are made up of those who are governed by love to Him and charity towards the neighbour. But those scattered communities have been drawn together by the Lord in order that they too, like communities in heaven, may represent one human being. These communities exist not only within the Church but also outside it; and when taken all together they are called the Lord’s Church, drawn together from the good scattered throughout all the earth. That Church is also called a communion. This communion or Church is the Lord’s kingdom on earth linked to the Lord’s kingdom in heaven, and so to the Lord Himself.

sRef Ex@8 @5 S0′ 7397. ‘So as the frogs will be eliminated from you, and from your houses’ means in order that the reasonings may come to an end. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the frogs’ as reasonings arising from utter falsities, dealt with in 7351, 7352, 7384; from the meaning of ‘eliminating’ as coming to an end, for eliminating is used in reference to the frogs, but coming to an end in reference to reasonings; from the representation of ‘Pharaoh,’ from whom the frogs were to be eliminated, as those steeped in falsities who engage in molestation, dealt with immediately above in 7396; and from the meaning of ‘houses’ as parts of the natural mind. For ‘house’ means the natural mind, see 4973, 5023, 7353, and therefore the plural ‘houses’ means parts of it.

sRef Ex@8 @5 S0′ 7398. ‘Survive only in the river?’ means that they are destined to remain with falsities, in the place where these reside. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the river,’ here the river of Egypt, as falsity, dealt with in 6693, 7307; and from the meaning of ‘surviving’ as remaining. The situation is this: Everything without exception that enters a person’s mind remains with him, especially what is received with affection. People think that what enters has been completely eradicated and cast out when a person no longer recollects it. But it has been neither eradicated nor cast out; rather, it remains infixed either in the interior memory or among those thing in the exterior memory which have become familiar to the person. For what has become familiar is so to speak instinctive; it flows spontaneously and is not stimulated by any conscious summoning from the memory. A person’s speech is like this; the words he uses flow spontaneously from his thought, as do gestures and actions, and indeed his walk. The same applies also to thinking. These abilities enter in successive stages from infancy, and in time become familiar, when they flow spontaneously. These abilities, and others like them show that everything entering a person remains, and that things which become habitual, that is, familiar, cease to be recognized by him as being present in him, although they are present. The same applies to the falsities and evils entering a person, and also the truths and forms of good. Such things are what fashion him and make him the kind of person he is. Everything a person has seen, heard, thought, spoken, or done is recorded within him, see 2474, 2489. From all this one may now see how one should understand the idea that reasonings are destined to remain with falsities, in the place where these reside. For after falsities have been removed they are allotted places of their own elsewhere in the natural, and with the falsities go the endeavour and desire to use reasonings. But they are not, as they were before, the central and immediate object of mental attention. This explains why, as described in what follows, the frogs were gathered into heaps, and caused the land to stink, meaning that those false reasonings were arranged in the natural into bundles, producing what was foul and repulsive, see below in 7408, 7409.

sRef Ex@8 @6 S0′ 7399. ‘And he said, Until tomorrow’ means for evermore. This is clear from the meaning of ’till tomorrow’ as for evermore and into eternity, dealt with in 3998.

sRef Ex@8 @6 S0′ 7400. ‘And he said, Let it be according to your word’ means an ensuing endorsement. This is clear without explanation.

sRef Ps@95 @3 S0′ sRef Ps@113 @5 S0′ sRef Ex@8 @6 S0′ sRef Ps@96 @4 S0′ sRef Ps@77 @14 S0′ sRef Ps@136 @3 S0′ sRef Isa@46 @9 S0′ sRef Ps@136 @2 S0′ sRef Ps@77 @13 S0′ 7401. ‘So that you may know that there is none like Jehovah our God’ means that there is one God and none besides Him. This is clear from the consideration that when the historical sense says that ‘none is like Jehovah God’ the meaning in the internal sense is that there is no God besides Him, and that since there is none besides Him there is one God. In the Word it is frequently stated that there is none like Jehovah God, and also that there is no God like Him. It was stated in this way in the Word because in the land where the Church existed, as also in lands where the Church did not exist, people at that time worshipped a number of gods, and each person gave precedence to his own god over another’s god. They distinguished those gods from one another by their names, the God of the Israelites and Jews by the name Jehovah. The Jews and Israelites themselves also believed that a number of gods existed, but that Jehovah was greater than all others on account of His miracles. When therefore those miracles ceased they instantly declined into the worship of other gods, as is evident from the historical parts of the Word. They did, it is true, declare with their lips that there is one God and none besides Him, but they did not believe it in their hearts. This then explains why the Word says that Jehovah is greater than all other gods and that there is none like Him, as in David,

Who is a great God like God*? You are the God who does wonders. Ps. 77:13, 14.

In the same author,

Who is like Jehovah our God? Ps. 113:5.

In the same author,

A great God is Jehovah, and a great King above all gods. Ps. 95:3.

In the same author,

Great is Jehovah, and highly exalted; He is to be feared above all gods. Ps. 96:4.

Jehovah is therefore also called God of gods and Lord of lords in Ps. 136:2, 3; Dan. 2:47. However the truth which the internal sense contains – that there is one God and none besides Him – is evident in Isaiah,

Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no God else; and there is not the like of Me. Isa. 46:9.
* The Latin means You but the Hebrew means God.

sRef Ex@8 @7 S0′ 7402. ‘And the frogs will be removed from you, and from your houses, and from your servants, and from your people’ means that they would not be compelled to use reasonings arising from utter falsities. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the frogs being removed’ as not being compelled to use reasonings arising from utter falsities, dealt with above in 7392; from the representation of ‘Pharaoh’ as those steeped in falsities who engage in molestation, dealt with previously; from the meaning of ‘houses’ as parts of the natural mind, dealt with in 7397; and from the meaning of ‘his servants’ and ‘his people’ as each and every one of those steeped in falsities who engage in molestation, also dealt with above, in 7396.

sRef Ex@8 @7 S0′ 7403. ‘Survive only in the river’ means that they were to remain with falsities, in the place where these reside. This is clear from what has been stated above in 7398, where the same words occur.

sRef Ex@8 @8 S0′ 7404. ‘And Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh’ means a separation from those who used reasonings arising from utter falsities. This is clear from the meaning of ‘going out’ as being separated from; from the representation of ‘Moses and Aaron’ as the law of God, ‘Moses’ being inward law and ‘Aaron’ outward law, dealt with in 7381; and from the representation of ‘Pharaoh’ as those steeped in falsities who engage in molestation, dealt with above in 7396, at this point those who use reasonings arising from utter falsities for molesting others.

sRef Ex@8 @8 S0′ 7405. ‘And Moses cried out to Jehovah about the frogs which He had brought on Pharaoh’ means intercession. This is clear from what comes before this, thus without any further explanation.

sRef Ex@8 @9 S0′ 7406. ‘And Jehovah did according to the word of Moses’ means that it was so done according to the Lord’s word, for although what Moses pleaded for came out of the mouth of Moses it nevertheless originated with the Lord. For whatever a person thinks and then speaks, and whatever he wills and then does, flows into him. A person is merely a receiving organ, see 6189-6215, 6307, 6327, 6466-6495, 6598-6606, 6613-6626; and so was Moses in the things that he spoke and did. This is why what is said here – ‘Jehovah did according to the word of Moses’ – means that it was so done in accordance with the Lord’s word, Jehovah’ in the Word being the Lord, see 1343, 1736, 2921, 3023, 3035, 5663, 6281, 6303, 6905.

sRef Ex@8 @9 S0′ 7407. ‘And the frogs died out of the houses, out of the courtyards, and out of the fields’ means that with those people reasonings arising from utter falsities, wherever they were present in the natural, came to an end. This is clear from the meaning of ‘dying’ as coming to an end; from the meaning of ‘the frogs’ as reasonings arising from utter falsities, dealt with above; from the meaning of ‘the houses’ as parts of the natural mind, dealt with above in 7397, at this point interior parts within it; from the meaning of ‘the courtyards’ as exterior parts of the natural mind (the natural has an interior and an exterior, see 3293, 3294, 4570, 5118, 5497, 5649); and from the meaning of ‘the fields’ as the more general and so even more exterior parts, since the fields are outside the houses and courtyards. Thus ‘the frogs died out of the houses, out of the courtyards, and out of the fields’ means that reasonings arising from utter falsities, wherever they existed in the natural, came to an end.

sRef Ex@8 @10 S0′ 7408. ‘And they gathered them into heaps [upon] heaps’ means that those false reasonings were arranged into bundles in the natural. This is clear from the meaning of ‘being gathered into heaps [upon] heaps’ as being arranged into bundles. Those reasonings are ‘gathered into heaps’ because all the contents of a person’s mind have been arranged into series, and into bundles so to speak, and then into series within series, or bundles within bundles, see 5339, 5530, 5881. The fact that they are arranged in this kind of way is evident from the way that all things are arranged within the body. There fibres can be seen arranged into bundles, and glands into clusters. This arrangement exists everywhere within the body, and in a much more perfect manner with the more refined substances that are not visible to the naked eye. That bundling allows itself to be seen especially in the brain, in the two substances there, one of which is called cortical, the other medullary; and it exists no less with those more refined substances, and lastly the most refined, where the forms that receive them are the actual forms receptive of life.

[2] The fact that forms or substances are receptive of life may be recognized from every detail to be observed in living things. It may also be recognized that recipient forms or substances are arranged or structured in the most appropriate way for the inflow of life. If life were not received by substances, that is, forms, there could be no living thing in the natural world, nor any in the spiritual world. Series of extremely fine threads, resembling bundles, are what constitute those forms. They likewise are receptive of life, and within those forms undergo perfect modification. For modifications depend on the forms, that is, substances, in which they occur and from which they arise; for the substances or forms determine what the modifications shall be. The reason why the learned have come to envisage the things that constitute a person’s life – the contents of his thought and will, for example – as entities without recipient substances or forms is that they have come to believe that life or the soul is either something flame-like or something air-like, and so the kind of thing that will be dispersed after death. This accounts for the insane notion of a large number of them that there is no life after death. From all this one may see how to understand the explanation that the false reasonings were arranged into bundles in the natural.

sRef Ex@8 @10 S0′ 7409. ‘And the land stank’ means what was as a result foul and repulsive. This is clear from the meaning of ‘stinking’ as that which is foul and repulsive, dealt with in 4516, 7161, 7319; and from the meaning of ‘the land’, here the land of Egypt, as the natural mind, dealt with in 5276, 5278, 5280, 5288, 5301.

sRef Ex@8 @14 S0′ sRef Ex@8 @15 S0′ sRef Ex@8 @12 S0′ sRef Ex@8 @11 S0′ sRef Ex@8 @13 S0′ 7410. Verses 11-15 And Pharaoh saw that he could breathe again,* and he made his heart stubborn, and did not hear** them, as Jehovah had spoken. And Jehovah said to Moses, Say to Aaron, Stretch out your rod and strike the dust of the land, and it will then be lice in all the land of Egypt. And they did so; and Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod and struck the dust of the land, and there were lice on man and on beast. All the dust of the land became lice in the whole land of Egypt. And the magicians did the same with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not; and there were lice on man and on beast. And the magicians said to Pharaoh, The finger of God is this. And Pharaoh’s heart was unyielding, and he did not hear’ them, as Jehovah had spoken.

‘And Pharaoh saw that he could breathe again’ means that the weariness ceased. ‘And he made his heart stubborn’ means obstinacy. ‘And did not hear them’ means disobedience. ‘As Jehovah had spoken’ means as accorded with what had been foretold. ‘And Jehovah said to Moses’ means instruction anew. ‘Say to Aaron’ means an influx of inward law into outward law. ‘Stretch out your rod’ means commanding him to demonstrate the Divine power. ‘And strike the dust of the land’ means that he should remove those things in the natural which are damned. ‘And it will then be lice’ means that evils will rise up from them. ‘In all the land of Egypt’ means in the whole natural mind. ‘And they did so’ means putting it into effect. ‘And Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod’ means the power of inward truth directed through outward truth. ‘And struck the dust of the land’ means that the things which were damned were removed. ‘And there were lice on man and on beast’ means that evils rose up from those things – interior and exterior evils attached to wicked desires. ‘All the dust of the land became lice in the whole land of Egypt’ means that those evils rose up from the things that were damned. ‘And the magicians did the same with their enchantments to bring forth lice’ means the endeavour to pervert Divine order and produce something that looked the same in these things also. ‘But they could not’ means that they acted to no avail. ‘And there were lice on man and on beast’ means the evils, interior and exterior, that are attached to wicked desires. ‘And the magicians said to Pharaoh’ means perception and communication of it to those immersed in evils. ‘The finger of God is this’ means that the power came from the Divine. ‘And Pharaoh’s heart was unyielding’ means obstinacy. ‘And he did not hear them’ means disobedience. ‘As Jehovah had spoken’ means as accorded with what had been foretold.
* lit. respiration had come about, i.e. there was a respite from the plagues
** lit. hear towards

sRef Ex@8 @11 S0′ 7411. ‘And Pharaoh saw that he could breathe again’ means that the weariness ceased. This is clear from the meaning of ‘that he could breathe again’ as the fact that there was no longer anything undelightful, and so no longer any weariness. Regarding the weariness and lack of delight experienced by those who use reasonings that arise from utter falsities, see above in 7392. What is delightful causes a person to breathe freely and fully, whereas what is undelightful prevents him from breathing freely or fully. So it is that ‘he could breathe again’ means that what was undelightful – that is, the weariness – ceased.

sRef Ex@8 @11 S0′ 7412. ‘And he made his heart stubborn’ means obstinacy. This is clear from the meaning of ‘making the heart stubborn’, and also ‘hardening it’, and ‘making it unyielding’, as obstinacy, dealt with in 7272, 7300, 7305.

sRef Ex@8 @11 S0′ 7413. ‘And did not hear them’ means disobedience, as above in 7224, 7275, 7301, 7379, where similar words occur.

sRef Ex@8 @11 S0′ 7414. ‘As Jehovah had spoken’ means as accorded with what had been foretold, as above in 7302, 7740.

sRef Ex@8 @12 S0′ 7415. ‘And Jehovah said to Moses’ means instruction anew, as previously in 7186, 7216, 7267, 7304, 7380.

sRef Ex@8 @12 S0′ 7416. ‘Say to Aaron’ means an influx of inward law into outward law, as above in 7381.

sRef Ex@8 @12 S0′ 7417. ‘Stretch out your rod’ means commanding him to demonstrate the Divine power. This is clear from the meaning of ‘stretching out’ as exercising and demonstrating, as previously; and from the meaning of ‘the rod’ as power, dealt with in 4017, 4015, 4876, 4936, 6947, 7011, 7026. This power was Divine, because Aaron had no power at all; still less did the rod contain any. Rather Aaron and his rod were the instruments by means of which power was exercised. It was exercised by means of a rod because, within the Church, what the Divine commanded to be done was accomplished through representatives. (This was before the Lord’s Coming.) So it was that the stretching out of hand and rod accomplished what was commanded, for arm and hand correspond to power, and so too consequently does a rod. The reason why within the Church, before the Lord’s Coming, what the Divine commanded was accomplished through representatives was that every single thing commanded by Him represented the Lord, His kingdom in heaven, and His kingdom on earth, which is the Church. The truth of this may also be recognized from the Word in which every single thing has to do in the highest sense with the Lord, and in the internal sense with His kingdom and Church.

sRef Ex@8 @12 S0′ 7418. ‘And strike the dust of the land’ means that he should remove those things in the natural which are damned. This is clear from the meaning of ‘striking’ as removing; from the meaning of ‘the dust’ as that which is damned, dealt with below; and from the meaning of ‘the land’, at this point the land of Egypt, as the natural mind, dealt with above in 7409. The reason why ‘the dust’ means that which is damned is that the places on the fringes below the soles of the feet, where evil spirits are, look like a land. They look like an uncultivated and dry land, to be exact, below which there are certain kinds of hells. That land is what is called the damned land, and the dust there serves to mean that which is damned. I have been allowed on several occasions to see evil spirits shaking off the dust there from their feet when they wished to consign someone to damnation. I saw them doing this in a position on the right slightly in front of me, on the borders of the hell of magicians, where spirits who during their life in the world have possessed a knowledge of matters of belief, but have nevertheless led a life of evil, are cast down into the hell that is theirs. This then is why ‘the dust’ means that which is damned, and ‘shaking off the dust’ damnation.

sRef Matt@10 @15 S2′ sRef Matt@10 @14 S2′ [2] Since it had that meaning the Lord commanded the disciples to shake off the dust on their feet if they were not well received. What He said about this appears in Matthew as follows,

If anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, as you leave that house or city, shake off the dust on your feet. Truly I say to you, It will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgement than for that city. Matt. 10:14, 15; Mark 6:11; Luke 9:5, 10:10-12.

Here the disciples are not meant by the disciples but all aspects of the Church, thus all aspects of faith and charity, 2089, 2129 (end), 2130 (end), 3354, 3858, 3913, 6397. ‘Not receiving’ and ‘not listening to’ mean rejecting the truths of faith and forms of the good of charity, while ‘shaking off the dust on their feet’ means damnation. And the reason why ‘it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than that city’ is that ‘Sodom and Gomorrah’ is used to mean those who lead a life of evil but have known nothing about the Lord and the Word, and so could not be receptive. From this it may become clear that a house or a city unreceptive of the disciples is not meant, but those who though they are within the Church do not lead the life of faith. Anyone may see that an entire city could not be damned for not receiving the disciples and instantly accepting the new teaching proclaimed by them.

sRef Ezek@27 @30 S3′ sRef Lam@2 @10 S3′ sRef Rev@18 @19 S3′ sRef Micah@1 @10 S3′ [3] That which is damned is also meant by ‘the dust’ which people in former times placed on their heads in grief or when penitent, as in Jeremiah,

The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground, they are silent; they have caused dust to come up over their heads, they have girded themselves with sackcloth; the virgins of Jerusalem have caused their heads to come down to the ground. Lam. 2:10.

In Ezekiel,

They will cry out bitterly, and will cause dust to come up over their heads; they roll themselves in ashes. Ezek. 27:30.

In Micah,

Do not weep at all in the house of Aphrah; roll yourself in the dust. Micah 1:10.

In John,

They threw dust onto their heads, and cried out, weeping and wailing. Rev. 18:19.

The same actions are referred to throughout the historical narratives of the Word. Casting dust over the head, prostrating body and head on the ground, and rolling over in the dust on it, represented self-abasement, which – when it is genuine – is such that the person acknowledges and
perceives that he is damned, yet is rescued from damnation by the Lord, see 1327, 3994, 4347, 5420, 5957.

sRef Micah@7 @17 S4′ sRef Micah@7 @14 S4′ sRef Micah@7 @16 S4′ sRef Deut@9 @21 S4′ sRef Gen@3 @14 S4′ sRef Isa@47 @1 S4′ sRef Isa@65 @25 S4′ sRef Ps@119 @25 S4′ sRef Ps@44 @25 S4′ [4] The dust’ into which the golden calf which they made in the wilderness was crushed and ground down likewise means that which is damned. This is spoken of in Moses as follows,

I took your sin which you had made, the calf, and I burnt it in the fire, and crushed it by grinding it right down until it was as fine as dust; and I threw its dust into the brook descending out of the mountain. Deut. 9:11.

‘Dust’ again means that which is damned in the following places: In Genesis,

Jehovah God said to the serpent, On your belly you will go, and dust will you eat all the days of your life. Gen. 3:14.

In Micah,

Shepherd Your people as in the days of eternity. The nations will see and be ashamed at all their power; they will lick the dust like a serpent. Micah 7:14, 16, 17.

In Isaiah,

For the serpent, dust will be his bread. Isa. 65:25.

In the same prophet,

Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babel. Isa. 47:1.

In David,

Our soul was bowed down to the dust, our belly clung to the earth. Ps. 44:25.

In the same author,

My soul clings to the dust; vivify me. Ps. 119:25.

In the Word ‘dust’ in addition means the grave, as well as that which is lowly, and that which is numerous too.

sRef Ex@8 @12 S0′ 7419. ‘And it will then be lice’ means that evils will rise up from them. This is clear from the meaning of ‘lice’ as evils. But what evils these are and where they originate becomes clear from the correspondence of evils with such parasites. They are primarily evils on the level of the senses or utterly external level of a person’s mind. This correspondence arises from the fact that lice live on the outside of the skin, among the dirt there and under scaly skin. The sensory level in those who have come to possess a knowledge of matters of belief yet lead a life of evil is also like this. When that knowledge is taken away from them, as happens to such persons in the next life, they are then mentally thick and stupid. They have appeared before me on several occasions; they are foul and repulsive. Molestations by evils are meant by the bitings of those parasites. This meaning of ‘lice’ cannot be substantiated from other places in the Word, for they are mentioned again only in David, where he refers to what took place in Egypt, Ps. 105:31.

sRef Ex@8 @12 S0′ 7420. ‘In all the land of Egypt’ means in the whole natural mind. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the land of Egypt’ as the natural mind, dealt within 5276, 5278, 5280, 5288, 5301.

sRef Ex@8 @13 S0′ 7421. ‘And they did so’ means putting it into effect. This is clear without explanation.

sRef Ex@8 @13 S0′ 7422. ‘And Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod’ means the power of inward truth directed through outward truth. This is clear from what has been stated above in 7382, where similar words occur.

sRef Ex@8 @13 S0′ 7423. ‘And struck the dust of the land’ means that the things which were damned were removed. This is clear from what has been stated above in 7418.

sRef Ex@8 @13 S0′ 7424. ‘And there were lice on man and on beast’ means that evils rose up from those things – interior and exterior evils attached to wicked desires. This is clear from the meaning of ‘lice’ as evils, dealt with in 7419; from the meaning of ‘man’ as good, dealt with in 4287, 5302, and so in the contrary sense as evil; and from the meaning of ‘beast’ as the affection for good, and in the contrary sense as the affection for evil, which is evil or wicked desire, dealt with in 45, 46, 142, 143, 246, 714, 715, 719, 776, 2179, 2180, 3218, 3519, 5198. But when the expression ‘man and beast’ is used, man’ means interior good, and in the contrary sense interior evil, while ‘beast’ means exterior good, and in the contrary sense exterior evil. The reason why ‘man’ means interior good or interior evil is that a person is truly human by virtue of his internal man and the nature of this, not by virtue of his external man; for without the internal the external man is not truly human. If the external man too is to be truly human it must be completely subject to the internal, so completely that it does not act by itself, only from the internal. The reason why ‘beast’ means exterior good and in the contrary sense exterior evil is that beasts do not have an internal side to them like that present in a human being. With them the internal side is merged into the external, so completely that it makes one with it, and at the same looks downwards or towards the ground without any uplifting towards more internal things. The expression ‘evils attached to wicked desires’ is used because all evils are objects of wicked desires; for wicked desires are the longings of a person’s loves. What makes interior evils different from exterior evils is this: Interior evils belong to thought and will, whereas exterior evils belong to actions. The fact that evils may be interior without being exterior is evident from the consideration that a person can be evil and yet to outward appearance look like an upright man, indeed like a man possessing faith and conscience. Some even know how to pretend to be angels when in fact inwardly they are devils. This is how great the difference can be between the inward appearance, which is that presented by the spirit, and the outward appearance, which is that presented by the body.

sRef Ex@8 @13 S0′ 7425. ‘All the dust of the land became lice in the whole land of Egypt’ means that those evils rose up from the things that were damned. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the dust of the land’ as that which is damned, dealt with above in 7418; from the meaning of ‘lice’ as evils, dealt with in 7419; and from the meaning of ‘the land of Egypt’ as the natural mind, also dealt with above, in 7420.

sRef Ex@8 @14 S0′ 7426. ‘And the magicians did the same with their enchantments to bring forth lice’ means the endeavour to pervert Divine order and produce something that looked the same in these things also. This is clear from the meaning of ‘did’ as the endeavour to achieve the same thing, for it goes on to say that they could not in fact achieve it; from the meaning of ‘the magicians’ and ‘enchantments’ as perverting Divine order and producing something similar to outward appearance, dealt with in 7296, 7297, 7337; and from the meaning of ‘bringing forth lice’ as producing the evils that are meant by ‘lice’, dealt with in 7419.

sRef Ex@8 @14 S0′ 7427. ‘but they could not’ means that they acted to no avail. This is clear without explanation.

sRef Ex@8 @14 S0′ 7428. ‘And there were lice on man and on beast’ means the evils, interior and exterior, [that are attached to wicked desires.] This is clear from what has been stated above in 7414, where similar words occur.

sRef Ex@8 @15 S0′ 7429. ‘And the magicians said to Pharaoh’ means perception and communication to those immersed in evils. This is clear from the meaning of ‘saying’ as perception, dealt with in 1791, 1815, 1819, 1822, 1898, 1919, 2080, 2619, 2862, 3509, 5743, and also as communication, 3060, 4131, 6228, 7291, 7381; from the meaning of ‘the magicians’ as those who pervert Divine order and produce something that looks the same to outward appearance, dealt with just above in 7426; and from the representation of ‘Pharaoh’ as those who are steeped in falsities and engage in molestation, dealt with in 6651, 6679, 6683, 7107, 7100, 7126, 7142, 7717, at this point those who are immersed in evils since they are now in a state of evil after the removal of the false reasonings, as is evident from what has gone before.

sRef Ex@8 @15 S0′ sRef Ps@8 @3 S1′ sRef Luke@11 @20 S1′ 7430. ‘The finger of God is this’ means that the power came from the Divine. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the finger of God’ as power from the Divine. The reason why ‘finger’ means power is that the fingers are parts of the hands, and by ‘hands’ is meant power, 878, 4931-4937, 6344, 6424, 6948. The meaning of ‘finger’ as power is clear from the following places also: In David,

When I look at the heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and stars which You have established* … Ps. 8:3

In Luke,

Jesus said, If I cast out demons by the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come to you. Luke 11:20.

When Jesus took aside from the people the deaf man who spoke with difficulty and put His finger into his ears, and spat and touched his tongue, Mark 7:32, 33, this too was an action representative of Divine power.

sRef Ex@29 @20 S2′ sRef Lev@14 @14 S2′ sRef Lev@14 @16 S2′ sRef Lev@14 @17 S2′ [2] The fact that ‘finger’ represents power is also evident from rituals observed in the Church among the Jews, the ritual in which blood was put on the thumb, and the ritual in which the priest sprinkled blood with his finger, both commanded in the following places in Moses,

You shall slaughter the ram, and put some of the blood on the thumb of the right hand of Aaron and of his sons, and on the big toe of his right foot. Exod. 29:20.

The priest shall take some of the blood of the guilt-offering, and the priest shall put it on the lobe of the right ear of the one to be cleansed from leprosy, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot. Then the priest shall dip his right finger in some of the oil which is on the palm of his left hand, and sprinkle some of the oil on his finger seven times before Jehovah. Some of the rest of the oil that is on his palm the priest shall put on the lobe of the right ear of the one to be cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot. Lev. 14:14, 16, 17.

You shall take some of the blood of the young bull, and place it with your finger on the horns of the altar. Exod. 29:11.

Further places in which such rituals occur are Lev. 4:6; 9:9.

sRef Isa@17 @8 S3′ sRef Ps@144 @1 S3′ [3] All these rituals served to mean the hidden and holy things of heaven. This is clear from the consideration that the Word has a Divine origin and is inspired as to every tittle, Luke 16:17; and this being so, ‘thumb’ and ‘finger’ mean the power of good exercised through truth, as is evident from their internal sense in the places just quoted. Power is again meant by ‘finger’ in David,

Blessed be Jehovah, who trains my hands for conflict, and my fingers for war. Ps. 144:1

And in Isaiah,

He will not look to the altars, the work of his hands, and what his fingers have made. Isa. 17:8.

‘The altars’ stands for worship in general, 4541, ‘the work of hands’ and ‘what fingers have made’ for the kinds of things that are the product of what is properly one’s own, thus of one’s own power.
* lit. prepared

[7430a ‘And Pharaoh’s heart was unyielding’ means obstinacy, as above in 7272, 7300, 7305, 7412.]

sRef Ex@8 @15 S0′ 7431. ‘And he did not hear them’ means disobedience, as above in 7224, 7275, 7301, 7339.

sRef Ex@8 @15 S0′ 7432. ‘As Jehovah had spoken’ means as accorded with what had been foretold, as also above, in 7301, 7340, 7414.

sRef Ex@8 @16 S0′ sRef Ex@8 @19 S0′ sRef Ex@8 @18 S0′ sRef Ex@8 @17 S0′ sRef Ex@8 @20 S0′ 7433. Verses 16-20 And Jehovah said to Moses, Rise up in the morning early to stand before Pharaoh; behold, he goes out to the water. And you are to say to him, Thus says Jehovah, Send My people away and let them serve Me. For if you do not send My people away, behold, I send onto you, and onto your servants, and onto your people, and into your houses, noxious flying insects; and the houses of the Egyptians will be full of the noxious flying insects, and also the land on which they are. And I will set apart on that day the land of Goshen, on which My people stand, so that the noxious flying insects are not there; to the end that you may know that I am Jehovah in the midst of the land. And I will place redemption between My people and your people; by tomorrow will this sign be. And Jehovah did so; and extremely noxious flying insects came to the house of Pharaoh, and to the houses of his servants, and into all the land of Egypt. The land was ruined by the presence of the noxious flying insects.

‘And Jehovah said to Moses’ means further instruction. ‘Rise up in the morning early’ means being raised to an even greater sign of power. ‘To stand before Pharaoh’ means the appearance of the Divine to those immersed in evils. ‘Behold, he goes out to the water’ means that they proceeded from those evils to contemplate further falsities. ‘And you are to say to him, Thus says Jehovah’ means a command. ‘Send My people away and let them serve Me’ means that they should leave those who belong to the spiritual Church, in order that these may worship their God in freedom. ‘For if you do not send My people away’ means should they fail to leave them … ‘Behold, I send onto you, and onto your servants, and onto your people, and into your houses, noxious flying insects’ means that malevolent falsity will be present in every single aspect. ‘And the houses of the Egyptians will be full of the noxious flying insects, and also the land on which they are’ means that malevolent falsities will take possession of everything in the natural mind. ‘And I will set apart on that day the land of Goshen, on which My people stand, so that the noxious flying insects are not there’ means that they will not be able to use malevolent falsities to molest those who belong to the spiritual Church even though they are near them. ‘To the end that you may know that I am Jehovah in the midst of the land’ means the resulting discernment that the Lord is the only God of the Church. ‘And I will place redemption between My people and your people’ means the deliverance of those who belong to the spiritual Church from those in the hells nearby. ‘And tomorrow will this sign be’ means the manifestation of Divine power thereby for evermore. ‘And Jehovah did so’ means as it had been declared, so it was done. ‘And extremely noxious flying insects came to the house of Pharaoh, and to the houses of his servants, and into all the land of Egypt’ means that malevolent falsities burst out from every side among them. ‘And the land was ruined by the presence of the noxious flying insects’ means that [all] truth in the natural mind was corrupted.

sRef Ex@8 @16 S0′ 7434. ‘And Jehovah said to Moses’ means further instruction. This is clear from the meaning of ‘saying’, when done by Jehovah to Moses, as instruction, dealt with in 7186, 7226, 7267, 7304, 7380, 7415, at this point further instruction since it is a statement of what further things had to be done.

sRef Ex@8 @16 S0′ 7435. ‘Rise up in the morning early’ means being raised to an even greater sign of power. This is clear from the meaning of ‘rising up in the morning’ as being raised; for ‘rising up’ means being raised, see 2401, 2785, 2912, 2927, 3171, 4103, and so too does ‘morning’ mean being raised, 7306. Strictly speaking ‘rising up in the morning’ means a state of enlightenment, 3458, 3723. But since no enlightenment, which the Divine provides by an inflow of goodness and truth, is possible with the evil who are represented by Pharaoh and the Egyptians, only being raised to a state of awareness, ‘rising up in the morning early’ here therefore means the latter kind of raising. The fact that it is a raising to be made aware of an even greater sign of power is evident from what follows in which yet another new sign is referred to.

sRef Ex@8 @16 S0′ 7436. To stand before Pharaoh’ means the appearance of the Divine to those immersed in evils. This is clear from the meaning of ‘standing before someone’ as presence, at this point the appearance of the Divine since Moses who was told ‘to stand’ is the truth from God through which the Divine makes His appearance; and from the representation of ‘Pharaoh’ as those steeped in falsities, at this point those immersed in evils, as above in 7429.

sRef Ex@8 @16 S0′ 7437. ‘behold, he goes out to the water’ means that they proceeded from those evils to contemplate further falsities. This is clear from the meaning of ‘going out’ as proceeding in one’s thinking from evils to falsities, for when people immersed in evils proceed in their thinking from those evils to falsities they are said ‘to go out’ because evil, belonging as it does to the will, is inmost, and falsity, since it belongs to the understanding and therefore to thought, is outside it, and this is what ‘going out’ means in the spiritual sense (it also means evil action proceeding from an evil will, as stated in Mark 7:20-23); and from the meaning of ‘water’ as truths, and in the contrary sense falsities, dealt with in 739, 790, 2702, 3058, 3424, 4976, 5668, ‘the water of the river of Egypt’ to which Pharaoh is going to go out meaning falsities, 7307.

[2] As regards proceeding in one’s thinking from evils to falsities, it should be recognized that those who are immersed in evils cannot in their thinking do anything other than proceed from those evils to falsities, since evils are what they will and consequently love, and falsities are what they think and consequently believe. For what a person wills he also loves, and what he loves he also bolsters and defends. And evils cannot be bolstered or defended except by means of falsities, which is why, when evil is compared in the Word to a city, falsities are compared to the defensive walls surrounding the city. The reason why those immersed in evils proceed in their thinking to falsities, which they use to defend evils, is that evils are the very delights of their life, to so great an extent that they constitute their life itself. This being so, when they learn from others that those evils are indeed evils, then to guard against their being seen as such they think up falsities which they use to make people believe that the evils are not evils. But if the evils do not dare to make their appearance through falsities they are concealed inwardly and do not reveal themselves, except when fear of the law ceases to exist, or else fear of the loss of reputation for the sake of making gain or for the sake of attaining important positions. When these fears cease to exist the evils burst forth into the open either by way of duplicity or by way of hostility.

[3] From all this one may see that those who are immersed in evils cannot in their thinking do anything other than proceed from evils to falsities. The situation is also similar with those living in a state of goodness, in that in their thinking they cannot do anything other than proceed from good to truths. For goodness and truth go together, as also do evil and falsity, joined to each other so completely that a person who knows that someone is governed by good can know that he is guided by the truth that goes with his good. He can know too that a person who is immersed in evil is steeped in the falsity that goes with his evil, and that the extent to which he is steeped in falsity is determined by the strength of his ability to engage in reasoning and to pervert, and then the extent to which he fears loss of the reputation he needs to have for the sake of gain and position, and how much freedom he wishes to have to do evil. It is astonishing how after using falsities for a certain length of time to defend evils such people then convince themselves that evils are forms of good and that falsities are truths.

sRef Ex@8 @16 S0′ 7438. ‘And you are to say to him, [Thus says Jehovah]’ means a command, as in 7036, 7310.

sRef Ex@8 @16 S0′ 7439. ‘Send My people away and let them serve Me’ means that they should leave those who belong to the spiritual Church, in order that these may worship their God in freedom. This is clear from the meaning of ‘sending away’ as leaving; from the representation of the children of Israel, to whom ‘My people’ refers here, as those who belong to the spiritual Church, dealt with in 6426, 6637, 6862, 6868, 7075, 7062, 7198, 7201, 7215, 7223; and from the meaning of ‘serving Jehovah’ as worshipping. That they should worship in freedom is evident from what follows in verses 21-23, and also from the consideration that all worship which is truly worship must take place in freedom.

[2] The children of Israel are called Jehovah’s people not because they were any better than other nations but because they represented Jehovah’s people, that is, those who belonged to the Lord’s spiritual kingdom. The fact that they were no better than other nations is evident from their life in the wilderness, where they did not believe at all in Jehovah. Instead they believed in their hearts in the gods of the Egyptians, as is clear from the golden calf which they made for themselves and which they called their gods who had led them out of the land of Egypt, Exod. 32:8. The same fact is also evident from their life subsequently in the land of Canaan, dealt with in the historical sections of the Word; and the things said about them in the prophetical parts and finally by the Lord make it evident too.

[3] This also explains why few of them are in heaven; for the destiny they have met in the next life has been determined by the way they lived. Refuse to believe therefore that they have been chosen for heaven ahead of others. Those who believe that these people have been chosen for heaven ahead of others do not believe that each one’s life remains with him. Nor do they believe that a person has to be made ready for heaven throughout his entire life in the world, and that although this is accomplished by the Lord’s mercy, people are not admitted into heaven by mercy alone regardless of the life they have led in the world. The kind of notion they have of heaven and the Lord’s mercy is the result of teachings about faith alone and salvation by it without good works; for such people are unconcerned about life. Hence they also believe that evils can be purged away like dirt with water, and so believe that a person can be brought in an instant into leading a life of goodness and consequently be admitted into heaven. Such people do not know that if the evil were deprived of their life of evil they would have no life whatever, and also that if those who lead an evil life were admitted into heaven it would feel like hell to them, and the further they went into heaven the worse would that feeling become.

[4] All this now makes it clear that the Israelites and Jews had not by any means been chosen; they were simply accepted in order that they might represent the things of heaven. And this they had to do in the land of Canaan because the Lord’s Church had existed there since most ancient times and all places there had consequently become representative of heavenly and Divine realities. Then also the Word could be written, in which the names would serve to mean such things as belong to the Lord and His kingdom.

sRef Ex@8 @17 S0′ 7440. ‘For if you do not send My people away’ means should they fail to leave them… This is clear from the meaning of ‘sending away’ leaving; and from the meaning of ‘Jehovah’s people’ as those who belong to the Lord’s spiritual Church, as immediately above in 7439.

sRef Ex@8 @17 S0′ 7441. ‘behold, I send onto you, and onto your servants, and onto your people, and into your houses, noxious flying insects’ means that malevolent falsity will be present in every single aspect. This is clear from the meaning of ‘Pharaoh, his servants, and his people’ as every single part of the natural mind, dealt with in 7396, and when ‘into the houses’ is added, an entry into the interior parts of that mind as well is meant, as above in 7407; and from the meaning of ‘noxious flying insects’ as falsities arising out of the evil that was meant by the previous wonder, thus malevolent falsities. Exactly which falsities therefore are meant here by ‘noxious flying insects’, and what type they belong to, is evident from the evils they spring from. And those evils were evils that exist on the outermost levels of the natural mind, thus on those of the senses, see above in 7419. The falsities which spring from them belong to the same sort.

sRef Isa@7 @19 S2′ sRef Isa@7 @18 S2′ [2] The same falsities are what are also meant by ‘the flies of Egypt’ in Isaiah,

It will happen on that day, that Jehovah will whistle for the fly that is in the furthest part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Asshur. They will come and all of them will rest in rivers of desolations, and in the clefts of rocks. Isa. 7:18, 19.

‘The fly in the farthest part of the rivers of Egypt’ is falsities which reside in the outermost parts of the natural mind, thus on the level of the senses nearest to the body. These falsities are compared to an insect like that sort of insect because on that level they are exactly like insects that fly in the air, obscure the things on more internal levels, and inflict harm on them. For the things which are there are for the most part figments of the imagination; they are illusions giving rise to reasonings that are like buildings founded on nothing but air. Mention of this kind of noxious flying insect occurs again only in David, in Ps. 78:45 and Ps. 105:31, where also the reference is to Egypt. It should be recognized that flying creatures in the Word all mean things that are connected with the understanding, consequently truths or in the contrary sense falsities, 40, 745, 776, 778, 866, 988, 3219, 5149. But the lowest sort of flying creatures, which are insects, mean truths, or in the contrary sense falsities, which are quite low-grade and obscure, as those are which belong properly to the level of the senses. For unless they receive light from the more internal levels, gloom and darkness completely envelop them; for they are nearest to the body and therefore close to earthly things that form the base on which heavenly things rest, and are immersed in thick darkness.

sRef Ex@8 @17 S0′ 7442. ‘And the houses of the Egyptians will be full of the noxious flying insects, and also the land on which they are’ means that malevolent falsities will take possession of everything in the natural mind. This is clear from the meaning of ‘filling’ as taking possession of; from the meaning of ‘the houses of the Egyptians’ as the interior parts of the natural mind, dealt with above in 7407; from the meaning of ‘noxious flying insects’ as malevolent falsities, dealt with immediately above in 7441; and from the meaning of ‘the land of Egypt’ as the natural mind in general, dealt with in 5276, 5178, 5180, 5288, 5301.

[2] A brief statement needs to be made about what is implied in the meaning here – by the idea that even the interior parts of the natural mind will be taken possession of by the falsities arising from evil which are present in the outermost parts of that mind. What a person has flowing into him from the Lord by way of heaven flows into the interior parts of him, and then spreads right down to the lowest or outermost levels, where he becomes conscious of it. Consequently it comes right down into the level of the senses, and through this into parts of the body. If the level of the senses is filled with mistaken ideas based on illusions and appearances, and especially if they are based on falsities, the truths that flow in are turned there into similar ideas, since they are received there in accordance with the form imposed on them, see 7743. Also to the extent that truths are turned into falsities the interior parts of the mind serving as channels for the passage of truths are closed. Eventually the opening is only just large enough for the smallest amount of influx that the person needs to engage in reasoning and to use falsities to justify evils.

sRef John@13 @10 S3′ sRef John@13 @9 S3′ [3] This being the situation with a person, it is necessary when he is being regenerated for his natural to be regenerated right down to the sensory level. For unless that level is regenerated no reception of truth and good takes place, because – as stated above – truth that is flowing in is perverted there and the interiors parts are in those circumstances closed. Consequently when the exterior parts have been regenerated the whole person has been regenerated. This was what the Lord meant by His words to Peter when He washed his feet, in John,

Simon Peter said, Lord, You are not to wash my feet only, but also my hands and head. Jesus said to him, He who has been washed has no need except to wash his feet, and the whole person is clean. John 13:9, 10.

‘Feet’ means the parts forming the natural, 2162, 3761, 3986, 4280, 4938-4952; ‘washing’ means purifying, 3147, 5954 (end); ‘hands’ means the interior parts of the natural; and ‘head’ means the parts forming the spiritual. These meanings show what precisely one should understand by ‘he who has been washed has no need except to wash his feet, and the whole person is clean’ – that a person has been regenerated when even the exterior parts forming the natural have been regenerated. When therefore a person has had even his natural regenerated everything on that level is subordinated to more internal levels. And when the contents of the more internal levels enter they flow into images on that level which serve as the general vessels to contain them, and through those images the person is made conscious of them. When this is the situation with a person, he has conscious feelings of an affection for the truth of faith and of an affection for the good of charity.

[4] But it is difficult for the actual level of the senses, which is the lowest of the natural, to be regenerated, because it is completely filled with material ideas formed from earthly, bodily, and worldly things. For this reason a person who is being regenerated, especially at the present day, does not undergo regeneration at the sensory level, only at the natural level immediately above it, to which the Lord raises him from the level of the senses when he thinks about the truths and forms of the good of faith. The ability to be raised from the sensory level is what is imparted to the person who is being regenerated by the Lord. Regarding what the sensory level is like, and the raising of thought above it, see 5084, 5089, 5094, 5125, 5118, 5767, 6183, 6201, 6310, 6311, 6598, 6612, 6614, 6622, 6624, 6844, 6845, 6948.

sRef Ex@8 @18 S0′ 7443. ‘And I will set apart on that day the land of Goshen, on which My people stand, so that the noxious flying insects are not there’ means that they will not be able to use malevolent falsities to molest those who belong to the spiritual Church even though they are near them. This is clear from the meaning of ‘setting apart’ as separating to prevent communication; from the meaning of ‘day’ as state, dealt with in 23, 487, 488, 493, 893, 2788, 3462, 3785, 4850, so that ‘setting apart on that day’ is separating during that state; from the meaning of ‘the land of Goshen’ as the middle or inmost part in the natural, dealt with in 5910, 6028, 6031, 6068, and also, since the children of Israel were in the land of Goshen, as the Church, 6649; from the representation of the children of Israel, to whom ‘Jehovah’s people’ refers here, as those who belong to the spiritual Church, dealt with above in 7439; and from the meaning of ‘noxious flying insects’ as malevolent falsity, dealt with above in 7441, so that ‘the noxious flying insects are not there’ means that they will not be able to flow in, and therefore not be able to use those falsities for molesting others. The reason why they would be unable to use those falsities to molest with is this: Those falsities are falsities arising from the evils present in the outermost parts of the natural mind which form the level of the senses, and those who have what is good and true within them can be raised above that level, and so above the falsities there, as accords with what has been stated immediately above in 7442. And when they are raised above it they are also separated from those who are steeped in the falsities there.

sRef Ex@8 @18 S0′ 7444. To the end that you may know that I am Jehovah in the midst of the land’ means the [resulting] discernment that the Lord is the only God of the Church. This is clear from the meaning of ‘knowing’ as discernment; and from the meaning of ‘the midst of the land’ as the place where those who belong to the Lord’s Church are in possession of truth and goodness, the inmost part being where truth grounded in good is, 3436, 6068, 6084, 6103. Thus ‘the midst (or middle) of the land’ means the Church, in the same way as ‘the land of Goshen’ does, referred to immediately above in 7443. ‘I am Jehovah’ means that He is the only I AM, thus the only God – ‘Jehovah’ in the Word being the Lord, see 1343, 1736, 2921, 3023, 3035, 5663, 6303, 6905, 6945, 6956. From all this it is evident that ‘to the end that you may know that I am Jehovah in the midst of the land’ means the discernment that the Lord is the only God of the Church.

sRef Ex@8 @19 S0′ 7445. ‘And I will place redemption between My people and your people’ means the deliverance of those who belong to the spiritual Church from those in the hells nearby. This is clear from the meaning of ‘redemption’ as being led out of hell, dealt with in 7105, and from its specific use in reference to those who are being delivered from vastation, 2959; from the representation of the children of Israel, to whom ‘My people’ refers here, as those who belong to the spiritual Church, dealt with above in 7439; and from the representation of the Egyptians, to whom ‘your people’ refers here, as those in the hells nearby who engage in molestation, dealt with in 7090. From all this it is evident that ‘I will place redemption between My people and your people’ means the deliverance of those who belong to the spiritual Church from those in the hells nearby.

sRef Ex@8 @19 S0′ 7446. ‘And tomorrow will this sign be’ means the manifestation of Divine power thereby for evermore. This is clear from the meaning of ‘tomorrow’ as for evermore, dealt with in 3998; and from the meaning of ‘a sign’ as a corroboration of the truth, and consequent knowledge of it, dealt with in 6870, and therefore the manifestation of Divine power. For in former times truth, and at the same time Divine power were made manifest by means of signs.

sRef Ex@8 @20 S0′ 7447. ‘And Jehovah did so’ means as it had been declared, so it was done. This is clear without explanation.

sRef Ex@8 @20 S0′ 7448. ‘And extremely noxious flying insects came to the house of Pharaoh, and to the houses of his servants, and into all the land of Egypt’ means that malevolent falsities burst out from every side among them. This is clear from the meaning of ‘noxious flying insects’ as malevolent falsities, dealt with above in 7441; and from the meaning of ‘the house of Pharaoh, the houses of his servants, and all the land’ as every single thing in the natural, dealt with in 7396, 7441, 7442, at this point from every single one or from every side, since the bursting out of those falsities is meant. The proximate meaning of the coming of the noxious flying insects to the house is that falsities entered where evils were present and joined themselves to the evils. But when falsities have been joined to evils the evils burst out by means of the falsities. So it is that ‘the noxious flying insects came to the house of Pharaoh, and to the houses of his servants, and into all the land of Egypt’ means that malevolent falsities burst out, and indeed from every side.

sRef Ex@8 @20 S0′ 7449. ‘And the land was ruined by the presence of the noxious flying insects’ means that all truth in the natural mind was corrupted. This is clear from the meaning of ‘being ruined’ as being corrupted; from the meaning of ‘the land of Egypt’ as the natural mind, dealt with in 5276, 5278, 5280, 5288, 5301; and from the meaning of ‘the noxious flying insects’ as malevolent falsity, dealt with in 7441. All truth is said to be corrupted, for truth is indeed totally corrupted by falsity springing from evil.

sRef Ex@8 @24 S0′ sRef Ex@8 @23 S0′ sRef Ex@8 @26 S0′ sRef Ex@8 @25 S0′ sRef Ex@8 @27 S0′ sRef Ex@8 @21 S0′ sRef Ex@8 @22 S0′ sRef Ex@8 @28 S0′ 7450. Verses 21-28 And Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron, and said, Go, sacrifice to your God in the land. And Moses said, It is ill-advised to do so, for we would be sacrificing the abomination of the Egyptians to Jehovah our God. Behold, should we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, will they not stone us? We will go a way of three days* into the wilderness, and sacrifice to Jehovah our God, as He has said to us. And Pharaoh said, I will send you away to sacrifice to Jehovah your God in the wilderness; only you must certainly not go far away. Plead for me. And Moses said, Behold, I go out from you, and I will plead with Jehovah to remove the noxious flying insects from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people, tomorrow; only do not let Pharaoh act deceitfully again in not sending the people away to sacrifice to Jehovah. And Moses went out from Pharaoh and pleaded with Jehovah. And Jehovah did according to the word of Moses; and He removed the noxious flying insects from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people. Not one was left. And Pharaoh made his heart stubborn this time also, and did not send the people away.

‘And Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron’ means the presence of the law of God. ‘And said, Go, sacrifice to your God in the land’ means that they would not stand in the way of their worshipping their God, provided that they did so in a place near them. ‘And Moses said’ means the reply. ‘It is ill-advised to do so, for we would be sacrificing the abomination of the Egyptians to Jehovah our God’ means that what was vile, foul, and hellish would enter in. ‘Behold, should we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes’ means that if offered in their presence Divine worship would be molested by such things. ‘Will they not stone us?’ means that they would thereby demolish the truths of faith that related to worship. ‘We will go a way of three days into the wilderness’ means that they would remove themselves altogether, so as to be in freedom. ‘And sacrifice to Jehovah our God’ means that then there would be worship. ‘As He has said to us’ means as He had commanded. ‘And Pharaoh said, I will send you away to sacrifice to Jehovah your God in the wilderness’ means that they would leave them and not molest them, in order that they might worship their God in freedom. ‘Only you must certainly not go far away’ means although they would remain nearby. ‘Plead for me means that they should intercede. ‘And Moses said, Behold, I go out from you ‘ means the removal of the appearance of God’s truth among them. ‘And I will plead with Jehovah’ means intercession. ‘To remove the noxious flying insects from Pharaoh, from his servants, [and] from his people’ means in order that there may be an end to that state involving the malevolent falsities. ‘Tomorrow’ means for evermore. ‘Only do not let Pharaoh act deceitfully again in not sending the people away to sacrifice to Jehovah’ means provided that he does not deceive with lies and fail to leave, so that they may worship their God in freedom. ‘And Moses went out from Pharaoh’ means the removal of the appearance of God’s truth among those steeped in malevolent falsities. ‘And pleaded with Jehovah’ means intercession. ‘And Jehovah did according to the word of Moses’ means that it was so done according to the Lord’s word. ‘And He removed the noxious flying insects from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people’ means the end of this state of falsity. ‘Not one was left’ means a complete removal. ‘And Pharaoh made his heart stubborn this time also’ means obstinacy once again. ‘And did not send the people away’ means that they did not leave those who belonged to the spiritual Church.
* i.e. a three days’ journey

sRef Ex@8 @21 S0′ 7451. ‘And Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron’ means the presence of the law of God. This is clear from the meaning of ‘calling’ as presence, dealt with in 6177, 7790; and from the representation of ‘Moses and Aaron’ as the law of God, ‘Moses’ inward law and ‘Aaron’ outward law, dealt with in 7381, 7390.

sRef Ex@8 @21 S0′ 7452. ‘And said, Go, sacrifice to your God in the land’ means that they would not stand in the way of their worshipping their God, provided that they did so in a place near them. This is clear from the meaning of ‘said, Go’ as their not standing in the way; from the meaning of ‘sacrificing’ as worshipping, dealt with above in 7393; and from the meaning of ‘in the land’ – the land of Egypt – as in a place nearby. The meaning of ‘in the land’ as in a place nearby is evident from verses 21-24, from Moses’ reply that it would be ill-advised for them to do so, for they would be sacrificing the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, but that they should go a three days’ journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to Jehovah their God; and also from Pharaoh’s reply that they should certainly not go far away. Thus ‘the land’ is used to mean in the internal sense the place where those steeped in falsities and engaging in molestation are, regarding whose nearness, see 7090.

sRef Ex@8 @22 S0′ 7453. ‘And Moses said’ means the reply, as previously in 7103, 7394.

sRef Ex@8 @22 S0′ 7454. ‘It is ill-advised to do so, for we would be sacrificing the abomination of the Egyptians to Jehovah our God’ means that what was vile, foul, and hellish would enter in. This is clear from the meaning of ‘ill-advised to do so’ as something that cannot be done; from the meaning of ‘the abomination’ as what is vile, foul, and hellish; and from the meaning of ‘sacrificing to Jehovah God’ as worshipping their God, dealt with above in 7452. Consequently ‘sacrificing to Jehovah God the abomination of the Egyptians’ means that they would be worshipping God with a type of worship which was abominated by those steeped in falsities because of a hellish influence that was antagonistic to that worship and would molest it. What all this entails is also evident from things that reveal themselves in the next life. Each spirit there, and especially each community, is encompassed by a sphere consisting of his or its own faith and life. This sphere is a spiritual sphere, and from it the character of the spirit is recognized, and especially that of the community; for those who have the gift of perception perceive it, sometimes from quite a long way off. They can perceive it even though they may be hidden from view and make no contact through thought or speech. This spiritual sphere may be compared to the material sphere which surrounds a person’s body in the world. This sphere is a sphere consisting of odours emanating from him, and is detected by keen-scented animals. Regarding the spiritual sphere surrounding spirits, see 1048, 1053, 1316, 1504, 1519, 2401, 2489, 4464, 5179, 6206 (end).

[2] From all this it becomes clear that if hellish spirits were present near where people offering Divine worship were they would by means of their sphere molest those people; for in those circumstances those people offering Divine worship would perceive what was vile and abominable. This shows how one should understand the explanation that what was vile, foul, and hellish would enter in if they worshipped God in a place near them. From what has been stated about the spiritual sphere, or sphere consisting of faith and life, which emanates from each spirit, and especially from each community of spirits, it may also be recognized that nothing whatever of a person s thought, speech, or action in the world is hidden but is open to view, since they are what constitute that sphere. Such a sphere also emanates from a person’s spirit while he is in the body, in the world. And from this too one knows what kind of person he is. Do not suppose therefore that the things which a person thinks in secret or does in secret are hidden. They are as plainly evident in heaven as things seen in the light of the midday sun, as accords with the Lord’s words in Luke,

Nothing has been hidden that will not be revealed, or concealed that will not be made known. Therefore whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light; and what you have spoken in the ear in bedchambers will be proclaimed on the housetops. Luke 12:1, 7.

sRef Ex@8 @22 S0′ 7455. ‘Behold, should we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes’ means that if offered in their presence Divine worship would be molested by such things. This is clear from the explanations immediately above in 7454.

sRef Ex@8 @22 S0′ 7456. ‘Will they not stone us?’ means that they would thereby demolish the truths of faith that related to worship. This is clear from the meaning of ‘stoning’ as demolishing and wiping out falsities, but in the contrary sense, when done by the evil, as demolishing and wiping out the truths of faith. If the vile, foul, and hellish things referred to above in 7454 were to enter in among people whose worship is holy its holiness would be destroyed. The reason for this is that when a person’s worship is holy he is withheld from such things, and people who are governed by good in faith and life are raised above the level of the senses on which such things reside. But when such objects do enter in the foul things present on the sensory level are stirred up – that is, the things which a person is withheld from when his worship is holy, as has been stated, and which people governed by good are raised above – and the holiness of the worship is destroyed. Experience too demonstrates this plainly, for if, when a person offers worship to God, some foul object appears and is not removed, worship ceases and is destroyed. This is what is meant when it is said that if those steeped in falsities arising from evils were nearby they would demolish the truths of faith that relate to worship.

[2] As for the meaning of ‘stoning’, it should be recognized that the Jews and Israelites, among whom a representative of the Church had been established, had two kinds of capital punishment, one being stoning, the other hanging on wood. Stoning was used if anyone sought to destroy the truths relating to worship which were commanded, while hanging was used if anyone sought to destroy goodness of life. The reason why those who sought to destroy truths relating to worship were stoned was that a stone was a sign of truth and in the contrary sense of falsity, 643, 1298, 3720, 6426. And the reason why those who sought to destroy goodness of life were hanged on wood was that wood was a sign of good and in the contrary sense of the evil belonging to evil desires, 643, 2784, 2812, 3720.

sRef Ezek@16 @40 S3′ [3] The fact that punishment by stoning would be used if anyone should destroy truths relating to worship is evident from the following places: In Ezekiel,

Finally they will cause an assembly to come up upon you, and they will stone you with stones and cut you up with their swords. Ezek. 16:40.

This refers to the perverse Jerusalem and the destruction of the truth of faith by means of falsities. This is why it says that ‘they will stone with stones’ and also ‘cut up with swords’, for ‘a sword’ means truth engaged in conflict with falsity and destroying it, and in the contrary sense falsity engaged in conflict with truth and destroying it, 2799, 4499, 6353, 7102.

sRef Ezek@23 @47 S4′ sRef Ezek@23 @46 S4′ [4] A similar statement occurs elsewhere in the same prophet,

Cause an assembly to come up against them, in order that the assembly may stone them with stones and tear them apart with their swords. Ezek. 23:46, 47.

This refers to Jerusalem and Samaria, by which the Church is meant. Jerusalem means the celestial-spiritual Church, Samaria the spiritual Church, and this chapter describes how forms of the good and truth of faith were destroyed in them.

sRef Ex@21 @28 S5′ [5] In Moses,

If an ox strikes a man or woman with its horn so that the person dies, the ox shall surely be stoned. Exod. 21:28.

‘Striking a man or woman with the horn’ means falsity engaged in conflict with truth and goodness and destroying them. For ‘the horn’ is falsity engaged in conflict, and also the power of falsity, 2832, while ‘man and woman’ in the Word means truth and goodness; and this makes plain what the internal sense of that command is and why it was that the ox had to be stoned.

sRef Deut@17 @5 S6′ sRef Deut@17 @3 S6′ sRef Lev@24 @16 S6′ sRef Lev@24 @11 S6′ sRef Lev@24 @14 S6′ sRef Lev@24 @23 S6′ sRef Deut@13 @7 S6′ sRef Deut@13 @9 S6′ sRef Deut@13 @10 S6′ sRef Deut@13 @8 S6′ sRef Deut@13 @6 S6′ [6] In the same author,

Anyone blaspheming the name of Jehovah shall surely be killed; all the congregation shall certainly stone him. Lev. 24:16.

‘Blaspheming the name of Jehovah’ means using malevolent falsities to do violence to truths and forms of good that relate to worship. ‘The name of Jehovah’ means everything in one embrace that is used to worship Jehovah, see 2724, 3006, thus every aspect of faith and charity, 6674. This also explains why the Israelite woman s son who blasphemed the name of Jehovah was led outside the camp and stoned, Lev. 24:11, 14, 23. Furthermore it had been commanded that those who served other gods should be stoned, Deut. 17:3, 5, and also those who enticed anyone to serve other gods, Deut. 13:6-10. ‘Serving other gods’ means profane worship by means of which true worship is destroyed.

sRef John@10 @32 S7′ sRef John@8 @58 S7′ sRef John@8 @59 S7′ sRef Deut@22 @24 S7′ sRef Luke@20 @6 S7′ sRef John@10 @31 S7′ sRef John@10 @30 S7′ sRef Luke@20 @5 S7′ sRef John@10 @33 S7′ sRef Deut@22 @20 S7′ sRef Deut@22 @23 S7′ sRef Deut@22 @21 S7′ [7] If no evidence of virginity were found with a young woman when she married she was to be stoned because she had played the fool in Israel by committing whoredom in her father’s house, Deut. 22:20, 21. The reason for this was that ‘whoredom’ meant the falsification of truth, thus the destruction of it, 2466, 4865. If a man lay in the city with a young woman, a virgin, who was betrothed to a man, both were to be stoned, Deut. 22:23, 24, and for the same reason, namely whoredom; for spiritual whoredom is the falsification of truth. In Luke 20:5, 6, [one reads about the chief priests, scribes, and elders] coming to the conclusion among themselves that if they said John’s baptism was from heaven [the Lord] would say, ‘Why did you not believe him?’ But if they said ‘From men’, all the people would stone them. Here also ‘stoning’ is spoken of because of opposition to the truth.

The reason why the Jews sought to stone Jesus because He said, Before Abraham was, I am, John 8:58, 59, was that that nation believed this to be false. In a similar way they sought to stone Jesus because He said He and His Father were one, John 10:30-33; for they thought, as these verses also state, that this was blasphemy.

From all this one may now see what stoning was and why it was commanded, and also that punishment by stoning, administered since ancient times as its use in Egypt proves, was derived from the representatives of the Ancient Church.

sRef Ex@8 @23 S0′ 7457. ‘We will go a way of three days into the wilderness’ means that they would remove themselves altogether, so as to be in freedom. This is clear from the meaning of ‘going a way of three days into the wilderness’ as removing themselves altogether. That this is the meaning follows from what the internal sense above contains – that they could not worship God in a place nearby, in the presence of those from hell, dealt with above in 7452, 7454-7456. So they would have to remove themselves altogether, so as to be in freedom.

sRef Ex@8 @23 S0′ 7458. ‘And sacrifice to Jehovah our God’ means that then there would be worship. This is clear from the meaning of ‘sacrificing to Jehovah’ as worship, dealt with above in 7393, 7452; and there is worship when people are in freedom, 7349.

sRef Ex@8 @23 S0′ 7459. ‘As He has said to us’ means as He had commanded. This is clear without explanation.

sRef Ex@8 @24 S0′ 7460. ‘And Pharaoh said, I will send you away to sacrifice to Jehovah your God in the wilderness’ means that they would leave them and not molest them, in order that they might worship their God in freedom. This is clear from the meaning of ‘sending away’ as leaving and so not molesting; and from the meaning of ‘sacrificing to Jehovah God’ as worshipping their God, dealt with above in 7458. Their being in freedom follows, for it says that they would offer sacrifice in the wilderness, consequently not in a place nearby, as previously. In a place nearby means not being in freedom, see 7454, 7456.

sRef Ex@8 @24 S0′ 7461. ‘Only you must certainly not go far away’ means although they would remain nearby. This is clear from the meaning of ‘not going far away’ as not being at a distance, that is, not a long way from the land of Egypt.

sRef Ex@8 @24 S0′ 7462. ‘plead for me’ means that they should intercede. This is clear from the meaning of ‘pleading for him’, when said by Pharaoh to Moses, as intercession, as above in 7396.

sRef Ex@8 @25 S0′ 7463. ‘And Moses said, Behold, I go out from you’ means the removal of the appearance of God’s truth among them. This is clear from the representation of ‘Moses’ as the law of God, dealt with in 6723, 6752, thus God’s truth also, 7014, 7381; and from the meaning of ‘going out’ as a removal, as above in 7404. For ‘Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron’ means the presence of God’s truth, 7451, and therefore ‘going out from him’ here means a removal. In considering the presence and removal of God’s truth among the evil, one should realize that truth from God sometimes appears to them, and that it does so through the presence of an angel near them. But with them truth from God does not come in by way of their interiors, as it does with the good, because their interiors are closed. It has an effect only on their exteriors. When this happens they are filled with fear and consequently self-abasement, for the presence of truth from God perturbs them and strikes fear into them that is like the fear of death. But when the truth from God is removed they return to their previous state of mind and have no fear. This is what is meant by the presence of the appearance of God’s truth and its removal. It was also represented by Pharaoh, by his self-abasement while Moses was present with him, and his promise to send the people away to sacrifice to Jehovah, and by his ‘making his heart stubborn after Moses had gone out from him’, verse 28. For as shown above, ‘Moses’ represented the law of God or God’s truth.

sRef Luke@10 @25 S2′ sRef Luke@2 @39 S2′ sRef John@12 @34 S2′ sRef Luke@10 @26 S2′ sRef John@10 @35 S2′ sRef Luke@2 @24 S2′ sRef John@10 @34 S2′ sRef John@15 @25 S2′ sRef Luke@2 @23 S2′ [2] The law of God and God’s truth are one and the same because the law of God means the Word, and accordingly God’s truth. The fact that ‘the law means the Word and accordingly God’s truth is clear from the following places: In John,

Jesus said, Is it not written in your law, I said, You are Gods? If He called them gods, with whom the Word came to be, and the Scripture cannot be broken . . . John 10:34, 35.

‘Written in the law’ stands for the presence of those words in the Word, for they are written in David. In the same gospel,

The crowd said, We have heard from the Law that the Christ remains forever. John 12:34.

These words too are written in David. In the same gospel,

Jesus said, In order that the Word written in the Law might be fulfilled, They hated Me without a cause. John 15:25.

This as well is found in David. In Luke,

It is written in the Law of the Lord that every male opening the womb should be called holy to the Lord; and that they should offer a sacrifice, in keeping with what is written in the Law of the Lord, of a pair of turtle-doves, or two young pigeons. Luke 2:23, 24, 39.

This command is contained in Moses. In the same gospel,

A lawyer testing Jesus said, What must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus said to him. What is written in the Law? What is your reading of it? Luke 10:25, 26.

sRef Jer@31 @33 S3′ sRef Luke@16 @16 S3′ sRef Jer@26 @4 S3′ sRef Luke@16 @17 S3′ sRef Isa@42 @4 S3′ sRef Jer@26 @5 S3′ sRef Isa@8 @16 S3′ sRef Isa@30 @9 S3′ [3] In the same gospel,

The Law and the Prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God is proclaimed. It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the Law to fall. Luke 16:16, 17.

There are other places besides this in which the Word is called the Law and the Prophets, such as Matt. 5:18; 7:12; 11:13; 22:36, 40. In Isaiah,

Bind up the testimony, seal the Law for the benefit of My disciples. Isa. 8:16.

‘The Law’ stands for the Word. In the same prophet,

. . . lying sons, sons who did not wish to hear the Law of Jehovah. Isa. 30:9.

In the same prophet,

He will set judgement on the earth, the islands hope for His Law. Isa. 42:4.

This refers to the Lord, ‘His Law’ standing for the Word. In the same prophet,

Jehovah will magnify His Law. Isa. 42:21.

In Jeremiah,

Thus said Jehovah, If you do not obey Me, to go in My Law which I have set before you, in order that you may hear the Word of My servants the prophets . . . Jer. 26:4, 5.

Here ‘the Law’ stands for the Word, and in very many other places besides. From this it is evident that ‘the Law’ is the Word, and since it is the Word it is God’s truth, as in Jeremiah,

This is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, said Jehovah: I will put [My] Law in the midst of them, and will write it on their heart. Jer. 31:33.

Here ‘Jehovah’s Law’ stands for God’s truth.

sRef Isa@42 @21 S4′ [4] In a broad sense ‘the Law’ is the whole Word, in a narrower sense the historical section of the Word, in an even narrower sense the Word written through Moses, and in a restricted sense the Ten Commandments, see 6752.

From all this one may now see why Moses is said to represent both the law of God and God’s truth.

sRef Ex@8 @25 S0′ 7464. ‘And I will plead with Jehovah’ means intercession, as in 7396, 7462.

sRef Ex@8 @25 S0′ 7465. ‘To remove the noxious flying insects from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people’ means in order that there may be an end to that state involving the malevolent falsities. This is clear from the meaning of ‘noxious flying insects’ as malevolent falsities, dealt with in 7441; from the representation of ‘Pharaoh’ as those who are steeped in falsities arising from evils and engage in molestation, dealt with previously; and from the meaning of ‘his servants and his people’ as every single one of them, dealt with in 7396, 7441. The removal of those malevolent falsities from every single one of those molesters brings that state to an end. It should be recognized that every miracle that was performed in Egypt means some particular state which those people enter who are steeped in falsities and are molesters in the next life. There are ten states, one after another, which they enter, before they are completely divested of all truth, thus before they are cast into hell. For those who have a knowledge of matters of belief yet lead an evil life are not after death conveyed immediately to hell but in successive stages towards it. First it is proved to them that they are governed by evil, then their knowledge of matters of belief is taken away from them, and finally they are left with the evil life they lead; and all this is effected by means of a number of states one after another. These states are the things described by the miracles performed in Egypt and therefore the bad things that happened to the Egyptians before they were drowned in the Sea Suph. Without revelation these arcana cannot be known; to angels they are some of the most familiar.

sRef Ex@8 @25 S0′ 7466. For the meaning of ‘tomorrow’ as for evermore, see 3998, 7399.

sRef Ex@8 @25 S0′ 7467. ‘Only do not let Pharaoh act deceitfully again in not sending the people away to sacrifice to Jehovah’ means provided that he does not deceive with lies and fail to leave, so that they may worship their God in freedom. This is clear from the representation of ‘Pharaoh’ as those who are steeped in falsities arising from evils and engage in molestation; from the meaning of ‘acting deceitfully’ as deceiving with lies; from the meaning of ‘sending away’ as leaving; from the representation of the children of Israel, [to whom ‘the people’ refers here,] as those who belong to the spiritual Church; and from the meaning of ‘sacrificing to Jehovah’ as worshipping their God, dealt with in 7393, 7452, 7458. Which must be done in freedom, see 7454, 7456. From all this it is evident that ‘only do not let Pharaoh act deceitfully again in not sending the people away to
sacrifice to Jehovah’ means provided that he did not deceive with lies and fail to leave, so that those belonging to the spiritual Church may worship their God in freedom.

sRef Ex@8 @26 S0′ 7468. ‘And Moses went out from Pharaoh’ means the removal of the appearance of God’s truth among those steeped in malevolent falsities. This is clear from what has been stated above in 7463.

sRef Ex@8 @26 S0′ 7469. ‘And pleaded with Jehovah’ means intercession, as above in 7396, 7462.

7470. ‘And Jehovah did according to the word of Moses’ means that it was done according to the Lord’s word. This is clear from the explanation above in 7406.

7471. ‘And He removed the noxious flying insects from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people’ means the end of that state of falsity. This is clear from what has been stated above in 7465, where similar words occur.

7472. ‘Not one was left’ means a complete removal. This is clear without explanation.

sRef Ex@8 @28 S0′ 7473. ‘And Pharaoh made his heart stubborn [this time also]’ means obstinacy once again. This is clear from the meaning of ‘making one’s heart unyielding’, ‘hardened’, or ‘stubborn’ as obstinacy, dealt with in 7272, 7300, 7305.

sRef Ex@8 @28 S0′ 7474. ‘And did not send the people away’ means that they did not leave those who belonged to the spiritual Church. This is clear from the meaning of ‘sending away’ as leaving; and from the representation of the children of Israel, to whom ‘the people’ refers here, as those who belong to the spiritual Church, dealt with in 6426, 6637, 6862, 6868, 7035, 7062, 7198, 7201, 7215, 7223.

[2] With regard to the spiritual Church, represented here by the children of Israel, it should be recognized that it has an internal part and an external part, and that those people are in the internal part of the Church who are governed by the good of charity, while those are in the external part who are governed by the good of faith. People governed by the good of charity are those who out of charity towards the neighbour behold the truths of faith, whereas people governed by the good of faith are those who out of faith look towards charity. Thus the latter do good not out of affection belonging to charity but out of obedience belonging to faith, that is, because they are commanded to do it. These are precisely the ones who are represented here by the children of Israel, since they are the ones who are molested in the next life by those steeped in falsities. People who are governed by affection belonging to charity cannot be molested in the same way, for spirits who are steeped in falsities and evils cannot go near those governed by that good because the Lord is within that good. If they do suffer molestation, it involves only the illusions and appearances which have led them to believe things to be true which are not actually true, and such things as were presented by the teachings of their Church as truths but are not in fact truths. In the next life those people willingly reject falsities and accept truths, the reason being that the good of charity is receptive of truth because it loves it and is desirous of it.

[3] Since mention is made so many times of molestations what they are and what they are like must be stated. Molestations are brought about by introduction of falsity opposed to truths; but those falsities are refuted by an influx from heaven, that is, from the Lord by way of heaven, with those suffering such molestation. This kind of state is what those undergoing vastation of their falsities are held in, until they have absorbed the truths of faith, and, stage by stage, more internal truths. And in the measure that they have absorbed those truths they are released from molestation. Molestations are not temptations, since temptations when they take place involve torment of conscience. For people undergoing temptations are held in a state of damnation, which brings them torment and grief.

[4] All this shows what the vastations in the next life are like which those governed by the good of faith undergo. Those vastations are vastations of falsity. But with those who have not been governed by the good of faith, only by some truth of faith which with them is merely factual knowledge, and have led an evil life, the vastations are vastations of truth. Those who undergo vastation of falsities gradually absorb truths and forms of the good of faith and charity, whereas those who undergo vastation of truths gradually cast off truths and invest themselves with the evils which have been a feature of the life they led. From all this one may see what is meant in the Word by vastations and desolations.

7475. SPIRITS AND INHABITANTS OF THE PLANET MARS – continued

When spirits belonging to Mars look at themselves they see themselves as the kind of people they were in the world. That is also how others see them, for in the next life everyone is seen by others as he sees himself, because what he perceives is communicated to others. When I was astounded by this they said that they could not be seen in any other way, because when they had lived in the world they had known that they were spirits clothed with the body and because at that time they had given little thought to their body, concentrating instead on the life of their spirit within the body. Consequently when they enter the next life they are hardly aware that their state of life has altered, and since at this time also their thought is about the life of the spirit, as it had been in the world, they see themselves as they had seen themselves then. All spirits, it is true, are enveloped in a human form, yet not in one so well-defined as those of Martian spirits since the latter retain the kind of ideas they had in the world. Furthermore in the case of people who know and believe, when they are in the world, that in the next life they will live within a human form, that thought grows all the stronger as the body loses its strength. Therefore when they cast aside the body which has been their servant for a useful life in the world they remain the same, as a result of that idea imprinted on them, as they were in the world.

7476. Among the spirits who originate from the planets in our solar system those from Mars are the best of all. For the most part they are celestial people, not unlike those belonging to the Most Ancient Church on our planet, who were the subject in 1114-1125, and other places. When a representation is made of what those spirits are like, they are represented face in heaven and body in the world of spirits. And those of them who are angels are represented face towards the Lord and body in heaven.

sRef Matt@28 @18 S0′ 7477. In their acknowledgement and adoration of our Lord they excel other spirits. They say that He is the only God, that He rules both heaven and the material universe, and that He is the author of everything good. They have said that the Lord is the One who leads them, and that He also appears quite often among them on their planet. The truth that the Lord rules both heaven and the material universe is known to Christians on our planet too from the Lord’s words in Matthew,

All power in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Matt. 28:18.

But Christians do not believe this as those belonging to the planet Mars do.

7478. Once when the Lord was mentioned I saw that those spirits adopted a humbled attitude, so deep and profound as to be indescribable. For in their humility their thought was that if left to themselves they were in hell, which being so they were totally unworthy of setting eyes on the Lord, who is Holiness itself. This thought arising from their belief affected them so profoundly that they were so to speak beside themselves, and it kept them on their knees until the Lord raised them up and so to speak pulled them out of hell. When they accordingly rise from that humbled condition those spirits are full of goodness and love, and consequently of heartfelt joy. But when they adopt that humbled attitude they do not, because they dare not, turn their faces to the Lord; instead they turn them away. Spirits who were around me said that they had never seen any humility like it.

7479. I have talked to some from that planet about what people there believe. They said that people there believe that they have nothing within themselves except what is filthy and from hell, and that anything good is the Lord’s. Indeed they went further than that, saying that left to themselves they are devils but that the Lord pulls them out of hell and constantly holds them back from it. They were astonished that I had so many evil spirits around me and also that these talked to me. But I was led to reply that they were allowed to be there in order that I might get to know what they were like and why they were in hell, and to know that their character and lot was due to the life they lived. I was also led to say that a number of these evil spirits were people whom I had been acquainted with when they lived in the world, during which time they had been appointed to high office yet had set their hearts on the world and nothing else. But, I added, no evil spirit, not even the most hellish, could ever do me harm since I was under the Lord’s constant protection.

7480. I was informed that [in the Grand Man] Martian spirits correlate with something that occupies a more inward Position in a person, something indeed that lies between the area of understanding and the area of will, namely thought which springs from affection, or – with the best of those spirits – affection which lies behind thought. For this reason their faces act in unison with their thought, and they are incapable of employing pretence in front of another, as mentioned previously in 7360, 7361, where those spirits are the subject.

7481. As this is what they correlate with in the Grand Man, that province lying between the cerebrum and the cerebellum corresponds to them. For with those whose cerebrum and cerebellum have been linked together so far as spiritual activities are concerned, the face acts in unison with thought, so that the affection itself which lies behind the thought shines from the face; and from the affection, together with certain signals given by the eyes as well, a general indication of the thought is given. That explains why, when those spirits were close by me, I had a distinct feeling that the front part of my head was being pulled towards the back part, thus the cerebrum towards the cerebellum.

7482. Once when Martian spirits were present with me and occupying my mental sphere spirits from our own planet arrived, wishing to place themselves too within that sphere. But these spirits belonging to our planet then became seemingly insane, for the reason that they were altogether unsuited to it. For spirits belonging to our planet have self and the world in view, and so their thought is directed towards themselves, whereas spirits belonging to Mars have heaven, thus the Lord and the neighbour in view, and therefore their thought is directed away from themselves. Consequently they have a conflicting outlook. But at that point angelic spirits belonging to Mars arrived, as a result of which communication was taken away, and so the spirits belonging to our planet departed.

7483. I had an inhabitant of that planet presented to me. His face was like that of inhabitants of our planet, but the lower part was black, though not because of a beard, which those people do not possess, but because of a blackness there instead. This too is a matter of correspondence. That blackness reached round both sides up to under the ears. The Upper part of the face was yellowish, like the faces of inhabitants of our planet who are not altogether white.

7484. They said that they fed themselves on the fruits of trees, and in particular on a round kind of fruit that sprouts in their soil, and in addition on vegetables too.

7485. They wear clothes there which are made of fibres obtained from the barks of certain trees. The consistency of the fibres is such that they allow themselves to be woven and can be stuck together by a kind of gum those people use.

7486. Besides other things they also said that they know how to make liquid fires there, to give them light at evening time and night.

7487. ‘Inhabitants and spirits of Mars’ is continued at the end of the next chapter.

7488. 9

TEACHINGS ABOUT CHARITY

From what has been said about self-love and love of the world it is evident that they are the root of all evils; and since they are the root of all evils they are the origin of all falsities. And conversely love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour are the source of every form of good; and since they are the source of every form of good they are the fount of all truths.

7489. This being so it is evident that to the extent that a person is moved by self-love and love of the world he is not moved by love towards the neighbour, still less by love to the Lord. For the former kinds of love are the opposite of the latter.

7490. It is also evident that to the extent that a person is moved by self-love and love of the world he is not conscious of what charity is, till at length he is unaware of its existence. Also such a person is to the same extent unconscious of what faith is, till at length he is unaware of its being anything at all. He is to the same extent unconscious of what conscience is, as well, till at length he is not aware of its existence. Indeed he is to that same extent unaware of what the spiritual is, and so of what the life of heaven is. Finally, it is evident that he has no belief in the existence of heaven or in the existence of hell, and consequently has no belief in the existence of life after death. These are the things that self-love and love of the world bring about when they reign.

7491. The good of heavenly love and the truth of faith accompanying it flow in constantly from the Lord; but where self-love and love of the world reign they are not received. With those in whom these loves reign – that is, constantly pervade their thinking, exist as their end in view, occupy their will, and constitute their life – goodness and truth flowing in from the Lord are either rejected, annihilated, or perverted.

7492. Those who reject them treat the good of love and the truth of faith with contempt and also loathing. Those however who annihilate them repudiate the good of love and the truth of faith and uphold evils and falsities, which are their opposites. But those who pervert them misrepresent the good of love and the truth of faith and then use them in support of evil and resulting falsity.

7493. The self-love and love of the world within a person start to reign when he comes to make his own decisions and to be responsible for his own actions; for then he starts to think from himself or what is his own, and starts to make those [evils] his own, which he does increasingly the more firmly he embraces evil in his life. To the extent that a person makes evils his own the Lord sets apart the good of innocence and of charity which he has received in infancy and childhood and receives from time to time after that, and He stores them away interiorly within the person. For the good of innocence and the good of charity cannot by any means exist together with the evils that are products of those loves, and the Lord is unwilling to let them be destroyed.

7494. People therefore who either pervert, annihilate, or reject the good of love and the truth of faith residing with them do not have life within themselves. For life received from the Divine consists in willing what is good and believing what is true. But those who do not will what is good, only what is evil, and do not believe what is true, only what is false, possess the opposite of life. This opposite of life is hell and is called death; and those people are called the dead. The fact that the life of love and faith is called life and also eternal life, and those who possess it within themselves are called living persons; and the fact that the opposite of life is called death, and also eternal death, and those [who possess the opposite of life within themselves] are called dead persons, is clear from a large number of places in the Word, such as Matt. 4:16; 8:21, 22; 18:8, 9; 19:16, 17, 29; John 3:15, 16, 36; 5:24, 25; 6:33, 35, 47, 48, 50, 51, 53, 57, 58, 67; 8-21, 24, 51; 10:10; 11:15, 26; 14:6, 19; 17:7; 20:31; and elsewhere.


EXODUS 9

1 And Jehovah said to Moses, Go to Pharaoh, and you are to tell him, Thus said Jehovah the God of the Hebrews, Send My People away, and let them serve Me.

2 For if you refuse to send them away and you still hold them back,

3 Behold, the hand of Jehovah will be on your livestock that are in the field, on the horses, on the asses, on the camels, on the herd, and on the flock – an extremely severe pestilence.

4 And Jehovah will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of the Egyptians, and nothing will die of all that belongs to the children of Israel.

5 And Jehovah set a fixed time, saying, Tomorrow Jehovah will do this thing in the land.

6 And Jehovah did this thing on the morrow, and all the livestock of the Egyptians died; and of the livestock of the children of Israel not one died.

7 And Pharaoh sent, and behold, not even one of the livestock of Israel had died. And Pharaoh’s heart was stubborn, and he did not send the people away.

8 And Jehovah said to Moses and to Aaron, Take for yourselves in fistfuls* the ashes of the furnace, and let Moses scatter them in the direction of heaven before Pharaoh’s eyes.

9 And there will then be dust over all the land of Egypt, and there will be on man and on beast sores breaking out into pustules, in all the land of Egypt.

10 And they took the ashes of the furnace, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses scattered them in the direction of heaven, and sores producing pustules developed, breaking out on man and on beast.

11 And the magicians could not stand before Moses on account of the sores; for there were sores on the magicians and on all the Egyptians.

12 And Jehovah made Pharaoh’s heart unyielding, and he did not hear** them, as Jehovah had spoken to Moses.

13 And Jehovah said to Moses, Rise up in the morning early, and stand before Pharaoh; and you are to say to him, Thus said Jehovah the God of the Hebrews, Send My people away, and let them serve Me.

14 For this time I am sending all My plagues onto your heart, and onto your servants, and onto your people, in order that you may know that there is none like Me in the whole earth.

15 For now I could stretch out*** My hand, and strike you and your people with pestilence, and you would be cut off from the earth.

16 But yet for this reason have I caused you to stand**** – for you to see My power, and in order that My name may be declared in the whole earth.

17 You go on exalting yourself against My people by not sending them away.

18 Behold, about this time tomorrow I am causing it to rain an extremely heavy hail, of which there has not been the like in Egypt from the day it was founded even until now.

19 And now send, assemble your livestock and all that you have in the field; every man and beast that will be found in the field and will not be gathered home,***** the hail will come down on them and they will die.

20 And he that feared the word of Jehovah among the servants of Pharaoh caused his servants and his livestock to flee to the houses.

21 And he that did not take the word of Jehovah to heart left his servants and his livestock in the field.

22 And Jehovah said to Moses, Stretch out your hand towards heaven, and there will be hail in all the land of Egypt, on man and on beast, and on every plant of the field in the land of Egypt.

23 And Moses stretched out his rod towards heaven, and Jehovah gave forth voices****** and hail, and fire ran down to the earth; and Jehovah caused hail to rain onto the land of Egypt.

24 And there was hail, and at the same time fire running down******* in the midst of the hail, extremely heavy, of which there had not been the like in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.

25 And the hail struck in all the land of Egypt everything that was in the field, from man and even to beast; and the hail struck every plant of the field, and broke every tree of the field.

26 Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, there was no hail.

27 And Pharaoh sent and called Moses and Aaron, and said to them, I have sinned this time; Jehovah is righteous, and I and my people are wicked.

28 Plead with Jehovah, there have been enough of God’s voices’ and of hail; and I will send you away, and you will not continue to remain.

29 And Moses said to him, As I am going out of the city I will spread out my palms towards Jehovah; the voices’ will cease, and there will be no more hail, in order that you may know that the earth is Jehovah’s.

30 And [as for] you and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear the face of Jehovah God.

31 And the flax and the barley were struck; for the barley was a ripening ear, and the flax a stem.********

32 And the wheat and the spelt were not struck, for they were hidden.*********

33 And Moses went out from Pharaoh, from the city, and spread out his palms towards Jehovah; and the voices’ and the hail ceased, and the rain was not poured on the earth.

34 And Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the voices****** had ceased; and he continued to sin, and made his heart stubborn, he and his servants.

35 And Pharaoh’s heart was made unyielding, and he did not send the children of Israel away, as Jehovah had spoken through the hand of Moses.
* lit. with the fullness of your fists
** lit. hear towards
*** lit. send
**** i.e. have raised you up
***** or to the house
****** i.e. claps of thunder
******* Sw. appears to have misread a Hebrew word here.
******** i.e. the pods were formed on the culms or stems
********* i.e. had not yet begun to mature in the ear

sRef Ex@9 @0 S0′ 7495. CONTENTS

This chapter continues to deal with the vastation of those who molest members of the spiritual Church. In the internal sense the chapter deals with the sixth, seventh, and eighth states or stages of their vastation, which the pestilence, the sores breaking out into pustules, and the rain in the form of hail describe. By these plagues is meant the laying waste of things of the Church present with them.

sRef Ex@9 @4 S0′ sRef Ex@9 @5 S0′ sRef Ex@9 @3 S0′ sRef Ex@9 @1 S0′ sRef Ex@9 @2 S0′ sRef Ex@9 @6 S0′ sRef Ex@9 @7 S0′ 7496. THE INTERNAL SENSE

Verses 1-7 And Jehovah said to Moses, Go to Pharaoh, and you are to tell him, Thus said Jehovah the God of the Hebrews, Send My people away, and let them serve Me. For if you refuse to send them away and you still hold them back, behold, the hand of Jehovah will be on your livestock that are in the field, on the horses, on the asses, on the camels, on the herd, and on the flock – an extremely severe pestilence. And Jehovah will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of the Egyptians, and nothing will die of all that belongs to the children of Israel. And Jehovah set a fixed time, saying, Tomorrow Jehovah will do this thing in the land. And Jehovah did this thing on the morrow, and all the livestock of the Egyptians died; and of the livestock of the children of Israel not one died. And Pharaoh sent, and behold, not even one of the livestock of Israel had died. And Pharaoh’s heart was stubborn, and he did not send the people away.

‘And Jehovah said to Moses’ means fresh instruction. ‘Go to Pharaoh, and you are to tell him’ means the appearance of the truth from God among those engaged in molestation. ‘Thus said Jehovah the God of the Hebrews’ means a command from the Lord, the God of the Church. ‘Send My people away, and let them serve Me’ means that they should leave those who belong to the spiritual Church, in order that these may worship the Lord. ‘For if you refuse to send them away and you still hold them back’ means if they obstinately continued to molest them. ‘Behold, the hand of Jehovah will be on your livestock that are in the field’ means the laying waste of the truth and good of faith which they had acquired from the Church to which they had belonged. ‘On the horses, on the asses, on the camels’ means intellectual concepts of and factual knowledge about the truth of faith. ‘On the herd, and on the flock’ means aspects of the will. ‘An extremely severe pestilence’ means an overall annihilation. ‘And Jehovah will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of the Egyptians’ means the difference between the forms of the truth and good of faith of those who belong to the spiritual Church and the forms of the truth and good of faith acquired from the Church which reside with those engaged in molestation. ‘And nothing will die of all that belongs to the children of Israel’ means that they will not be annihilated. ‘And Jehovah set a fixed time’ means a predetermining. ‘Saying, Tomorrow Jehovah will do this thing in the land’ means that this is how it will be with them for evermore, so far as the forms of the truth and good of faith belonging to the Church are concerned. ‘And Jehovah did this thing on the morrow’ means putting into effect what was predetermined. ‘And all the livestock of the Egyptians died’ means an annihilation of the truth and good of faith with those engaged in molestation. ‘And of the livestock of the children of Israel not one died’ means that no annihilation of faith took place among those who belonged to the spiritual Church. ‘And Pharaoh sent, and behold, not even one of the livestock of Israel had died’ means that it was made known to those engaged in molestation. ‘And Pharaoh’s heart was stubborn’ means obstinacy. ‘And he did not send the people away means that they did not leave them.

sRef Ex@9 @1 S0′ 7497. ‘And Jehovah said to Moses’ means fresh instruction, as previously in 6879, 6881, 6883, 6891, 7226, 7304, 7380.

sRef Ex@9 @1 S0′ 7498. ‘Go to Pharaoh, and you are to tell him’ means the appearance of the truth from God among those engaged in molestation. This is clear from the meaning of ‘going (in) to someone’ as becoming present or appearing, dealt with below; from the meaning of ‘telling’ as communication; from the representation of ‘Pharaoh’ as those who in the next life molest members of the spiritual Church, dealt with in 7107, 7110, 7126, 7142, 7220, 7228, 7317; and from the representation of Moses, who was to go in to Pharaoh and speak to him, as the truth from God, dealt with in 6771, 6827, 7014, 7382. The reason why ‘going (in) to’ means the presence or appearance is that in the spiritual sense things connected with the mind and therefore with thought are meant, and when ‘going (in) to someone is used in reference to thought, it means making that person present in one’s thought; for one who thinks about another causes that other to be present in his thought. And what is astonishing, in the next life when one person is thinking about another because he wishes to talk to him, that other becomes present with him. From this it is evident that in these matters there is a similarity between what goes on in the thinking of a person in the world and what takes place visibly in the next life. From all this one may now see that ‘going (in) to someone’ means the presence or appearance.

sRef John@7 @39 S0′ sRef Ex@9 @1 S0′ 7499. ‘Thus said Jehovah the God of the Hebrews’ means a command from the Lord, who is the God of the Church. This is clear from the meaning of ‘saying’ as a command, dealt with in 7036, 7107, 7310; and from the meaning of ‘the Hebrews’ as those who belong to the Church, and so the Church itself, dealt with in 5136, 5236, 6675, 6684, 6738, ‘Jehovah’, when that name is used in the Word, being the Lord, see 1743, 1776, 2921, 3023, 3035, 5041, 5663, 6280, 6281, 6303, 6905, 6945, 6956. In the Word the Lord is called ‘Jehovah’ in respect of Divine Goodness, for Divine Goodness is the Divine itself, and the Lord is referred to as ‘the Son of God’ in respect of Divine Truth. For Divine Truth goes forth from Divine Goodness, as the Son does from the Father, and is also said to be born from it. But something more must be said to show what this implies. When the Lord was in the world He made the Human He had assumed Divine Truth, and at that time called Divine Goodness, which is Jehovah, His Father. He did so because, as has been stated, Divine Truth goes forth and is born from Divine Goodness. But after the Lord had fully glorified Himself, which was accomplished on the Cross when He underwent His last temptation of all, He then also made the Human He had assumed Divine Goodness, which is Jehovah, and it was from that Divine Goodness that Divine Truth itself went forth out of His Divine Human. This Divine Truth is what is called the Holy Spirit and is the holiness that goes forth from the Divine Human. This shows what the Lord’s words in John are used to mean,

The Holy Spirit was not yet because Jesus was not yet glorified. John 7:39.

With regard to Divine Goodness and its being called ‘the Father’, and to Divine Truth and its being called ‘the Son’, see 3704.

sRef Ex@9 @1 S0′ 7500. ‘Send My people away, and let them serve Me’ means that they should leave those who belong to the spiritual Church, in order that these may worship the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of ‘sending away’ as leaving, as often before; from the representation of the children of Israel, to whom ‘My people’ refers here, as those who belong to the spiritual Church, dealt with in 4286, 6426, 6637, 6862, 6868, 7035, 7062, 7198, 7201, 7215, 7223; and from the meaning of ‘and let them serve Me’ as in order that they may worship the Lord. The meaning of ‘serving’ as worshipping is self-evident; and Jehovah whom they are to serve is the Lord, see immediately above in 7499.

sRef Ex@9 @2 S0′ 7501. ‘For if you refuse to send them away and you still hold them back’ means if they obstinately continued to molest them. This is clear from the meaning of ‘refusing’ as behaving obstinately, and therefore ‘refusing to send away’ is obstinately refusing to leave; and from the meaning of ‘holding back’ as continuing to molest, for those who are molested are held back by the evil spirits who molest them. The situation when this happens – when those who are molested by evil spirits are held back by them – is as follows: When evil spirits attack someone they know how to worm their way into the delights bound up with his desires, and also into the ideas attractive to his basic way of thinking, thus into the objects of his love. And for as long as they have wormed their way in like this they hold back the one they molest like a captive; and he cannot break free, however hard he tries, without Divine help from the Lord. For his love and their worming their way into the delights intrinsic to his love binds him to them. Such is the nature of this art that is practised by evil spirits and genii in the next life. What it is like is also evident from something similar in the world; when one person worms his way into the delights intrinsic to another person’s love he captivates him and also leads him on.

sRef Ex@9 @3 S0′ 7502. ‘behold, the hand of Jehovah will be on your livestock that are in the field’ means the laying waste of the truth and good of faith which they had acquired from the Church to which they had belonged. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the hand of Jehovah being on someone’ as a plague or punishment, for ‘hand’ means power, 4931-4937, 6292, 6947, 7188, 7189, and ‘the hand of Jehovah’ almighty power, 878, 3387, and since those who are confined to the superficial things of the Church are led by appearances to believe that every plague or punishment comes from Jehovah (for they attribute all things to His power), ‘the hand of Jehovah being on someone’ means punishment, in this instance laying waste or vastation (for the stages In the vastation of those who molested were punishments); from the meaning of ‘livestock’ as forms of the truth and good of faith, dealt with in 6016, 6045, 6049; and from the meaning of ‘the field’ as the Church, dealt with in 2971, 3310. ‘The field’ is the Church because ‘seed’ which is cast onto the field means the truths of faith, and also because ‘the products of the field’, such as wheat, barley, spelt, and forms of the good of charity, and truths of faith, thus the kinds of things that belong to the Church.

[2] To understand why it is that hellish spirits who molest the upright in the next life undergo vastation in respect of the truths of faith taught by the Church, it should be recognized that those who molest the upright belonged to the Church. Those who have not belonged to the Church cannot molest others who do belong to it. They cannot do so because falsities, which are opposed to the truths of faith taught by the Church, are what spirits use when they molest, and those who have been outside the Church cannot molest anyone by means of such falsities because they have never come to know them. It is those who have claimed to be believers but have lead an evil life that turn to falsities in the next life and molest the upright with them, see 7097, 7127, 7317. Therefore to prevent the truth of faith which they had acquired from the teachings of their Church while they were living in the world from affording them any light at all from heaven (for they take with them into the next life everything they have come to know in the life of the body; nothing whatever is missing), and to prevent them from using things seen in the light of heaven to lend support to the falsities and evils belonging to hell, everything like that is taken away from them, and they are left finally with the evils forming their life and with the resulting falsities. This vastation is the subject at present.

[3] The reason why those who have belonged to the Church but led an evil life are devastated in stages in this way before they are cast into hell is that they had come to know the truths of faith, which put them in contact with heaven. The heavenly communities with whom they were in contact in the world, and with whom they are still in contact in the next life, cannot be separated from them except in stages. For in heaven such is the nature of order originating in the Lord that nothing is carried out in a violent manner. Everything people do they do in freedom, of their own many other crops, are accord so to speak. Therefore those communities are not wrenched away from them, but separated gradually, so that those people may seem to depart of their own free will and accord. From this one may now see what vastation is like for those who have known the truths of faith taught by the Church and yet have led an evil life.

[4] Without revelation no one can be aware of what such vastation is like; for without revelation people have no knowledge of things that take place in the next life. And since people show little concern to find out from the Word about the truths and forms of the good of faith, because they have no affection for truth for its own sake, let alone for life’s sake, neither are such things revealed to them. Yet these things are discernible in the Word; indeed the whole sequence in which they occur and the course they take is presented in its internal sense. Since therefore people in the Church have no affection for knowing truth from the Word, only an affection – for worldly reasons – for substantiating the teachings of their Church, whether true or false, they know nothing whatever about the state after death, nothing about heaven, and nothing about hell. They do not even know what makes heaven or what makes hell with a person. In fact their ignorance is such that they teach and believe that anyone can be admitted into heaven, some believing that a person can be admitted by the power which they have arrogated to themselves, others by the Lord’s mercy, irrespective of the life the person has been leading. Scarcely any know that heaven is given to people while they live in the world, through a life of charity and faith, and that this life is enduring. These matters have been stated in order that people may know what members of the Church are like who advocate faith alone but are unconcerned about the life of faith; for these are the ones who are represented by the Egyptians here and in what follows below.

sRef Ex@9 @3 S0′ 7503. ‘On the horses, on the asses, on the camels’ means intellectual concepts of and factual knowledge about the truth of faith. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the horses’ as intellectual concepts, dealt with in 2761, 2762, 3217, 5321, 6125, 6534; from the meaning of ‘the asses’ as ideas which are of service to the understanding part of the mind, thus also factual knowledge, dealt with in 5492, 7024; and from the meaning of ‘the camels’ as factual knowledge in general, dealt with in 3048, 3071, 3143, 3145. These three groups of animals mean things that belong to the understanding part of the mind; the remainder – members of the herd and the flock – mean those that belong to the will part. So far as the understanding part is concerned, it is the one which receives the truths of faith. For the understanding is a person’s inner sight, which is enlightened by the light of heaven; and in the measure that it is enlightened the person discerns, sees, and acknowledges the truths of faith when he reads the Word. This explains why those who have a perception of the truth of faith are called the intelligent and wise, and also the enlightened. For the fact that the understanding part is the recipient of the truth of faith, see 5114, 6125, 6222.

sRef Ex@9 @3 S0′ 7504. ‘On the herd, and on the flock’ means aspects of the will. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the herd’ as the good of the exterior natural, and from the meaning of ‘the flock’ as the good of the interior natural, both of which are dealt with in 5913. And since good is meant by them the will part is meant; for all good is connected with the will, and all truth with the understanding.

sRef Ezek@5 @11 S0′ sRef Ezek@14 @21 S0′ sRef Ezek@5 @12 S0′ sRef Ps@91 @6 S0′ sRef Ezek@7 @15 S0′ sRef Ex@9 @3 S0′ sRef Ps@91 @5 S0′ sRef Amos@4 @10 S0′ 7505. ‘An extremely severe pestilence’ means an overall annihilation. This is clear from the meaning of ‘a pestilence’ as a laying waste of truth, and since it says ‘an extremely severe pestilence’ the annihilation of truth is meant. The fact that ‘a pestilence’ means a laying waste of truth is evident from the following places in the Word: In Ezekiel,

… when I shall send My four severe* judgements – sword, and famine, and evil wild animal, and pestilence – onto Jerusalem, to cut off man and beast from it. Ezek. 14:21.

‘Cutting off man and beast’ stands for the laying waste of good, interior and exterior. In the same prophet,

The sword is without, and pestilence and famine within; he that is in the field will die by the sword, but him that is in the city famine and pestilence will devour. Ezek. 7:15.

‘Pestilence’ stands for a laying waste of good. In the same prophet,

Therefore because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your abominations, a third part of you will die from pestilence, and be annihilated [by famine] in your midst. Ezek. 5:11, 12.

‘Pestilence’ stands for an annihilation of good. In Amos,

I have sent the pestilence upon you in the way of Egypt, I have killed your young men with the sword, along with your captured horses.** Amos 4:10.

‘The pestilence in the way of Egypt’ stands for a laying waste of good and truth by means of falsities, which are ‘the way of Egypt’. ‘I have killed young men with the sword, along with captured horses’ stands for a laying waste of truth, truths being meant by ‘young men’ and intellectual concepts by ‘horses’ as above in 7503. In David,

You will not be afraid of the terror of the night, of the arrow that flies by day, of the pestilence that creeps in thick darkness, of death that lays waste at noon-day. Ps. 91:5, 6.

‘The pestilence that creeps in thick darkness’ stands for evil that lays waste in concealment; ‘death that lays waste at noonday’ stands for evil which does so out in the open. ‘Pestilence’ occurs in other places besides these.
* lit. evil
** lit. the captivity of your horses

sRef Ex@9 @4 S0′ 7506. ‘And Jehovah will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of the Egyptians’ means the difference between the forms of the truth and good of faith of those who belong to the spiritual Church and forms of the truth and good of faith [acquired from the Church] which reside with those engaged in molestation. This is clear from the meaning of ‘making a distinction’ as a difference; from the meaning of ‘the livestock’ as forms of the truth and good of faith, as above in 7502; from the representation of ‘the children of Israel’ as those who belong to the spiritual Church, also dealt with above, in 7500; and from the meaning of ‘the livestock of the Egyptians’ as forms of good and truth belonging to the Church which reside with those who engage in molestation. Regarding ‘the Egyptians’, that they are those who belonged to the Church and therefore had a knowledge of the truth and good of faith, but led an evil life, and are those who engage in molestation in the next life, see 7097, 7127, 7317, 7501.

[2] Let the difference between forms of the truth and good of faith with those belonging to the Church who are saved and forms of the truth and good of faith which reside with those belonging to the Church who are damned be stated briefly. Forms of the truth and good of faith which reside with those who belong to the Church and are saved are rooted in the good of charity; and since the affection characteristic of charity constitutes the truly spiritual level of things, those forms of truth and good are spiritual, flowing in from the Lord by way of heaven. For those people’s interiors, which are receptive, are open to heaven. But forms of truth and good possessed by those who belong to the Church and are damned are not rooted in the good of charity, and so they are not spiritual. They do, it is true, flow in by way of heaven, but they are given a very cold and dark reception, very cold because the good of charity is lacking, and very dark because the light in which they receive them resembles the light of winter, a light which, compared with the light of heaven, is as thick darkness. These people’s interiors are not open to heaven but to the world; they turn the truth and good that flow in from heaven in a worldly direction. As a consequence, too, the ideas they have about the good and truth of faith are wholly natural, indeed material ones, which when represented in the spiritual world are ugly and bear no kind of resemblance to a human being. But the ideas about the truth and good of faith of those who belong to the Church and are saved are spiritual, and although they are embodied in material images of worldly things, yet they are separate from those images, for they can be raised above them. When the ideas of these people are represented in the spiritual world they are beautiful, and take on a resemblance to a human being. Such is the difference, no matter how much alike they seem to be to outward appearances, that is, when people speak and preach about them.

[3] What causes such a difference is the kind of life a person leads. For when good reigns in a person’s life, that is, good which springs from charity, it has an effect on his understanding, which is the receptacle of truth. It creates beautiful ideas about forms of the good and truth of faith. But when evil reigns in a person’s life, that is, the opposite of charity, that too has an effect on his understanding. It produces ugly ideas about forms of the good and truth of faith; and such ideas find no acceptance in heaven.

sRef Ex@9 @4 S0′ 7507. ‘And nothing will die of all that belongs to the children of Israel’ means that they will not be annihilated. This is clear from the meaning of ‘nothing dying’ as not being annihilated; from the meaning of the livestock, in reference to which it is said that ‘[nothing] will die’, as the truth and good of faith, dealt with above in 7502; and from the representation of ‘the children of Israel’ as those who belong to the spiritual Church. The reason why the forms of the good of faith and the truths of faith residing with those who belong to the Church cannot die is that they have been linked through charity to the Divine, and the Divine is life itself and He is eternal. Anything linked to life itself and to what is eternal cannot die or be annihilated. It remains for evermore, constantly being made more perfect. But because matters of faith residing with those who belong to the Church and are damned are not linked to the Divine, and do not consequently have life within them, they die; for they are like lifeless statues. And being lifeless those things are annihilated in the next life, that is, they are taken away.

sRef Ex@9 @5 S0′ 7508. ‘And Jehovah set a fixed time’ means a predetermining. This is clear without explanation.

sRef Ex@9 @5 S0′ 7509. ‘Saying, Tomorrow Jehovah will do this thing in the land’ means that this is how it will be with them for evermore, so far as the forms of the truth and good of faith belonging to the Church are concerned. This is clear from the meaning of ‘tomorrow or ‘on the morrow’ as for evermore, dealt with in 3998. The fact that the words here mean so far as the forms of the truth and good of faith belonging to the Church are concerned is evident from what comes before them, for those forms of truth and good are the subject there, that is to say, their annihilation among those meant by ‘the Egyptians’ and their permanent retention among those represented by ‘the children of Israel’.

sRef Ex@9 @6 S0′ 7510. ‘And Jehovah did this thing on the morrow’ means putting into effect what was predetermined. This is clear from the meaning of ‘doing this thing’ as putting into effect; and from the meaning of a fixed time, to which ‘the morrow’ refers here, as a predetermining, as above in 7508. When a predetermining by the Divine refers to what will be for evermore ‘the morrow’ is used to express it.

sRef Ex@9 @6 S0′ 7511. ‘And all the livestock of the Egyptians died’ means an annihilation of the truth and good of faith with those engaged in molestation. This is clear from the meaning of ‘dying – dying from pestilence – as an annihilation, as above in 7505, 7507; and from the meaning of ‘the livestock of the Egyptians’ as the Church’s truths and forms of good residing with those who engage in molestation, as also above, in 7506.

sRef Ex@9 @6 S0′ 7512. ‘And of the livestock of the children of Israel not one died’ means that no annihilation of faith took place among those who belonged to the spiritual Church. This is clear from the explanations just above in 7506, 7507.

sRef Ex@9 @7 S0′ 7513. ‘And Pharaoh sent, and behold, not even one of the livestock of Israel had died’ means that it was made known to those engaged in molestation. This is clear from the representation of ‘Pharaoh’ as those who engage in molestation, dealt with above in 7498. The fact that his sending and discovering none whatever of Israel’s livestock dead meant that it was made known to them is self-evident; that is to say, it was made known to them that none at all of the forms of good and truth of faith had perished among those who belonged to the spiritual Church.

sRef Ex@9 @7 S0′ 7514. ‘And Pharaoh’s heart was stubborn’ means obstinacy, as previously in 7272, 7300, 7305.

sRef Ex@9 @7 S0′ 7515. ‘And he did not send the people away’ means that they did not leave them, that is to say, did not leave those belonging to the spiritual Church whom they were molesting, see 7474, where the same words occur.

sRef Ex@9 @7 S0′ 7516. Verses 8-12 And Jehovah said to Moses and to Aaron, Take for yourselves in fistfuls* the ashes of the furnace, and let Moses scatter them in the direction of heaven before Pharaoh’s eyes. And there will then be dust over all the land of Egypt, and there will be on man and on beast sores breaking out into pustules, in all the land of Egypt. And they took the ashes of the furnace, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses scattered them in the direction of heaven, and sores producing pustules developed, breaking out on man and on beast. And the magicians could not stand before Moses on account of the sores; for there were sores on the magicians and on all the Egyptians. And Jehovah made Pharaoh’s heart unyielding, and he did not hear** them, as Jehovah had spoken to Moses.

‘And Jehovah said to Moses and to Aaron’ means fresh instruction. ‘Take for yourselves in fistfuls’ means power, imparted in the measure that it could be received. ‘The ashes of the furnace’ means to arouse the falsities that are a product of evil desires, by being present with those engaged in molestation. ‘And let Moses scatter them in the direction of heaven’ means that those falsities were to be demonstrated to the inhabitants of heaven. ‘Before Pharaoh’s eyes’ means in his presence. ‘And there will then be dust over all the land of Egypt’ means the damnation of those falsities in the natural mind. ‘And there will be on man and on beast’ means products of interior and exterior evil. ‘Sores breaking out into pustules’ means resulting filthiness together with blasphemy. ‘In all the land of Egypt’ means in the whole natural mind. ‘And they took the ashes of the furnace’ means the falsities that are a product of evil desires. ‘And stood before Pharaoh’ means in the presence of those engaged in molestation. ‘And Moses scattered them in the direction of heaven’ means those falsities, demonstrated to the inhabitants of heaven. ‘And sores producing pustules developed, breaking out on man and on beast’ means filthiness together with blasphemy, that is a product of interior and exterior evil. ‘And the magicians could not stand before Moses on account of the sores’ means that they could not remain present – those who misused Divine order by producing something similar to the real thing in outward appearance. ‘For there were sores on the magicians’ means that similar filthiness came forth from them. ‘And on all the Egyptians’ means as appeared in those who were engaged in molestation. ‘And Jehovah made Pharaoh’s heart unyielding’ means that they remained obstinate. ‘And he did not hear them’ means that they did not obey. ‘As Jehovah had spoken to Moses’ means as accorded with what had been foretold.
* lit. with the fullness of your fists
** lit. hear towards

sRef Ex@9 @8 S0′ 7517. ‘And Jehovah said to Moses and to Aaron’ means fresh instruction. This is clear from the meaning of ‘Jehovah said’ as instruction, as above in 7497. The instruction is fresh because a new state is dealt with now, the previous one having come to an end. Instruction given by Jehovah comes through the truth that emanates from Him; and truth that emanates from Jehovah is represented by ‘Moses and Aaron’, inward truth by ‘Moses’ and outward truth by ‘Aaron’, 7382.

sRef Matt@26 @64 S0′ sRef Luke@22 @69 S0′ sRef Ex@9 @8 S0′ sRef Ps@89 @13 S0′ 7518. ‘Take for yourselves in fistfuls’ means the power, imparted in the measure that it could be received. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the fists’, or the hollows of the hands, as power. The reason why ‘the fists’ or the hollows of the hands means power is that ‘the hand’ means power, dealt with below, in the measure that it can be received being meant by ‘fullness’.* With regard to the meaning of ‘the fists’ or hollows of the hands, it should be recognized that in the Grand Man the arms correspond to power; and from this not only the actual arms mean power but also the shoulders, as well as the hands even to the fingers. For the meaning of the arms as power, see 878, 4932, 4934, 4975, 7205; the shoulders, 1085, 4937; the hands, 878, 3387, 5327, 5328, 5544, 6292, 6947, 7011, 7188, 7189; also the fingers, 7430; and regarding their correspondence in general, 4931-4937. The reason why all the parts belonging to the arm correspond to power is that the body exerts its power through them. All this serves to show what is meant by ‘sitting at the right hand’ in Matthew,

Jesus said, Hereafter you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power. Matt. 26:64.

And in Luke,

Hereafter the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God. Luke 22:69.

That is to say, one may see that the almighty power belonging to the Lord is meant; that is why ‘the right hand of power’ is used. So also in David,

You have an arm with power, strong is Your hand, Your right hand will be lifted up. Ps. 89:13.

From all this one may see how much light the internal sense provides in the Word. For unless one knew from that sense that ‘the right hand’ means power one would take those words to mean that the Lord was literally going to sit to the right of Jehovah.
* lit. with the fullness of your fists

sRef Ex@9 @8 S0′ 7519. ‘The ashes of the furnace’ means to arouse the falsities that are a product of evil desires, by being present with those engaged in molestation. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the ashes of the furnace’ as the falsities that are a product of evil desires, dealt with below. The fact that they are aroused through presence with those who molest is clear from what follows in the present verse, for it goes on to say that Moses scattered the ashes in the direction of heaven, before ‘Pharaoh’s eyes’, ‘before the eyes’ meaning presence, and ‘Pharaoh’ meaning those who engage in molestation, as has been shown often.

[2] The nature of these things cannot be known without revelation, for they are things such as take place in the next life and are unknown in the world. As long as evil spirits or those from hell have been removed and are separated from heaven, that is, from the good of love and the truth of faith which are there, they are unaware of the fact that they are under the influence of evils and falsities. For in these circumstances they believe falsities to be truths and evils to be forms of good. But as soon as heaven, that is, some heavenly community, moves closer towards them, they recognize them to be falsities and evils; for the truth of faith that flows in then enables them to recognize falsities, and the good of love that flows in enables them to recognize evils. Also the closer heaven comes, or the inflow from it of the good of love and truth of faith becomes more directly present, the worse are those evil spirits tormented by their own evils and falsities, because they cannot bear that goodness and truth.

[3] From all this one may now see why Moses was commanded to take the ashes of the furnace and to scatter them in the direction of heaven, and to do this before Pharaoh’s eyes, and why he, not Aaron, was commanded to scatter the ashes in the direction of heaven. For the requirement that the ashes should be scattered in the direction of heaven means the influx of heaven; the requirement that it should be done before Pharaoh’s eyes means in the presence of those who molest; and Moses, not Aaron, was told to do it because this situation is brought about among the evil by truth that goes forth directly from God, ‘Moses’ being truth that goes forth directly from God, ‘Aaron’ that which goes forth in an indirect way, see 7010. All this shows what is meant in the internal sense by the contents of this verse and those immediately following – that foul and filthy things that are products of evil desires, together with blasphemy, meant by ‘sores breaking out into pustules’, should be aroused. They are aroused when Divine Truth flows in and heaven moves closer.

[4] Anyone may see that Moses would never have been commanded by Jehovah to do such things – to take the ashes of the furnace and scatter them in the direction of heaven – unless some heavenly arcanum had lain within them. Jehovah would never have given orders for the employment of such means to produce their effect unless they had contained something heavenly to which they corresponded. From this one may see what the Word is like, that it is very full of arcana, but arcana that are not clearly visible in the sense of the letter.

[5] The reason why ‘the ashes of the furnace’ means falsities that are a product of evil desires is that ashes are formed from things that have been burnt. What is being burnt, as also the actual fire, in the Word means in the good sense good that is the object of heavenly affections, but in the contrary sense evil that is the object of hellish desires. For the fact that ‘fire’ means those things, see 934, 1861, 2446, 4906, 5071, 5215, 6314, 6832, 6834, 6849, 7324; and ‘burning’ means evil desires, 1297, 5215. So it is that ‘ashes’ means falsities, for falsities are the product of evil desires. Since evil desires are meant by ‘fire’ they are also meant by ‘a furnace’. ‘A furnace’, being a container, often implies the same as its contents.

sRef Mal@4 @1 S6′ [6] The fact that ‘a furnace’ means these things is clear from the following places: In Malachi,

Behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, and all the arrogant, and every evil-doer will be stubble; and the day that is coming will burn them up; it will leave them neither root nor branch. Mal. 4:1

‘Burning like a furnace’ stands for evil desires; ‘burning them up’ stands for burning with evil desires.

sRef Gen@19 @28 S7′ sRef Rev@9 @2 S7′ [7] In the book of Genesis,

Abraham looked out towards the face of Sodom and Gomorrah, and towards the whole face of the land of the plain; and he saw, and the smoke went up like the smoke of a furnace. Gen. 19:28.

‘The smoke of a furnace’ stands for falsities arising from evil desires. For ‘Sodom’ is evil desires that stem from self-love, and ‘Gomorrah’ is falsity arising from that evil, 2220, 2246, 2322. In John,

Out of the pit of the abyss there went up smoke, like the smoke of a furnace. Rev. 9:2.

‘The smoke of a furnace’ again stands for falsities arising from evil desires, ‘the pit of the abyss’ standing for hell.

sRef Matt@13 @41 S8′ sRef Matt@13 @42 S8′ [8] In Matthew,

The Son of Man will send His angels, who will gather out of His kingdom all offences, and those who work iniquity, and will send them into the furnace of fire. Matt. 13:41, 42.

‘The furnace of fire’ stands for evil desires; for the fire of evil desires is what is meant in the Word by hell-fire. Loves too are simply what fire people’s lives; and loves extend into desires.

sRef Nahum@3 @15 S9′ sRef Nahum@3 @14 S9′ [9] In Nahum,

Draw yourself water for the siege, strengthen your fortifications; go into the mud and tread the clay; renew the brick-kiln.* There the fire will devour you, the sword cut you off. Nahum 3:14, 15.

‘Going into the mud’ stands for entering into falsity, ‘treading the clay’ stands for stepping into evil, 6669. ‘The brick-kiln’* stands for the falsities which they fashion and which are introduced by the evil, 1296, 6669, 7113; ‘the fire’ stands for the desire for evil, 1861, 2446, 5071, 5215, 6832, 7324; and ‘the sword’ stands for falsity, 4499.

sRef Jer@43 @11 S10′ sRef Jer@43 @10 S10′ sRef Jer@43 @9 S10′ [10] In Jeremiah,

Take into your hand large stones, and hide them in the clay in the brick-kiln* which is at the gate of Pharaoh’s house in Tahpanhes, in the eyes of the men of the Jews, and say to them, Behold, I am sending and will bring Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babel, and will put his throne onto these stones which I have hidden, so that he may spread his tent over them. He will come and strike the land of Egypt. Jer. 43:9-11.

One cannot know what these verses mean without the internal sense. ‘Large stones’ are falsities; ‘the brick-kiln’* is the desire for falsity arising from evil; ‘Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babel’ is one who lays truth and goodness waste; the presence of his throne and tent on these stones means that he will cause falsities to reign; and ‘the land of Egypt’ which he will strike is the natural mind.
* lit. brick-furnace

sRef Ex@9 @8 S0′ 7520. ‘And let Moses scatter them in the direction of heaven’ means that those falsities were to be demonstrated to the inhabitants of heaven. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the ashes’ as falsities, dealt with below; and from the meaning of ‘scattering in the direction of heaven’ as demonstrating them to the inhabitants of heaven. The meaning of ‘scattering’ as demonstrating is self-evident, for by that action something is made visible; and ‘heaven’ is used to mean in the internal sense the angelic heaven. What is meant at this point is evident from what has been stated immediately above in 7519 – that the truth from God, which ‘Moses’ represents, was to demonstrate and make known to heaven the falsities which are a product of the evil desires of those who molest. This caused heaven to be present, and as a result of its presence the kinds of things among the evil which are meant by ‘sores breaking out into pustules’ were manifested. The fact that ‘the ashes [of a furnace]’ (favilla) means falsity can be substantiated from places where [other kinds of] ashes (cinis) are mentioned, for these have a similar origin and therefore have a similar meaning to the ashes [of a furnace], such as in Isaiah 44:15, 20; 58:5; Jer. 6:26; Ezek. 27:30; 28:18; Jonah 3:6; Ps. 102:9, 10; Job 2:8; 30:19.

sRef Ex@9 @8 S0′ 7521. ‘Before Pharaoh’s eyes’ means in his presence. This is clear without explanation.

sRef Deut@28 @24 S0′ sRef Deut@28 @15 S0′ sRef Deut@28 @16 S0′ sRef Ex@9 @9 S0′ 7522. ‘And there will then be dust in all the land of Egypt’ means the damnation of those falsities in the natural mind. This is clear from the meaning of ‘dust’ as that which is damned, dealt with above in 7418; from the meaning of ‘the ashes of the furnace’, which were turned into dust, as falsities that are the product of evil desires, dealt with just above in 7519, 7520; and from the meaning of ‘the land of Egypt’ as the natural mind, dealt with in 5276, 5278, 5280, 5288, 5301. The meaning of ‘dust’ as that which is damned is evident from the places in the Word quoted in 7418, and also from the following in Moses,

If you will not obey the voice of Jehovah your God, cursed shall you be in the city, cursed shall you be in the field. Jehovah will make the rain of your land dust and grit;** it will come down onto you from heaven until you are destroyed. Deut. 28:15, 16, 24.
* lit. brick-furnace
** lit. fine dust and thick dust

sRef Ex@9 @9 S0′ 7523. ‘And there will be on man and on beast’ means the products of interior and exterior evil. This is clear from the meaning of ‘man’ as the affection for good, and in the contrary sense as the desire for evil; and ‘beast’ is similar in meaning. But when ‘man’ and ‘beast’ are mentioned together, ‘man means interior affection or desire and ‘beast’ exterior; regarding both, see 7424. Interior good or else interior evil, which is meant by ‘man’, is that connected with intentions or ends in view, for intentions or ends in view are at a person’s core, whereas exterior good or else exterior evil, which is meant by ‘beast’, is that connected with thought and consequently, if nothing stands in the way, with action. Exterior good is meant by ‘beast’ because a person is in respect of his external or natural man no different from a beast; for he is endowed with similar desires and also cravings, as well as appetites and senses. And interior good is meant by ‘man because it is in respect of his internal or spiritual man that a person is a human being, on which internal level he is endowed with affections for what is good and true such as exist with the angels in heaven, and because he controls his natural or animal man, which is ‘a beast’, by means of that internal man. Regarding the meaning of ‘beast’ as the affection for good and in the contrary sense the desire for evil, see 45, 46, 142, 143, 246, 714, 715, 719, 776, 2179, 2180, 3218, 3519, 5198.

sRef Jer@7 @20 S2′ sRef Jer@21 @6 S2′ sRef Ezek@14 @21 S2′ sRef Ezek@25 @13 S2′ sRef Jer@50 @3 S2′ sRef Ezek@14 @13 S2′ sRef Ezek@14 @19 S2′ sRef Zeph@1 @3 S2′ [2] These things are what are meant by ‘man and beast’ in the following places too: In Jeremiah,

My anger and My wrath have been poured out on this place, on man and on beast. Jer. 7:20

In the same prophet,

I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast; they will die of a great pestilence. Jer. 21:6.

In the same prophet,

It will make her land a desolation, so that none may dwell in it; both man and beast have scattered themselves, they have gone away. Jer. 50:3.

In Ezekiel,

When a land has sinned against Me by committing great transgression, I will cut off from it man and beast. Ezek. 14:13, 19, 21.

In the same prophet,

I will stretch out My hand over Edom, and cut off from it man and beast, and make it a waste. Ezek. 25:13.

In Zephaniah,

I will consume man and beast, I will consume the birds of the air and the fish of the sea, and the stumbling-blocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from the surface of the earth. Zeph. 1:3.

sRef Num@18 @15 S3′ sRef Jer@33 @10 S3′ sRef Ps@36 @6 S3′ sRef Jer@32 @43 S3′ sRef Jer@27 @5 S3′ sRef Jer@31 @27 S3′ sRef Jonah@3 @8 S3′ sRef Jonah@3 @7 S3′ [3] ‘Man and beast’ stands for interior and exterior good in the following places: In Jeremiah,

I have made the earth, man and beast, by My great strength. Jer. 27:5.

In the same prophet,

Behold, the days are coming, said Jehovah, in which I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast. Jer. 31:17.

In the same prophet,

A desolation will the earth be, so that man and beast are not there. Jer. 32:43.

In the same prophet,

In the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, that have been devastated, there is no man and inhabitant, and there is no beast. Jer. 33:10; 51:62.

In David,

Your righteousness is like the mountains of God, Your judgements a great deep; You preserve man and beast, O Jehovah. Ps. 36:6.

It was because ‘man and beast’ meant such things that the firstborn of the Egyptians died, not only of men but also of beasts, Exod. 12:29, and that the firstborn were consecrated [to Jehovah], not only of men but also of beasts, Num. 18:15, and also that the king of Nineveh, following sacred religious practice, commanded that not only man but also beast should fast and also be clothed in sackcloth, Jonah 3:7-8.

sRef Ex@9 @9 S0′ 7524. ‘Sores breaking out into pustules’ means resulting filthiness together with blasphemy. This is clear from the meaning of ‘sore places’ as filthiness resulting from evils; and from the meaning of ‘pustules’ as blasphemy resulting from evils. Sores on a person’s body correspond to filthiness resulting from evils, and pustules to blasphemy. What is more, they would be present on every evil person if he were not being kept, all the time he is in the world, in the kind of state that allows him to receive the goodness and truth of faith. For the sake of that state the Lord prevents his evils from erupting into such ailments.

sRef Rev@16 @11 S2′ sRef Rev@16 @10 S2′ sRef Deut@28 @36 S2′ sRef Rev@16 @2 S2′ sRef Deut@28 @34 S2′ sRef Deut@28 @27 S2′ sRef Deut@28 @35 S2′ [2] The meaning of ‘sores’ as filthiness together with blasphemy is also evident in John,

The first angel poured out his bowl onto the earth, and evil and hurtful sores were produced on the people who had the mark of the beast. The fifth angel poured out his bowl onto the throne of the beast, and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their distress and because of their sores. Rev. 16:2, 10, 11.

And in Moses,

Jehovah will strike you with the sores of Egypt, and with haemorrhoids, and the scab, and the itch, so that you cannot be healed; for you will be made mad by what your eyes will see.* Jehovah will strike you with evil sores on the knees and on the thighs, from which you cannot be healed. Jehovah will lead you away, and your king whom you set over you, to a nation which you have not known. Deut. 28:17, 34-36.

‘The sores of Egypt’ stands for filthiness together with blasphemy. And since blasphemy too is meant it says that they will be made mad by what their eyes see; for one who blasphemes God is unhealthy or insane.

[3] Different kinds of sores are called haemorrhoids, the scab, and the itch; and these mean just so many different kinds of falsities arising from evils. Sores on the knees and thighs have almost the same meaning. And since falsities are meant by them there follows immediately the statement that the king whom they set over themselves would be led away; for ‘king’ means truth and in the contrary sense falsity, 1672, 2015, 2069, 3009, 4581, 4966, 5044, 6148. Leprous sores, such as swellings, abscesses, pimples, inflammations, scurfy patches (porrigo), reddish-white sores (vitiligo), that are referred to in Lev. 13:1-end, are also of the same kind, for ‘leprosy’ in the spiritual sense is the profanation of truth, 6963.

sRef Ps@38 @5 S4′ sRef Isa@1 @6 S4′ sRef Ps@38 @4 S4′ [4] ‘Wounds’ too have the same kind of meaning, as is evident in Isaiah,

From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it, [but] wounds, bruises, and recent blows. They are not pressed out, nor bound up, nor softened with oil. Isa. 1:6.

And in David,

My iniquities have gone over my head. My wounds have become putrid, they have rotted away because of my foolishness. Ps. 38:4, 5.
* lit. by the sight of the eyes with which you will look at [it]

sRef Ex@9 @9 S0′ 7525. ‘In all the land of Egypt’ means the natural mind, see just above in 7522.

sRef Ex@9 @10 S0′ 7526. ‘And they took the ashes of the furnace’ means the falsities that are a product of evil desires. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the ashes of the furnace’ as falsities that are a product of evil desires, dealt with above in 7519.

sRef Ex@9 @10 S0′ 7527. ‘And stood before Pharaoh’ means in the presence of those engaged in molestation. This is clear from the meaning of ‘standing before someone’ as being in his presence; and from the representation of ‘Pharaoh’ as those who engage in molestation, dealt with in 7107, 7110, 7126, 7142, 7220, 7228.

sRef Ex@9 @10 S0′ 7528. ‘And Moses scattered them in the direction of heaven’ means those falsities, demonstrated to the inhabitants of heaven. This is clear from what has been stated above in 7520, Where similar words occur.

sRef Ex@9 @10 S0′ 7529. ‘And sores producing pustules developed, breaking out on man and on beast’ means filthiness together with blasphemy, that is a product of interior and exterior evil. This is clear from the meaning of ‘sores producing pustules’ as falsities together with blasphemy, dealt with above in 7524; and from the meaning of ‘man and beast’ as interior and exterior evil, also dealt with above, in 7523.

sRef Ex@9 @11 S0′ 7530. ‘And the magicians could not stand before Moses on account of the sores’ means that they could not remain present – those who misused Divine order by producing something similar to the real thing in outward appearance. This is clear from the meaning of ‘being unable to stand before someone’ as being unable to remain present; from the meaning of ‘the magicians’ as those who misuse Divine order by producing something similar to the real thing in outward appearance, dealt with in 7296, 7337; and from the meaning of ‘sores as filthiness together with blasphemy, dealt with above in 7524.

sRef Ex@9 @11 S0′ 7531. ‘For there were sores on the magicians’ means that similar filthiness came forth from them. This is clear from what has been stated immediately above in 7530.

sRef Ex@9 @11 S0′ 7532. ‘And on all the Egyptians’ means as appeared in those who were engaged in molestation. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the Egyptians as those who engage in molestation, dealt with in 7097, 7717.

sRef Ex@9 @12 S0′ 7533. ‘And Jehovah made Pharaoh’s heart unyielding’ means that they remained obstinate. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the heart being made unyielding’, ‘hardened’, and ‘stubborn’ as obstinacy, dealt with in 7272, 7300, 7305. When it says that Jehovah made his heart unyielding the meaning in the internal sense is not that Jehovah but that they themselves made their heart unyielding, that is, remained obstinate. For the evil present with a person is what makes him unyielding or obstinately opposed to Divine things. Such evil comes out of the person himself; and it enters him from hell, not from heaven. Nothing but good can enter him from the Lord by way of heaven; evil cannot emanate from good, still less from Goodness itself. Evil emanates from origins of its own, that is to say, from the opposites of love to God and love towards the neighbour. Such origins reside with man, not at all with God. From this it is evident that when it states in the Word that God causes something bad to happen, it is a statement made in accordance with outward appearances. But for more on these matters see 2447, 6991, 6997.

sRef Ex@9 @12 S0′ 7534. ‘And he did not hear them’ means that they did not obey. This is clear from the meaning of ‘not hearing someone’ as not obeying, as also in 7224, 7275, 7301, 7779, 7413.

sRef Ex@9 @12 S0′ 7535. ‘As Jehovah had spoken [to Moses]’ means as accorded with what had been foretold, as previously in 7301, 7340, 7414, 7432.

sRef Ex@9 @14 S0′ sRef Ex@9 @13 S0′ sRef Ex@9 @16 S0′ sRef Ex@9 @17 S0′ sRef Ex@9 @15 S0′ sRef Ex@9 @18 S0′ 7536. Verses 13-18 And Jehovah said to Moses, Rise up in the morning early, and stand before Pharaoh; and you are to say to him,

Thus said Jehovah the God of the Hebrews, Send My people away, and let them serve Me. For this time I am sending all My plagues onto your heart, and onto your servants, and onto your people, in order that you may know that there is none like Me in the whole earth. For now I could stretch out* My hand, and strike you and your people with pestilence, and you would be cut off from the earth. But yet for this reason have I caused you to stand** – for you to see My power, and in order that My name may be declared in the whole earth. You go on exalting yourself against My people by not sending them away. Behold, about this time tomorrow I am causing it to rain an extremely heavy hail, of which there has not been the like in Egypt from the day it was founded even until now.

‘And Jehovah said to Moses’ means further instruction about what had to be done. ‘Rise up in the morning early, and stand before Pharaoh’ means raising those engaged in molestation to a higher level of awareness, by being present with them. ‘And you are to say to him, Thus said Jehovah the God of the Hebrews’ means a command from the Lord, who is the God of the Church. ‘Send My people away, and let them serve Me’ means that they should leave those who belong to the spiritual Church, in order that these may worship the Lord their God. ‘For this time I am sending all My plagues’ means that it would be possible for the evil things yet to come to rush in on them all together. ‘Onto your heart’ means into what is inmost. ‘Onto your servants, and onto your people’ means into every single part. ‘In order that you may know that there is none like Me in the whole earth’ means that they would know from this that the Lord was the only God. ‘For now I could stretch out My hand’ means that all communication could be taken away. ‘And strike you and your people with pestilence’ means so that total devastation would be effected. ‘And you would be cut off from the earth’ means that thus there would be no communication any longer through things of the Church. ‘But yet for this reason have I caused you to stand’ means that nevertheless communication would continue, and states would run their orderly course. ‘For you to see My power’ means so that they may ascertain how great God’s power is. ‘And in order that My name may be declared in the whole earth’ means that thus the Lord may be acknowledged, where the Church exists, as the only God. ‘You go on exalting yourself against My people’ means because he does not yet refrain from molesting those guided by truth and governed by good. ‘By not sending them away’ means and still does not leave. ‘Behold, about this time tomorrow I am causing it to rain an extremely heavy hail’ means falsities destroying all things of the Church among them. ‘Of which there has not been the like in Egypt from the day it was founded even until now’ means that no such destruction happens to any others in their natural mind.
* lit. send
** i.e. have raised you up

sRef Ex@9 @13 S0′ 7537. ‘And Jehovah said to Moses’ means further instruction about what had to be done, see above in 7517.

sRef Ex@9 @13 S0′ 7538. ‘Rise up in the morning early, and stand before Pharaoh’ means raising those engaged in molestation to a higher level of awareness, by being present with them. This is clear from the meaning of ‘rising up in the morning early’, dealt with in 7435; from the meaning of ‘standing
before someone’ as presence, dealt with in 7527; and from the representation of ‘Pharaoh’ as those who engage in molestation, dealt with in 7107, 7110, 7126, 7141, 7220, 7228.

sRef Ex@9 @13 S0′ 7539. ‘And you are to say to him, Thus said Jehovah the God of the Hebrews’ means a command from the Lord, who is the God of the Church. This is clear from the meaning of ‘saying’, when done by Jehovah or the Lord to those who are immersed in evils and engage in molestation, as a command, as in 7036, 7310; from the meaning of ‘the Hebrews’ as those who belong to the Church, and so are the Church, dealt with in 6675, 6684, 6738; and since the Lord is the one who is meant when the name Jehovah is used in the Word, see 1343, 1736, 2921, 3023, 3035, 5041, 5663, 6280, 6281, 6303, 6905, 6945, 6956, ‘Jehovah the God of the Hebrews’ means the Lord who is the God of the Church.

sRef Ex@9 @13 S0′ 7540. ‘Send My people away, and let them serve Me’ means that they should leave those who belong to the spiritual Church, in order that these may worship the Lord their God, see above in 7500, where similar words occur.

sRef Ex@9 @14 S0′ 7541. ‘For this time I am sending all My plagues’ means that it would be possible for the evil things yet to come to rush in on them all together. This is clear from the meaning of ‘plagues’ as evils, in this instance the evil things that had yet to come until they were completely cast into hell, which is why it says ‘all’ the plagues; and from the meaning of ‘sending’ as irrupting, for plagues or evil things are not sent by Jehovah or the Lord but irrupt from evil itself. For in the next life evil carries punishment with it and holds it so to speak within itself, 696, 967, 1857, 6559. This then is why ‘I am sending all My plagues’ means that all the evil things would rush in on them.

[2] Order requires that one plague should follow another and that for this reason the casting of the evil into hell should be done in stages. That is why the explanation here says merely that it would be possible for them to rush in all together. Since the member of the Church has no knowledge of what life is like after death he thinks that after life in the body a person is either raised instantly to heaven or cast instantly into hell. But in fact what happens to him takes place in stages, though considerably varying periods of time and states are involved in the process. In the case of the good who are to be raised to heaven evil is separated from them in successive stages, and they are filled at each stage with good according to their ability acquired in the world to receive it. But in the case of the evil who are to be cast into hell good is separated from them in successive stages, and they are filled at each stage with evil according to their ability acquired in the world to receive it. Furthermore a person in the next life goes on entering new states and undergoing changes. Those who are being raised to heaven are constantly being made more perfect, both then and afterwards for evermore. But those who are being cast into hell suffer bad experiences, both then and afterwards – experiences which become repeatedly grimmer, till they reach the point at which they do not dare to inflict harm on another. And after they have been cast into hell they remain there forever. They cannot be released from there because no desire for someone else’s good can be imparted to them, only a refusal to do harm to someone, from fear of punishment; for the desire to do it will never forsake them.

sRef Ex@9 @14 S0′ 7542. ‘Onto your heart’ means into what is inmost. This is clear from the meaning of ‘heart’ as that which belongs to a person’s will, thus to his love, dealt with in 2930, 3317, 3888, 3889, consequently what is central to the actual life within him; for his love, belonging intrinsically to his will, constitutes that life within him. This is why ‘heart’ means what is inmost. What is inmost in the case of the good is love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour, whereas what is inmost in the case of the evil is self-love and love of the world. The latter is what is meant here; and what is around it, constituting so to speak the surrounding parts, are the evils and falsities that lend support, arranged into order according to the ways in which they support it. In the next life they are brought out into the open in the order in which they have been arranged. First to come forth are those that occupy the outermost surrounding parts, then those that lie further in; and finally what is inmost is revealed. So it is that a person in the next life passes through a large number of states, and that the evil are afflicted in successive stages by scourges or plagues before they are cast into hell, as accords with what has been stated immediately above. What is inmost, which they come to last of all, is hell itself residing with them, for it is the evil that had been central to their love, and so the end which they held in view in everything they did and which in the world they had kept deeply hidden within them.

sRef Ex@9 @14 S0′ 7543. ‘Onto your servants, and onto your people’ means into every single part. This is clear from the meaning of ‘servants and people’ as every single person, thus every single part, dealt with in 7396.

sRef Ex@9 @14 S0′ 7544. ‘[In order] that you may know that there is none like Me in the whole earth’ means that they would know from this that the Lord was the only God. This is clear from what has been stated above in 7401.

sRef Ex@9 @15 S0′ 7545. ‘For now I could stretch out My hand’ means that [all] communication could be taken away. This is clear from the meaning of ‘hand’ as power, dealt with in 4931-4937, 6292, 6947, 7188, 7189, 7518, and ‘the hand of Jehovah’ as almighty power, 878, 3387, 7518. Consequently ‘stretching out the hand’ means demonstrating power, and doing so by an almighty power. That almighty power is described when Jehovah says that it would be possible for Him to send all the plagues onto Pharaoh’s heart, his servants, and his people, meaning that the evils could rush in all together, and so communication or contact with the things of heaven could be taken away. Such a demonstration of power is what is meant by the words that appear here. The situation with that communication has been spoken of previously. That is to say, it was shown previously that those who molest the upright in the next life are those who in the world were part of the Church, read the Word, knew the teachings of the faith of their Church, and also claimed to believe them, yet led an evil life. In the next life as long as they keep possession of those matters of faith they remain in contact with heaven and cannot be cast down into hell. Therefore those things are taken away from them in stages; and when they have been taken away those people no longer have anything to hold them up. Like weights without supports or like birds with their wings cut off they then fall straight down into the abyss. All this shows what is meant by the explanation that communication could be taken away from them.

sRef Ex@9 @15 S0′ 7546. ‘And strike you and your people with pestilence’ means so that total devastation would be effected. This is clear from the meaning of ‘pestilence’ as a laying waste of goodness and truth, dealt with in 7505, in this instance total devastation, since it says that ‘Pharaoh and his people’ would be struck by it, whereas previously in verse 3 it was only the livestock that would suffer. The pestilence at that point therefore does not mean total devastation but a general laying waste of the more external forms of the Church’s truth and good.

sRef Ex@9 @15 S0′ 7547. ‘And you would be cut off from the earth’ means that thus there would be no communication any longer through things of the Church. This is clear from the meaning of ‘being cut off’, when said of things of the Church, as being separated, and when they are separated – that is, when there is no longer any communication or contact with heaven through those things of the Church – that person sinks into hell, which is ‘being cut off’, see above in 7545; and from the meaning of ‘the earth’ as the Church, dealt with in 662, 1067, 1262, 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118 (end), 2571, 2928, 3355, 4535, 4447, 5577.

sRef Ex@9 @16 S0′ 7548. ‘But yet for this reason have I caused you to stand’ means that nevertheless communication would continue, and states would run their orderly course. This is clear from the meaning of ‘causing to stand’ – when used in reference to plagues or evils, which will not rush in all together, 7541, and to communication or contact with heaven, which will not be taken away from them, 7545 – as a declaration that nevertheless communication would continue, and therefore that states would run their orderly course, that is, those people would experience devastation
in successive stages, 7541.

sRef Ex@9 @16 S0′ 7549. ‘For you to see My power’ means so that they may ascertain how great God’s power is. This is clear without explanation.

sRef Ex@9 @16 S0′ 7550. ‘And in order that My name may be declared in the whole earth’ means that thus the Lord may be acknowledged, where the Church exists, as the only God. This is clear from the meaning of ‘name’ as everything in its entirety by which the Lord is worshipped, dealt with in 2724, 3006, 6674, and since the most essential aspect of worship is the acknowledgement that the Lord is the only God, that His Human is Divine, and that from His Human emanates everything of faith and love, ‘Jehovah’s name being declared’ means that the Lord should be acknowledged as the only God (for the Lord’s Divine Human is ‘the name of Jehovah’, see 2628, 6887); and from the meaning of ‘the earth’ as the Church, dealt with just above in 7547. When it says here and in very many other places that Jehovah or the Lord desires His virtue or power to be seen, and His name to be declared, and elsewhere that He desires people to worship and adore Him in humility, it seems as though He desires to display His glory and loves to be adored for His own sake. But the truth of the matter is altogether different. It is not for His own sake but for that of the human race; He is moved not by self-glory but by love. For He wishes to be joined to the human race, and to impart eternal life and happiness to it. But this cannot be accomplished unless a person worships Him in humility; and such humble worship does not exist unless the person acknowledges and believes that he himself is dust and ashes, that is, nothing but evil, that Jehovah or the Lord is the Greatest and Most Holy One, and that of himself he does not dare to approach Him. When a person worships Him in such humility the Lord can enter in with the life of His love, bringing him heaven and eternal happiness. This is the reason why Jehovah or the Lord extols His power and glory to so great an extent in the Word.

sRef Ex@9 @17 S0′ 7551. ‘You go on exalting yourself against My people’ means because he does not yet refrain from molesting those guided by truth and governed by good. This is clear from the meaning of ‘still exalting himself’ as not yet refraining from molesting; for molesters think that they have control over those molested by them when they see these in distress and still undelivered, even after they themselves have been warned not to molest; and from the representation of the children of Israel, to whom ‘My people’ refers here, as those who belong to the spiritual Church, or what amounts to the same, those who are guided by truth and governed by good, dealt with in 4286, 6426, 6637, 6862, 6868, 7035, 7062, 7198, 7201, 7215, 7213.

sRef Ex@9 @17 S0′ 7552. ‘By not sending them away’ means and still does not leave. This is clear from the meaning of ‘sending away’ as leaving, as several times before.

sRef Ex@9 @18 S0′ 7553. ‘Behold, about this time tomorrow I am causing it to rain an extremely heavy hail’ means falsities destroying all things of the Church among them. This is clear from the meaning of ‘rain in the form of hail’ as falsities arising from evil that destroy forms of the truth and good of faith, thus things of the Church. Those falsities are meant by ‘rain in the form of hail’ because then the raindrops are like stones and can destroy both men and beasts, as well as crops in the field, and also because they are pieces of ice. In general ‘rain’ means a blessing, or in the contrary sense a curse, 1445. When it means a blessing a flowing in and receiving of the truth of faith and the good of charity is meant; for that is a blessing. But when ‘rain’ means a curse falsity opposed to the truth of faith and evil opposed to the good of charity is meant, for these are a curse. ‘Rain in the form of hail’ however in general means a curse which is brought on by falsity arising from evil, in particular of falsity arising from evil that is opposed to the Church’s truths and forms of good.

sRef Ezek@38 @22 S2′ [2] These kinds of falsity are meant by ‘rain in the form of hail’ in the following places: In Ezekiel,

I will dispute with Gog with pestilence and blood; and deluging rain and hailstones, fire and brimstone will I cause to rain on him and on his hordes, and on the many peoples that are with him. Ezek. 38:22.

‘Gog’ stands for external worship separated from internal, thus for those who, when charity has been annihilated, make Divine worship consist entirely in external observances. ‘Hailstones’ stands for falsities that arise from evil.

sRef Ezek@13 @9 S3′ sRef Ezek@13 @11 S3′ [3] In the same prophet,

Let My hand be against the prophets who see vanity and divine a lie. Say to those who daub [the wall] with what is not suitable that it will fall. There will come deluging rain from which you, O hailstones, will fall; and stormy wind will tear it apart. Ezek. 13:9, 11.

‘Prophets who are seers of vanity and diviners of a lie’ stands for those who are teachers of evils and falsities. ‘Those who daub [the wall] with what is unsuitable’ stands for the fact that they fabricate falsities and make them look like the truth. These people are called ‘hailstones’ because of their falsities. But in the original language a different word, meaning intense hail, is used here and in the preceding quotation.

sRef Isa@30 @30 S4′ sRef Ps@78 @47 S4′ sRef Isa@28 @17 S4′ sRef Ps@78 @48 S4′ sRef Ps@78 @49 S4′ sRef Isa@28 @2 S4′ [4] In Isaiah,

Then Jehovah will cause His glorious voice* to be heard, and His arm will see repose, in the indignation of [His] anger, and the flame of a devouring fire, [in] scattering and deluging, and hailstones. Isa. 30:30, 31.

‘Hailstones’ stands for the laying waste of truth by means of falsities. In the same prophet,

Behold, powerful and strong is the Lord, like a deluge of hail, a killing tempest, like a deluge of mighty overflowing waters, He will cast them down to the earth with His hand. The hail will overturn the refuge of a lie, and the waters will deluge the hiding-place.** Isa. 28:2, 17.

‘A deluge’ stands for being plunged into falsities, and so for undergoing vastation of truth, 705, 739, 790, 5725, 6853, ‘a deluge of hail’ for the destruction of truth by means of falsities. In David,

He struck their vine with hail, and their sycamore-fig trees with heavy hail. And He gave up*** their beasts to the hail, and their flocks to coals of fire. He let loose on them His fierce anger. Ps. 78:47-49.

sRef Ps@18 @14 S5′ sRef Ps@18 @11 S5′ sRef Ps@105 @33 S5′ sRef Ps@18 @13 S5′ sRef Ps@147 @17 S5′ sRef Ps@147 @16 S5′ sRef Ps@18 @12 S5′ sRef Ps@105 @32 S5′ [5] In the same author,

He made their rain into hail, a flaming fire in their land; and He struck their vines and their fig trees, and broke to pieces the trees of their borders. Ps. 105:32, 33.

‘Hail’ and ‘rain’ stand for the laying waste of truth and good by means of falsities arising from evil. ‘Vine’ stands for the truth and goodness of the internal Church, ‘sycamore-fig’ and ‘fig’ for the truths and forms of good of the external Church. In the same author,

He who gives snow like wool, He sprinkles the hear-frost like dust; He who discharges His hail like balls – who can stand before His cold? Ps. 147:16, 17.

‘Hail’ stands for falsities arising from evils. In the same author,

He made darkness His hiding-place, and His surroundings His tent – darkness of waters, clouds of the heavens. From the brightness before Him, clouds passed with hail and coals of fire. Jehovah thundered in the heavens, and the Most High uttered His voice, hail, and coals of fire, so that He sent His arrows and scattered them. Ps. 18:11-14.

‘Hail’ stands for falsities arising from evils which lay waste truths and forms of good.

sRef Rev@8 @7 S6′ [6] In John,

The first angel sounded and there came hail, and fire mixed with blood; and it fell onto the earth so that a third part of the trees were burned, and all green grass was burned up. Rev. 8:7.

‘Hail’ stands for falsities arising from evil; ‘fire mixed with blood’ stands for evil desires together with falsified truths; ‘the trees which were burned’ stands for cognitions of truth that were destroyed by evil desires; and ‘the green grass that was burned up’ stands for known facts about truth that were destroyed in a similar way. For the meaning of ‘fire’ as evil desires, see 1297, 1861, 2446, 5071, 5215, 6314, 6832, 7314; of ‘blood’ as falsified truth, 4775, 6878, 7317, 7326; and of ‘trees’ as cognitions, 2722 (end), 2972.

sRef Josh@10 @11 S7′ [7] In Joshua,

It happened, when they fled before Israel on the descent of Beth Horon, that Jehovah cast down on them large [hail]stones from heaven, as far as Azekah, so that they died. Those who died from the hailstones were more than those whom the children of Israel killed with the sword. Josh. 10:11.

This refers to the five kings who camped against Gibeon. These kings and their peoples represented those who, being steeped in falsities arising from evils, therefore died from the hailstones. Balls of hail are called stones because ‘stones’ too mean falsities.

From all this one may see what is meant by ‘hail’ and by ‘rain in the form of hail’, namely falsities arising from evils. And since these falsities are meant, the laying waste of truth and good is also meant, for falsities arising from evils are what lay them waste.
* lit. the glory of His voice
** The Latin means they will deluge the hiding-place of waters, but the Hebrew means the waters will deluge the hiding-place, which Sw. has in his rough draft.
*** lit. shut up

sRef Ex@9 @18 S0′ 7554. ‘Of which there has not been the like in Egypt from the day it was founded even until now’ means that no such destruction happens to any others in their natural mind. This is clear from the meaning of rain in the form of hail, to which these words refer, as the destruction of truth by means of falsities, dealt with immediately above in 7553; from the meaning of ‘the land of Egypt’ as the natural mind, dealt with in 5276, 5278, 5280, 5288, 5301, ‘from the day it was founded even until now meaning that no such destruction happens to any others, because ‘day means state, ‘foundation’ the nature of that state, and ‘Egypt’ the natural mind in general. The reason why no such destruction happens to any others as happens to those who molest the upright in the next life is that those who so molest belonged to the Church when they were in the world, 7317, 7502. They are those who have filled their memory, which is part of their natural mind, with the kinds of things that are matters of faith acquired from the Word and from the teachings of their Church, and yet have led a life contrary to those things. Consequently when they undergo vastation, those matters of faith are wrenched out, and very much else attached to them, leaving deep, foul pits and craters. Such people’s evil desires, as well as their falsities, have inevitably become in some measure linked to those matters of faith. And since these cannot exist together with those falsities and evils it is evident that if they cannot be separated they are cast away to the sides, leaving empty spaces within, which emit a foul stench, for every foul stench arises out of evils mixed with forms of good, and of falsities mixed with truths. These things do not happen to those outside the Church, for they have no knowledge at all of truths of faith acquired from the Word. This is what is meant by the statement that no such destruction happens to any others in their natural mind.

sRef Ex@9 @18 S0′ 7555. Verses 19-21 And now send, assemble your livestock and all that you have in the field; every man and beast that will be found in the field and will not be gathered home,* the hail will come down on them and they will die. And he that feared the word of Jehovah among the servants of Pharaoh caused his servants and his livestock to flee to the houses. And he that did not take the word of Jehovah to heart left his servants and his livestock in the field.

‘And now send, assemble your livestock’ means that the truth of good should be gathered. ‘And all that you have in the field’ means what belongs to the Church. ‘Every man and beast’ means interior and exterior good. ‘That is found in the field’ means which belongs to the Church. ‘And will not be gathered home’ means which is not in safe keeping. ‘The hail will come down on them and they will die’ means that it will be completely destroyed by falsity. ‘And he that feared the word of Jehovah among the servants of Pharaoh’ means those things in the natural mind which were the Lord’s. ‘Caused his servants and his livestock to flee to the houses’ means that they were stored away and placed in safe keeping interiorly. ‘And he that did not take the word of Jehovah to heart’ means the things which were not from the Lord. ‘Left his servants and his livestock in the field’ means that they were not stored away and placed in safekeeping.
* or to the house

sRef Ex@9 @19 S0′ 7556. ‘And now send, assemble your livestock’ means that the truth of good should be gathered. This is clear from the meaning of ‘assembling’ as gathering; and from the meaning of ‘livestock’ as the good of truth, and also the truth of good, dealt with in 6016, 6045. What the truth of good and the good of truth are, see 2063, 3295, 3332, 3669, 3688, 3882, 4337, 4353, 4390, 5526, 5733. The subject in this and the next two verses is the goodness and truth which the Lord places in safe keeping even within the evil. For goodness and truth which have not been linked to evils and falsities are not laid waste but are stored away interiorly by the Lord and at a later time brought out for use. The goodness and truth placed in safe keeping within a person by the Lord are meant in the Word by ‘the remnant’, regarding which, see 468, 530, 560, 561, 576, 661, 798, 1738, 1906, 2284, 5135, 5342, 5344, 5897-5899, 6156.

sRef Ex@9 @19 S0′ 7557. ‘And all that you have in the field’ means what belongs to the Church. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the field’ as the Church, dealt within 2971, 3317, 3766, 4440, 4443, 7502.

sRef Ex@9 @19 S0′ 7558. ‘Every man and beast’ means interior and exterior good. This is clear from the meaning of ‘man and beast’ as interior and exterior good, dealt with above in 7424, 7523.

sRef Ex@9 @19 S0′ 7559. ‘That is found in the field’ means which belongs to the Church. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the field’ as the Church, dealt with just above in 7557.

sRef Ex@9 @19 S0′ 7560. ‘And will not be gathered home’ means which is not in safe keeping. This is clear from the meaning of ‘not being gathered home’ as not being placed in safe keeping. For ‘home’ or ‘house’ is the inner part of the natural mind where goodness and truth reside, and it is also the rational mind, and so where the real person is, dealt with in 3578, 4973, 5023, 7353. Therefore ‘being gathered home’ is being gathered to an inward position and stored away there. Goodness and truth are stored away inwardly and placed in safe keeping there by the Lord, even in the evil, in order that something of what makes them human may still remain; for without goodness and truth nobody is truly a human being. What are stored away and placed in safe keeping are indeed goodness and truth. Through them communication is effected with heaven; and to the extent that a person is in communication with heaven he is a human being. The evil, including those in hell, are – it is true – in communication with heaven; but they are in no way linked to it through goodness and truth. For the moment that goodness and truth flow down from heaven and enter hell they are turned into evil and falsity, and the link is instantly broken. This is what their communication is like. But through the goodness and truth stored away and placed in safe keeping interiorly a link does exist. With the evil however the truths and forms of good stored away there do no more than enable them to engage in reasoning, think and consequently speak on a sensory level, and thereby substantiate falsity and defend evil. Of all the goodness and truth that have been stored away and placed in safe keeping within them, no more than this can be released; for if more were released the truths and forms of good would be destroyed and so the evil would be left with nothing human at all.

sRef Ex@9 @19 S0′ 7561. ‘The hail will come down on them and they will die’ means that it – what belongs to the Church – will be completely destroyed by falsity. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the hail’ as falsity arising from evil, and consequently the laying waste of goodness and truth by means of falsities, dealt with in 7553; and from the meaning of ‘dying’ as ceasing to exist, dealt with in 494, 6587, 6593, and since it is used in connection with the laying waste of goodness and truth, being destroyed is meant.

sRef Ex@9 @20 S0′ 7562. ‘And he that feared the word of Jehovah among the servants of Pharaoh’ means those things in the natural mind which were the Lord’s. This is clear from the meaning of ‘he that feared the word of Jehovah’ as the things which are the Lord’s, for in the internal sense ‘one who fears’ is not used to mean a person who fears but a certain thing or reality (in heaven an idea involving a person is changed into an idea involving some reality, see 5225, 5287, 5434, and therefore ‘he that feared the word of Jehovah’ means the goodness and truth that are from the Lord); and from the meaning of ‘the servants of Pharaoh’ as things that belong to the natural mind. ‘Pharaoh’ is the natural in general, see 5160, 5799, and ‘his servants’ are therefore the things that are in the natural, or what amounts to the same, things that are in the natural mind, since the things in the natural which a person uses in thinking and reaching conclusions constitute his mind. Which things in the natural mind are the Lord’s and which are not the Lord’s, see below in 7564.

sRef Ex@9 @20 S0′ 7563. ‘Caused his servants and his livestock to flee to the houses’ means that they were stored away and placed in safe keeping interiorly. This is clear from the meaning of ‘servants’ as the things in the natural mind, as immediately above in 7562; from the meaning of ‘livestock’ as truth and good, also dealt with above, in 7556; and from the meaning of ‘the houses’ as the things present inwardly in a person, where goodness and truth from the Lord are stored away and placed in safe keeping, dealt with in 7560. From this it is evident that ‘he caused his servants and his livestock to flee to the houses’ means that the truths and forms of good which are in the natural mind, that is to say, the things which are the Lord’s, have been gathered and have been stored away and placed in safe keeping interiorly.

sRef Ex@9 @21 S0′ 7564. ‘And he that did not take the word of Jehovah to heart’ means the things which were not from the Lord. This is clear from the explanation above in 7562, where ‘he that feared the word of Jehovah’ means the things that were the Lord’s, and therefore conversely ‘he that did not take the word of Jehovah to heart’ means the things which were not from the Lord. Forms of good and truths are either the Lord’s or not the Lord’s. The Lord’s are those which a person puts into practice for the sake of his neighbour, his country, the Church, and the Lord’s kingdom, thus for the sake of truth and goodness themselves, and above all for the Lord’s sake. These forms of good and truths are the ones that are the Lord’s. But those that are not the Lord’s are the ones which a person puts into practice for the sake of himself as his end in view, and for the sake of the world as his end in view. These latter forms of good and truths sometimes seem in outward appearance to be like the former; but inwardly they are totally different, for the latter lead to self, the former away from self. The truths and forms of good which are not the Lord’s are also for the most part what a person puts into practice in a state of misfortune, sickness, grief, or fear, and not in a state of freedom; for these are also done for the sake of self. Every form of truth or good does indeed flow in from the Lord, but when a person turns the Lord’s goodness or truth directly towards himself it becomes man’s; it becomes the possession of him who turns it directly towards himself. For it becomes the good of self-love and love of the world. This is the kind of good that all evil people do to one another. From all this one may see which forms of good and truths are meant by forms of good and truths that are the Lord’s and by forms of good and truths that are not the Lord’s.

sRef Ex@9 @21 S0′ 7565. ‘Left his servants and his livestock in the field’ means that they were not stored away and placed in safe keeping. This is clear from the meaning of ‘being left in the field’ as being destroyed by the falsities arising from evils that are meant by ‘the hail from which they would die’, 7559-7561. These are things that were not stored away and placed in safe keeping, being the truths and forms of good which are not the Lord’s, spoken of immediately above in 7564. ‘Servants’ means the things in the natural mind, 7562, 7563, and ‘livestock’ the truths and forms of good which, since they are not the Lord’s, cannot be stored away interiorly.

7566. Verses 22-26 And Jehovah said to Moses, Stretch out your hand towards heaven, and there will be hail in all the land of Egypt, on man and on beast, and on every plant of the field in the land of Egypt. And Moses stretched out his rod towards heaven, and Jehovah gave forth voices* and hail, and fire ran down to the earth; and Jehovah caused hail to rain onto the land of Egypt. And there was hail, and at the same time fire running down** in the midst of the hail, extremely heavy, of which there had not been the like in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. And the hail struck in all the land of Egypt everything that was in the field, from man and even to beast; and the hail struck every plant of the field, and broke every tree of the field. Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, there was no hail.

‘And Jehovah said to Moses’ means a command. ‘Stretch out your hand towards heaven’ means attention drawn to heaven, which would then come nearer. ‘And there will be hail in all the land of Egypt’ means destructive falsity in the natural mind. ‘On man and on beast’ means interior and exterior good. ‘And on every plant of the field in the land of Egypt’ means every truth of the Church in the natural mind. ‘And Moses stretched out his rod towards heaven’ means communication with heaven. ‘And Jehovah gave forth voices’ means the departure and severance of communication with those governed by good and guided by truth. ‘And hail’ means those destructive falsities. ‘And fire ran down to the earth’ means evil desires. ‘And He caused hail to rain onto the land of Egypt’ means the natural mind, which falsities arising from evil took possession of. ‘And there was hail, and at the same time fire running down in the midst of the hail, extremely heavy’ means firm beliefs in what is false together with desires for evil. ‘Of which there had not been the like in all the land of Egypt’ means that such a state of the natural mind did not exist in any others. ‘Since it became a nation’ means from the day on which it happened that it was able to admit goodness and therefore truth into itself. ‘And the hail struck in all the land of Egypt’ means that that falsity destroyed the things which were in the natural mind. ‘Everything that was in the field’ means whatever was an attribute of the Church. ‘From man and even to beast’ means its good, interior and exterior. ‘And the hail struck every plant of the field’ means that those falsities destroyed all of the Church’s truth. ‘And broke every tree of the field’ means that they also destroyed all the Church’s cognitions of truth and good. ‘Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, there was no hail’ means that they did not destroy anything where those who belonged to the spiritual Church were.
* i.e. there were claps of thunder
** Sw. appears to have misread a Hebrew word here.

sRef Ex@9 @22 S0′ 7567. ‘And Jehovah said to Moses’ means a command. This is clear from the meaning of ‘saying’ as a command, dealt with in 7036, 7107, 7710.

sRef Ex@9 @22 S0′ 7568. ‘Stretch out your hand towards heaven’ means attention drawn to heaven, which would then come nearer. This is clear from the meaning of ‘stretching out the hand’ as drawing attention to something, for an outstretched hand is used to draw attention to something and point it out; and from the meaning of ‘heaven’ as the angelic heaven. And since, when a person’s attention is drawn to heaven and it is pointed out to him, he also turns his gaze and thought in that direction, its coming nearer is also meant; for in the spiritual world things are brought nearer by focusing thought on them. The nature of these matters has, it is true, been discussed already in 7519. Even so, since they are the kinds of things that are unknown in the world, let a little more be said to illustrate them. When any change of state needs to take place with the evil undergoing vastation, such as happens to those who are the subject in the present chapters, the change is brought about by a more immediate inflow of goodness and truth from heaven. For the closer heaven comes to them, the more internal are the evils and falsities which are activated with them. Goodness and truth from heaven reach in towards the interiors; and the nearer heaven gets, the further in they reach. This explains why those from hell do not dare to move towards any heavenly community but get away as far as they can, see 4225, 4226, 4299, 4533, 4674, 5057, 5058, 7519. From all this one now may see what one is to understand by attention drawn to heaven, which would then come nearer, meant when it says that Moses should stretch out his hand towards heaven. A new state is being described now, that is to say, a state in which falsities arising from evils are destructive of all the Church’s forms of good and its truths residing with those who molest. And since this state is brought about by a more immediate inflow of truth from God and at the same time by heaven’s drawing closer, Moses is therefore told to stretch out his hand towards heaven.

sRef Ex@9 @22 S0′ 7569. ‘And there will be hail in all the land of Egypt’ means destructive falsity in the natural mind. This is clear from the meaning of ‘hail’ as destructive falsity arising from evils – destructive of all the goodness and truth of the Church, dealt with in 7553; and from the meaning of ‘the land of Egypt’ as the natural mind, dealt with in 5276, 5278, 5280, 5288, 5301.

sRef Ex@9 @22 S0′ 7570. ‘On man and on beast’ means interior and exterior good. This is clear from the meaning of ‘man and beast’ as interior and exterior good, dealt with in 7424, 7523.

sRef Jer@14 @5 S0′ sRef Ex@9 @22 S0′ sRef Jer@14 @6 S0′ sRef Matt@13 @24 S0′ sRef Matt@13 @26 S0′ sRef Ps@104 @14 S1′ 7571. ‘And on every plant of the field in the land of Egypt’ means every truth of the Church in the natural mind. This is clear from the meaning of ‘plant’ as truth, dealt with below; from the meaning of ‘the field’ as the Church, dealt with above in 7557; and from the meaning of ‘the land of Egypt’ as the natural mind, also dealt with above, in 7569. The reason why ‘plant’ means truth is that ‘the land’ means the Church, as also does ‘the field’; and all that they produce means either the truth of faith or the good of charity, since these are products of the Church. ‘Plant of the field’ is used to mean everything in general that is grown in the field, as is evident from the Lord’s parable in Matthew,

The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a person sowing good seed in his field. When the plant sprouted and bore fruit, then the tares appeared. Matt. 13:24, 26.

Here it is evident that ‘the plant’, a term used for what the field produces, means the Church’s truth, and ‘the tares’ falsity. The parable is, it is true, a comparison; but all comparisons in the Word are based on things that have a spiritual meaning, 3579. In David,

He causes the grass to grow for the beast, and the plant for man’s service, that he may bring forth bread from the earth. Ps. 104:14.

‘The plant’, a term used here also for what the field produces, in the internal sense means truth.

sRef Amos@7 @2 S2′ sRef Jer@12 @4 S2′ sRef Joel@2 @22 S2′ sRef Ps@23 @2 S2′ sRef Jer@14 @5 S2′ sRef Isa@15 @6 S2′ sRef Ps@23 @3 S2′ sRef Isa@42 @15 S2′ sRef Jer@14 @6 S2′ sRef Isa@42 @16 S2′ [2] In the same author,

He will make me lie down in pastures of the plant;* He will lead me to still waters; He will restore my soul. Ps. 23:2, 3.

‘Pastures of the plant’ stands for spiritual nourishment, nourishment of the soul. That is why it says ‘He will restore my soul’. In Isaiah,

The waters of Nimrim will be desolations, for the reason that the grass has withered away, the plant has been consumed, there is nothing green. [Isa. 15:6.

In the same prophet,

The inhabitants became plants of the field and edible grass, hay on the rooftops, and scorched earth before standing corn.] Isa. 37:17.

In the same prophet,

I will lay waste mountains and hills, and dry up every plant on them; and I will make streams into islands. And I will lead the blind in a way they do not know. Isa. 42:15, 16.

In Jeremiah,

How long will the land mourn and the plant of every field wither, on account of the wickedness of those who dwell in it? The beasts and the birds will be devoured. Jer. 12:4.

In the same prophet,

The hind in the field calved but left because there was no plant; and the wild asses stood on the hills, they gulped the wind like sea-monsters, for the reason that there was no plant. Jer. 14:5, 6.

In Joel,

Fear not, you beasts of My fields, for the dwelling-places of the wilderness have become abounding in plants; for the tree will bear its fruit, the fig tree and the vine will give their full yield. Joel 1:12.

In Amos,

When the locust had finished eating the plant of the land, I said, O Lord Jehovih, Pardon, I beg You. How will Jacob stand? for he is small. Amos 7:2.

sRef Rev@9 @4 S3′ sRef Zech@10 @1 S3′ [3] In Zechariah,

Ask rain from Jehovah in the time of the latter rain.** Jehovah will make rain-clouds, and will give them rain in showers, to everyone plants in his field.*** Zech. 10:1.

In John,

The fifth angel sounded and it was declared that they should not harm the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree. Rev. 9:4.

Anyone may see that in these places ‘grass’ is not meant, nor ‘plant’, but instead the kinds of things that belong to the Church; ‘the plant of the land’ and ‘plant of the field’ are, it is plain, used to mean the truth of faith. Without such a spiritual sense no one would ever know what is meant in John by their declaring, when the fifth angel sounded, that they should not harm the grass of the earth, or any green thing. Nor would anyone know what is meant in Jeremiah when it says that ‘the hind in the field calved and left because there was no plant; and the wild asses gulped the wind like sea-monsters, for the reason that there was no plant’. And in very many other places no one would know what is meant. This shows how little understanding there is of the Word, and how earthly a person’s conception of very many things in it must be unless he knows what their spiritual meaning is, or at least knows that in every detail the Word is holy.
* i.e. green pastures
** i.e. the spring rain
*** lit. to [each] man the plant in the field

sRef Ex@9 @23 S0′ 7572. ‘And Moses stretched out his rod towards heaven’ means communication with heaven. This is clear from the meaning of ‘stretching out the rod towards heaven’ as drawing attention to, thus communicating, in accordance with the explanation above in 7568, ‘heaven’ meaning the angelic heaven.

sRef Ex@9 @23 S0′ 7573. ‘And Jehovah gave forth voices’ means the departure and severance of communication with those governed by good and guided by truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘voices’, which are claps of thunder, as God’s truths which enlighten and perfect those in heaven, but frighten those in hell and subject them to vastation; and since they devastate the latter they mean the departure and severance of communication with those governed by good and guided by truth, this being the way in which they are devastated. The situation in all this is evident from what has been stated already in 7502, 7541, 7542, 7545, 7554. In these places it was shown that those who have belonged to the Church and consequently absorbed cognitions of truth and good from the Word, yet have led an evil life, have a line of communication with heaven through the truths and forms of good which they have brought with them from their time in the world, where they were in the Church. (A person brings with him into the next life whatever he knew in the world, indeed whatever he saw, heard, thought, spoke, willed, or did, see 2474, 2475, 2481-2486, 7398). This communication is what is taken away when they undergo vastation; and when communication has been taken away, so are truths and forms of good, and cognitions of them, removed. For whatever spirits, and indeed angels know flows in from the Lord by way of heaven, thus through communications that are made, see 6053-6058, 6180, 6215, 6307-6717, 6466-6495, 6613-6626. All this shows what is meant by a departure and severance of communication with those who are guided by truth and governed by good. The situation with God’s truth in heaven and in hell – the truth that is meant by ‘voices’ – is like that with claps of thunder on earth. On high mountains claps of thunder are heard as no more than a gentle, quiet sound; but on the land lying below they are heard as a frightening crash. In the same way God’s truth in heaven is gentle and mild, whereas in hell it is frightening.

sRef Isa@30 @30 S2′ sRef Isa@30 @29 S2′ sRef Isa@30 @31 S2′ [2] The meaning of ‘voices’, which are claps of thunder, as God’s truths that enlighten and perfect those in heaven, and that frighten those in hell and subject them to vastation, is evident from the following places: In Isaiah,

You will have joy of heart, as when one marches with a pipe to come to the mountain of Jehovah, to the Rock of Israel. Then Jehovah will cause His glorious voice* to be heard, and will cause His arm to see repose, in the indignation of [His] anger, and the flame of a devouring fire, [in] scattering, and deluging, and hailstones. For by the voice of Jehovah Asshur will be dismayed. Isa. 30:29-31.

Here ‘the voice of Jehovah’ stands for God’s truth which enlightens and perfects those who are governed by good but frightens those under the influence of evil and subjects them to vastation. In Joel,

The earth quaked before Him, the sun and moon were darkened, and the stars withdrew their shining; and Jehovah uttered His voice before His army, His camp is exceedingly great; for that which executes His word is uncountable. For great is the day of Jehovah, and extremely frightening. Joel 3:16.

Here the meaning is similar.

sRef Joel@3 @16 S3′ [3] In the same prophet,

Jehovah will roar from Zion, and from Jerusalem will give forth His voice; and the heavens and the earth will be shaken. But Jehovah will be a shelter for His people, and a fortification for the children of Israel. Joel 3:16.

‘The voice of Jehovah’ likewise stands for God’s truth. It is given forth ‘from Jerusalem’ because that city means the Lord’s spiritual kingdom, inhabited by those who are moved by truth to be governed by good and moved by good to be guided by truth.

sRef Ps@18 @14 S4′ sRef Ps@77 @18 S4′ sRef Ps@77 @17 S4′ sRef Ps@18 @13 S4′ [4] In David,

Jehovah thundered in the heavens, and the Most High gave forth His voice, hail, and coals of fire, so that He sent His arrows and scattered them, and many thunder-bolts, and threw them into confusion. Ps. 18:13, 14.

‘Giving forth voice, hail, and coals of fire’ stands for the devastation of truth and good by means of falsities and evil desires. In the same author,

The clouds dropped water, the skies gave voice, also Your arrows went out, the voice of Your thunder into the earth; the lightnings lit up the earth. Ps. 77:16-18.

‘A voice’ stands for God’s truth which enlightens those who belong to the Church.

sRef Ps@29 @7 S5′ sRef Ps@29 @8 S5′ sRef Ps@29 @5 S5′ sRef Ps@29 @3 S5′ sRef Ps@29 @9 S5′ sRef Ps@29 @4 S5′ [5] In the same author,

The voice of Jehovah is upon the waters, the God of glory causes it to thunder, Jehovah is over great waters; the voice of Jehovah is powerful; the voice of Jehovah is majestic; the voice of Jehovah breaks the cedars, Jehovah breaks to pieces the cedars of Lebanon; the voice of Jehovah strikes as flames of fire; the voice of Jehovah causes the wilderness to shake; the voice of Jehovah causes the hinds to calve, and strips the forests bare. Ps. 29:3-11.

Here ‘the voice of Jehovah’ stands for God’s truth and the power it has. Thus it also stands for the Word since this is God’s truth.

sRef Rev@10 @3 S6′ sRef Rev@10 @4 S6′ [6] In John,

A mighty angel coming down called out with a loud voice; and when he called out, seven thunders uttered their voices. I was about to write; but I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, Seal up the things which the seven thunders uttered, and do not write them. Rev. 10:3, 4.

‘Voices’ stands for God’s truth, ‘thunders’ for those who convey it, bringing it from heaven to earth. No one can fail to see that ‘thunders and ‘voices’ mean things that are Divine, not thunders and crashes. And since they mean Divine things and are called Jehovah’s voices it is evident that they are Divine Truth. This was why, when Jehovah came down on Mount Sinai and proclaimed Divine Truth, there were voices, lightnings, and thunders, Exod. 19:16; 20:18, and why He spoke out of the midst of the fire, Deut. 4:11, 12; 5:22-24.
* lit. the voice of His glory

sRef Ex@9 @23 S0′ 7574. ‘And hail’ means those destructive falsities. This is clear from the meaning of ‘hail’ as falsities arising from evils destroying the Church’s forms of good and its truths, 7553. ‘Hail’ means the kinds of falsities that destroy the Church’s truths and forms of good, as also does the pestilence in the earlier part of this chapter. For there are very many genera and species of falsities, as there are of the evils from which they spring. The falsities meant by ‘hail’ belong to the genus that destroy things of the Church and that can exist only with those who have been born within the Church yet have led a life contrary to the truths and the forms of the good of faith there. Proof of the existence of falsities, like evils, in a large number of genera and species is provided by the fact that the hells are divided up according to genera and species of evils and derivative falsities, and by the fact that the hells are countless. From this one may see what the situation is with the meaning of the miracles or plagues in Egypt as falsities and evils. That is to say, one may see that each plague – of blood, frogs, lice, noxious flying insects, pestilence, sores breaking out into pustules, hail, or locusts – means a different kind or genus of falsity and evil.

sRef Ex@9 @23 S0′ sRef Isa@30 @30 S0′ sRef Isa@30 @31 S0′ 7575. ‘And fire ran down to the earth’ means evil desires. This is clear from the meaning of ‘fire’ as evil desires, dealt with in 1297, 1861, 2446, 5071, 5215, 6314, 6832, 7324; and from the meaning of ‘running down to the earth’* as taking possession of the natural mind right down to the lowest levels of it, ‘the land of Egypt’ being the natural mind, see 5276, 5178, 5280, 5188, 5301. Since ‘hail’ means falsities and ‘fire’ the evils from which they spring, when ‘hail’ is mentioned so too is ‘fire’ in Isa. 30:30, 31; Ps. 18:12-15; 78:47-49; Rev. 8:7, as well as in the verse immediately after this,

And there was hail, and fire at the same time running down in the midst of the hail, extremely heavy.
* i.e. in the land of Egypt

sRef Ex@9 @23 S0′ 7576. ‘And He caused hail to rain onto the land of Egypt’ means the natural mind, which falsities arising from evil took possession of. This is clear from the meaning of ‘causing to rain’ as pouring onto, here being taken possession of (‘raining’ has reference to the activity of truth and goodness, or in the contrary sense to that of falsity and evil, for ‘rain’ is a blessing or it is a curse, 2445); from the meaning of ‘hail’ as falsity arising from evil, dealt with in 7553, 7574; and from the meaning of ‘the land of Egypt’ as the natural mind, as above in 7575.

sRef Ex@9 @24 S0′ 7577. ‘And there was hail, and at the same time fire running down in the midst of the hail, extremely heavy’ means firm beliefs in what is false together with desires for evil. This is clear from the meaning of ‘hail’ as falsity arising from evil, dealt with above in 7574, at this point firm belief in what is false since it says the hail was ‘extremely heavy’; from the meaning of ‘fire’ as the desire for evil, dealt with just above in 7575; and from the meaning of ‘running down in the midst’ as being together. Indeed the desire for evil is at the centre, for the falsity emanates from it.

[2] What is being described here is the state of those belonging to the Church who molest the upright in the next life – their state when the things of the Church with them, that is, the forms of good and the truths which they have claimed to believe in, have been laid waste. That is to say, their state is now one in which firm but false beliefs together with evil desires reign; for this is what their state inwardly is like. Those false beliefs and evil desires are inseparable; for when evil takes hold in a person’s life, falsity takes hold in his doctrine. When a person’s life is taken hold of by evil, the situation may seem to him to be entirely different, for when people claim with their lips to believe in truths drawn from the Word or from the teachings of their Church they fancy that they have a belief in them. It even appears to them as though they do; but in fact they have no such belief if their life is evil. For either they claim with their lips to believe in things which are different from what they really think, or they think something is true because they have been told and persuaded to believe that it is, and this belief they hold on account of their desire for gain and important positions. This means that when they are no longer striving for important positions or seeking after gain that belief falls away, and then those people take hold of falsities that fit in with their evil desires. Falsities fitting in with evil desires are present inwardly with those who lead an evil life, no matter how much they may think that they are not. The truth of this is made thoroughly plain in the next life when everything external has been taken away and those kinds of people have been left to their inner selves. Falsities now erupt, both those which had played a part in their thinking in the world and those which had not evidently done so. For those falsities erupt from the evils which had been part of their life, falsities being nothing other than evils producing reasons to support and justify themselves. From all this one may see what the state of those people in the next life is like, namely a state in which firm beliefs in what is false together with desires for what is evil rule them.

sRef Ex@9 @24 S0′ 7578. ‘Of which there had not been the like in all the land of Egypt’ means that such a state of the natural mind did not exist in any others. This is clear from the explanation above in 7554, where similar words occur.

sRef Ex@9 @24 S0′ 7579. ‘Since it became a nation means from the day on which it happened that it – the natural mind – was able to admit goodness and therefore truth into itself. This is clear from the meaning of ‘a nation’ as good, dealt with in 1159, 1259, 1260, 1416, 1849, 4574, 6005, and since the expression is used in reference to the land of Egypt, by which true factual knowledge belonging to the natural mind is meant, therefore ‘nation also means truth that springs from good; and from the meaning of ‘since it became’ as from the day on which it happened.

sRef Ex@9 @25 S0′ 7580. ‘And the hail struck in all the land of Egypt’ means that that falsity destroyed the things which were in the natural mind. This is clear from the meaning of ‘striking’ as destroying; from the meaning of ‘hail’ as falsity arising from evils, 7553; and from the meaning of ‘the land of Egypt’ as the natural mind, dealt with in 7569.

aRef 1Cor@2 @9 S0′ sRef Ex@9 @25 S0′ 7581. ‘Everything that was in the field’ means whatever was an attribute of the Church. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the field’ as the Church, dealt with above in 7557.

sRef Ex@9 @25 S0′ 7582. ‘From man and even to beast’ means its good, interior and exterior. This is clear from the meaning of ‘man and beast’ as interior and exterior good, dealt with in 7424, 7523.

sRef Ex@9 @25 S0′ 7583. ‘And the hail struck every plant of the field’ means that those falsities destroyed all of the Church’s truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘plant of the field’ as the Church’s truth, dealt with above in 7571; from the meaning of ‘striking’ as destroying; and from the meaning of ‘hail’ as falsity, dealt with in 7553.

sRef Ex@9 @25 S0′ 7584. ‘And broke every tree of the field’ means that they also destroyed all the Church’s cognitions of goodness and truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘tree’ as perceptions of goodness and truth, dealt with in 107, 2163, 2682, and also as cognitions of goodness and truth, 2722 (end), 2972.

sRef Ex@9 @26 S0′ 7585. ‘Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, there was no hail’ means that they did not destroy anything where those who belonged to the spiritual Church were. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the land of Goshen’ as the inmost part of the natural mind, dealt with in 5910, 6028, 60311 6068, and as the Church, 6649; and from the representation of ‘the children of Israel’ as those who belong to the spiritual Church, dealt with in 6426, 6637, 6862, 6868, 7035, 7062, 7198, 7201, 7215, 7223.

sRef Ex@9 @30 S0′ sRef Ex@9 @29 S0′ sRef Ex@9 @28 S0′ sRef Ex@9 @27 S0′ 7586. Verses 27-30 And Pharaoh sent and called Moses and Aaron, and said to them, I have sinned this time; Jehovah is righteous, and I and my people are wicked. Plead with Jehovah, there have been enough of God’s voices* and of hail; and I will send you away, and you will not continue to remain. And Moses said to him, As I am going out of the city I will spread out my palms towards Jehovah; the voices’ will cease, and there will be no more hail, in order that you may know that the earth is Jehovah’s. And [as for] you and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear the face of Jehovah God.

‘And Pharaoh sent and called Moses and Aaron’ means the presence of the law of God. ‘And said to them’ means self-abasement. ‘I have sinned this time’ means a separation from truth and good. ‘Jehovah is righteous, and I and my people are wicked’ means that Divine Good could not tolerate the malevolence of the molesters, and that the current affliction had occurred as a result of this. ‘Plead with Jehovah’ means that they should intercede. ‘There have been enough of voices and hail’ means should those falsities come to an end. ‘And I will send you away, and you will not continue to remain’ means that they would leave them and no longer hold them back. ‘And Moses said to him’ means the reply. ‘As I am going out of the city’ means a separation. ‘I will spread out my palms towards Jehovah’ means intercession. ‘The voices will cease, and there will be no more hail’ means the end of that state. ‘In order that you may know that the earth is Jehovah’s’ means that from this it may be recognized that the Lord is the only God of the Church. ‘And [as for] you and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear the face of Jehovah God’ means that those engaged in molestation do not yet live in fear of the Lord.
* i.e. claps of thunder

sRef Ex@9 @27 S0′ 7587. ‘And Pharaoh sent and called Moses and Aaron’ means the presence of the law of God, as in 7390, 7451, where similar words occur.

sRef Ex@9 @27 S0′ 7588. ‘And said to them’ means self-abasement. This is clear from what follows immediately after – ‘I have sinned this time; Jehovah is righteous, and I and my people are wicked’, words which express self-abasement and go together with ‘said’.

sRef Ex@9 @27 S0′ 7589. ‘I have sinned this time’ means a separation from truth and good. This is clear from the meaning of ‘sinning’ as a cutting off and turning away from what is Divine, thus from truth and good, dealt with in 5229, 5474, 5841, consequently a separation also; for anyone who turns away from truth and good separates himself from them.

sRef Ex@9 @27 S0′ 7590. ‘Jehovah is righteous, and I and my people are wicked’ means that Divine Good could not tolerate the malevolence of the molesters, and that the current affliction had occurred as a result of this. This is clear from the consideration that Jehovah is Divine Good; for ‘Jehovah’ is used to mean the Divine Being (Esse), which is Divine Good, and ‘God’ to mean the Divine Coming-into-Being (Existere), which is Divine Truth, dealt with in 6905. Jehovah is said to be ‘righteous’ because He cannot tolerate the malevolence of molesters; for ‘Pharaoh and his people’ means those who engage in molestation, and malevolence is meant by their being ‘wicked’.

sRef Ex@9 @28 S0′ 7591. ‘plead with Jehovah’ means that they should intercede. This is clear from the meaning of ‘pleading’, when done on another’s behalf, as intercession, as in 7796, 7462.

sRef Ex@9 @28 S0′ 7592. ‘There have been enough of voices and hail’ means should those falsities come to an end. This is clear from the meaning of ‘its being enough’ as should they come to an end; from the meaning of ‘voices’, which are claps of thunder, as God’s truths which frighten the evil and subject them to vastation, and which by flowing in and becoming present activate the falsities arising from evil that are meant by ‘hail’, dealt with in 7573, ‘hail’ being falsities that are destructive of truths, 7553, 7574.

sRef Ex@9 @28 S0′ 7593. ‘And I will send you away, and you will not continue to remain’ means that they would leave them and no longer hold them back. This is clear from the representation of Pharaoh, who says these things about himself, as those who engage in molestation, dealt with often; from the meaning of ‘sending away’ as leaving; and from the meaning of ‘not continuing to remain’ as being held back no longer.

sRef Ex@9 @29 S0′ 7594. ‘And Moses said to him’ means the reply. This is clear without explanation.

sRef Ex@9 @29 S0′ 7595. ‘As I am going out of the city’ means a separation. This is clear from the meaning of ‘going out’ as a separation, dealt with in 6100, 7404, 7463; and from the meaning of ‘the city’, where Pharaoh was, as the falsity in which engaging in molestation are steeped. For ‘a city’ means doctrinal teaching, and since it means this it also means truth and in the contrary sense falsity, 401, 2268, 2451, 2712, 2943, 3216, 4492, 4493.

sRef Ex@9 @29 S0′ 7596. ‘I will spread out my palms towards Jehovah’ means intercession. This is clear from the meaning of ‘spreading out the palms towards Jehovah’, which is pleading, as intercession. Regarding ‘pleading’, see 7396, 7462, 7591; for ‘pleading’ is an activity of the mouth or speech, ‘spreading out the palms’ the performance of a gesture or action, which corresponds to a pleading of the heart. There are gestures or actions performed by the body that correspond to every affection in the mind. For example, falling down on one’s knees corresponds to self-abasement, casting oneself down flat onto the ground corresponds to even greater self-abasement, while a spreading out of one’s hands towards heaven corresponds to pleading, and so on. Those gestures or actions mean in the Word the actual affections to which they correspond, because they represent such affections. From this one can see what representations are.

sRef Ex@9 @29 S0′ 7597. ‘The voices will cease, and there will be no more hail’ means the end of that state. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the voices’, which are claps of thunder, as God’s truths subjecting the evil to vastation, dealt with in 7573; from the meaning of ‘hail’ as falsities destroying truths, dealt with in 7553, 7574; and from the meaning of ‘ceasing’ and ‘being no more’ as the end of them, thus the end of that state. For each plague means some particular state in the vastation undergone by those who molest the upright in the next life.

sRef Ex@9 @29 S0′ 7598. ‘[In order] that you may know that the earth is Jehovah’s’ means that from this it may be recognized that the Lord is the only God of the Church. This is clear from the meaning of ‘knowing’ as its being recognized; and from the meaning of ‘the earth’ as the Church, dealt with in 662, 1066, 1067, 1262, 1413, 1607, 1733, 1850, 4447, 4535, 5577 – ‘Jehovah’ being the Lord, see 1343, 1736, 2921, 3023, 3035, 5663, 6303, 6905, 6945, 6956. From this it is evident that ‘the earth is Jehovah’s’ means that the Church is the Lord’s, thus that the Lord is the only God of the Church, as in 7401, 7444, 7544.

sRef Ex@9 @30 S0′ 7599. ‘And [as for] you and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear the face of Jehovah God’ means that those engaged in molestation do not yet live in fear of the Lord. This is clear from the representation of ‘Pharaoh and his servants’ as those who engage in molestation, dealt with before; and from the meaning of ‘[not yet] fearing the face of Jehovah’ as having no fear of the Lord, the Lord being ‘Jehovah’ in the Word, see the places quoted immediately above in 7598. The expression ‘the face of Jehovah’ is used because it means mercy, and from this, peace and all good, 222, 223, 5585, and in the contrary sense the absence of mercy, peace, and good, 5585, 5592, 5816, 5823. The reason why the absence of mercy, peace, and good is meant by ‘the face of Jehovah’ is that the evil turn away from Jehovah or the Lord; for they turn away from the good of charity and the truth of faith in which the Lord is present. They then have what is the Lord’s behind their back, and what is their own facing them; and what is behind their back they neither see nor care about. All evil stems from this, consequently human unhappiness and hell.

sRef Ex@9 @30 S0′ 7600. Verses 31-end And the flax and the barley were struck; for the barley was a ripening ear, and the flax a stem.* And the wheat and the spelt were not struck, for they were hidden.** And Moses went out from Pharaoh, from the city, and spread out his palms towards Jehovah; and the voices’ and the hail ceased, and the rain was not poured on the earth. And Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the voices*** had ceased; and he continued to sin, and made his heart stubborn, he and his servants. And Pharaoh’s heart was made unyielding, and he did not send the children of Israel away, as Jehovah had spoken through the hand of Moses.

‘And the flax’ means the truth of the exterior natural. ‘And the barley’ means its good. ‘Were struck’ means that they were destroyed. ‘For the barley was a ripening ear, and the flax a stem’ means that that good and truth were conspicuous and looked downwards. ‘And the wheat and the spelt’ means the good of the interior natural and its truth. ‘Were not struck’ means that they were not destroyed. ‘For they were hidden’ means because they were not conspicuous and because they turned in an inward direction. ‘And Moses went out from Pharaoh, from the city’ means a separation from them. ‘And spread out his palms towards Jehovah’ means intercession. ‘And the voices and the hail ceased’ means the end of that state. ‘And the rain was not poured on the earth’ means that those falsities no longer made their appearance. ‘And Pharaoh saw’ means a discernment. ‘That the rain and the hail and the voices had ceased’ means that it was the end of that state. ‘And he continued to sin’ means a departure still further away. ‘And made his heart stubborn, he and his servants’ means obstinacy. ‘And Pharaoh’s heart was made unyielding’ means that evil was the cause of their obstinate behaviour. ‘And he did not send the children of Israel away’ means so that they did not leave. ‘As Jehovah had spoken’ means as accorded with what had been foretold. ‘Through the hand of Moses’ means by means of the law from God.
* i.e. the pods were formed on the culms or stems
** i.e. had not yet begun to mature
*** i.e. claps of thunder

sRef Ex@9 @31 S0′ 7601. ‘And the flax’ means the truth of the exterior natural. This is clear from the meaning of’ the flax’ as truth, but the truth of the exterior natural, dealt with below. The natural is exterior and interior, see 4570, 5118, 5497, 5649, and therefore the truth and good there are interior and exterior, 3293, 3294. The truth and good of the exterior natural are meant by ‘the flax and the barley’, and the good and truth of the interior natural by ‘the wheat and the spelt’.

[2] This verse and the next deal with the truths and forms of good that were destroyed and laid waste, and the forms of good and truths that were not destroyed or laid waste. Thus they deal with the truths and forms of good that were stored away and placed in safe keeping for [future] use, and those which were not stored away and placed in safe keeping. For when those who are evil undergo vastation, that is, when they are being separated from truths and forms of good and are left with their own evils and falsities, those truths and forms of good that are present in the exterior natural – where they have become linked to falsities and evils – are what are laid waste. These truths and forms of good look downwards and cannot for that reason be safely stored away, as will be seen below in 7604, 7607. But the truths and forms of good of the interior natural are not laid waste but are taken to an even more interior position, where they are held in safe keeping for [future] use. Communication between the interior natural and the exterior is then closed to such an extent that no good or truth at all can pass from there into the exterior natural, apart from just a general kind of communication of them which enables those people to engage in reasoning and put together arguments to lend support to falsities and evils. Those forms of good and truths that are placed in safe keeping are meant in the Word by ‘the remnant’, dealt with in 468, 530, 560, 561, 576, 661, 798, 1738, 1906, 2284, 5135, 5342, 5344, 5897-5899, 6156, 7556. These then are the things which the two present verses deal with and which are meant by ‘the flax and the barley were struck; for the barley was a ripening ear, and the flax a stem’, and by ‘the wheat and the spelt were not struck because they were hidden’.

[3] The meaning of ‘flax’ or ‘linen’ as truth has its origin in representatives in heaven. In heaven those who are guided by the truth of the natural are seen clothed in white, like the whiteness of linen. The actual truth of the natural is also represented there as fabric made from the finer kind of flaxen threads. These threads have the appearance of silken ones, and clothing made from them has a similar appearance – brilliant, wonderfully translucent, and soft – if the truth represented in that way is rooted in good. But on the other hand those threads which look flaxen do not have a translucent, brilliant, or soft appearance, but a hard and brittle appearance, though they are still white, if the truth that is represented in that way is not rooted in good.

sRef Rev@15 @6 S4′ sRef Ezek@9 @3 S4′ sRef Ezek@9 @2 S4′ sRef Ezek@9 @4 S4′ sRef Dan@10 @5 S4′ [4] From all this one may now recognize what is meant when it says that the angels whom people saw appeared in garments of flax or linen, such as those referred to in John,

Out of the temple came the seven angels having the seven plagues, clothed in linen, white and splendid, and girded around their breasts with golden girdles. Rev. 15:6.

In Daniel,

I lifted up my eyes and saw, and behold, a man clothed in linen whose loins were girded with gold of Uphaz. Dan. 10:5.

In Ezekiel,

Behold, six men coming from the direction of the upper gate, each with a weapon of dispersion in his hand. But one man in the midst of them was clothed in linen and had a writer’s inkhorn at his side.* Ezek. 9:2.

More is said about this angel [clothed in linen] in verses 3 and 4 of the same chapter and in Chapter 10:2-7. The same prophet also says, in reference to the angel who measured the new temple, that he had a line of flax and a measuring rod in his hand, Ezek. 40:ff. Also, the angels who were seen in the Lord’s tomb appeared clothed in white, splendid and flashing like lightning, Matt. 28:3; Mark 16:5; Luke 14:4; John 20:11, 12.

sRef Lev@16 @3 S5′ sRef Lev@16 @4 S5′ sRef 2Sam@6 @14 S5′ sRef 1Sam@2 @18 S5′ sRef Ezek@44 @18 S5′ sRef Ezek@44 @17 S5′ sRef Ezek@44 @15 S5′ [5] Since ‘linen’ or ‘flax’ meant the truth of the exterior natural, and the exterior natural is what clothes things more internal, that truth is what was represented by the linen garments with which angels were seen to be clothed. It is also meant by the linen garments worn by Aaron whenever he ministered in the Holy Place, spoken of in Moses as follows, When Aaron comes into the Holy Place, he shall put on the holy linen tunic, and gird himself with a linen sash, and place the linen turban on himself. These are holy garments. Lev. 16:3, 4.

Similarly in Ezekiel,

The priests, the Levites, the sons of Zadok, when they enter the gates of the inner court they shall put on the linen garments, and no wool shall come upon them. When they minister in the gates of the inner court, and within, the linen turbans shall be on their heads, the linen under garments shall be over their loins. Ezek. 44:17, 18.

This is referring to the new temple and the New Jerusalem, which mean the Lord’s kingdom. For the same reason also the priests wore linen ephods, 1 Sam. 22:18; when the boy Samuel ministered before the Lord he wore a linen ephod, 1 Sam. 1:18; and David too wore a linen ephod when the ark was brought into his city, 2 Sam. 6:14.

sRef John@13 @5 S6′ sRef John@13 @4 S6′ [6] From all this one can also see why the Lord girded Himself with a linen towel when He washed the disciples’ feet, and wiped their feet with the linen towel with which He was girded, John 13:4, 5. Washing of the feet was a sign of purification from sins, which is accomplished by the truths of faith, since these teach a person how he ought to live.

sRef Jer@13 @7 S7′ sRef Jer@13 @4 S7′ sRef Isa@19 @9 S7′ sRef Jer@13 @6 S7′ sRef Jer@13 @1 S7′ [7] ‘Linen’ means truth in the following places too: In Jeremiah,

Jehovah said to the prophet, Go, buy yourself a linen girdle, and place it over your loins; but you are not to pass it through water. Take the girdle, and arise, go away to the Euphrates, and hide it in the cleft of a rock. At the end of many days, when he took the girdle from where he had hidden it, behold, the girdle was spoiled; it was profitable for nothing. Jer. 13:1-7.

‘The linen girdle over the loins’ represented truth arising from good, as it is in the beginning when the Church is established by the Lord, and as it becomes subsequently, when around the end it is has become spoiled and profitable for nothing. In Isaiah,

Those that make linen out of silk threads, and the weavers of curtains, will blush. Isa. 19:9.

This refers to Egypt. ‘Making linen out of silk threads’ stands for counterfeiting truths.

sRef Deut@22 @10 S8′ sRef Matt@24 @18 S8′ sRef Deut@22 @11 S8′ sRef Matt@24 @17 S8′ [8] In Moses,

You shall not plough with an ox and an ass together. You shall not put on a mingled garment made of wool and linen together. Deut. 22:10, 11.

‘Ox’ means the good of the natural, ‘ass’ its truth; and much the same is meant by ‘wool and linen’. Their being forbidden to plough with an ox and ass together or to put on a mingled garment made of wool and linen together meant that they were forbidden to be in two states at the same time, that is to say, in a state of good from which they looked to truth and at the same time in a state of truth from which they looked to good. These prohibitions embody much the same as those declared by the Lord in Matthew,

Let him who is on the roof of the house not go down to take anything out of his house; and let him who is in the field not turn back to get his clothing. Matt. 24:17, 18.

Regarding these prohibitions see 3652 (end). For those who look from good to truth are in the inner part of heaven, whereas those who look from truth to good are in the outer part. The latter look from the world towards heaven, the former from heaven towards the world. Consequently they are in a kind of inverse ratio to each other, and therefore if they were put together the one would destroy the other.
* lit. on his loins

sRef Joel@1 @9 S0′ sRef Joel@1 @10 S0′ sRef Judg@7 @13 S0′ sRef Ex@9 @31 S0′ sRef Joel@1 @11 S0′ 7602. ‘And the barley’ means its good. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the barley’ as the good of the exterior natural. The reason why ‘the barley’ means that good is that it is a product of the field and is a grain that serves for food. For ‘grain’ in general means the good of truth, 3580, 5295, 5410, 5959, as do ‘barley and wheat’ in particular – ‘barley’ the good of the exterior natural, and ‘wheat’ the good of the interior natural. The former is meant by ‘the barley’ in Joel,

The minchah has been cut off, and the drink offering, from the house of Jehovah; the priests have been mourning, the ministers of Jehovah. The field has been devastated, the land has been mourning because the grain has been laid waste, the new wine has failed, the oil languishes. Farmers have been put to shame, vine dressers have wailed over the wheat and over the barley, for the reason that the harvest of the field has perished. Joel 1:9-11.

The prophet is referring at this point to a laying waste of what is good and true, as is clear from what follows it there. Not those products therefore are meant by ‘the grain’, ‘the new wine’, ‘the wheat’, and ‘the barley’, but spiritual things; that is, ‘the wheat’ means interior good, and ‘the barley’ exterior good. ‘Barley’ has a similar meaning in Ezekiel 4:9 and Deut. 8:8. In the Book of Judges,

When Gideon reached the camp, there was a man recounting a dream to his companion. And he said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream; and behold, a cake of barley bread rolled towards the camp of Midian, and came all the way to a tent, and struck it so that it fell, and overturned it, and so the tent collapsed. Judg. 7:13.

‘Midian’ means those who are guided by the truth that goes with simple good, and in the contrary sense those who fail to lead a good life, 3242, 4756, 4788, 6777. This good is the good of the exterior natural and is meant by ‘barley bread’. But sensory pleasure, if this is what a person has in view instead of that good, is what is meant by ‘a cake of barley bread’. This is the state that the Midianites described here represented on that occasion.

sRef Ex@9 @31 S0′ 7603. ‘Were struck’ means that they were destroyed. This is evident without explanation.

sRef Ex@9 @31 S0′ 7604. ‘For the barley was a ripening ear, and the flax a stem’ means that that good and truth were conspicuous and looked downwards. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the barley’ and ‘the flax’ as the good and truth of the exterior natural, dealt with just above in 7601, 7602; and from the meaning of ‘a ripening ear’ and also ‘a stem’ as the fact that they were conspicuous, for the next verse says of ‘the wheat and the spelt’ that ‘they were hidden’, that is, were not conspicuous. The former are mature; the crop now stands out in the ear and on the stem, so that it is ready to fall. This means in the spiritual sense, which has to do with the good of faith and charity, that they looked downwards. The nature of all this is evident from what has been stated above in 7601. The reason why with those who are evil the forms of good and the truths in the exterior natural are looking downwards is that they exist together there with falsities and evils, and have become attached to them. All evils and falsities look downwards, that is, outwards towards the earth and the world, and therefore the forms of good and the truths attached to them do so too; for the evils and falsities drag them along by misapplying them. These forms of good and truths are ones that are laid waste with the evil. For if they were not laid waste the forms of good and the truths which have been stored away and placed in safe keeping by the Lord in the interior natural would come in, join themselves to those in the exterior natural, and so make one with them. Then they too would be bent downwards and so perish. Man is distinguished from animals by his being able to look upwards, that is, towards what is Divine. Without that ability man would be the same as a beast; for a beast can look only downwards. From this one may see why the forms of good and the truths which with those who are evil look downwards are taken away from them, and why, when they have been taken away, there is an end of communication with the interiors where forms of good and truths have been stored away and placed in safe keeping by the Lord for [future] use.

sRef Ex@9 @32 S0′ 7605. ‘And the wheat and the spelt’ means the good of the interior natural and its truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the wheat’ as the good of love and charity, dealt with in 3941, and – since it is a superior grain to barley – as the good of the interior natural; and from the meaning of ‘the spelt’ as the truth of the interior natural that goes with the good meant by ‘the wheat’. One may recognize that ‘the spelt’ means this truth from the consideration that when the Word speaks of good it also speaks of truth. It does so because the heavenly marriage, which is the marriage of goodness and truth, resides in each detail of the Word. Indeed it does so because the union of the Divine itself and the Divine Human within the Lord, to which union the marriage of goodness and truth in heaven corresponds, resides in its highest sense; and that being so, the Lord’s Divine itself and His Divine Human are the innermost being of the Word, see 683, 797, 801, 2173, 2516, 2618, 2712, 2803, 3132, 4138 (end), 5502, 6179, 6343. From this it is evident that ‘the spelt’ means the truth that goes with the good meant by ‘the wheat’.

sRef Ex@9 @32 S0′ 7606. ‘Were not struck’ means that they were not destroyed. This is evident without explanation.

sRef Ex@9 @32 S0′ 7607. ‘For they were hidden’ means because they were not conspicuous and because they turned in an inward direction. This is clear from the meaning of ‘they were hidden’ as not being conspicuous, in the spiritual sense not conspicuous because they were in the interior natural, where they turned in an inward direction. The reason why they could not be destroyed was that they looked to heaven and to the Lord, which is to look in an inward direction, not to the earth and the world, which is to look in an outward one. Let something brief be said about what looking in an inward direction and looking in an outward one is. Man has been created in such a way that he can look up above himself to heaven, even to the Divine, and also to look down beneath himself to the world and earth. This is what distinguishes man from animals. And man looks up above himself or to heaven, even to the Divine, when he has his neighbour, country, the Church, heaven, and above all the Lord as his end in view; but he looks down beneath himself when he has self and the world as his end in view. To have something as one’s end in view is to love it; for a person has what he loves as his end in view, and what he loves rules him completely, that is, in each part of his thought and will. While a person looks one way he does not look the other way. That is to say, while he looks towards the world and self he does not look towards heaven and the Lord, and vice versa; for they are in opposite directions.

[2] The fact that man can look above himself, that is, can think about the Divine, and can be joined to the Divine through love makes it plainly evident that there is a raising of the mind by the Divine, for by no means can anyone look above himself unless his mind is raised by Him who is above. From this it is also evident that everything good and true with a person is the Lord’s; and it is also evident from this that when a person looks down beneath himself he separates himself from the Divine and turns his interiors towards self and the world, in the same direction in which an animal’s are turned. And when he does that, to that extent the person sheds what makes him human. From all this one may now see what is meant by looking in an inward direction or above oneself, and by looking in an outward direction or beneath oneself.

sRef Ex@9 @33 S0′ 7608. ‘And Moses went out from Pharaoh, from the city’ means a separation from them. This is clear from the explanation above in 7595, where similar words occur.

sRef Ex@9 @33 S0′ 7609. ‘And spread out his palms towards Jehovah’ means intercession, as above in 7596.

sRef Ex@9 @33 S0′ 7610. ‘And the voices and the hail ceased’ means the end of that state, as above in 7597.

sRef Ex@9 @33 S0′ 7611. ‘And the rain was not poured on the earth’ means that those falsities no longer made their appearance. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the rain’, at this point rain which took the form of hail, as falsities, dealt with in 7553, 7574; and from the meaning of ‘not poured out on the earth’ as the fact that they – the falsities meant by the rain in the form of hail – came to an end and so did not make their appearance.

sRef Ex@9 @34 S0′ 7612. ‘And Pharaoh saw’ means a discernment. This is clear from the meaning of ‘seeing’ as a discernment, dealt with in 2150, 3764, 4723, 5400.

sRef Ex@9 @34 S0′ 7613. ‘That the rain [and] the hail and the voices had ceased’ means the end of that state, as above in 7597, 7610.

sRef Ex@9 @34 S0′ 7614. ‘And he continued to sin’ means a departure still further away. This is clear from the meaning of ‘continuing’ as even more and further still; and from the meaning of ‘sinning’ as a cutting off, departure, and separation from goodness and truth, dealt with in 5229, 5474, 5841, 7589.

sRef Ex@9 @34 S0′ 7615. ‘And made his heart stubborn, he and his servants’ means obstinacy. This is clear from the meaning of ‘making the heart stubborn’, ‘hardening it’, and ‘making it unyielding’ as behaving obstinately, dealt with in 7272, 7300, 7305.

sRef Ex@9 @35 S0′ 7616. ‘And Pharaoh’s heart was made unyielding’ means that evil was the cause of their obstinate behaviour. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the heart being made unyielding’ as behaving obstinately, dealt with immediately above in 7615. Where it says that he made his heart stubborn. The difference is that ‘making the heart stubborn’ is caused by falsity, whereas ‘making the heart unyielding’ is caused by evil.

sRef Ex@9 @35 S0′ 7617. ‘And he did not send the children of Israel away’ means so that they did not leave. This is clear from the meaning of ‘sending away’ as leaving, as often before; and from the representation of ‘the children of Israel’ as those belonging to the spiritual Church, whom they molested, dealt with in 6426, 6637, 6862, 6868, 7035, 7062, 7198, 7201, 7215, 7223.

sRef Ex@9 @35 S0′ 7618. ‘As Jehovah had spoken’ means as accorded with what had been foretold, as previously in 7302, 7340, 7414, 7432, 7535.

sRef 1Ki@15 @29 S0′ sRef 1Ki@16 @12 S0′ sRef 1Ki@16 @34 S0′ sRef Ex@9 @35 S0′ sRef 1Ki@16 @7 S0′ sRef 2Ki@14 @25 S0′ sRef 1Ki@14 @18 S0′ sRef 1Ki@17 @16 S0′ 7619. ‘Through the hand of Moses’ means by means of the law from God. This is clear from the meaning of ‘through the hand of someone’ as through an intermediary, dealt with below; and from the representation of ‘Moses’ as the law from God, dealt with in 6771, 6827. The reason why ‘speaking through the hand of someone’ means by means of that person or through an intermediary is that ‘the hand’ means power, 878, 3387, 4931-4937, 5327, 5328, 5544, 6292, 6947, 7011, 7518. Thus ‘the hand of someone’ is power exercised vicariously, which is the same as through an intermediary; for what is done through an intermediary is done through the power that another has within him. This explains the occurrence of that way of speaking in the Word, such as in the Books of Kings, which mentions a number of times the Word that Jehovah spoke ‘through the hand of someone’; for example, He spoke through the hand of Ahijah the prophet, I Kings 14:18; through the hand of Ahijah the Shilonite, 1 Kings 15:29; through the hand of Jehu the prophet, 1 Kings 16:7, 12; through the hand of Joshua, 1 Kings 16:34; through the hand of Elijah, 1 Kings 17:16; and through the hand of Jonah the prophet, 2 Kings 14:25.

7620. SPIRITS AND INHABITANTS OF THE PLANET MARS – continued

I saw a most beautiful flaming object, varying in colour; it was crimson, turning from brilliant white to a deepening red. The flame also made its colours glow beautifully. I also saw a hand, which was not holding the flame; rather, the flame clung to the hand. At first it caressed the back of the hand, after that the palm or hollow, and from there all around. This went on for some time. The hand together with the flaming object then moved further away, and where it stopped there was a patch of light, into which the hand disappeared. At this point the flaming object changed into a bird, which at first possessed colours like those of the flaming object, colours which were likewise sparkling. But those colours gradually changed, and as they did so, the vigorous life in the bird changed too. It flew round about, first around my head, and then frontwards from me into something narrow like a cubicle. And the further it flew in that direction, the more the life went out of it, till at length it became like a piece of stone. At first its colour was pearly, after that it was dull; but even though devoid of life it continued its flight.

7621. While the bird was flying around my head and still full of life a spirit appeared, who rose up from underneath, coming by way of the region of the loins into that of the breast. He wished to remove the bird from there. But as it was so beautiful the spirits around me prevented him from doing so; for they all had their eyes fixed on it. But that spirit who had risen up from underneath then did all he could to convince them that the Lord was with him, thus that the Lord inspired him in what he was doing. Although most of them did not believe this because he had risen up from underneath, nevertheless the spirits around me no longer prevented him from removing the bird. However, because at this time heaven was flowing into it he could not keep hold of the bird and immediately let it go free out of his hand.

7622. When all this had been completed the spirits around me who had watched the bird intently and the series of changes it had undergone talked to one another about it, and for a considerable length of time. They perceived that this kind of sight could only be a sign of something heavenly. They knew that the flaming object was a sign of heavenly love and affections; that the hand which the flame clung to was a sign of life and the power of life, and the changes of colour signs of variations in wisdom and intelligence that go with that life. They knew that the bird too had a similar meaning, the difference being that the flaming object was a sign of celestial love and aspects of that love, while the bird was a sign of spiritual love and aspects of this love. (Celestial love is love to the Lord, spiritual love is mutual love and charity towards the neighbour.) They knew too that the changes in the colours of the bird, and at the same time in the life it had within it until it became stone-like, were signs of the various successive changes in the intelligence that goes with that spiritual life.

[2] They knew furthermore that spirits who come up from underneath by way of the region of the loins into that of the breast are utterly convinced that the Lord is with them, and as a consequence believe that in all they do, even wicked and criminal acts, they are doing the Lord’s will. Yet although the spirits around me knew all these things they could not figure out who exactly were meant in the scene they had witnessed. Eventually they learned from heaven that the inhabitants of Mars were meant; that their celestial love, which still exists in a large number of them, was meant by the flame that clung to the hand; that their wisdom and intelligence was meant by the series of varying colours; and that the bird at first, when its colours were beautiful and it was full of life, meant their spiritual love, but then, when that bird became stone-like, lacking in life, and dull-coloured, it meant inhabitants who had forsaken the good of love for evil, yet still believed that the Lord was with them. But since there is more that has been disclosed and demonstrated to me about those inhabitants who are like this and about their state of life, let that be recorded at the end of the next chapter.

7623. 10

TEACHINGS ABOUT CHARITY

There are two entities which emanate from the Lord and which therefore in origin are Divine. One is GOOD, the other TRUTH. These two are therefore what reign in heaven, indeed what make heaven. And in the Church the two are called charity and faith.

7624. When good and truth emanate from the Lord they are completely united, so united that they are not two but one. For that reason also the two are one in heaven; and since they are one in heaven, heaven is a likeness of the Lord. So would the Church be if charity and faith there were one.

7625. The sun and its light may be used to form an idea of good which is synonymous with charity, and of truth which is synonymous with faith. When the light that emanates from the sun comes combined with heat, as happens in spring and summer, everything on earth grows and is alive. But when the light lacks heat, as in wintertime, everything on earth becomes inactive and dies off. In the Word also the Lord is compared to the sun, and truth combined with good which emanates from Him is compared to the light, in addition to which in the Word the truth of faith is called ‘light’ and the good of love ‘fire’. Love is also ‘the fire of life’, and faith ‘the light of life’.

7626. All this too may be used to form an idea of what a member of the Church is like when his faith is combined with charity – he is like a garden, like a park. But when faith is not combined with charity, he is like a solitary waste, like land covered with snow.

7627. The inferior light which his natural man possesses is alone sufficient to enable anyone to see that truth and good are compatible with each other and also capable of being linked together, while truth and evil are incompatible and incapable of being linked, and that faith and charity are in a similar way compatible. Actual experience bears witness to the same thing; one knows from experience that the person who pursues an evil life either has faith that is false, no faith at all, or an altogether antagonistic attitude towards faith. And – this is an arcanum – the person who pursues an evil life is directed by falsity attached to his evil, although he imagines that he is guided by truth. The reason why he imagines he is guided by truth is that he is under the influence of faith which is mere persuasion, a kind of faith that will be dealt with later on.

EXODUS 10

1 And Jehovah said to Moses, Go to Pharaoh; for I have made his heart stubborn, and the heart of his servants, in order that I may set these My signs in the midst of him;

2 And in order that you may tell in the ears of your son and your son’s son the deeds which I have performed in Egypt, and My signs which I have set among them, and that you may know that I am Jehovah.

3 And Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh, and said to him, Thus says Jehovah the God of the Hebrews, How long do you refuse to humble yourself* before Me? Send My people away, and let them serve Me.

4 For if you refuse to send My people away, behold, tomorrow I am bringing locusts into your border.

5 And they will cover the surface of the land, and one will not be able to see the land; and they will devour the residue of what escaped and was left to you from the hail, and will devour every tree growing up for you out of the field.

6 And your houses will be filled, and the houses of all your servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians – which** your fathers and your fathers’ fathers have not seen, from the day they have been on the ground even to this day. And he looked away and went out from Pharaoh.

7 And Pharaoh’s servants said to him, How long will this thing be a snare to us? Send the men away, and let them serve Jehovah their God. Do you not yet know that Egypt is perishing?

8 And Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh, and he said to them, Go, serve Jehovah your God. But just who will be going?***

9 And Moses said, We shall go with our children and with our old people; with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds we shall go; for it is a feast of Jehovah for us.

10 And he said to them, So Jehovah will be with you when I send you and your little children away! See that evil is on your faces.

11 Not so! Go now, you young men, and serve Jehovah; for this is what you seek. And he drove them out from Pharaoh’s face.

12 And Jehovah said to Moses, Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, and they will come up over the land of Egypt and devour every plant in the land, all that the hail has left.

13 And Moses stretched out his rod over the land of Egypt, and Jehovah brought an east wind into the land the whole of that day and the whole night. Morning came, and the east wind brought the locusts.

14 And the locusts came up over all the land of Egypt, and rested at all the border of Egypt; they were extremely severe. Before them there were no such locusts like them, and there will not be such after them.

15 And they covered the surface of the whole land, and the land was darkened; and they devoured every plant in the land and all the fruit on the trees which the hail had caused to be left. And there was not left any green on tree and on plant of the field in the whole land of Egypt.

16 And Pharaoh hastened to call Moses and Aaron; and he said, I have sinned against Jehovah your God, and against you.

17 And now forgive, I beg you, my sin only this once, and plead with Jehovah your God, and let Him remove from upon me this death only.

18 And he went out from Pharaoh, and pleaded with Jehovah.

19 And Jehovah turned an extremely strong wind of the sea,**** and it lifted the locusts and cast them into the Sea Suph. Not one locust was left in all the border of Egypt.

20 And Jehovah made Pharaoh’s heart unyielding, and he did not send the children of Israel away.

21 And Jehovah said to Moses, Stretch out your hand towards heaven, and there will be thick darkness over the land of Egypt; and one will grope in the thick darkness.

22 And Moses stretched out his hand towards heaven, and there was intensely thick darkness in the whole land of Egypt three days.

23 No man could see his brother, and they did not rise up from their places for three days.***** And all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.

24 And Pharaoh called Moses, and said, Go, serve Jehovah; only your flocks and your herds will stay behind. Your little children also will go with you.

25 And Moses said, You must also give into our hand sacrifices and burnt offerings, and we must make them to Jehovah our God.

26 And our livestock also must go with us; not a hoof must be left behind, for we must take some of them to serve Jehovah our God, and we ourselves do not know what we must serve Jehovah with until we get there.

27 And Jehovah made Pharaoh’s heart unyielding, and he would not send them away.

28 And Pharaoh said to him, Go away from me; take care not to see my face again. For on the day you see my face you will die.

29 And Moses said, Rightly have you spoken; I will not see your face again.
* lit. to be humbled
** i.e. the locusts
*** lit. Who and who are going?
**** i.e. a west wind
***** lit. They did not see, a man his brother, and they did not rise up, anyone from under himself for three days.

sRef Ex@10 @0 S0′ 7628. CONTENTS

This chapter goes on in the internal sense to deal further still with the vastation of those who molest people who belong to the spiritual Church. Now the ninth and tenth states or stages of their vastation are dealt with; the locusts and the thick darkness, meaning falsity arising from evil which devastates everything of the Church present with them, serve to describe those states.

sRef Ex@10 @6 S0′ sRef Ex@10 @2 S0′ sRef Ex@10 @3 S0′ sRef Ex@10 @4 S0′ sRef Ex@10 @1 S0′ sRef Ex@10 @5 S0′ 7629. THE INTERNAL SENSE

Verses 1-6 And Jehovah said to Moses, Go to Pharaoh; for I have made his heart stubborn, and the heart of his servants, in order that I may set these My signs in the midst of him; and in order that you may tell in the ears of your son and your son’s son the deeds which I have performed in Egypt, and My signs which I have set among them, and that you may know that I am Jehovah. And Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh, and said to him, Thus says Jehovah the God of the Hebrews, How long do you refuse to humble yourself* before Me? Send My people away, and let them serve Me. For if you refuse to send My people away, behold, tomorrow I am bringing locusts into your border. And they will cover the surface of the land, and one will not be able to see the land; and they will devour the residue of what escaped and was left to you from the hail, and will devour every tree growing up for you out of the field. And your houses will be filled, and the houses of all your servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians – which** your fathers and your fathers’ fathers have not seen, from the day they have been on the ground even to this day. And he looked away and went out from Pharaoh.

‘And Jehovah said to Moses’ means a command. ‘Go to Pharaoh’ means the presence of the truth from God with the molesting ones. ‘For I have made his heart stubborn, and the heart of his servants’ means that they remained obstinate, all in common with one another. ‘In order that I may set these My signs in the midst of him’ means in order that the evil may recognize that they are ruled by evil, and the good may be enlightened regarding the state of those within the Church who lead an evil life. ‘And in order that you may tell in the ears of your son and your son’s son the deeds which I have performed in Egypt’ means in order that those guided by truth and governed by good may know what happens to the ones belonging to the Church who molest the upright. ‘And My signs which I have set among them’ means in order that they may be enlightened regarding the state of those belonging to the Church who lead an evil life. ‘And that you may know that I am Jehovah’ means in order that it may thereby be made known to them that the Lord is the only God. ‘And Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh’ means the presence of God’s truth. ‘And said to him’ means discernment. ‘Thus says Jehovah the God of the Hebrews’ means a command from the Lord who is the God of the Church. ‘How long do you refuse to humble yourself before Me?’ means disobedience. ‘Send My people away, and let them serve Me’ means that they should leave those who belong to the spiritual Church, in order that these may worship the Lord. ‘For if you refuse to send them away means should they fail to leave … ‘Behold, I am bringing locusts into your border’ means that falsity will take possession of their outermost parts. ‘And they will cover the surface of the land’ means the lowest levels of the natural mind. ‘And one will not be able to see the land’ means a darkening of the whole natural mind as a result. ‘And they will devour the residue of what escaped and was left to you from the hail’ means the consumption of all things that have any element of truth in them. ‘And will devour every tree growing up for you out of the field’ means thus the consumption of all the religious knowledge that they get from the Church. ‘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. ‘Which your fathers and your fathers’ fathers have not seen, from the day they have been on the ground even to this day’ means that since ancient times no such falsity had existed in the Church as existed there now. ‘And he looked away and went out from Pharaoh’ means deprivation of discernment, and separation.
* lit. to be humbled
** i.e. the locusts

sRef Ex@10 @1 S0′ 7630. ‘And Jehovah said to Moses’ means a command, that is to say, one that had to be conveyed to Pharaoh. This is clear from the meaning of ‘saying’, when the message is from Jehovah to those engaged in molestation, as a command, dealt with in 7036, 7107, 7310.

sRef Ex@10 @1 S0′ 7631. ‘Go to Pharaoh’ means the presence of the truth from God with the molesting ones. This is clear from the meaning of ‘going (in) to someone’ as presence, as in 5934, 6063, 6089, 7498; from the representation of ‘Moses’ as the truth from God, dealt with in 6771, 6827; and from the representation of ‘Pharaoh’ as the ones in the next life who molest those who belong to the spiritual Church, dealt with in 6651, 6679, 6683, 7107, 7110, 7126, 7142, 7220, 7228.

sRef Ex@10 @1 S0′ 7632. ‘For I have made his heart stubborn, and the heart of his servants’ means that they remained obstinate, all in common with one another. This is clear from the meaning of ‘making the heart stubborn’, ‘hardening it’, and ‘making it unyielding’ as remaining obstinate, dealt with in 7271, 7300, 7305; and from the representation of Pharaoh, whose ‘heart was made stubborn’, as those engaged in molestation – all in common with one another being meant when it says ‘he and his servants’, because the servants and he together make up his house. When it says that Jehovah made Pharaoh’s heart stubborn the meaning in the internal sense is that he himself made his heart stubborn. In ancient times everything bad was for simple people’s benefit attributed to Jehovah. It was attributed to Him because simple people could not have known, and most of them could not have understood either, how the origin of things that happened could lie anywhere else than in Jehovah. Nor could they have known how to understand the truth that Jehovah permits the devil’s crew to inflict evil and does not stop them, when yet He is all-powerful. Since simple people could not have grasped these matters, and also the intelligent could have scarcely done so, it was said, in keeping with what very many believed, that Jehovah was the author even of what was bad or evil. This is a common feature of the Word, whose literal sense is accommodated to the beliefs of simple people. The evil that is attributed in the Word to Jehovah has its origin in man, see 2447, 6071, 6991, 6997, 7533.

sRef Ex@10 @2 S0′ 7633. ‘And I will set these My signs in the midst of him’ means in order that the evil may recognize that they are ruled by evil, and the good may be enlightened regarding the state of those within the Church who lead an evil life. This is clear from the meaning of ‘signs’ as corroborations of truths, and so recognition of them, dealt with in 6870, and also enlightenment in them, 7012; therefore ‘setting signs in the midst of him’ means in order that the evil may recognize they are ruled by evil. As regards the further meaning, in order that the good may be enlightened regarding the state of those within the Church who lead an evil life, this is evident from what immediately follows. There it says, ‘And in order that you may tell in the ears of your son and your son’s son the deeds which I have performed in Egypt, and My signs which I have set among them’, meaning in order that those guided by truth and governed by good may know what happens to the ones belonging to the Church who molest the upright. The fact that those in the next life who molest the upright are people who have belonged to the Church and been acquainted with, yet led a life contrary to the commands that faith prescribes, see 7317, 7502, 7545, 7554.

sRef Ex@10 @2 S0′ 7634. ‘And in order that you may tell in the ears of your son and your son’s son the deeds which I have performed in Egypt’ means in order that those guided by truth and governed by good may know what happens to the ones belonging to the Church who molest the upright. This is clear from the meaning of ‘telling in the ears’ as in order that they may know and discern; from the meaning of ‘son and son’s son’ as those guided by truth and governed by good (‘son’ means truth, see 489-491, 1147, 2623, 3373, and ‘the sons of sons’ derivatives, 6583, but at this point ‘sons’ are those who are guided by truth and also governed by good, for those who belong to the Church are meant by them; this explains why ‘your son’s son’ is included in what is said to Moses, who represents the law of God, that is, Divine Truth emanating from the Lord’s Divine Good, thus Divine Truth to which Divine Good is united, 7623, 7624, from which Truth and Good the Church derives its existence); and from the meaning of ‘the deeds which I have performed in Egypt’ as what happens to those who in the next life molest the upright. The meaning of ‘signs’ as what happens, and of ‘Pharaoh and the Egyptians’ as those who engage in molestation in the next life, is evident from what has been stated in previous paragraphs in this chapter; and for the fact that those who engage in molestation are people who have belonged to the Church, see immediately above at the end of 7633.

sRef Ex@10 @2 S0′ 7635. ‘And My signs which I have set among them’ means in order that they may be enlightened regarding the state of those belonging to the Church who lead an evil life. This is clear from what has been stated just above in 7633, where similar words occur.

sRef Ex@10 @2 S0′ 7636. ‘In order that you may know that I am Jehovah’ means in order that it may thereby be made known to them that the Lord is the only God. This is clear from the meaning of ‘in order that you may know’ as in order that it may be made known to them. The reason why ‘I am Jehovah’ means that the Lord is the only God is that Jehovah means He Is, that is, the Source of the Being and Coming-into-Being (Esse et Existere) of all things, which must necessarily be unique and one. For the fact that ‘Jehovah’ is the Lord, see 1347, 1736, 2921, 3023, 3035, 5663, 6703, 6905, 6945, 6956; and for the fact that the words used here mean that He is the only God, 7401, 7444, 7544, 7598.

sRef Ex@10 @3 S0′ 7637. ‘And Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh’ means the presence of God’s truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘going (in) to’ as presence, as above in 7631; and from the representation of ‘Moses and Aaron’ as God’s truth, ‘Moses’ inward truth, ‘Aaron’ outward, dealt with in 7089,
7382.

sRef Ex@10 @3 S0′ 7638. ‘And said to him’ means discernment. This is clear from the meaning of ‘saying’ as discerning, dealt with in 1791, 1815, 1819, 1822, 1898, 1919, 2080, 2619, 2862, 3395, 3509, 5743, 5877. The reason why ‘said’ here means discerning is that by ‘Moses and Aaron’ God’s truth is represented, ‘going to’ means its presence, and the presence of God’s truth leads to discernment.

sRef Ex@10 @3 S0′ 7639. ‘Thus says Jehovah the God of the Hebrews’ means a command from the Lord who is the God of the Church. This is clear from the meaning of ‘saying’, when the message is from Jehovah to those engaged in molestation, as a command, as above in 7630; and from the meaning of ‘the Hebrews’ as those who belong to the Church, dealt with in 5136, 6675, 6684, 6738, ‘Jehovah God’ being the Lord, see above in 7636.

sRef Ex@10 @3 S0′ 7640. ‘How long do you refuse to humble yourself before Me?’ means disobedience. This is clear from the meaning of ‘refusing to humble oneself’ as not obeying. The reason why it means this is that the words here are addressed to those ruled by evil, who are incapable of humbling themselves before the Divine. For self-abasement involves the recognition of the following two things: That one is altogether evil, and in comparison with the Divine almost nothing, and that the Divine is altogether Good, and infinite. The recognition of these two things is not possible with the evil because they are full of self-love. If they do humble themselves, they act out of fear, or to the end that they may acquire important positions or make material gain. Thus when they humble themselves they do so merely with the body and not at all in the mind, which sometimes is mocking; such is the nature of self-abasement when prompted by fear or engaged in for the sake of making gain or attaining important positions. The same is true of the evil in the presence of God, though they are not aware of it. For inwardly those who are ruled by evil as a result of self-love regard and magnify only themselves; and they turn away from all who are not favourably disposed towards them. Since no self-abasement exists with the evil, obedience is meant in the internal sense by ‘humbling yourself’, and so disobedience by ‘you refuse to humble yourself’.

sRef Ex@10 @3 S0′ 7641. ‘Send My people away, and let them serve Me’ means that they should leave those who belong to the spiritual Church, in order that these may worship the Lord. This is clear from what has been stated previously in 7500, where the same words occur.

sRef Ex@10 @4 S0′ 7642. ‘For if you refuse to send them away’ means should they fail to leave . . . This is clear from the meaning of ‘sending away’ as leaving, as often before, so that ‘refusing to send away’ is being unwilling to leave.

sRef Ex@10 @4 S0′ 7643. ‘Behold, I am bringing locusts into your border’ means that falsity will take possession of their outermost parts. This is clear from the meaning of ‘locusts’ as falsity in outermost parts, dealt with below; from the meaning of ‘border’ as outermost parts; and from the meaning of ‘bringing’, since it is used in connection with falsity, as taking possession of. It says that Jehovah will bring the locusts, but by this their being brought – brought by evil – is meant. This is similar to the attribution made to Jehovah, that is, to the Lord, where it says that ‘He made Pharaoh’s heart stubborn’; in actual fact it is made such by man, by the evil within him, see above in 7632. Evil does not originate in the Lord but springs from man because man diverts towards himself the good that flows in from the Lord, and instead of regarding, in every single thing, the Lord and what is the Lord’s regards himself. This self-regard gives rise to a craving to have dominion over all people and to possess all that others have; it gives rise to contempt for others, and hateful, vengeful, and cruel behaviour towards those who are not disposed to apply themselves to his interests; and also it gives rise to contempt for all things connected with faith and charity, for when these flow in from the Lord he focuses them onto himself and so away from the Lord.

[2] From all this one may see that man turns into evil the actual good that flows in from the Lord. It also goes to explain why in the next life the evil distance themselves from heaven as far away as they can get; for when heaven draws nearer to them, that is, when the inflow of goodness and truth becomes more forceful, they plunge with greater force into the opposite, that is, into evil and into falsity. Then to the extent that the evil and falsity increase, they drive truth out from themselves and bring about vastation within themselves. And to the same extent they also plunge into the evils brought by punishment; for in the next life evils and punishments are interconnected.

[3] The Lord is continually rearranging the heavens, and constantly adding new inhabitants of heaven whom He provides with dwellings and inheritances. When He does this heaven draws nearer, that is, flows in with greater force, as a consequence of which hellish spirits plunge with greater force into evils and falsities, and into the punishments that go with them; and since they plunge into evils and falsities, they bring about vastation within themselves, as has been stated. This process does not stop until they have brought about complete vastation and cast themselves deeply into the hells. From this it may be recognized that nothing but good emanates from the Lord, and that evil springs from those people themselves who are ruled by evil. From all this one may now see how to understand the statement that Jehovah, that is, the Lord, made Pharaoh’s heart stubborn, and the statement here that He will bring locusts, by which falsity arising from evil in outermost parts is meant.

sRef Ex@10 @14 S4′ sRef Ex@10 @15 S4′ [4] In the Word, in those places in which the laying waste of evils is referred to, the locust and the bruchus* are mentioned several times; and in those places ‘locust’ is used to mean in the internal sense falsity that lays waste the outermost parts. For as has been shown before, the human natural is interior and exterior. The falsity that is present in the outermost parts of the natural is meant by ‘locust’, and the evil there by ‘bruchus’. Because ‘locust’ is used to mean falsity present in the outermost parts of the natural it says that the locusts will be brought ‘into the border, and they will cover the surface of the land’, and later on in verses 14, 15.

The locusts came up over the land of Egypt, and rested at all the border of Egypt, and covered the surface of the whole land.

‘The border’ and ‘the surface’ mean the outermost and lowest parts, on which the more internal ones rest, that is, by which they are bounded.

sRef Ps@105 @34 S5′ sRef Ps@78 @46 S5′ sRef Ps@78 @45 S5′ [5] These things are what ‘the locust’ and ‘the bruchus’ are used to mean in David,

He sent among them swarms [of insects], which devoured them, and frogs which destroyed them; and He gave their crops to the bruchus, and their labour to the locust. Ps. 78:45, 46.

And elsewhere,

He spoke so that the locust might come and the bruchus, so that it would be without number. Ps. 105:34.

These verses, which speak about Egypt, refer to ‘the bruchus’, but no mention is made of it in Moses, only of ‘the locust’. The reason why ‘the bruchus’ also is referred to is that ‘the bruchus’ means evil and ‘the locust’ falsity, both of them in the outermost parts of the natural. But when ‘the locust’ alone is referred to it means both falsity and evil together, for ‘the locust’ is falsity arising from evil.

sRef Nahum@3 @16 S6′ sRef Nahum@3 @17 S6′ sRef Nahum@3 @15 S6′ [6] In Nahum,

There the fire will devour you, the sword cut you off; it will devour you like the bruchus. Multiply yourself like the bruchus, multiply yourself like the locust; you have multiplied your merchants, more than the stars of the heavens. The bruchus has spread out, and flown away. Your monarchs are like the locust, your emperors like the locust of locusts. Nahum 3:15-17.

This refers to ‘the city of blood’, which means teachings that uphold falsity. And since falsity and evil are multiplied chiefly in the outermost parts of the natural (because of the presence there of the illusions of the senses arising from worldly and earthly objects, and of the sensory enjoyments resulting from various kinds of appetites), the multiplication of evil and falsity is for that reason described by ‘the bruchus and locust’, as it also is in Judges 6:5; 7:12; and in Jeremiah 46:23. With regard to the sensory level, which is the last and lowest of the natural, that it is utterly full of illusions and consequently of falsities, see 5084, 5089, 5094, 6310, 6711, 6313, 6318, 6598, 6612, 6614, 6621, 6624.

sRef Joel@1 @4 S7′ sRef Deut@28 @39 S7′ sRef Joel@1 @5 S7′ sRef Joel@2 @24 S7′ sRef Joel@2 @25 S7′ sRef Deut@28 @38 S7′ sRef Joel@1 @6 S7′ sRef Joel@1 @7 S7′ [7] In Joel,

What the caterpillar (eruca) left the locust has devoured, and what the locust left the beetle (melolontha) has devoured, and what the beetle left the bruchus has devoured. Awake, you drunkards, and weep; and wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the new wine that has been cut off. For a nation will come up over My land, strong, and without number; and it will turn My vine into a waste, and My fig tree into froth. Joel 1:4-7.

In the same prophet,

The threshing floors are full of clear grain, and the presses overflow with new wine and oil. And I will recompense you for the years that the locust has consumed, the beetle (melolontha), the bruchus, and the caterpillar (eruca). Joel 2:24, 25.

Here ‘the locust’ stands for falsity in the outermost parts which is laying waste truths and forms of good. In Moses,

You will carry much seed out into the field, but you will gather little, because the locust will consume it. You will plant vineyards, but you will not drink wine or gather [anything], for the worm will devour it. Deut. 28:38, 39.

Here ‘the locust’ stands for falsity arising from evil.

sRef Rev@9 @8 S8′ sRef Rev@9 @3 S8′ sRef Rev@9 @9 S8′ sRef Rev@9 @4 S8′ sRef Rev@9 @11 S8′ sRef Rev@9 @10 S8′ sRef Rev@9 @7 S8′ sRef Rev@9 @5 S8′ sRef Rev@9 @6 S8′ [8] In John,

Out of the smoke of the abyss that had been opened came locusts onto the earth, which were given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth, or any tree, but men (homo) only who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. They were not allowed to kill them, but to torment them for five months. The shapes of the locusts were like horses prepared for war, and on their heads there were so to speak crowns like gold, their faces being like the faces of men (homo). They had hair like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth. They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots with many horses running to war. Finally, they had tails like scorpions, and the stings were in their tails, so that they could do harm to men (homo) for five months. They have a king over them, the angel of the abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon; but in Greek he has the name Apollyon. Rev. 9:3-11.

No one can see what all these things mean except from the internal sense. From each detail there viewed in accordance with the internal sense it is clear that ‘locusts’ means reasonings that are based on illusions and consequent falsities, and supported also by philosophical arguments. Thus in addition ‘locusts’ means the falsities which, being present in the outermost parts of the human mind and having a more earthly and bodily nature than all other falsities, can easily deceive and mislead people. For a person can embrace with ease ideas that agree with the senses, but with difficulty those that contradict them.

[9] To enable people to know that such things are meant by ‘locusts’, let the details of this passage be explained one by one. ‘The abyss’ out of which the locusts came is hell. ‘The grass of the earth’ which they were not to harm is factual knowledge, ‘tree’ recognition of what is good and true, and ‘men’ affections for what is good. Their being told to harm only men, not the grass of the earth or any tree, means that truth and good may come to be understood even when there is no living in accordance with them. ‘Those who have the seal on their foreheads’ are those who have been regenerated. Their being told to torment for five months those who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads means that they were to lay them waste. ‘Locusts like horses prepared for war’ are reasonings based on falsities that are used to fight against the Church’s truths. ‘On their heads crowns like gold’ and ‘faces like those of men’ mean that the reasonings have a similar appearance to truth and in origin seem to be good. ‘Hair like that of women’ and ‘teeth like the teeth of lions’ are the external things of the natural or the level of the senses, that is, the illusions there which give the appearance of good. ‘Breastplates of iron’ are external things giving the appearance of truth. ‘The sound of wings like that of chariots with many horses running to war’ means the falsities of doctrinal teachings which they use to fight with and which they fight for. ‘Tails like scorpions’ and ‘the stings in their tails’ are the injuries such things can inflict. ‘The king’ of the abyss is hellish falsity, ‘Abaddon’ destruction, ‘Apollyon’ reasoning based on falsities that seems to be based on truth, especially if those deemed to be wise support those falsities with philosophical arguments completely misapplied; for blind admiration of their wisdom leads people to have faith in them.

[10] In the good sense ‘locust’ means fundamental and very general truth, and also the pleasure it gives. This was why John had locusts as his food, and wild honey, Matt. 3:4; Mark 1:6. The reason why they were his food was that John represented the Word; and by his food as well as his clothing, which consisted of camel hair together with a skin girdle, he represented the Word in the external sense. For external pleasure is meant by ‘locusts and wild honey’, 5620, and external truth by a garment made of camel hair and by a skin girdle, 3301. This explains why John is understood to be the Elijah who is going to come and announce the Lord’s Coming, ‘Elijah’ being the Word, see Preface to Chapter 18 of Genesis, and 2762, 5247 (end). And Lev. 11:22 states that locusts were among the small creatures which people were allowed to eat.
* i.e. a (wingless) kind of locust, possibly the larva of a locust

sRef Ex@10 @5 S0′ 7644. ‘And they will cover the surface of the land’ means the lowest levels of the natural mind. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the surface’ as the external and so lowest levels; and from the meaning of ‘the land’, here ‘the land of Egypt’, as the natural mind, dealt with in 5276, 5278, 5280, 5188, 5301.

sRef Ex@10 @5 S0′ 7645. ‘And one will not be able to see the land’ means a darkening of the whole natural mind as a result. This is clear from the meaning of ‘not being able to see as a darkening, that is, the failure to perceive truth; and from the meaning of ‘the land of Egypt’ as the natural mind, as above in 7644. But a brief statement must be made to explain why, when the outermost contents of the natural are laid waste, the whole natural mind is darkened as a result. The interior parts of a person’s mind reach down into and are based on its lowest and outermost levels, where all its consecutive parts reside together. When there is nothing on the lowest levels but falsity and evil, truths and forms of good flowing from the interior parts into those lowest levels are flowing into evils and falsities there, as a consequence of which they are themselves turned into evils and falsities there. Therefore nothing but falsity and evil is apparent in the whole of the natural. This is what a darkening of the whole natural mind as a result, meant by ‘not being able to see the land’, describes. Here also is the reason why, when they have undergone vastation, hellish spirits are limited to the outermost parts of the natural. The inferior light they have, which is called the light of understanding, is not unlike the inferior light of this world, which in the next life becomes utterly thick darkness at the presence of the superior light of heaven. Since the outermost part of the natural, called the level of the senses, is filled with illusions and resulting falsities, and with self-indulgence and resulting evils, 6844, 6845, and since the hells are lit by that inferior light, the Lord provides a person when he is being regenerated with the ability to be raised above that level of the senses to more internal levels, see 6187, 6317, 7442.

sRef Ex@10 @5 S0′ 7646. ‘And they will devour the residue of what escaped and was left to you from the hail’ means the consumption of all things that have any element of truth in them. This is clear from the meaning of ‘devouring’ being consumed; and from the meaning of ‘the residue of what escaped and was left from the hail’ as truth that was not consumed or destroyed by the previous kind of falsity that is meant by ‘the hail’. For the meaning of ‘the hail’ as falsity, see 7553, 7574. The falsities meant by ‘the hail’ are falsities in the exterior natural, but the falsities meant by ‘the locusts’ are falsities in the outermost parts of it. The latter falsities are what consume the most general truths and forms of good; for comparatively external things are also comparatively general, and the most external ones are the most general. When general things have been destroyed particular ones are scattered, for the former are the containers, and the latter are their contents.

sRef Ex@10 @5 S0′ 7647. ‘And will devour every tree growing up for you out of the field’ means thus the consumption of all the religious knowledge that they get from the Church. This is clear from the meaning of ‘devouring’ as consumption, as immediately above in 7646; from the meaning of ‘tree’ as perceptions, and also cognitions or knowledge of truth and good, dealt with in 2722 (end), 2972; and from the meaning of ‘the field’ as the Church, dealt with in 2971, 3317, 3766, 4440, 7502, 7571.

sRef Ex@10 @6 S0′ 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.

sRef Ex@10 @6 S0′ 7649. ‘Which your fathers and your fathers’ fathers have not seen, from the day they have been on the ground even to this day’ means that since ancient times no such falsity had existed in the Church as existed there now. This is clear from the meaning of ‘which (that is, the locusts) they have not seen’ as no such falsity had existed, ‘locusts’ being falsity in outermost parts, see above in 7643; from the meaning of ‘fathers, and fathers of fathers’ as since ancient times; and from the meaning of ‘the ground’ as the Church, dealt with in 566, 1068. ‘From the day they have been on it even to this day’ means the state in which the Church existed from that time to this, the state being meant by ‘the day’, see 23, 487, 488, 493, 2788, 3462, 4850. For more on this, see 7686.

sRef Ex@10 @6 S0′ 7650. ‘And he looked away and went out from Pharaoh’ means deprivation of discernment, and separation. This is clear from the representation of Moses, of whom it says that ‘he looked away and went out’, as the truth from God, and from the representation of ‘Pharaoh’ as those who engage in molestation, both of whom are dealt with above in 7631; from the meaning of ‘looking away’ as deprivation of discernment, for a person is deprived of discernment when the truth from God looks or turns away, that is, when the person turns away from that truth; and from the meaning of ‘going out’ as separation, dealt with in 6100, 7404.

sRef Ex@10 @9 S0′ sRef Ex@10 @10 S0′ sRef Ex@10 @7 S0′ sRef Ex@10 @8 S0′ sRef Ex@10 @11 S0′ 7651. Verses 7-11 And Pharaoh’s servants said to him, How long will this thing be a snare to us? Send the men away, and let them serve Jehovah their God. Do you not yet know that Egypt is perishing? And Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh, and he said to them, Go, serve Jehovah your God. But just who will be going?* And Moses said, We shall go with our children and with our old people; with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds we shall go; for it is a feast of Jehovah for us. And he said to them, So Jehovah will be with you when I send you and your little children away! See that evil is on your faces. Not so! Go now, you young men, and serve Jehovah; for this is what you seek. And he drove them out from Pharaoh’s face.

‘And Pharaoh’s servants said to him’ means a warning from those subject to fear. ‘How long will this thing be a snare to us?’ means that by behaving in that way they would be held captive by their own evil. ‘Send the men away, and let them serve Jehovah their God’ means that it is advisable to leave them, in order that they may worship the Lord their God. ‘Do you not yet know that Egypt is perishing?’ means that the things which have taken place go to show that all who give those simple people trouble are cast into hell, from where there is no escape. ‘And Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh’ means the presence of God’s truth as a result. ‘And he said to them’ means a readiness. ‘Go, serve Jehovah your God’ means that they will be left alone in order that they may worship the Lord. ‘But just who will be going?’ means Would not some be remaining? ‘And Moses said’ means the reply. ‘We shall go with our children and with our old people’ means the simple and the wise. ‘With our sons and with our daughters’ means those who have an affection for truth and those who have an affection for good. ‘With our flocks and with our herds we shall go’ means those governed by good, interior and exterior. ‘For it is a feast of Jehovah for us’ means worship of the Lord offered by every single one. ‘And he said to them’ means mockery. ‘So Jehovah will be with you when I send you and your little children away!’ means As though the Lord would be with them if they were left alone! ‘See that evil is on your faces’ means that no good resides in what they desire. ‘Not so!’ means a refusal. ‘Go now, you young men, and serve Jehovah’ means that those guided by truths that have been corroborated will be left alone, in order that they may worship the Lord. ‘For this is what you seek’ means that then they have what they desire. ‘And he drove them out from Pharaoh’s face’ means that the will of the molesters was totally opposed to God’s truth.
* lit. Who and who will be going?

sRef Ex@10 @7 S0′ 7652. ‘And Pharaoh’s servants said to him’ means a warning from those subject to fear. This is clear from the meaning of ‘saying’ – when those who see their own destruction address members of their company who remain obstinate – as a warning; and from the meaning of ‘Pharaoh’s servants’ as those who engage in molestation but belong to a lower order and are subject to fear. The fact that they are subject to fear is evident from the following things said by them, ‘How long will this be a snare to us? Send the men away, and let them serve Jehovah their God. Do you not yet know that Egypt is perishing?’. These words are, it is plain, spoken from a feeling of fear. Their being subject to fear is also evident from the consideration that ‘Pharaoh’s servants’ is used to mean the evil who engage in molestation, and the evil do not speak in favour of good except when moved to do so by fear, see 7280.

sRef Ex@10 @7 S0′ 7653. ‘How long will this thing be a snare to us?’ means that by behaving in that way they would be held captive by their own evil. This is clear from the meaning of ‘this thing being a snare’ as being held captive by their own evil, and so being led into the misery that punishment brings.

sRef Ex@10 @7 S0′ 7654. ‘Send the men away, and let them serve Jehovah their God’ means that it is advisable to leave them, in order that they may worship the Lord their God. This is clear from the meaning of ‘sending away’ as leaving; and from the meaning of ‘serving Jehovah’ as worshipping the Lord their God, as before in 7500, 7540, 7641.

sRef Ex@10 @7 S0′ 7655. ‘Do you not yet know that Egypt is perishing?’ means that the things which have taken place go to show that all who give those simple people trouble are cast into hell, from where there is no escape. This is clear from the meaning of ‘do you not yet know?’ as the fact that the things which have taken place may go to show; from the meaning of ‘perishing’ as being cast into hell, from where there is no escape (this is meant in the spiritual sense by ‘perishing’, just as ‘dying’ or ‘death’ – see 5407, 6119, 7494 – means damnation and hell); and from the meaning of ‘Egypt’ as molestation, dealt with in 7278, thus also those engaged in it. But since they are the speakers they are not referred to here as those who molest but as those who give trouble, for the evil excuse and make light of their evil. Nor are they spoken of as giving trouble to those who belong to the spiritual Church but to those simple people, for the word ‘simple’ is used by the evil to describe all who belong to the Church and lead a life in keeping with its truths and forms of good, which is a life of faith and charity.

sRef Ex@10 @8 S0′ 7656. ‘And Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh’ means the presence of God’s truth as a result. This is clear from the meaning of ‘being brought back’ as being made present; and from the representation of ‘Moses and Aaron’ as God’s truth, ‘Moses’ being internal truth and ‘Aaron’ external, dealt with in 7089, 7382.

sRef Ex@10 @8 S0′ 7657. ‘And he said to them’ means a readiness. This is clear from the description that follows in which, driven by fear, he was willing to send them away. This willingness or readiness is included in the words ‘he said to them’.

sRef Ex@10 @8 S0′ 7658. ‘Go, serve Jehovah your God’ means that they will be left alone in order that they may worship the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of ‘serving Jehovah’ as worshipping the Lord, as in 7500, 7540, 7641, 7654. The fact that ‘go’ or ‘go away’, when said by Pharaoh to Moses regarding the children of Israel, means that they are to be left alone, is self-evident.

sRef Ex@10 @8 S0′ 7659. ‘But just who will be going?’ means Would not some be remaining? This is clear without explanation. [For the question implies that some will be going, and so will not others be remaining?]*
* The sentence in brackets translates what appears in Sw.’s rough draft but not in printed editions.

sRef Ex@10 @9 S0′ 7660. ‘And Moses said’ means the reply. This is self-evident.

sRef Ex@10 @9 S0′ 7661. ‘We shall go with our children and with our old people’ means the simple and the wise. This is clear from the meaning of ‘children’, when they are linked with ‘old people’, as the simple; for ‘old people’ are the wise, 3183, 6524, 6890.

sRef Ex@10 @9 S0′ 7662. ‘With our sons and with our daughters’ means those who have an affection for truth and those who have an affection for good. This is clear from the meaning of ‘sons’ as the truths which the Church possesses, dealt with in 489, 491, 573, 1147, 2623, 3373, thus affections since truths devoid of affection for them are not anything; and from the meaning of ‘daughters’ as forms of good, dealt with in 489, 491, thus affections for good, 2362, 3963.

sRef Ex@10 @9 S0′ 7663. ‘With our flocks and with our herds we shall go’ means those governed by good, interior and exterior. This is clear from the meaning of ‘flocks’ as interior good, and of ‘herds’ as exterior good, dealt with in 5913, 6048. The words in this verse, saying that they would go with their children and old people, sons and daughters, and flocks and herds, are used to mean in the internal sense everything that belongs to the Church, both the external Church and the internal. What belongs to the external Church is meant by ‘children’, ‘sons’, and ‘herds’, and what belongs to the internal Church by ‘old people’, ‘daughters’, and ‘flocks’; for ‘old people’ are aspects of wisdom, ‘daughters’ affections for good, and ‘flocks’ genuine good. These are what belong to the internal Church; but ‘children’ are aspects of simplicity, ‘sons’ affections for truth, and ‘herds’ external good, these being what belongs to the external Church.

sRef Ex@10 @9 S0′ 7664. ‘For it is a feast of Jehovah for us’ means worship of the Lord offered by every single one. This is clear from the meaning of ‘a feast’ as worship with gladness of mind, dealt with in 7093. The reason why it is worship of the Lord is that ‘Jehovah’ in the Word is the Lord, 1343, 1736, 2921, 3023, 3035, 5663, 6307, 6905, 6945, 6956. The fact that worship by every single one is meant is evident from what comes immediately before, where it says that they would go with children and old men, with sons and daughters, and with flocks and herds.

sRef Ex@10 @10 S0′ 7665. ‘And he said to them’ means mockery. This is clear from the actual words that Pharaoh uses, ‘So Jehovah will be with you when I send you and your little children away!’ These are words of mockery.

7665a* ‘So Jehovah will be with you when I send you and your little children away!’ means As though the Lord would be with them if they were left alone! This is clear from the meaning of ‘So Jehovah will be with you!’ as As though the Lord would be with them! (‘Jehovah’ being the Lord, see just above in 7664); from the meaning of ‘sending away’ as leaving; and from the meaning of ‘little children’ as those who make up the father’s family or house, for the ‘little children’ here are those called ‘children’, ‘sons’, and ‘daughters’ in the verse immediately before.
* The whole of this paragraph found in Sw.’s rough draft was omitted from the first Latin edition.

sRef Ex@10 @10 S0′ 7666. ‘See that evil is on your faces’ means that no good resides in what they desire. This is clear from the meaning of ‘faces’ as the interiors in respect of the affections and resulting thoughts there, dealt with in 358, 1999, 2434, 3527, 3573, 4066, 4796, 4797, 5102, and since ‘faces’ means affections, it also means desires. Consequently ‘that evil is on your faces’ means that no good resides in their affections, that is, in what they desire.

sRef Ex@10 @11 S0′ 7667. ‘Not so!’ means a refusal. This is clear without explanation.

sRef Ex@10 @11 S0′ 7668. ‘Go now, you young men, and serve Jehovah’ means that those guided by truths that have been corroborated will be left alone, in order that they may worship the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of the command ‘go’ as the intimation that they will be left alone, as above in 7658; from the meaning of ‘young men’ as corroborated truths, dealt with below; and from the meaning of ‘serving Jehovah’ as worshipping the Lord, as above in 7654, 7664. The reason why ‘young men’ means those guided by truths that have been corroborated is that by sons, boys, young men, men, and old men’ are meant aspects of intelligence and wisdom in their true order. Such aspects instead of those male persons are understood in heaven; for those in heaven possess spiritual ideas which are such that images from the purely natural order or the world cannot enter them without being instantly sloughed off and transformed into the kinds of images that are more in keeping with the wisdom of heaven and with angelic thought. This is why ‘sons, boys, young men, men, and old men’ cannot in the spiritual sense mean those male persons, only corresponding spiritual realities, which are aspects of intelligence and wisdom. The fact that these are meant is plainly evident from the internal sense of the places in the Word where they are mentioned.

sRef Zech@13 @7 S2′ sRef Jer@31 @22 S2′ [2] In the Word ‘young men’ is used to mean those who have intelligence, or – on the level of abstract ideas on which angels think – intelligence itself. And since intelligence is meant by them, so is firmly established truth since this belongs to intelligence. Also the expression which is used here in the original language to denote young men is derived from strength and power, which truth receives from good, and so which firmly established truth receives. And this name is therefore applied to the Lord in Zechariah,

O sword, rise up against My shepherd, and against the (young) man, My neighbour. Strike the shepherd, and the sheep are scattered. Zech. 13:7.

These words were spoken in reference to the Lord, see Matt. 26:31. And also in Jeremiah,

How long do you wander around, O estranged daughter? Jehovah has created a new thing on the earth, a woman has surrounded a (young) man. Jer. 31:22.

sRef Amos@4 @10 S3′ [3] Another word for ‘young men in the original language stands for intelligence, and so for the truth that belongs to it, in Amos,

I have sent the pestilence upon you in the way of Egypt, I have killed your young men with the sword, along with captured horses.* Amos 4:10.

‘The way of Egypt’ stands for perverted factual knowledge, young men who have been killed’ for truths which have as a result been destroyed, and ‘captured horses’ for an understanding that has been led into error.

sRef Jer@9 @21 S4′ sRef Amos@8 @12 S4′ sRef Jer@49 @26 S4′ sRef Amos@8 @13 S4′ sRef Jer@49 @25 S4′ [4] In the same prophet,

They will wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they will run to and fro to seek the Word of Jehovah, and will not find it. On that day the beautiful virgins and the young men will faint from thirst. Amos 8:12, 13.

‘The beautiful virgins’ stands for the affection for truth, ‘the young men’ for intelligence, and ‘fainting from thirst’ for being deprived of truth; and this is why it says ‘they will run to and fro to seek the Word of Jehovah, and will not find it’. The fact that neither beautiful virgins, nor young men, nor fainting because of thirst are meant here is self-evident.

In Jeremiah,

Death has come up through our windows, it has entered our palaces, cutting off the young child from the street, young men from the lanes. Jer. 9:11.

In the same prophet,

How is the city of glory not forsaken, the city of My joy? Therefore her young men will fall in her streets. Jer. 49:25, 26; 50:30.

In the same prophet,

Hear now, all peoples, see my sorrow; my virgins and my young men have gone into captivity. Lam. 1:18.

In these places ‘young men’ stands for the truths that belong to intelligence.
* lit. the captivity of horses

sRef Ex@10 @11 S0′ 7669. ‘For this is what you seek’ means that then they have what they desire. This is clear without explanation.

sRef Ex@10 @11 S0′ 7670. ‘And he drove them out from Pharaoh’s face’ means that the will of the molesters was totally opposed to God’s truth. This is clear from the representation of Moses and Aaron, the ones who were ‘driven out’, as God’s truth, dealt with above in 7677; from the representation of ‘Pharaoh’ as those who engage in molestation, also dealt with above, in 7637; from the meaning of ‘face’ as the interiors in respect of the affections there, dealt with in 7666, and so the will, for affections belong to the will but thoughts to the understanding. The total opposition of the will is meant by ‘he drove them out from his face’; for anything contrary to the will, that is, to the affections belonging to the will, is driven out.

sRef Ex@10 @13 S0′ sRef Ex@10 @14 S0′ sRef Ex@10 @15 S0′ sRef Ex@10 @12 S0′ 7671. Verses 12-15 And Jehovah said to Moses, Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, and they will come up over the land of Egypt and devour every plant in the land, all that the hail has left. And Moses stretched out his rod over the land of Egypt, and Jehovah brought an east wind into the land the whole of that day and the whole night. Morning came, and the east wind brought the locusts. And the locusts came up over all the land of Egypt, and rested at all the border of Egypt; they were extremely severe. Before them there were no such locusts like them, and there will not be such after them. And they covered the surface of the whole land, and the land was darkened; and they devoured every plant in the land and all the fruit on the trees which the hail had caused to be left. And there was not left any green on tree and on plant of the field in the whole land of Egypt.

‘And Jehovah said to Moses’ means instruction. ‘Stretch out your hand’ means an exercising of power. ‘Over the land of Egypt for the locusts’ means in order that falsity may take possession of the whole natural of the molesting ones. ‘And they will come up over the land of Egypt’ means an outpouring into everything there. ‘And devour every plant in the land’ means the total consumption of all truth. ‘All that the hail has left’ means which the previous falsity has not consumed. ‘And Moses stretched out his rod over the land of Egypt’ means exercising the power of God’s truth over the entire natural of the molesting ones. ‘And Jehovah brought an east wind’ means an agent of destruction. ‘The whole of that day and the whole of that night’ means all the perception, both that which was darkened and that which was not darkened, of the molesting ones. ‘Morning came’ means the state of heaven in rearranged order. ‘And the east wind brought the locusts’ means massive falsity present with the molesting ones, brought by the agent of destruction. ‘And the locusts came up over all the land of Egypt’ means the outpouring of falsity into everything in the natural. ‘And rested at all the border of Egypt’ means at the outermost parts there. ‘They were extremely severe’ means that they penetrated every single part. ‘Before them there were no such locusts like them, and there will not be such after them’ means that no such falsity has existed since the Church first began, and such will not exist again. ‘And they covered the surface of the whole land’ means that they took possession of the last and lowest levels of the natural mind. ‘And the land was darkened’ means that falsity was introduced where there had been truth. ‘And they devoured every plant in the land’ means that it consumed every known fact about truth. ‘And all the fruit on the trees’ means every recognition of good. ‘And they did not allow any green to be left’ means the obliteration of every sensory apprehension of truth. ‘On tree and on plant of the field’ means belonging to the things the Church recognized and knew. ‘In the whole land of Egypt’ means on every side in the natural.

sRef Ex@10 @12 S0′ 7672. ‘And Jehovah said to Moses’ means instruction. This is clear from the meaning of ‘saying’ – when Jehovah tells Moses, who represents God’s truth, what needs to be done – as instruction, dealt with in 6879, 6881, 6887, 6891, 7186, 7267, 7304, 7380.

sRef Ex@10 @12 S0′ sRef Ex@8 @6 S1′ sRef Ex@8 @5 S1′ sRef Ex@8 @17 S1′ sRef Ex@8 @16 S1′ sRef Ex@9 @22 S1′ sRef Ex@9 @23 S1′ 7673. ‘Stretch out your hand’ means an exercising of power. This is clear from the meaning of ‘stretching out’ as that which is connected with the exercising of control, dealt with below; and from the meaning of ‘hand’ as power, dealt with in 878, 3387, 4931-4937, 5327, 5328, 5544, 6292, 6947, 7011, 7188, 7189, 7518. The reason why ‘stretching out the hand’ means the exercising of power is that there is power in the hand or arm when it is stretched out. When therefore Jehovah is said to stretch out His hand or arm, boundless or infinite power in action is meant. This explains why Jehovah told Moses on so many occasions, when miracles were to be performed, to stretch out his hand or his rod; for example,

Stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, and they will be blood. Exod. 7:19.

Stretch out your hand over the rivers, and cause frogs to rise up. Exod. 8:1, 2.*

Stretch out your rod and strike the dust of the land, and it will then be lice. Exod. 8:11, 12.**

Stretch out your hand towards heaven, and there will be hail. Exod. 9:22, 23.

Such words would never have been used but for the meaning of ‘stretching out the hand’ in the highest sense as Jehovah’s almighty power.

sRef Josh@8 @18 S2′ sRef Josh@8 @19 S2′ sRef Josh@8 @26 S2′ [2] The same thing is meant by Joshua’s being told to stretch out his javelin, described in his book as follows,

Jehovah said to Joshua, Stretch out the javelin that is in your hand towards Ai. When therefore Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand towards Ai, the ambush rose up quickly out of their place and ran, as soon as he stretched out his hand, and came to the city and took it. Joshua did not withdraw his hand which he had stretched out together with the javelin until all the inhabitants of Ai had been utterly destroyed. Josh. 8:18, 19, 26.

Being representative of God’s almighty power, this too, like all other representative actions when they were commanded in those times, had force.

sRef Isa@5 @25 S3′ sRef Ezek@25 @13 S3′ sRef Isa@14 @27 S3′ sRef Ezek@14 @9 S3′ sRef Ezek@25 @7 S3′ sRef Ezek@14 @13 S3′ sRef Jer@27 @5 S3′ sRef Jer@32 @17 S3′ sRef Jer@21 @5 S3′ sRef Isa@9 @17 S3′ sRef Isa@9 @12 S3′ sRef Ezek@25 @16 S3′ [3] There are a number of other places in which almighty power is described when it says that Jehovah ‘stretches out His hand’, or else His ‘outstretched hand’ or His ‘outstretched arm’ is spoken of. It is described by Jehovah stretching out His hand in Isaiah,

The anger [of Jehovah] has been roused against His people, and He has stretched out His hand over them and struck them, and the mountains were shaken. Isa. 5:25.

In Ezekiel,

I will stretch out My hand against him and destroy him. Ezek. 14:9, 13.

In the same prophet,

I will stretch out My hand against you, and give you as plunder to the nations. Ezek. 25:7.

I will stretch out My hand over Edom, and cut off from it man and beast. I will stretch out My hand over the philistines, and cut off . . . Ezek. 15:17, 16.

Other places like these are Ezek. 35:3; Isa. 31:3; Zeph. 1:4; 2:13. The use of ‘outstretched hand’ to describe almighty power occurs in Isaiah,

Jehovah’s outstretched hand is over all the nations; who will turn it back? Isa. 14:26, 27.

In Jeremiah,

I will fight with you with an outstretched hand and a strong arm, and in anger and in fury. Jer. 21:5.

In Isaiah,

Still His hand is outstretched. Isa. 9:11, 17; 10:4.

The use of ‘outstretched arm’ occurs in Jeremiah,

I have made the earth, man, and beast by My great strength and by My outstretched arm. Jer. 27:5.

In the same prophet,

You have made heaven and earth by Your great power and Your outstretched arm; there is no matter*** that is too impossible for You. Jer. 32:17.

Here it is self-evident that ‘outstretched arm’ means almighty power. The same applies to many other places in which the expression ‘by a strong hand and an outstretched arm’ is used, such as Deut. 4:34; 5:15; 7:19; 9:29; 11:2; 26:8; 1 Kings 8:42; 2 Kings 17:36; Jer. 32:21; Ezek. 10:33, 34.

sRef Isa@40 @22 S4′ sRef Isa@42 @5 S4′ sRef Jer@51 @15 S4′ sRef Isa@44 @24 S4′ sRef Zech@12 @1 S4′ [4] There are places too in which Jehovah is said to ‘stretch out the heavens’, and in these places also ‘stretching out’ means almighty power; that is to say, He expands the limits of heaven and fills those who are there with life and wisdom, as in Isaiah,

Jehovah is He who stretches out the heavens like a thin veil, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. Isa. 40:22.

In the same prophet,

Jehovah is He who stretches out the heavens, spreads out the earth, gives breath**** to His people upon it, and spirit to those who walk on it. Isa. 42:5.

In Jeremiah,

. . . He who makes the earth by His power, prepares the world by His wisdom, and stretches out the heavens by His intelligence. Jer. 51:15.

In Zechariah,

Jehovah is He who stretches out the heavens, and founds the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him. Zech. 12:1.

There are still more places besides these, such as Isa. 44:24; 45:12; Ps. 104:2.

From all this one may now see why Moses was commanded to stretch out his hand and rod, that miracles were performed when he did so, and that ‘stretching out the hand’ for that reason means the exercising of power, and in the highest sense almighty power.
* Exod. 8:5, 6 in English Bibles
** Exod. 8:16, 17 in English Bibles
*** or word
**** lit. soul

sRef Ex@10 @12 S0′ 7674. ‘Over the land of Egypt for the locusts’ means in order that falsity may take possession of the whole natural of the molesting ones. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the land of Egypt’ as the natural mind, dealt with in 5276, 5278, 5280, 5288, 5301, ‘Egypt’ being the natural, 6147, 6152; and from the meaning of ‘the locusts’ as falsity present with those engaged in molestation, in the outermost parts of their mind, dealt with in 7643.

sRef Ex@10 @12 S0′ 7675. ‘And they will come up over the land of Egypt’ means an outpouring into everything there. This is clear from the meaning of ‘coming up’ as being poured out, for ‘the locusts’ – meaning falsity present in outermost parts, and stretching from these into the inner parts – are said to ‘come up’ since the inner parts are one and the same as higher parts (the fact that falsity takes possession of inner parts as well when it takes possession of outer ones, see 7645); and from the meaning of ‘the land of Egypt’ as the natural mind, dealt with immediately above in 7674.

sRef Ex@10 @12 S0′ 7676. ‘And devour every plant in the land’ means the total consumption of all truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘devouring’ as consuming; and from the meaning of ‘plant in the land’ as the Church’s truth, dealt with in 7571.

sRef Ex@10 @12 S0′ 7677. ‘All that the hail has left’ means which the previous falsity has not consumed. This is clear from the meaning of ‘has left’ as what it has not consumed; and from the meaning of ‘the hail’ as falsity arising from evil in the exterior natural, dealt with in 7557, 7574.

sRef Ex@10 @13 S0′ sRef John@1 @3 S0′ sRef John@1 @1 S0′ 7678. ‘And Moses stretched out his rod over the land of Egypt’ means exercising the power of God’s truth over the entire natural of the molesting ones. This is clear from the meaning of ‘stretching out the rod’ as an exercising of power, dealt with above in 7673; from the representation of ‘Moses’ as God’s truth, dealt with in 6752, 7010, 7014, 7382; and from the meaning of ‘the land of Egypt’ as the natural of those who molest, dealt with above in 7674. The Divine power which is described by ‘the hand of Moses’ is the power of God’s truth. All power belongs to truth, see 3091, 5623, 6344, 6423, 6948; indeed the power that Divine Truth going forth from Divine Goodness possesses is such that it has created all things throughout the universe. That Truth is meant by ‘the Word’ in John,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made through Him. John 1:1, 3.

This explains why miracles were performed through Moses, for ‘Moses’ represents Divine Truth. Most people think that the Word or Divine Truth is merely what Jehovah has spoken and what He commands so to be done – this and nothing more. But in fact it is the Essential Being itself (Ipsum Essentiale), the source from which all things exist and the means by which they are kept in existence. That Essential Being (Esse) which emanates from Him and, arising from it, the Coming-into-Being (Existere) of all things is what is meant by Divine Truth. Some light on all this can be gained by considering the angels. From them emanates a sphere of charity and faith which is clearly perceptible and which also produces wondrous effects. From these one may form some idea of Divine Truth which emanates from the Lord’s Divine Goodness.

sRef Ex@10 @13 S0′ 7679. ‘And Jehovah brought an east wind’ means an agent of destruction. This is clear from the meaning of ‘an east wind’ as an agent of destruction. ‘An east wind’ has this meaning because it was dry and turbulent, and because it therefore withered the produce of that land, and by its force shattered trees, and ships at sea. This is why that wind, acting as an agent [of destruction], describes the effect that Divine power can have. In addition ‘the east’ means the good of love and charity, for the Lord is meant by it in the highest sense, 101, 1250, 3708. Also, being Divine, the good of love and charity is in origin very gentle, and consequently is also such in its movements when it passes into heaven. But when it comes down into hell it becomes rough and fierce, because the inhabitants of hell make it so. Therefore the inflow and presence there of that Divine good not only torments them but also devastates them. This too explains why a wind from the east or ‘an east wind’ means an agent of destruction.

sRef Hos@12 @1 S2′ sRef Ps@48 @7 S2′ sRef Jer@18 @17 S2′ sRef Ezek@17 @10 S2′ sRef Ezek@19 @12 S2′ sRef Hos@13 @15 S2′ sRef Ezek@27 @26 S2′ [2] The fact that this wind means an agent of destruction is evident from the places in which it is mentioned in the Word, as in Jeremiah,

Like an east wind I will scatter them before the enemy. Jer. 18:17.

In Ezekiel,

The vine that was planted, will it thrive?* When the east wind strikes it, will it not wither completely?. Ezek. 17:10.

In the same prophet,

That vine has been plucked up in anger, it has been cast down onto the ground, the east wind has dried its fruit. Ezek. 19:12.

In Hosea,

He will be among his brothers a ferocious one; an east wind will come, Jehovah’s wind rising up from the desert, and his spring mill become dry, and his fountain dried up. Hosea 13:15.

In David,

By an east wind You will shatter the ships of Tarshish. Ps. 48:7.

In Ezekiel,

They brought you down to many waters, those who despise you; the east wind broke you in the heart of the seas. Ezek. 27:26.

From these places it is evident that ‘an east wind’ means an agent of destruction, because it was a dry wind and a turbulent one. It therefore also means an agent of devastation, as in Hosea,

Ephraim feeds the wind, and pursues the east wind. All the day long he multiplies lies and devastation. Hosea 12:1.

‘Ephraim’ stands for the Church’s understanding, 5354, 6222, 6238. ‘Feeding the wind’ is multiplying lies, and ‘pursuing the east wind’ is multiplying devastation. A state of devastation and temptation is also called ‘the day of the east wind’ in Isaiah 27:7, 8.
* Reading num prosperabitur (will it thrive?), which Sw. has in another place where he quotes this verse and which is the meaning of the Hebrew, for non prosperabitur (it will not thrive)

sRef Ex@10 @13 S0′ 7680. ‘The whole of that day and the whole of that night’ means all the perception, both that which was darkened and that which was not darkened, of the molesting ones – that is to say, it was all destroyed. This is clear from the meaning of ‘day’ as a state of undarkened perception; and from the meaning of ‘night’ as a state of darkened perception. For periods of the day – morning, midday, evening, and night – correspond to degrees of enlightenment, that is, of intelligence and wisdom, 5672, 6110, and so to degrees of perception. In general day and night are called degrees of perception, not of enlightenment, because the evil who molest have no enlightenment, though they may still have perception. They have it for as long as there remains with them any knowledge at all of truth and goodness which they had acquired from the Church in which they had lived. For through truth and goodness they have contact with those who are in heaven. But once they have been deprived of such knowledge, as happens when they have undergone vastation, they no longer have any perception. Those in hell are, it is true, able to justify their evils, and also their falsities; but this is not perception. Perception is seeing that truth is truth and good is good, and also that evil is evil and falsity is falsity. But it is not perception when people see truth as falsity, or good as evil, and conversely see evil as good or falsity as truth. Those who do this have delusion instead of perception. That delusion takes on the appearance of perception, in that people such as they know how to justify falsities and evils by means of the kinds of ideas that suggest themselves to the senses and lend support to their evil longings.

sRef Ex@10 @13 S0′ 7681. ‘Morning came’ means the state of heaven in rearranged order. This is clear from the meaning of ‘morning’ as the Lord’s kingdom, and in the highest sense as the Lord Himself, dealt with in 22, 2333, 2405, 2540, 2780, and as a state of enlightenment, 3458, 3723, 5740, 5962, though at this point ‘morning’ means heaven in a state of order. The nature of this may be recognized from what has been stated in 7643. There it is shown that the evil undergo vastation as the Lord rearranges heaven; for the inflow of goodness and truth from heaven leads to the vastation which the evil undergo. Therefore when the Lord rearranges the heavens the hells too, which are opposite heaven, are automatically rearranged. They are moved away from heaven, to positions determined by the degrees of their evil, and they are allotted places determined by the variety of their evil. This shows that nothing but good emanates from the Lord, and that evil springs from those who are opposed to good and ultimately cannot bear it. From all this it is evident that ‘morning came’ here means the state of heaven in rearranged order.

sRef Ex@10 @13 S0′ 7682. ‘And the east wind brought the locusts’ means massive falsity present with the molesting ones, brought by the agent of destruction. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the east wind’ as the agent of destruction, dealt with just above in 7679; and from the meaning of ‘the locusts’ as falsity in outermost parts, dealt with in 7643, at this point massive falsity since it had taken possession of the whole natural mind, 7645.

sRef Ex@10 @14 S0′ 7683. ‘And the locusts came up over all the land of Egypt’ means the outpouring of falsity into everything in the natural. This is clear from what has been stated above in 7674, 7675. Where similar words occur.

sRef Ex@10 @14 S0′ 7684. ‘And rested at all the border of Egypt’ means at the outermost parts there. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the border’ as what is outermost, and therefore ‘rested at all the border’ means that the falsity, beginning at the outermost, penetrated all parts of the natural, and came to an end in the outermost parts, as accords with what has been shown in 7645.

sRef Ex@10 @14 S0′ 7685. ‘They were extremely severe’ means that they penetrated every single part. This is clear from the explanation here above in 7684.

sRef Ex@10 @14 S0′ 7686. ‘Before them there were no [such] locusts like them, and there will not be such after them’ means that no such falsity has existed since the Church first began, and such will not exist again. This is clear from the meaning of ‘locusts’ as falsity in outermost parts, dealt with in 7643; and the fact that no such falsity has existed or will exist, see also above in 7649. But this needs to be explained. The subject in the internal sense is in particular those who before the Lord’s Coming were on the lower earth and could not be raised to heaven before the Lord had come into the world, taken on the Human, and made it Divine, see 6854, 6914. Till then they were molested by evil ones who also belonged to the Church and subscribed to the truths of faith, yet led an evil life. Those who before the Lord’s Coming belonged to the Church and led an evil life were steeped in falsity, the like of which had not existed before then, nor ever will afterwards. The reason for this was that those called the Nephilim, also the Anakim and Rephaim, who belonged to the final descendants of the Most Ancient Church, had not yet been shut up in hell but wandered about, instilling dreadful and deadly persuasions wherever they could. They accordingly instilled them into evil people within the Church; and that was how such falsity came to exist with them. Regarding those Nephilim and their dreadful persuasions, see 310, 560, 562, 563, 570, 581, 586, 607 (end), 660, 805, 808, 1034, 1120, 1265-1272, 1673. When the Lord was in the world He cast them into a hell some distance away out in front on the left. Had He not done so very few people could have been saved, for the falsity which was instilled by them carried with it a dreadful power of persuasion, and was lethal; the like of it had never existed before and cannot exist ever again. Steeped in that kind of falsity were those who before the Lord’s Coming molested members of the spiritual Church. This is what the words at this point are used to mean in the internal sense. In particular they refer to those who were molesters then, but in general they refer to all who belong to the Church and molest the upright in the next life, of whom there are very many at the present day.

sRef Ex@10 @15 S0′ 7687. ‘And they covered the surface of the whole land’ means [that they took possession of] the last and lowest levels of the natural mind. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the surface’ as what is last and lowest, for it is the most external or outermost part of the land; and from the meaning of ‘the land’, which is the land of Egypt here, as the natural mind, dealt with above in 7674.

sRef Matt@8 @12 S0′ sRef Matt@6 @23 S0′ sRef Ex@10 @15 S0′ 7688. ‘And the land was darkened’ means that falsity was introduced where there had been truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘darkness’ as falsities, dealt with in 1839, 1860, 4418, 4531, so that ‘being darkened’ is being subject to falsity. And since the vastation of those who belonged to the Church, had a knowledge of truths, but led an evil life, are the subject ‘the land was darkened’ means falsity where there has been truth. Truth is meant in the internal sense by ‘light’, and therefore falsity is meant by ‘darkness’; for truth and falsity are opposites like light and darkness. And those guided by truth dwell in actual light, whereas those under the influence of falsity dwell in actual darkness. The inferior light which those under the influence of falsity in the next life dwell in turns into thick darkness at the presence of the superior light of heaven, and into even thicker darkness with those who have belonged to the Church, because their falsity has stood in opposition to the truth of faith, as accords with the Lord’s words in Matthew,

If the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! Matt. 6:23.

And in the same gospel,

The sons of the kingdom will be thrown into outer darkness. Matt. 8:12.

‘The sons of the kingdom’ are members of the Church, and ‘outer darkness’ is more serious falsities, the term ‘outer’ being used because falsities in the outermost parts are more serious ones.

sRef John@12 @35 S2′ sRef Joel@2 @2 S2′ sRef Isa@5 @20 S2′ sRef Ezek@32 @8 S2′ sRef Joel@2 @1 S2′ sRef John@12 @46 S2′ sRef Ezek@32 @7 S2′ sRef Zeph@1 @15 S2′ sRef John@3 @19 S2′ sRef Jer@13 @16 S2′ [2] The fact that falsities are called ‘darkness’ is clear from a number of places in the Word, for example in John,

Light has come into the world, but men preferred darkness rather than light, for their works were evil. John 3:19.

In the same gospel,

Walk, as long as you have the light, lest darkness overtakes you. I have come as light into the world in order that all who believe in Me may not remain in darkness. John 12:35, 46.

In Isaiah,

Woe to those who speak of evil as good, and of good as evil, who put darkness for light, and light for darkness! Isa. 5:20.

In Jeremiah,

Give glory to Jehovah your God before He brings darkness and before your feet stumble on the twilight mountains; then you will look for light but He will turn it into the shadow of death, He will place it in thick darkness. Jer. 13:16.

In Ezekiel,

When I have blotted you out, I will cover the heavens and darken their stars. I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon will not give its light. All the bright lights in the heavens I will make dark over you, and I will put darkness over your land. Ezek. 32:7, 8.

In Joel,

The day of Jehovah is coming, it is near, a day of darkness and thick darkness, a day of cloud and gloom. Joel 2:1, 2; Amos 5:18, 20.

In Zephaniah,

A day of wrath is that day, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and thick darkness. Zeph. 1:15.

In these places ‘darkness’ means falsities. In addition ‘darkness’ in the Word means lack of knowledge of the truth, such as exists with gentiles who do not have the Word and know nothing about the Lord.


sRef Ex@10 @15 S0′ 7689. ‘And they devoured every plant in the land’ means that it consumed every known fact about truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘devouring’ as consuming; and from the meaning of ‘a plant in the land’ as a known fact about truth. For ‘a plant in the field’ means a truth that the Church possesses, 7571, because ‘the field’ is the Church, but ‘a plant in the land’ means a known fact about truth, because ‘the land’ here is the natural mind, and truth as it exists in the natural mind is factual knowledge. Furthermore the evil are not in possession of any truth of faith, only of knowledge about the truth of faith. Some evil people within the Church are convinced that they do possess the truth of faith, but they do not; they are ruled by falsity and opposed to the truth of faith. The falsity they are ruled by is deeply hidden within them as long as they are in the world, but that deeply hidden falsity emerges and reveals itself in the next life when they undergo vastation of the truths of faith they had known.

sRef Ex@10 @15 S0′ 7690. ‘And all the fruit on the trees’ means every recognition of good. This is clear from the meaning of ‘fruit’ as the works of faith or of charity, thus forms of good (which is why the expression ‘being fruitful’ is used in reference to good, 43, 55, 913, 987, 2846, 2847); and from the meaning of ‘trees’ as perceptions, and also cognitions, dealt with in 103, 2163, 2722, 2972. The reason why ‘fruit’ means the works of charity, and so forms of good, is that the earliest existence of a tree is the fruit containing the seed and the final stage in its development is the fruit containing the seed, the intermediate stages of its development being the branches, that is, the leaves. It is similar with the good of love and truth of faith. The good of love is the initial seed when a person is being regenerated or ‘planted’, and it is also the final development. The intermediate stages are the truths of faith, which grow from the good of love as their seed and look constantly to the good of love as their final objective, just as the parts of a tree that are formed at intermediate stages look to their fruit containing the seed. The fact that ‘the fruit’ means forms of good is evident from a large number of places in the Word, such as Matt. 3:8, 9; 7:16-20; 12:33; 21:43; Luke 3:8, 9; 6:43-49; 13:6-10; John 15:2-8, 16; Isa. 37:31; Jer. 17:8; 32:19; Rev. 22:2.

sRef Rev@9 @4 S0′ sRef Rev@9 @1 S0′ sRef Isa@15 @6 S0′ sRef Rev@9 @3 S0′ sRef Ex@10 @15 S0′ 7691. ‘And they did not allow any green to be left’ means the obliteration of every sensory apprehension of truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘not allowing to be left’ as obliterating; and from the meaning of ‘green’ as factual knowledge and sensory evidence, here sensory apprehension of truth, since ‘the fruit of the trees’ means recognition of good, 7690, and reference is being made to all the green on trees and on the plants of the field. ‘Green’ means sensory apprehension of truth because truths are meant by ‘plant’, ‘grass’, and ‘leaf of tree’, and from this a sensory apprehension of truth by their greenness. By sensory apprehension is meant the lowest level of perception. A sensory apprehension of truth is also meant by ‘green’ in Isaiah,

The waters of Nimrim will be desolations, for the reason that the grass has withered away, the plant has been consumed, there is nothing green. Isa. 15:6.

And in John,

The fifth angel sounded, and out came locusts; and they were told not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green thing. Rev. 9:4.

sRef Ex@10 @15 S0′ 7692. ‘On tree and on plant of the field’ means belonging to the things the Church recognized and knew. This is clear from the meaning of ‘a tree’ as a recognition of truth, dealt with just above in 7690; and from the meaning of ‘a plant of the field’ as a known fact about truth, also dealt
with above, in 7689.

sRef Ex@10 @15 S0′ 7693. ‘In the whole land of Egypt’ means on every side in the natural. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the land of Egypt’ as the natural mind, and so the natural, dealt with in 7674. Since ‘the locust’, which has been the subject here, means falsity in the outermost parts, that is, in the sensory level of the human mind, let me say what the sensory level is in order that people may thereby know what falsity in the outermost parts of the mind is. A sensory-minded person, or a person whose thought and actions are reduced to the sensory level, is one who does not believe anything unless it is palpable to his outward senses, and who is led solely by bodily appetites, pleasure-seeking desires, and covetous passions, and not by rational ways of thinking. Ideas that lend support to urges such as these are what he believes to be rational ways of thinking. Being like this a sensory-minded person denies the existence of everything of an internal nature, until at length he will not even allow it to be mentioned. Consequently he refuses in his heart to believe in anything whatever of heaven. He does not have any belief in life after death, because he considers life to reside solely in the body. He therefore also supposes that when he dies it will be the same for him as for an animal. That person thinks so to speak on the surface, that is, on the lowest or outermost levels, and he is totally unaware of the existence of interior thought that is dependent on the perception of what is true and good. The reason why he is not aware of this, nor even of the existence of an internal man, is that the inner parts of his mind look down towards things of the world, the body, and the earth, and make one with them. They have therefore been diverted from looking upwards or towards heaven, for they are turned in the opposite direction. Looking upwards or towards heaven does not consist in thinking about the things of heaven but in having them as one’s end in view, that is, loving them above all else. For in whatever direction love turns, the inner parts of a person’s mind turn, and so too his thought. All this goes to show the nature of the sensory level of a person’s mind, or the natural in its outermost parts, for a person who thinks on the sensory level is called sensory-minded.

sRef Ex@10 @20 S0′ sRef Ex@10 @19 S0′ sRef Ex@10 @16 S0′ sRef Ex@10 @17 S0′ sRef Ex@10 @18 S0′ 7694. Verses 16-20 And Pharaoh hastened to call Moses and Aaron; and he said, I have sinned against Jehovah your God, and against you. And now forgive, I beg you, my sin only this once, and plead with Jehovah your God, and let Him remove from upon me this death only. And he went out from Pharaoh, and pleaded with Jehovah. And Jehovah turned an extremely strong wind of the sea,* and it lifted the locusts and cast them into the Sea Suph. Not one locust was left in all the border of Egypt. And Jehovah made Pharaoh’s heart unyielding, and he did not send the children of Israel away.

‘And Pharaoh hastened to call Moses and Aaron’ means fear at this time of the truth from God. ‘And he said, I have sinned against Jehovah your God, and against you’ means an admission that he had disobeyed the Divine and the truth. ‘And now forgive, I beg you, my sin only this once means an appeal to them to disregard the disobedience. ‘And plead with Jehovah your God’ means intercession. ‘And let Him remove from upon me this death only’ means a plea that this falsity should not torment. ‘And he went out from Pharaoh’ means a separation. ‘And pleaded with Jehovah’ means intercession. ‘And Jehovah turned an extremely strong wind of the sea’ means a stoppage of the Divine inflow through heaven. ‘And it lifted the locusts’ means the end of that state. ‘And cast them into the Sea Suph’ means into hell. ‘Not one locust was left in all the border of Egypt’ means that those falsities in the outermost parts no longer made their appearance. ‘And Jehovah made Pharaoh’s heart unyielding’ means that the molesting ones remained obstinate. ‘And he did not send the children of Israel away’ means that they did not leave those belonging to the spiritual Church.
* i.e. a west wind

sRef Ex@10 @16 S0′ 7695. ‘And Pharaoh hastened to call Moses and Aaron’ means fear at this time of the truth from God. This is clear from the meaning of ‘hastening’ as acting out of fear, for all haste is the result of some feeling that has been aroused, in this case a feeling of fear, as is evident from Pharaoh’s words ‘I have sinned against Jehovah your God, and against you; plead with Him to remove from me this death only’; from the representation of ‘Pharaoh’ as those who engage in molestation, dealt with rather often; and from the representation of ‘Moses and Aaron’ as the truth from God, ‘Moses’ being inward truth and ‘Aaron’ outward truth, dealt with in 7089, 7382.

sRef Ex@10 @16 S0′ 7696. ‘And he said, I have sinned against Jehovah your God, and against you’ means an admission that he had disobeyed the Divine and the truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘sinning’ as acting contrary to Divine order, dealt with in 5076, and turning away and separating oneself from it, thus from goodness and truth, 5229, 5474, 5841, 7589. As an extension of this, ‘sinning’ also means disobeying the Divine and the truth, for one who disobeys turns himself away. The Divine is what ‘Jehovah your God’ is used to mean, and the truth what Moses and Aaron are used to mean, 7695.

sRef Ex@10 @17 S0′ 7697. ‘And now forgive, I beg you, my sin only this once’ means an appeal to them to disregard the disobedience. This is clear from the meaning of ‘forgiving’ as disregarding, for forgiving is regarding someone not from the point of view of evil but good; and from the meaning of ‘sin’ as disobedience, as immediately above in 7696.

sRef Ex@10 @17 S0′ 7698. ‘And plead with Jehovah your God’ means intercession. This is clear from the meaning of ‘pleading with Jehovah’, when done on another’s behalf, as intercession, as in 7396, 7462.

sRef Ex@10 @17 S0′ 7699. ‘And let Him remove from upon me this death only’ means a plea that this falsity should not torment. This is clear from the meaning of ‘that He may remove this death’ as a plea that it should not torment; for ‘death’ means damnation and hell, 5407, 6119, and so also torment. The reason why those who molest beg to have this falsity taken away is that they no longer had any ability to reason against the truths of faith because they had been made devoid of those truths and were consequently in hellish gloom, which tormented them. For those in hell find no delight in using reasonings based on utter falsities, but they do find delight in using those based on truths falsified by means of illusions and appearances, see 7392.

sRef Ex@10 @18 S0′ 7700. ‘And he went out from Pharaoh’ means a separation. This is clear from the meaning of ‘going out’ as a separation, dealt with in 6100, 7404.

sRef Ex@10 @18 S0′ 7701. ‘And pleaded with Jehovah’ means intercession, as above in 7698.

sRef Ex@10 @19 S0′ 7702. ‘And Jehovah turned an [extremely] strong wind of the sea means a stoppage of the Divine inflow through heaven. This is clear from the meaning of ‘a wind of the sea ,which is a west wind, as a stoppage of the Divine inflow through heaven. For ‘an east wind’ has meant an agent of destruction by reason of the Divine inflow through heaven, see 7643, 7679, and therefore ‘a wind of the sea or west wind, blowing in the opposite direction to the east wind, means a stoppage of that inflow.

sRef Ex@10 @19 S0′ 7703. ‘And it lifted the locusts’ means the end of that state. This is clear from the meaning of ‘locusts’ as falsity in outermost parts, dealt with in 7643. And what is meant by ‘lifting’ the locusts is taking away the state which involves this falsity, thus the end of that state; this is similar to what has appeared before, where [the end of] ‘the hail’ is spoken of, 7597, 7610.

sRef Ex@10 @19 S0′ 7704. ‘And cast them into the Sea Suph’ means into hell. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the Sea Suph’ as hell, explained further on where the passage of the children of Israel through that sea and the destruction of the Egyptians in it is in the Lord’s Divine mercy to be dealt with. Being cast into hell should not be taken to mean that the falsity was taken away from the molesters and cast away somewhere else, but that it remained with them and linked them to hells where such things exist. For every state of evil and falsity that the evil in the next life enter links them to the hells where things belonging to that kind of state exist. Consequently they become linked to many hells during a series of stages they pass through before their vastation is completed. But a discussion of these matters from experience is to appear elsewhere.

sRef Ex@10 @19 S0′ 7705. ‘Not one locust was left in all the border of Egypt’ means that those falsities in the outermost parts no longer made their appearance. This is clear from the meaning of ‘locust’ as falsity. And since it is falsity in outermost parts, 7643, the phrase ‘in all the border of Egypt’ is used; for ‘the border’ is the outermost part, and ‘Egypt’ the natural. The fact that ‘not a locust was left’ means that none made an appearance is self-evident. For something similar said regarding ‘the hail’, see 7611.

sRef Ex@10 @20 S0′ 7706. ‘And Jehovah made Pharaoh’s heart unyielding’ means that the molesting ones remained obstinate. This is clear from the meaning of ‘making the heart unyielding’ as remaining obstinate, dealt with in 7272, 7300, 7305. When it says that Jehovah made Pharaoh’s heart unyielding the meaning in the internal sense is that he himself made his heart unyielding, see 7632; and the evil which in the Word is attributed to Jehovah has its origin in man, 2447, 6071, 6991, 6997, 7533.

sRef Ex@10 @20 S0′ 7707. ‘And he did not send the children of Israel away’ means that they did not leave those belonging to the spiritual Church. This is clear from the meaning of ‘sending away’ as leaving; and from the representation of ‘the children of Israel’ as those who belong to the spiritual Church, as in 7474, 7515, 7617.

sRef Ex@10 @21 S0′ sRef Ex@10 @22 S0′ sRef Ex@10 @23 S0′ 7708. Verses 21-23 And Jehovah said to Moses, Stretch out your hand towards heaven, and there will be thick darkness over the land of Egypt; and one will grope in the thick darkness. And Moses stretched out his hand towards heaven, and there was intensely thick darkness in the whole land of Egypt three days. No man could see his brother, and they did not rise up from their places for three days.* And all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.

‘And Jehovah said to Moses’ means instruction. ‘Stretch out your hand towards heaven’ means exercising the power of God’s truth in heaven. ‘And there will be thick darkness over the land of Egypt’ means total deprivation of truth and good. ‘And one will grope in the thick darkness’ means the density of the falsity arising from evil. ‘And Moses stretched out his hand towards heaven’ means the power of God’s truth exercised in heaven. ‘And there was intensely thick darkness in the whole land of Egypt’ means total deprivation of truth and good. ‘Three days’ means a state made complete. ‘No man could see his brother’ means that they could not perceive the truth of any good. ‘And they did not rise up from their places’ means that there was no raising of the mind. ‘For three days’ means a complete state. ‘And all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings’ means that those belonging to the spiritual Church had enlightenment throughout their mind.
* lit. They did not see, a man his brother, and they did not rise up, anyone from under himself for three days.

sRef Ex@10 @21 S0′ 7709. ‘And Jehovah said to Moses’ means instruction, as previously in 7672.

sRef Ex@10 @21 S0′ 7710. ‘Stretch out your hand towards heaven’ means exercising the power of God’s truth in heaven. This is clear from the meaning of ‘stretching out the hand’ as an exercising of power, dealt with above in 7673; from the representation of Moses, the one who was told to ‘stretch out his hand’, as God’s truth, dealt with in 6723, 6752, 7010, 7014, 7382; and from the meaning of ‘heaven’ as the angelic heaven. How it is that exercising the power of God’s truth in heaven could bring about the new state among the molesting ones that is meant by ‘thick darkness’ is clear from what has been shown in 7643, 7679. There it has been shown that the Lord is continually rearranging heaven, and that He endows those in heaven, and newcomers, with celestial and spiritual good. This continual rearranging causes the vastation which the evil undergo in stages; for after rearrangement that good flows from a more immediate position towards the evil who are governed by the opposite of such good. (The inflow from God continues onwards right into what is opposed to it and in so doing keeps the hells bound and chained.) And since the evil turn all good into evil, they turn into greater evil the good that flows in from a more immediate position. The more they do so, the stronger is their resistance to what is good and true, that is, the fiercer is their molestation of it. So it is that the vastation they undergo proceeds in stages, till at length they are cast into hell, which is the final stage of it. From all this one may see that what emanates from the Lord is nothing but good, and that He does not lay waste the evil, still less cast them into hell, but that they themselves cause it to happen.

sRef Ex@10 @21 S0′ 7711. ‘And there will be thick darkness over the land of Egypt’ means total deprivation of truth and good. This is clear from the meaning of ‘thick darkness’ as total deprivation of truth and good. Various places in the Word mention ‘darkness’ (tenebrae) and also at the same time ‘thick darkness’ (caligo), and in those places ‘darkness’ has reference to falsity and ‘thick darkness’ to evil together with it. But the word that is used in this verse to express thick darkness denotes pitch-black darkness (tenebrae densissimae), which in the internal sense means the kinds of falsities that well up from evil. Such falsities arise with those who have belonged to the Church and led an evil life contrary to the commandments of religious belief which they knew. The evil from which those falsities well up is the opposite of the Church, the opposite of heaven, the opposite of the Lord, and so the direct opposite of goodness and truth. This state is now described by ‘thick darkness’.

sRef Isa@59 @10 S2′ sRef Isa@59 @9 S2′ sRef Joel@2 @1 S2′ sRef Amos@5 @20 S2′ sRef Joel@2 @2 S2′ [2] The fact that ‘darkness’ and ‘thick darkness’ are mentioned together in the Word, and that ‘darkness’ means the deprivation of truth, while ‘thick darkness’ means the deprivation of both truth and good, may be recognized in the following places: In Isaiah,

Judgement is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us. We wait for light, but, behold, darkness; and for brightness, but we walk in thick darkness. We grope for the wall like the blind, and as if without eyes we grope; we stumble at midday as if it were twilight; among the living we are like the dead. Isa. 59:9, 10.

‘Judgement is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us’ stands for the fact that there is no truth, and no good either, ‘judgement’ being used to refer to truth and ‘righteousness’ to refer to good, see 2235, 3997. ‘Waiting for light’ stands for awaiting truth, and ‘waiting for brightness’ stands for awaiting the good of truth since the brightness of light is derived from good. The fact that the expression ‘darkness’ is used in those verses as the opposite of ‘light’ and ‘judgement’, and so of truth, and ‘thick darkness’ as the opposite of ‘brightness’ and ‘righteousness’, and so of good, is self- evident. So it is that ‘darkness’ is the deprivation of truth, and ‘thick darkness’ the deprivation of both truth and good. In Amos,

Is not the day of Jehovah darkness and not light, and thick darkness, [and] no brightness in it? Amos 5:20.

Here the meaning is similar. In Joel,

The day of Jehovah is coming, a day of darkness and thick darkness, a day of cloud and gloom. Joel 2:2.

sRef Isa@8 @22 S3′ sRef Zeph@1 @15 S3′ [3] In Zephaniah,

The day of Jehovah a day of vastation and devastation, a day of darkness and thick darkness. Zeph. 1:15.

‘Darkness’ stands for the deprivation of truth, and ‘thick darkness’ for the deprivation of both truth and good. If ‘thick darkness’ were no different in meaning from ‘darkness’ it would be a pointless repetition, which is far from being a feature of the holy Word. In the Word it is common for a pair of expressions to describe one particular thing, the first having reference to truth or falsity, the second to good or evil. A like example occurs in Isaiah,

He will look to the earth, and behold, anguish and darkness; [he will be one] benighted by anguish, and by a thick darkness of colliding.* Isa. 8:11.

sRef Isa@29 @18 S4′ sRef Isa@58 @10 S4′ [4] ‘Darkness’ also means ignorance of the truth, such as exists among gentiles, and ‘thick darkness’ ignorance about what is good, in Isaiah,

On that day the deaf will hear the words of a book, and out of thick darkness and out of darkness the eyes of the blind will see. Isa. 29:18.

In the same prophet,

If you satisfy the afflicted soul, your light will rise in the darkness, and your thick darkness will be as midday. Isa. 58:10.

‘Darkness’ is falsities, see 7688.
* The Latin caligine impulsus may mean collided with in darkness, or – as Sw.’s reference to this text in 7711 can only mean – a thick darkness of colliding.

sRef Isa@59 @10 S0′ sRef Ex@10 @21 S0′ sRef Isa@59 @9 S0′ 7712. ‘And one will grope in the thick darkness’ means the density of the falsity arising from evil. This is clear from the meaning of ‘groping in thick darkness’ as a situation in which falsities arising from evil are so dense that one cannot recognize anything true or good at all. And if one goes in search of it one is like a person who gropes in thick darkness, stumbling and colliding with objects everywhere. This is why in Isaiah 8:22 the thick darkness is called a thick darkness of colliding, described in the same prophet as follows,

We walk in thick darkness. We grope for the wall like the blind, and as if without eyes we grope; we stumble at midday as if it were twilight; among the living we are like the dead. Isa. 59:9, 10.

sRef Ex@10 @22 S0′ 7713. ‘And Moses stretched his hand towards heaven’ means the power of God’s truth exercised in heaven. This is clear from what has been stated just above in 7710, where the same words occur.

sRef Ex@10 @22 S0′ 7714. ‘And there was intensely thick darkness in the whole land of Egypt’ means total deprivation of truth and good. This is clear from what has been stated above in 7711.

sRef Ex@10 @22 S0′ 7715. ‘Three days’ means a state made complete. This is clear from the meaning of ‘three days’ as a state made complete, dealt with in 2788, 4495. By a state made complete one should understand an entire state from beginning to end; for every state has its beginning, stages of development, and highest point, this period being what one should understand by a complete period and what is meant by ‘three days’.

sRef Ex@10 @23 S0′ 7716. ‘No man could see his brother’ means that they could not perceive the truth of any good. This is clear from the meaning of ‘seeing’ as understanding and perceiving, dealt with in 2150, 2325, 2807, 3764, 3863, 4407-4421, 4567, 4723, 5400; from the meaning of ‘man’ as truth, dealt with in 3134; and from the meaning of ‘brother’ as good, dealt with in 2360, 3303, 3803, 3815, 4121, 5409, 5686, 5692, 6756, and a man linked to his brother as the good of truth, 3459. From these meanings it is evident that ‘no man could see his brother’ means that they could not perceive the truth of any good.

sRef Ex@10 @23 S0′ 7717. ‘And they did not rise up from their places’ means that there was no raising of the mind. This is clear from the meaning of ‘rising up’ as raising towards more internal levels, that is, raising the mind, dealt with in 2401, 2785, 2912, 2927, 31711 3458, 3723, 4103, 4881, 6010, and therefore ‘they did not rise up’ means that there was no raising up.

sRef Ex@10 @23 S0′ 7718. ‘For three days’ means a complete state, as just above in 7715.

sRef Ex@10 @23 S0′ 7719. ‘And all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings’ means that those belonging to the spiritual Church had enlightenment throughout their mind. This is clear from the representation of ‘the children of Israel’ as those belonging to the spiritual Church, dealt with in 6426, 6637, 6862, 6868, 7035, 7062, 7198, 7201, 7215, 7223; from the meaning of ‘light’ as enlightenment, for light flowing from the Lord enlightens the understanding since that light holds intelligence and wisdom within it, see 1521, 1524, 1619-1632, 2776, 3138, 3167, 3190, 3195, 3222, 3123, 3339, 3636, 3643, 3997, 4302, 4408, from the meaning of ‘dwellings’ as parts of the mind. For ‘house’ means the human mind, 3538, 4973, 5023, 7353, and ‘rooms’ its inner parts, 7353; but ‘dwellings’ means all the parts of the mind. Furthermore ‘dwelling in’ means in the internal sense living, 1293, 3384, 3613, 4451, 60511 and therefore ‘dwellings’ are parts in which the elements of life reside, namely aspects of intelligence and wisdom, which – as is well known – belong to the mind. Also, in the next life, the exact nature of the light shining in angels’ dwellings or habitations is determined by the intelligence and wisdom present in the angels’ minds. And in the same measure that they have light, those who are their opposites, that is, those who engage in molestation, have thick darkness.

sRef Ex@10 @23 S0′ 7720. Verses 24-end And Pharaoh called Moses, and said, Go, serve Jehovah; only your flocks and your herds will stay behind. Your little children also will go with you. And Moses said, You must also give into our hand sacrifices and burnt offerings, and we must make them to Jehovah our God. And our livestock also must go with us; not a hoof shall be left behind, for we must take some of them to serve Jehovah our God, and we ourselves do not know what we must serve Jehovah with until we get there. And Jehovah made Pharaoh’s heart unyielding, and he would not send them away. And Pharaoh said to him, Go away from me; take care not to see my face again. For on the day you see my face you will die. And Moses said, Rightly have you spoken; I will not see your face again.

‘And Pharaoh called Moses’ means the presence of the law of God. ‘And said, Go, serve Jehovah’ means that they are to be left alone in order that they may worship the Lord their God. ‘Only your flocks and your herds will stay behind’ means but not from good. ‘Your little children also will go with you’ means that [they may worship Him] from truth. ‘And Moses said’ means the reply. ‘You must also give into our hand sacrifices and burnt offerings’ means that they must leave alone all the means through which worship must be offered. ‘And we must make them to Jehovah our God’ means which [worship] is acceptable to the Lord. ‘And our livestock also must go with us’ means that this [worship] must be from the good of truth. ‘Not a hoof shall be left behind’ means that nothing at all of the truth from good shall be lacking. ‘For we must take some of them to serve Jehovah our God’ means that they must be used in worship of the Lord. ‘And we ourselves do not know what we must serve Jehovah our God with’ means that what exactly will be needed for the worship to be performed is unknown. ‘Until we get there’ means until they have been removed from those steeped in utter falsities arising from evil. ‘And Jehovah made Pharaoh’s heart unyielding’ means that they remained obstinately opposed to the Divine. ‘And he would not send them away means that they had no mind to leave them. ‘And Pharaoh said to him’ means flaming anger at this point with God’s truth. ‘Go away from me means that he wished to know nothing at all about it. ‘Take care not to see my face again’ means that it should not enter their mind. ‘For on the day you see my face you will die’ means that if it did enter their mind it would be extirpated. ‘And Moses said’ means the reply. ‘Rightly have you spoken’ means that that is in truth so. ‘I will not see your face again’ means that God’s truth will not enter their mind again.

sRef Ex@10 @24 S0′ 7721. ‘And Pharaoh called Moses’ means the presence of the law of God. This is clear from the meaning of ‘calling to oneself’ as presence, dealt with in 6177, 7390, 7451; and from the representation of ‘Moses’ as the law of God, dealt with in 6727, 6752, 7014, 7382. The presence of the law of God with the molesters should not be taken to mean that they perceived where the plagues came from, at this point where the very dense falsity arising from evil, meant by ‘thick darkness’, came from. When the evil undergo vastation in the next life they are often allowed to perceive the origin of the miseries they suffer when they are punished, in order that they may know that the cause lies not in the Divine but in themselves. Experiences like this also happen quite often to those in hell, though only when they are in a quiescent state. It happens to them for a number of reasons, mainly in order that they may remember the evil deeds they performed in the world.

sRef Ex@10 @24 S0′ 7722. ‘And said, Go, serve Jehovah’ means that they are to be left alone in order that they may worship the Lord their God, as above in 7658.

sRef Ex@10 @24 S0′ 7723. ‘Only your flocks and your herds will stay behind’ means but not from good, that is to say, they may not worship the Lord from this. This is clear from the meaning of ‘flock’ as interior good, and the meaning of ‘herd’ as exterior good, both dealt with in 5913, 6048.

sRef Ex@10 @24 S0′ 7724. ‘Your little children also will go with you’ means that [they may worship Him] from truth. This is clear from the meaning here of ‘little children’ as truth, for ‘little children’ implies boys, adolescents, and young men, In short, their sons, who mean aspects of intelligence, thus truths, see 7668; and from the meaning of ‘going with you’ as an assurance that they are to be left alone in order that they may worship the Lord their God. Let me say what worshipping the Lord from good is, and what worshipping the Lord from truth without good is, meant here when Pharaoh says that the flocks and herds are to stay behind and the little children to go. The truest kind of worship consists in an offering made from good through truth, for the Lord is present in good; but worship offered from truth without good is not worship, only outward religious ceremony and action alone with nothing real in them since without good truth is no more than the knowledge of truth. To become the truth of faith that knowledge must be combined with good, and when combined with good it passes into the internal man and becomes faith. (The fact that faith without charity is not faith has been shown often.) From this one may see what worship from good is and what worship from truth without good is. By the good from which worship springs one should understand the good of life, good that has been made spiritual through combination with truth, for spiritual good derives its particular nature from truth, and the essence of truth is good, so that good is the soul of truth. From this one may again see what truth without good is like, namely like a body without its soul, that is, like a corpse.

sRef Ex@10 @25 S0′ 7725. ‘And Moses said’ means the reply, as is self-evident.

sRef Ex@10 @25 S0′ 7726. ‘You must also give into our hand sacrifices and burnt offerings’ means that they must leave alone all the means through which worship must be offered. This is clear from the meaning of ‘giving into the hand’ as leaving alone, for ‘hand’ means power, and therefore ‘giving into the hand’ means surrendering to their power, thus leaving them alone; and from the meaning of ‘sacrifices and burnt offerings’ as worship in general, thus the whole of worship, dealt with in 923, 6905. The reason why’ sacrifices and burnt offerings’ means the whole of worship is that sacrifices were the chief means through which Divine worship was offered, as becomes clear from the Books of Moses. For what has been shown already regarding sacrifices, see 922, 923, 1128, 1343, 1823, 2165, 2180, 2187, 2776, 2784, 2805, 2807, 2812, 2818, 2830, 3519, 6905.

sRef Ex@10 @25 S0′ 7727. ‘And we must make them to Jehovah our God’ means which – namely worship – is acceptable to the Lord. This is clear from what comes before; that is to say, ‘sacrifices and burnt offerings’ means worship, 7726, and ‘flocks and herds’, from which the sacrifices were taken, means the good from which the offering of worship is made, 7723, 7724, so that ‘making sacrifices and burnt offerings to Jehovah’ means an offering of worship from good which is acceptable – ‘Jehovah’ in the Word being the Lord, see 1343, 1736, 2921, 3023, 3035, 5041, 5663, 6280, 6281, 6307, 6905, 6945, 6956.

sRef Ex@10 @26 S0′ 7728. ‘And our livestock also must go with us’ means that this – that is to say, worship – must be from the good of truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘livestock’ as the good of truth, dealt with in 6016, 6045. The fact that ‘going with us’ means in order that this good may be the source of that worship – worship in the form of sacrifices and burnt offerings – is self-evident.

sRef Ex@10 @26 S0′ 7729. ‘Not a hoof shall be left behind’ means that nothing at all of the truth from good shall be lacking. This is clear from the meaning of ‘a hoof’ as truth from good, dealt with below; and from the meaning of ‘not being left behind’ as not to be lacking, that is, from worship of the Lord. In the internal sense nearest to the literal ‘not a hoof shall be left behind’ means that nothing whatever shall be lacking, for the hoof is common to all livestock. But in the sense more internal than that ‘a hoof means truth in the last degree – that is, truth on the level of the senses, which is the lowest – and in the contrary sense falsity. The reason why ‘a hoof’ has this meaning is that ‘foot’ means the natural, and ‘sole of the foot’ the last and lowest level of the natural, 2162, 3147, 3761, 3986, 4280, 4938-4952, 5327, 5728, much the same being meant by ‘hoof’ since it is the sole of the foot in the case of livestock. And because the last and lowest level of the natural is meant by ‘hoof’ as it is by ‘sole’, truth forming that level of the natural is also meant; for when the natural is spoken of, truth and good are meant, or in the contrary sense falsity and evil. The natural is formed from these, and without them is devoid of any attributes.

sRef Isa@5 @28 S2′ [2] The fact that ‘hoof’, in particular that of a horse, means truth in the last and lowest degree, that is, truth on the level of the senses, and in the contrary sense falsity belonging to the same degree, becomes clear from the following places: In Isaiah,

Whose arrows are sharp, and all bows bent. His horses’ hoofs are considered as flint, his wheels as the whirlwind. Isa. 5:18.

This refers to a people laying waste. ‘Arrows’ means ideas fired from false doctrine, which they use to fight with, and ‘bow’ the doctrine itself, 2686, 2709. ‘Horses’ means powers of understanding, in this instance perverted ones, 2761, 2762, 3117, 5321, 6125, 6534. Which shows what ‘the hoofs’ of the horses means, namely falsity in the last and lowest degree.

sRef Jer@47 @3 S3′ [3] In Jeremiah,

. . . because of the sound of the beat of the hoofs of his mighty ones, on account of the noise of his chariot, the rumble of his wheels. Jer. 47:3

This refers to a people laying the Philistines waste. ‘The beat of the hoofs of his mighty ones’, that is, of horses, stands for open conflict of falsity against truth. ‘Chariot’ stands for teachings maintaining falsity, for ‘a chariot’ means teachings that maintain either truth or falsity, see 5321, 5945.

sRef Ezek@26 @11 S4′ sRef Ezek@26 @10 S4′ [4] In Ezekiel,

By reason of the abundance of his horses their dust will cover you; by reason of the noise of horsemen, and wheels, and chariots, your walls will be shaken; by means of the hoofs of his horses he will trample all your streets. Ezek. 26:10, 11.

This refers to Nebuchadnezzar laying Tyre waste. ‘Horses’ stands for perverted powers of understanding, as above, ‘horsemen’ for concepts that go with that kind of understanding, 6534. ‘The wheels’ that the chariots have stands for the falsities that are taught, ‘chariot’ being such teaching, as above, while ‘streets’ stands for truths, 2336. From this it is evident that ‘the hoofs of horses’ stands for falsities. If such were not meant, what would be the point of the statement ‘by reason of the abundance of his horses their dust will cover you; by reason of the noise of horsemen, and wheels, and chariots, your walls will be shaken; by means of the hoofs of his horses he will trample all your streets’? Without an inner meaning would they be anything more than empty sounds? In actual fact every expression used in the Word, being Divine in origin, carries weight.

sRef Ezek@32 @13 S5′ sRef Ezek@32 @12 S5′ sRef Ezek@32 @14 S5′ [5] In the same prophet,

They will devastate the pride of Egypt, in order that its multitude may be destroyed. And I will destroy all its beasts over many waters, in order that the foot of man (homo) may not disturb them any more, nor the hoof of beast disturb them. Then I will turn their waters into a depth,* and cause their rivers to flow like oil. Ezek. 32:12-14.

Nor are these details intelligible unless one knows what is meant by ‘Egypt’, by ‘the foot of man’, by ‘the hoof of beast’, by ‘waters’ over which beasts will be destroyed, which the foot of man and hoof of beast will disturb, and which will be turned into a depth. Waters and rivers of Egypt are collections of true factual knowledge, while ‘the hoof of beast’ is falsity on the last and lowest level of the natural that disturbs true factual knowledge.

sRef Micah@4 @13 S6′ [6] In Micah,

Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion, for I will make your horn iron, and I will make your hoofs bronze, in order that you may crush many peoples. Micah 4:13.

Nor can anyone know without the internal sense what these things are, that is, unless he knows what is meant by ‘threshing’, ‘daughter of Zion’, ‘horn that will be made like iron’, ‘hoof that will be made like bronze’, both of which will be used ‘to crush many peoples’. ‘Daughter of Zion’ is the celestial Church, 1362; ‘horn’ is the power of truth that springs from good, 2832; ‘iron’ is natural truth that will have the ability to destroy falsities, 425, 426; ‘hoof’ is truth that springs from good in the last and lowest degree; and ‘bronze’ is natural good that will have power over evils, 425, 1551.

sRef Zech@11 @16 S7′ [7] In Zechariah,

I will raise up a shepherd in the land; he will not go** to [the sheep] that are to be cut off, he will not seek one tender in age, and he will not heal one that is maimed.*** But he will eat the flesh of the fat, and tear apart their hoofs. Zech. 11:16.

This refers to a stupid shepherd. ‘Eating the flesh of the fat’ stands for turning good into evil, ‘tearing apart the hoofs’ for turning truth into falsity.

[8] How superior in intelligence the ancients were to people at the present day becomes clear from the consideration that in regard to very many objects in the world they knew which realities in heaven they corresponded to, and therefore what their spiritual meanings were. This knowledge existed not only with those who belonged to the Church but also with those outside the Church, such as the people in Greece, the most ancient of whom employed images with spiritual meanings to depict those realities. But at the present day, since such meanings are entirely unknown, those images are called myths. Knowledge of such correspondences among the sages of old is evident from the fact that they spoke of a winged horse, which they called Pegasus, to depict the rise of intelligence and wisdom. With its hoof it broke open a fountain, at which there were nine virgins, and which was situated on a hill. For they knew that ‘the horse’ was a sign of the power of understanding, ‘its wings’ a sign of spirituality, ‘its hoofs’ a sign of the last and lowest degree of truth, which gave rise to intelligence, ‘virgins’ a sign of varieties of knowledge, ‘hill’ a sign of unanimity, and in the spiritual sense of charity, and so on with the rest. But such matters at the present day are some of those that are lost.
* i.e. allow them to settle so that they look clear and deep
** lit. visit
*** lit. broken

sRef Ex@10 @26 S0′ 7730. ‘For we must take some of them to serve Jehovah [our God]’ means that they must be used in worship of the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of ‘serving’ as worshipping, ‘Jehovah’ being the Lord, see above in 7727.

sRef Ex@10 @26 S0′ 7731. ‘And we ourselves do not know what we must serve Jehovah our God with’ means that what exactly will be needed for the worship to be performed is unknown. This is clear from the meaning of ‘serving Jehovah’ as worship of the Lord, as above in 7730

sRef Ex@10 @26 S0′ 7732. ‘Until we get there’ means until they have been removed from those steeped in utter falsities arising from evil. This is clear from the meaning of ‘getting there’ – that is, to the wilderness – as being removed from the Egyptians, thus from those steeped in utter falsities arising from evil, meant by ‘the Egyptians’ at this point. ‘Getting into the wilderness to offer sacrifice’ means being in a state removed from falsities, see 6904.

sRef Ex@10 @27 S0′ 7733. ‘And Jehovah made Pharaoh’s heart unyielding’ means that they remained obstinately opposed to the Divine, as above in 7706.

sRef Ex@10 @27 S0′ 7734. ‘And he would not send them away’ means that they had no mind to leave them. This is clear from the meaning of ‘not being willing’ as their having no mind to; and from the meaning of ‘sending away’ as leaving, as also above, in 7707, where similar words occur.

sRef Ex@10 @28 S0′ 7735. ‘And Pharaoh said to him’ means flaming anger at this point with [God’s] truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘saying’, since what follows is included in that meaning, as flaming anger. For the words that follow ‘Pharaoh said to Moses’ are, ‘Go away from me; take care not to see my face again. For on the day you see my face you will die’, words that express anger with God’s truth, represented by ‘Moses’.

sRef Ex@10 @28 S0′ 7736. ‘Go away from me’ means that he wished to know nothing at all about it – about God’s truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘go away from me’, when said by the evil regarding God’s truth, as their wishing to know nothing at all about it, since they reject it.

sRef Ex@10 @28 S0′ 7737. ‘Take care not to see my face again’ means that it should not enter their mind. This is clear from the meaning of ‘not seeing his face again’ as not entering their mind ever again, for ‘the face’ means the interiors, 1999, 2434, 3527, 3631, 4066, 4796-4798, 5102, 5165, 5168, 5695, in particular as regards affections. Thus the mind* is meant by ‘face’.
* i.e. the seat of intentions

sRef Ex@10 @28 S0′ 7738. ‘For on the day you see my face you will die’ means that if it did enter their mind it would be extirpated. This is clear from the meaning of ‘seeing the face’ as entering the mind, as immediately above in 7737; and from the meaning of ‘dying’ as being extirpated. The reason why Pharaoh now says that Moses should go from his presence and that if he saw his face he would die is that it now describes the state of the molesters when they are steeped in utter falsity arising from evil, the falsity meant by ‘thick darkness’. The more that those in hell become steeped in falsities arising from evil, the more they loathe truth, and at length loathe it so much that they refuse even to listen to anything true. For truth is contrary to falsity, and falsity is what pleases them because the evil from which that falsity springs is the delight of their life. This being so, they banish truth altogether from their mind, because it is contrary to the pleasure and delight of their life. Or if they do listen to that truth they suffer torment, 7519, so it is that because their state is that of falsity arising from evil, the state meant by ‘thick darkness’, they remove themselves from God’s truth, represented by ‘Moses’. That was why Pharaoh now told Moses to go from his presence and not see his face, and that if he did see it he would die. It was also why Moses replied, ‘Rightly have you spoken; I will not see your face ever again’.

sRef Ex@10 @29 S0′ 7739. ‘And Moses said’ means the reply, as is self-evident.

sRef Ex@10 @29 S0′ 7740. ‘Rightly have you spoken’ means that that is in truth so. This is clear from the meaning of ‘speaking rightly’ as its being so, indeed being meant also by ‘rightly’, 5434, 5437. By the explanation ‘that is in truth so is meant their arrival now at a state in which they have no wish at all to know anything about God’s truth; and should it enter their mind it would be thrown out, in keeping with what has been shown just above in 7738.

sRef Ex@10 @29 S0′ 7741. ‘I will not see your face again’ means that [God’s truth] will not enter their mind again. This is clear from the meaning of ‘not seeing the face’ as not entering the mind, in keeping with what has been stated above in 7737, 7738.


7742. INHABITANTS AND SPIRITS OF THE PLANET MARS – continued

The end of the previous chapter contains an account of a beautiful bird that once appeared and eventually turned to stone. There it was also stated that this bird was a representation of the state of the inhabitants of Mars – a representation of their celestial and spiritual love. There now follows below what I was allowed to know about that state and how it changed.

7743. It has been mentioned already that the inhabitants of Mars are governed by celestial love. They are the ones who were represented by the flaming object that acquired a beautiful sparkle from variations in its colour, and also by the bird with similar colourings. The fact that at the present day a large number of them are beginning to depart from that celestial love, to love knowledge alone, and to suppose that heavenly life lies solely in such knowledge, was represented by the bird when it had turned to stone. For the bird means spiritual life, and its being turned into stone means a life of knowledge but no love, which is not spiritual life any longer but a life cold as stone which nothing from heaven can enter. And their continuing to believe that the Lord is with them, as He is with those there whose lives are governed by celestial love, was meant and demonstrated by the spirit who rose up from below and wished to take the bird away.

7743a The bird of stone was also a representation of inhabitants of that planet who use a strange method to transform the life of their thoughts and affections into a virtual absence of life. What I have seen and heard about this follows below.

7744. There was once above my head a certain spirit who talked to me. From the sound of his voice I detected that he was in a trance-like state. Talking in this state he asked me many things; and what he asked was so sensible that a person fully awake could not have spoken more sensibly. I was allowed to perceive that he was a subordinate through whom angels spoke, and that while in that state he apprehended what they said and reproduced it; for he uttered nothing except what was true. If anything flowed from some other source he did indeed take it in, but he did not reproduce it. I asked him about his state. He said that that state was for him a peaceful one, devoid of all anxiety about things to come, while at the same time he performed useful services, which put him in contact with heaven. I was told that people like him in the Grand Man correlate with the vertical cleft which is situated in the brain between its two hemispheres and is in a state of tranquillity no matter how much turmoil there may be in the brain on either side.

7745. While I was talking to this spirit some other spirits brought themselves to the front of my head, where that spirit was, and pressed in on him. He therefore moved to one side and let them take his place. The newly-arrived spirits were talking to one another, but neither the spirits around me nor I myself could understand what they were saying. Angels informed me that they were spirits from the planet Mars, who knew how to talk to one another in such a way that the other spirits present would not understand or perceive anything of what they were saying. I was amazed that such a way of speaking could exist, since all spirits use a single way of speaking. I was amazed because all speech flows from thought, which is composed of individual ideas. and these ideas take the place of words in the spiritual world. Such idea-words, together with the thought behind them before it is expressed, are perceived plainly in the next life. I was told that those spirits know a certain way of moving their lips and face to form ideas that are unintelligible to others, and that at the moment they are using this way of speaking to one another they are artfully withholding their thoughts from others. They take particular care not to allow any of their affection to reveal itself, the reason why they do so being that if any of their affection is recognized their thought is evident since thought flows from affection. I was further informed that the inhabitants of Mars who suppose that heavenly life lies solely in knowledge and not in a life of love have devised this way of speaking, yet not all; and that they retain this when they become spirits. These are the ones who were meant specifically by the bird of stone; for to produce speech by means of facial expressions and movements of the lips when their affections are isolated and their thoughts withheld from others is to deprive their speech of life and make it like a statue. And by degrees they also make themselves like lifeless statues.

7746. But although they imagine that what they are talking about to one another is not understood by others, angelic spirits in fact perceive every detail of what they are saying. The reason for this is that it is impossible for them to withhold anything they think from them, as the following experience was to demonstrate to them. I began to think about the fact that spirits belonging to our planet feel no shame when they molest others, and this thought was coming to me from angelic spirits. The Martian spirits then admitted that this was what they were talking about to one another, and were astonished. In addition to this an angelic spirit disclosed many other things they were both talking and thinking about, in spite of the efforts they made to keep their thoughts from him.

7747. After this the Martian spirits flowed from above onto my face. The flow felt like thin streaks of rain, which was a sign that they did not have an affection for truth and good; for this is what something streaked represents. They now spoke to me plainly, saying that the inhabitants of their planet talk to one another in a similar manner [unintelligible to others]. I then told them that this was bad, because by acting in that way they block off inner thoughts and feelings and forsake them for outward ones, and then deprive those outward ones of their life too; and especially because there is no honesty in speaking in that kind of way. For those who are honest are unwilling to say or even think anything unless they are willing to let others know it, indeed all others, even the whole of heaven. But those who are not willing to allow others to know what they say pass judgement on others, they have a poor opinion of others and a good one of themselves, and at length, because they behave in that way habitually, they go so far as to think and speak ill even of the Church, heaven, and yes the Lord Himself.

7748. I was told that those who love knowledge alone and do not lead a life in accordance with it correlate with the inner membrane of the skull. But those who have adopted the habit of speaking without affection, and of keeping their thoughts to themselves and withholding them from others, also correlate with that membrane, but ossified, for they pass from possession of some spiritual life to complete lack of any life.

7749. Those who love knowledge alone and do not lead a life in accordance with it are usually led to boast of what they know; to themselves they seem to be wiser than everyone else. Thus they love themselves and despise others, especially those governed by good, whom they look upon as being simple and untaught. But an inversion of positions awaits them in the next life. Those who seemed to themselves to be wise become the stupid there, while the simple become the wise.

7750. Since the bird of stone represented those who are interested in knowledge alone and not in a life of love, and since as a consequence they have practically no spiritual life, let a final note be added here to show that those who are governed by a heavenly love and by knowledge subordinate to that love are the only ones to receive spiritual life. This final note must also show that a love holds within itself every bit of knowledge that belongs to that love. Take for example the animals on land, and also the creatures in the sky, the birds. They possess a knowledge of all the things that belong to their love. Each one’s love consists in feeding itself, living in safety, producing offspring, and providing its young with food. Living creatures therefore possess all the knowledge they require, for every creature has such knowledge within its love; this knowledge flows into its love as if entering a receptacle made for it. That knowledge with some creatures is such that one is bound to be amazed by it. It is said that creatures are born with that knowledge, and it is called instinct; but it is part of the love that governs them.

[2] If man were governed by his love – which is love to God and love towards his neighbour, the love that is properly man’s and marks him off from beasts – he would not only possess all the knowledge he requires, but also all the intelligence and wisdom. He would have no need to acquire these through learning, for they would flow from heaven into those two forms of love, that is, from the Divine by way of heaven. But since man is not governed by those forms of love but by their opposites, that is to say, by self-love and love of the world, he is inevitably born into complete ignorance and lack of knowledge. He is however brought by Divine means to some measure of intelligence and wisdom, though even then he does not actually enter into it at all unless he removes self-love and love of the world and thereby opens the way for love to the Lord and towards the neighbour.

[3] The truth that love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour hold all intelligence and wisdom within them may be recognized from those who were governed in the world by those loves. When they enter heaven in the next life they know and are wise in things such as they had never known before. Indeed like other angels they think and utter things there that are beyond description such as ear has never heard and mind has never known. The reason why they do so is that those forms of love hold within them the ability to receive such gifts.

7751. At the end of the next chapter something is going to be said about the spirits and inhabitants of the planet Jupiter.

7752. 11

TEACHINGS ABOUT CHARITY

All things in the universe have connection with goodness and truth. Things lacking connection with them are outside Divine order; and things lacking connection with the two together are unproductive of anything. Goodness is what produces things, and truth is the means by which it produces them.

7753. Let what has just been said serve to illustrate the situation with spiritual goodness and truth, which are called charity and faith. Let it illustrate that all things of the Church have connection with them, that things lacking connection with them have nothing of the Church within them, and also that things which do not contain both charity and faith bear no fruit, neither the good of charity nor the good of faith.

7754. Two forces must be present for anything to be produced, one being called the active force, the other the passive force. One without the other does not give birth to anything. In a member of the Church those two forces or vital powers are charity and faith.

7755. In the Church good is primary and truth secondary, that is, charity is primary and faith secondary. For truth that doctrine teaches, the truth of faith, exists for the sake of goodness of life; and the end for the sake of which something exists is what is primary.

7756. The situation involving the joining together in people of the good of charity and the truth of faith is this: The good of charity enters a person through his soul, whereas the truth of faith enters through hearing. The former flows in directly from the Lord, the latter indirectly through the Word. That being so, the path by which the good of charity enters is called the inward path, and the path by which the truth of faith enters is called the outward path. What enters by the inward path is not perceived because it does not pass into the person’s direct awareness; but what enters by the outward path is perceived because it does pass into his direct awareness. This accounts for the ascription of everything of the Church to faith. It is different with those who have been regenerated. They have a clear perception of the good of charity.

7757. The joining of the good of charity to the truth of faith takes place in a person s interiors. The good itself that flows in from the Lord adopts the truth there and makes it its own. In doing this it causes the good with a person to be good, and the truth to be truth; that is, it causes the charity to be charity and the faith to be faith. If the two are not joined together charity is not charity but merely natural goodness; and faith is not faith but merely knowledge of such things as are matters of faith, or sometimes more of an acceptance that a thing is true, brought about by inordinate desires for wealth and honour.

7758. When truth has been joined to good it is no longer called truth but good. So when faith has been joined to charity it is no longer called faith but charity. The reason for this is that a person then wills and does the truth; and what he wills and does is called good.

7759. To take further this matter of the joining of the good of charity to the truth of faith, that good is given its particular quality by truth, and truth derives its existence from good. From this it follows that the particular quality of good depends on the truths to which it is joined. Consequently good becomes genuine if the truths to which it is joined are genuine. Genuine truths of faith can exist within the Church, not so outside it, because the Word exists within the Church.

7760. Furthermore the good of charity also receives its particular quality from the quantity of the truths of faith, and in addition from the connection of one truth to another. This is how spiritual good is formed with a person.

7761. A clear distinction should be drawn between spiritual good and natural good. Spiritual good, as has been stated, derives its particular quality from the truths of faith, the quantity of them, and their connection with one another. But natural good is inborn, and also is engendered by things that happen by chance, such as misfortunes, illnesses, and the like. Natural good saves no one, whereas spiritual good saves all. The reason for this is that the good which is given form by the truths of faith provides heaven – that is, the Lord through heaven – with a level to flow into, in order to lead the person, withhold him from evil, and subsequently raise him to heaven. But natural good is not like that. People therefore whose good is merely natural can be carried away by falsity as easily as by truth, provided that in outward appearance the falsity looks like truth. They can also be led as easily by evil as by good, provided that the evil is presented as good. They are like feathers in the wind.

7762. The confidence or assurance which is spoken of as a confidence in faith, and is called faith, is not spiritual, only natural confidence or assurance. Spiritual confidence or assurance derives its existence and life from the good of love, not from the truth of faith separated from good. Confidence in separated faith is dead. Accordingly true confidence cannot exist with those who have led an evil life. Nor does even the confidence itself – confidence that a person is saved through the Lord’s merit irrespective of the life he led – have any basis in the truth.

EXODUS 11

1 And Jehovah said to Moses, One more plague I will bring onto Pharaoh and onto Egypt; afterwards he will send you away from here. When he sends everything away he will surely drive you out from here.

2 Say now in the ears of the people, and let them ask, a man from his companion and a woman from her companion, vessels of silver and vessels of gold.

3 And Jehovah gave the people favour* in the eyes of the Egyptians. Also the man Moses was exceedingly great in the land of Egypt, in the eyes of Pharaoh’s servants and in the eyes of the people.

4 And Moses said, Thus said Jehovah, About midnight I will go out into the midst of Egypt;

5 And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt will die, from Pharaoh’s firstborn who is to sit on his throne, even to the firstborn of the servant-girl who is behind the mill, and all the firstborn of the beasts.

6 And there will be a great cry in the whole land of Egypt, the like of which has never been, and the like of which will not be again.

7 And against all the children of Israel not a dog will move its tongue, against man (vir) and even against beast, so that you may know that Jehovah makes a distinction between the Egyptians and Israel.

8 And all these your servants will come down to me, and bow down to me, saying, Go out, you, and all the people at your feet!** And after that I will go out. And he went out from Pharaoh in wrath and anger.***

9 And Jehovah said to Moses, Pharaoh will not hear**** you, so that My wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.

10 And Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh; and Jehovah made Pharaoh’s heart unyielding, and he did not send the children of Israel away from his land.
* lit. grace
** i.e. and all who follow you
*** lit. the wrath of anger
**** lit. hear towards


sRef Ex@11 @0 S0′ 7763. CONTENTS

This chapter deals in the internal sense with the damnation of faith separated from charity, which is meant by the killing at midnight of the firstborn of Egypt. In addition it deals with the known facts about what is true and good which were to be passed over to those belonging to the spiritual Church, meant by the vessels of silver and gold which the children of Israel were to borrow from the Egyptians.

sRef Ex@11 @3 S0′ sRef Ex@11 @1 S0′ sRef Ex@11 @2 S0′ 7764. THE INTERNAL SENSE

Verses 1-3 And Jehovah said to Moses, One more plague I will bring onto Pharaoh and onto Egypt; afterwards he will send you away from here. When he sends everything away he will surely drive you out from here. Say now in the ears of the people, and let them ask, a man from his companion and a woman from her companion, vessels of silver and vessels of gold. And Jehovah gave the people favour* in the eyes of the Egyptians. Also the man Moses was exceedingly great in the land of Egypt, in the eyes of Pharaoh’s servants and in the eyes of the people.

‘And Jehovah said to Moses’ means instruction. ‘One more plague I will bring onto Pharaoh and onto Egypt’ means the final stage of vastation, which is damnation. ‘Afterwards he will send you away from here’ means that then they will be left alone. ‘When he sends everything away he will surely drive you out from here’ means that they will leave them completely, and will loathe and shun their presence. ‘Say now in the ears of the people’ means instructions and obedience. ‘And let them ask, a man from his companion and a woman from her companion, vessels of silver and vessels of gold’ means that factual knowledge of truth and of good must be removed from the evil who have belonged to the Church and be assigned to the good who belong to it. ‘And Jehovah gave the people favour in the eyes of the Egyptians’ means fear, on account of the plagues, which those immersed in evils had of those who belonged to the spiritual Church. ‘Also the man Moses was exceedingly great in the land of Egypt’ means respect for God’s truth now. ‘In the eyes of the servants and in the eyes of the people’ means with those who were in subordinate positions there.
* lit. grace

sRef Ex@11 @1 S0′ 7765. ‘And Jehovah said to Moses’ means instruction, as in 7186, 7267, 7704, 7380.

sRef Ex@11 @1 S0′ 7766. ‘One more plague I will bring onto Pharaoh and onto Egypt’ means the final stage of vastation, which is damnation. This is clear from the meaning of ‘one more plague’ as the last stage of vastation. It is evident from the explanation of what has gone before that the plagues brought onto Egypt meant consecutive states of vastation. The fact that the last stage is damnation – the damnation of faith separated from charity – will be evident from what is to follow; for the killing in Egypt of the firstborn means the damnation of that faith, ‘death’ being damnation and ‘the firstborn’ faith. Faith is said to be damned when matters of faith are used to support falsities and evils. When used in support of these, matters of faith go over to their side and become endorsements of them. This happens with those who separate faith from charity in both doctrine and life. But no faith in fact resides with them, only knowledge of such things as are matters of faith, though they call that knowledge faith. This is what one should understand by faith that is damned. Furthermore the people themselves in whom such matters of faith have been linked to falsities and evils end up in damnation after undergoing stages of vastation. Their damnation is made perceptible by the rotten and foul stink that emanates from them, worse than any emitted by those who have never subscribed to matters of faith. Their situation in particular is the same as that which arises in a general way. Generally, if an evil spirit approaches a heavenly community, where charity exists, its inhabitants smell plainly the foul stink emanating from him. They do so in particular situations in which such things as belong to heaven, that is, matters of faith, have co-existed in a person with such things as belong to hell. From all this it is now evident that ‘one more plague which will be brought onto Pharaoh and onto Egypt’ means the last stage of vastation, which is damnation. For ‘Pharaoh’ represents those who have been molesters, at this point those who are damned, and ‘Egypt’ means the natural mind, 5276, 5278, 5280, 5288, 5301, 6147, 6252.

sRef Ex@11 @1 S0′ 7767. ‘Afterwards he will send you away from here’ means that then they will be left alone. This is clear from the meaning of ‘sending away’ as leaving, as often before.

sRef Ex@11 @1 S0′ 7768. ‘When he sends everything away he will surely drive you out from here’ means that they will leave them completely, and will loathe and shun their presence. This is clear from the meaning of ‘sending everything away ‘as leaving completely; and from the meaning of ‘surely driving you out’ as loathing and shunning those belonging to the spiritual Church whom they have molested. For anyone who loathes another’s presence shuns it too, and also drives him away from himself. The reason why they now loathe and shun those who belong to the spiritual Church is that inflowing goodness and truth now torment them. The situation may be compared to painful sores which cannot stand even the touch of warm water or a breath of air on them, or to a damaged eye that cannot stand even gentle rays from the sun. So it is with those who molest. Their natural mind is now like something wounded in this way; after they have undergone vastation, that is, after things which have been matters of faith have been cast away, they feel pain when the slightest breath of goodness or truth blows on them, which gives rise to loathing.

sRef Ex@11 @2 S0′ 7769. ‘Say now in the ears of the people’ means instructions and obedience. This is clear from the meaning here of ‘saying’ as instructions, for Jehovah here says what the children of Israel are to do when they are about to depart from Egypt. Obedience is meant by ‘saying in the ears’, for the ears correspond to obedience and consequently serve to mean it, 2542, 3869, 4551, 4652-4660.

sRef Ex@11 @2 S0′ 7770. ‘And let them ask, a man from his companion and a woman from her companion, vessels of silver and vessels of gold’ means that factual knowledge of truth and of good must be removed from the evil who have belonged to the Church and be assigned to the good who belong to it. This is clear from the meaning of ‘vessels of silver and vessels of gold’ as factual knowledge of truth and of good, ‘silver’ being truth and ‘gold’ good, see 1551, 1552, 2954, 5658, 6112, and ‘vessels’ factual knowledge, 3068, 3079. That knowledge is referred to as vessels of truth and good because it contains them. The assumption is made that the facts which people know about truth or about good are the truths of faith themselves or the forms of the good of faith themselves. But they are not. Affections for truth and good are what compose faith; those affections flow into known facts, which are the appropriate vessels for them. Asking them from the Egyptians is, it is self-evident, taking them away and assigning them to oneself. This is why previously in Chapter 3:22 it says that they were to plunder the Egyptians, and subsequently in Chapter 11[:36] that they despoiled them. The reason why it says that ‘a man was to ask from his companion and a woman from her companion’ is that ‘a man’ has reference to and also means truth and ‘a woman’ has reference to and also means good.

sRef Matt@25 @29 S2′ sRef Matt@25 @28 S2′ sRef Matt@25 @26 S2′ sRef Matt@25 @30 S2′ sRef Matt@13 @12 S2′ [2] The implications of all this may be seen at the explanation of Exod. 3:21, 22 in 6914, 6917. That explanation shows that the factual knowledge itself of truth and of good which have been in the possession of those belonging to the Church who have been acquainted with the arcana of faith and yet have led a life of evil are transferred to those who belong to the spiritual Church. How the transfer is effected, see 6914. These things are meant by the Lord’s words in Matthew,

The Lord said to him who went away and hid the talent in the earth, Take the talent from him and give it to him who has ten talents, for to everyone who has, it will be given, so that he may have in abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. Cast the useless servant into outer darkness. Matt. 25:25, 28-30; Luke 19:24-26.

And similar words in the same gospel,

To him who has, it will be given, so that he may have abundantly; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. Matt. 13:12; Mark 4:24, 25.

[3] The reason for the transfer is that the knowledge or cognitions of goodness and truth which the evil possess are applied to evil purposes, whereas the cognitions of goodness and truth that the good possess are applied to good purposes. The cognitions are the same, but the purposes to which any one person applies them gives them their specific character. Such cognitions may be compared to worldly wealth, which one person devotes to good purposes, and another to bad ones, so that the character of any one person’s wealth depends on the purposes to which he devotes it. This also shows that the same cognitions, like the same wealth, which the evil have possessed can pass into the possession of the good and serve good purposes. From all this one may now recognize what is represented when it says that the children of Israel were commanded to ask from the Egyptians vessels of silver and vessels of gold, and in so doing to despoil and plunder them. Such a despoilment or plundering would never have been commanded by Jehovah if such things had not been represented in the spiritual world.

sRef Isa@23 @18 S4′ [4] Things like these are what are meant in Isaiah,

At length the merchandise of Tyre and its harlot’s wages will be holy to Jehovah, it will not be hoarded or held back; but its merchandise will be for those that dwell before Jehovah to eat to their satiety, and for him who covers himself with what is ancient. Isa. 23:18.

This refers to ‘Tyre’, which means cognitions of goodness and truth, 1201. ‘Merchandise’ and ‘harlot’s wages’ are cognitions applied to evil purposes. Their being given to the good who will apply them to good purposes is meant by ‘its merchandise will be for those that dwell before Jehovah to eat to satiety, [and] for him who covers himself with what is ancient’.

sRef 2Sam@8 @12 S5′ sRef 1Ki@7 @51 S5′ sRef 2Sam@8 @11 S5′ sRef Micah@4 @13 S5′ [5] Also in Micah,

Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion, for I will make your horn iron, and I will make your hoofs bronze, in order that you may crush many peoples. And I devoted their gain to Jehovah, and their riches to the Lord of the whole earth. Micah 4:13.

‘Crushing many peoples’ stands for devastating them. ‘The gain’ which was devoted to Jehovah and the Lord of the whole earth is cognitions of truth and goodness. Something similar is implied in 2 Sam. 8:11, 12, where it says that David consecrated to Jehovah the silver and gold which he had taken from the nations he had subdued, from the Syrians, from Moab, from the children of Ammon, from the Philistines, from Amalek, and from the spoil of Hadad Ezer; and in 1 Kings 7:51, that Solomon put among the treasures of Jehovah’s house the things consecrated by his father.

sRef Ex@11 @3 S0′ 7771. ‘And Jehovah gave the people favour in the eyes of the Egyptians’ means fear, on account of the plagues, which those immersed in evils had of those who belonged to the spiritual Church. This is clear from the explanation previously in 6914, where similar words occur.

sRef Ex@11 @3 S0′ 7772. ‘Also the man Moses was exceedingly great in the land of Egypt’ means respect for God’s truth now. This is clear from the representation of ‘Moses’ as God’s truth, dealt with often; from the meaning of ‘exceedingly great as respect, at this point respect as a result of fear since the evil in hell have no respect for the Divine apart from that due to fear (the words ‘in the eyes of the servants and in the eyes of the people’ show that respect is meant by ‘exceedingly great’); and from the meaning of ‘the land of Egypt’ as the natural mind, dealt with in 5276, 5278, 5280, 5288, 5301, 6147, 6152. From this it is evident that ‘the man Moses was exceedingly great in the land of Egypt’ means respect for God’s truth in the mind – in the mind of the molesting ones.

sRef Ex@11 @3 S0′ 7773. ‘In the eyes of the servants and in the eyes of the people’ means with those who were in subordinate positions there. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the servants’ and ‘the people’ as those who are subordinate; for ‘Pharaoh’ represents the chief ones who molested, under whom all the rest were subordinate. Those who were subordinate are meant because the evil no less than the good, or hell no less than heaven, have some system of government, that is to say, people in governing positions and those in subordinate ones, without which society would not hold together. But the way in which one person is subordinated to another in heaven is completely different from the way it happens in hell. In heaven all people are as equals, since one person loves another as brother loves brother; yet one exalts another above himself as that other excels him in intelligence and wisdom. A genuine love of what is good and true causes each one, spontaneously so to speak, to make himself subordinate to those who have a wiser discernment of good than he has and a more intelligent understanding of truth. Subordination in hell however involves domination and consequent ruthlessness. He who dominates behaves ruthlessly towards those who do not agree with every whim he has. For each one regards every one else as an enemy, though outwardly he treats him as a friend in order that they may band together to oppose the violence of others. Their banding together is like that of robbers. Those who are subordinate yearn constantly to dominate and also often break out in revolt. Then conditions there become deplorable, for then they do savage and cruel things to one another. This happens periodically. From all this one may see what subordination is like in the next life.

sRef Ex@11 @4 S0′ sRef Ex@11 @7 S0′ sRef Ex@11 @5 S0′ sRef Ex@11 @6 S0′ 7774. Verses 4-8 And Moses said, Thus said Jehovah, About midnight I will go out into the midst of Egypt; and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt will die, from Pharaoh’s firstborn who is to sit on his throne, even to the firstborn of the servant-girl who is behind the mill, and all the firstborn of the beasts. And there will be a great cry in the whole land of Egypt, the like of which has never been, and the like of which will not be again. And against all the children of Israel not a dog will move its tongue, against man (vir) and even against beast, so that you may know that Jehovah makes a distinction between the Egyptians and Israel. And all these your servants will come down to me, and bow down to me, saying, Go out, your and all the people at your feet!* And after that I will go out. And he went out from Pharaoh in wrath and anger.**

‘And Moses said, Thus said Jehovah’ means instruction. ‘About midnight’ means when vastation is completed. ‘I will go out into the midst of Egypt’ means the presence of the Divine everywhere then. ‘And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt will die’ means the damnation of faith separated from charity then. ‘From Pharaoh’s firstborn who is to sit on his throne’ means falsified truths of faith that occupy the first place. ‘Even to the firstborn of the servant-girl who is behind the mill’ means falsified truths of faith that occupy the very last place. ‘And all the firstborn of the beasts’ means adulterated forms of the good of faith. ‘And there will be a great cry in the whole land of Egypt’ means deep grief. ‘The like of which has never been, and the like of which will not be again’ means that the nature of the state was such that there could be none similar to it. ‘And against all the children of Israel not a dog will move its tongue’ means that with those belonging to the spiritual Church there would not be the smallest trace of damnation or grief. ‘Against man and even against beast’ means neither in respect of truth nor of good. ‘So that you may know that Jehovah makes a distinction between the Egyptians and Israel’ means so that the nature of the difference between those immersed in evil and those governed by good may be known. ‘And all these your servants will come down to me’ means those who are subordinate. ‘And bow down to me’ means respect for God’s truth generated by fear. ‘Saying, Go out, you, and all the people at your feet!’ means pleading to let them depart from those guided by the truth from God, highest to lowest. ‘And after that I will go out’ means that God’s truth will depart. ‘And he went out from Pharaoh in wrath and anger’ means a violent breaking off of the presence of God’s truth from those who are to be damned.
* i.e. and all who follow you
** lit. the wrath of anger

sRef Ex@11 @4 S0′ 7775. ‘And Moses said, Thus said Jehovah’ means instruction, as above in 7765.

sRef Ex@11 @4 S0′ 7776. ‘About midnight’ means when vastation is completed. This is clear from the meaning of ‘midnight’ as the time of thickest darkness, that is, utter falsity. For ‘night’ means a state of falsity, 2353, 6000, and ‘the middle’ of it is the peak, so that ‘midnight’ is when vastation is completed.

sRef Ex@11 @4 S0′ 7777. ‘I will go out into the midst of Egypt’ means the presence of the Divine everywhere then. This is clear from the meaning of ‘going out through the midst’, when Jehovah is said to do so, as the presence of the Divine. Everywhere is meant by ‘the midst’ when this is used in reference to the land, for ‘going out through the midst of Egypt’ is going out into all of it.

sRef Ex@11 @5 S0′ 7778. ‘And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt will die’ means the damnation of faith separated from charity. This is clear from the meaning of ‘dying’ as damnation, dealt with in 5407, 6119; and from the meaning of ‘the firstborn’ as the Church’s faith through which charity comes, dealt with in 352, 2435, 6344, 7035. But ‘the firstborn in the land of Egypt’ is faith devoid of charity, about which see above in 7766.

[2] As regards faith devoid of charity, there is more to be said. Faith that is devoid of charity is not faith but merely knowledge of such things as constitute faith. For the truths of faith look to charity as their ultimate end in view, and later on proceed from charity as their first end in view. From this it is evident that the things which constitute faith do not exist with those who have no charity, even though they have a knowledge of the truths of faith, as is well known. This knowledge is what they call faith. And when they use the facts they know about the truth and good of faith to support falsities and evils, they no longer have the truths and forms of the good of faith because these come to be like the falsities and evils that such truths and forms of good serve. For now the very falsities and evils which they support are seen in them.

[3] Things that constitute genuine faith look upwards to heaven and the Lord, whereas those that constitute faith separated from charity look downwards – and when they support evils and falsities – to hell, from which too it is evident that faith separated from charity is not faith. All this goes to show what is meant by the damnation of faith separated from charity, that is to say, of the truth of faith when falsified and the good of faith when adulterated. For when truth has been falsified it is no longer truth but falsity, and when good has been adulterated it is no longer good but evil; and faith itself is no longer faith composed of truth and good but of falsity and evil, no matter what it looks and sounds like to outward appearance. Furthermore, and this is an arcanum, the character of anyone’s faith is determined by the character of his life. If therefore his life is damned, so is his faith; for it is a faith composed of falsity when his life is a life of evil. It is not apparent in the world that this is so, but it is made plain in the next life. When the evil in that life are deprived of the truth and good they know there then emerge from evils the falsities which have lain hidden with those people.

sRef Matt@25 @11 S4′ sRef Matt@7 @23 S4′ sRef Matt@7 @22 S4′ sRef Matt@25 @12 S4′ [4] With some evil people a certain kind of conviction exists that the truth of faith is the truth; and this conviction too is thought to be faith. But it is not faith since it is induced by the intent to make it serve as the means by which wealth, important positions, and reputation can be acquired. As long as the truths they know are serving as the means to that end they love them for the sake of an evil intent. But when they no longer serve in that way they are abandoned, indeed are regarded as falsities. The term ‘persuasive faith’ is used to describe this kind of conviction, and it is what is meant by the Lord’s words in Matthew,

Many will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy though Your name, and through Your name cast out demons, and do many mighty works in Your name? But then I will confess to them, I do not know you; depart from Me, you workers of iniquity. Matt. 7:22, 23.

The same kind of faith is also meant by ‘lamps without oil’ with the five foolish virgins, who also said, Lord, Lord, open to us. But He replying said, Truly, I say to you, I do not know you. Matt. 25:11, 12.

The truths of faith are meant by ‘lamps’, and the good of charity by ‘oil’, so that ‘lamps without oil’ are truths of faith devoid of the good of charity.

sRef Ex@11 @5 S0′ 7779. ‘From Pharaoh’s firstborn who is to sit on his throne’ means falsified truths of faith that occupy the first place. This is clear from the meaning of ‘firstborn’ as faith, dealt with in 352, 2435, 6344, 7035; from the representation of ‘Pharaoh’ as factual knowledge in general perverting the Church’s truths, dealt with in 6015, 6651, 6679, 6683, 6692, so that ‘Pharaoh’s firstborn’ is faith consisting of such truths, that is, faith consisting of falsified truths of faith; and from the meaning of ‘throne’ as the rule of truth, and in the contrary sense the rule of falsity, dealt with in 5313. The fact that ‘Pharaoh’s firstborn who is to sit on his throne’ means falsified truths of faith that occupy the first place is evident from the use of the words ‘even to the firstborn of the servant-girl who is behind the mill’, which mean falsified truths of faith that occupy the very last place; besides which the king’s son means that which is primary since the king is the head.

[2] Falsified truths occupying the first place are those which are taken to be essential truths, such as these: Faith saves a person irrespective of the life he has been leading; it saves a person in the final hour of his life; he is at that point pure and free from sins, which means that these are removed in an instant like dirt on the hands by water. Those falsified truths posit that faith does exist without charity, that so far as a person’s salvation is concerned it does not matter what kind of life he leads, and also that a person who is a devil can become an angel of God in an instant. Such notions and others like them are the falsified truths occupying the first place; those that are immediately derived from them occupy the second place; and those which are remotely derived from them occupy the last place. For every truth has a long wide-ranging sequence of derivations, some of which are in a direct line from it, some at an angle, while those that merely touch on that truth stand on the outermost edges.

[3] The fact that such notions and others like them are falsified truths of faith is very plain to see. Does anyone who thinks properly not know that the life of faith makes a person spiritual, not faith except to the extent that it has been integrated into his life? A person’s life is his love, and what he loves, that he wills and intends; and what he wills and intends, that he does. This is the essential nature (esse) of the person, not what he knows, or what he thinks but does not will. That essential nature of a person cannot possibly be changed into a different one by his thinking about mediation and salvation, only by new birth, which is being effected throughout a large part of his life. For he must be conceived, be born, and mature anew; and this is not effected by thinking and speaking, but by willing and acting.

[4] These matters have been stated because ‘Pharaoh’s firstborn’ and ‘the firstborn of the Egyptians’ mean faith separated from charity, which – as has been shown in what has gone before – is not faith but the knowledge of such things as constitute faith. The reason why ‘the firstborn of the Egyptians’ represented that kind of faith is that the Egyptians, more than all others who constituted the representative Church after the time of the Flood, possessed a knowledge of the religious observances of the Church, 4749, 4964, 4966, 6004. At that time all ceremonies were representative of spiritual realities in heaven. The Egyptians had a greater knowledge of these than all others had; but in course of time they began to love merely their knowledge of them. They now began to think, as one finds at the present day, that the Church consisted entirely in knowing the kinds of things that have to do with the Church, and no longer in a charitable life. Thus they turned the whole order of the Church upside down; and once this had been turned upside down truths which are called the truths of faith were inevitably falsified. For if truths are applied in ways contrary to Divine order – as happens when they are applied to evils, or in the case of the Egyptians to acts of magic – they are no longer truths with those people but acquire from the evils to which they are applied the nature of falsities.

[5] Let the calf-worship among Egyptians serve to illustrate this. They knew what a calf represented, namely the good of charity. As long as they knew this and had this in mind, then when they saw calves, or when they prepared calves at charitable feasts, such as the ancients held, or later on when calves were used in sacrifices, they thought in a way that was sane and at the same time in company with the angels in heaven since a calf is for them the good of charity. But when they began to make calves of gold, place them in their temples, and worship them, they thought in an insane manner and at the same time in company with the hells. In that way they turned a true representative into a false one.

sRef Ex@11 @5 S0′ 7780. ‘Even to the firstborn of the servant-girl who is behind the mill’ means falsified truths of faith that occupy the very last place. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the firstborn’ as faith, dealt with immediately above in 7779, and since faith is meant, so is truth in its entirety because truth, being that which one ought to believe, is the component of faith; and from the meaning of ‘a servant-girl’ as a rather external affection for truth, or an affection for knowledge, dealt with in 1895, 2567, 3835, 3849, and ‘the servant-girl behind the mill’ as the most external affection for knowledge since ‘behind the mill’ means that which occupies the very last place. The expression ‘behind the mill’ is used because ‘the mill’ has reference to matters of faith. For by means of a mill grain is ground into flour and so prepared for making bread, and ‘flour’ means truth which results in good, ‘bread’ the actual good that results from it. Thus ‘sitting at the mill’ is acquiring and learning the kinds of things that will be of service to faith, and through faith of service to charity. This is why when the ancients described learning the basic elements of faith they described it as ‘sitting at the mill’, or learning elements even more basic as ‘sitting behind the mill’. It is because such things were meant that in His teachings about the final period of the Church the Lord says,

Two women grinding at the mill; one will be taken and the other will be left behind. Matt. 24:41.

These words would never have been used if ‘the mill’ had not meant matters of faith. For what ‘the mill’ and ‘grinding’ mean in the internal sense, see 4335. With regard to the truths of faith that occupy the first place and those that occupy the very last, it should be recognized that the truths of faith which emanate directly from the good of charity occupy the first place, for they are the outward form taken by good, whereas the truths which occupy the last place are bare truths. For when truths derive in succession from good, each degree of them departs further away from it, till at length they become bare truths. This is the kind of truths meant by ‘servant-girls behind mills’.

sRef Ex@11 @5 S0′ 7781. ‘And all the firstborn of the beasts’ means adulterated forms of the good of faith. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the firstborn’ as faith; and from the meaning of ‘beast’ as affections for good, and in the contrary sense affections for evil, dealt with in 45, 46, 141, 143, 246, 714, 715, 719, 776, 2179, 2180, 3519, 4724, 5198. Such things come to be meant by ‘beasts’ from representatives in the next life, 3218; and for that reason also such things were meant by the ones used in sacrifices, 2180, 2805, 2807, 2870, 3519. And because ‘beasts’ meant these things ‘the firstborn of the beasts’ therefore means the good of truth, at this point when it had been adulterated since it was with the Egyptians, who perverted all truths and forms of good by applying them to evil purposes.

sRef Ex@11 @6 S0′ 7782. ‘And there will be a great cry in the whole land of Egypt’ means deep grief. This is clear from the meaning of ‘a cry’ – which goes up because the firstborn are dead, in the internal sense because of damnation – as grief. The reason why ‘a great cry’ means deep grief is that the greater the grief, the deeper it is.

sRef Ex@11 @6 S0′ 7783. ‘The like of which has never been, and the like of which will not be again’ means that the nature of the state was such that there could be none similar to it. This becomes clear from the explanations in 7649, 7686.

sRef Ex@11 @7 S0′ 7784. ‘And against all the children of Israel not a dog will move its tongue’ means that with those belonging to the spiritual Church there would not be the smallest trace of damnation or grief. This is clear from the representation of ‘the children of Israel’ as those who belong to the spiritual Church, dealt with in 6426, 6637, 6862, 6868, 7035, 7062, 7198, 7201, 7215, 7227; and from the meaning of ‘not a dog moving its tongue’ as there being not the smallest trace of damnation or grief. For these words express the opposite of ‘a great cry which there will be in the land of Egypt’, that is, deep grief, 7782 – deep grief on account of damnation, meant by the death of the firstborn.

sRef Matt@15 @26 S2′ sRef Matt@15 @27 S2′ sRef Matt@15 @28 S2′ [2] When it is said that there will not be the smallest trace of damnation with those who belong to the spiritual Church, that is, with those governed by the good of that Church, this should not be taken to mean that they are without any evil, but that they are withheld from evil and maintained in good by the Lord. What is properly their own is altogether evil and damned, but what is properly the Lord’s which they receive is good and so is free from all damnation. This is the meaning when it is said that there is no damnation at all with those who abide in the Lord.

[3] The expression ‘not a dog will move its tongue’ is used on account of the meaning that ‘a dog’ has. ‘A dog’ means the lowest of all within the Church, that is, the mean and lowly, as well as those outside the Church, and also those who blather a lot about things that have to do with the
Church and have little understanding of them. And in the contrary sense it means those who are altogether outside the faith of the Church and who subject matters of faith to abuse. The fact that ‘dogs’ means those outside the Church is clear in Matthew,

Jesus said to the woman who was Greek, a Syro-Phoenician, It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs. But she said, To be sure, Lord, but even the little dogs eat from the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table. Then Jesus answering said to her, O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire. And her daughter was healed. Matt. 15:26-28; Mark 7:27, 28.

Here ‘children’ is used to mean those within the Church, and ‘dogs’ those outside it. Much the same is meant by the dogs that licked Lazarus sores, Luke 16:21; for ‘the rich man’ there is used to mean in the internal sense those who are within the Church and who consequently have an abundance of spiritual riches, which consist in knowledge of what is true and good.

sRef Isa@56 @10 S4′ sRef Ps@68 @23 S4′ sRef Ps@59 @6 S4′ sRef Ps@59 @7 S4′ sRef Ps@59 @14 S4′ sRef Matt@7 @6 S4′ [4] ‘Dogs’ stands for those occupying the lowest position within the Church who blather a lot about such things as have to do with the Church but have little understanding of them, and in the contrary sense those who hurl insults at the things which are matters of faith, in Isaiah,

His watchmen are all blind, they are without knowledge; they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark – watching, lying down, loving to sleep. Isa. 56:10.

In David,

They make a noise like a dog, they go around in the city; for they belch with their mouth, swords are in their lips. Ps. 59:6, 7, 14.

In the same author,

That your foot may press into blood the tongue of your dogs. Ps. 68:23.

In Matthew,

Do not give what is holy to the dogs; do not cast your pearls before swine, lest perhaps they trample on them with their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces. Matt. 7:6.

This is why the most inferior of all things, which was to be cast away, is meant by ‘a dead dog’ in 1 Sam 24:14; 2 Sam. 9:8; 16:9.

sRef Ex@11 @7 S0′ 7785. ‘Against man and even against beast’ means neither in respect of truth nor of good. This is clear from the meaning of ‘man’ as truth, dealt with in 7134; and from the meaning of ‘beast’ as an affection for good, and so good itself, dealt with just above in 7781.

sRef Ex@11 @7 S0′ 7786. ‘So that you may know that Jehovah makes a distinction between the Egyptians and Israel’ means so that the nature of the difference between those immersed in evil and those governed by good may be known. This is clear from the meaning of ‘knowing’ as being made known; from the representation of ‘the Egyptians’ as those immersed in evil (previously ‘the Egyptians’ meant those steeped in falsity, but now that they have undergone vastation of the Church’s truths which they knew they mean those immersed in evil; for ‘the death of the firstborn’ means damnation, a state of evil); and from the representation of ‘the children of Israel’ as those who belong to the spiritual Church, dealt with above in 7784, thus those who are governed by good, since those who belong to the spiritual Church are led through faith to charity, that is, through truth to good.

sRef Ex@11 @8 S0′ 7787. ‘And all [these] your servants will come down to me’ means those who are subordinate. This is clear from the meaning of ‘Pharaoh’s servants’ as those who are subordinate, dealt with above in 7773.

sRef Ex@11 @8 S0′ 7788. ‘And bow down to me’ means respect for God’s truth generated by fear. This is clear from the representation of ‘Moses’ as God’s truth, dealt with often; and from the meaning of ‘bowing down’ as self-abasement, but at this point as respect generated by fear since it is said of those immersed in evil. The expression ‘respect generated by fear’ is used because the evil do not have any respect for God’s truth, not even for God Himself, other than that which is born in them out of fear. For those in hell love only themselves, and those who love only themselves have no respect for another. They focus onto themselves all respect due to others, even to God Himself. Where there is love there is respect; where there is no love there is no respect apart from that generated by fear. This explains why the evil in the next life suffer punishments, till eventually they do not dare to rise up against the good and molest them. For there are no other means that would deter them from doing evil than the fear of punishments.

sRef Ex@11 @8 S0′ 7789. ‘Saying, Go out, you, and all the people at your feet!’ means pleading to let them depart from those guided by the truth from God, highest to lowest. This is clear from the meaning of ‘going out’ as departing; from the representation of Moses, to whom ‘you’ refers here, as God’s truth; from the meaning of ‘the people’ as those guided by the truth from God (for the children of Israel, to whom ‘the people’ refers here, represent those who belong to the spiritual Church, that is, those who are guided by the truth of good and governed by the good of truth, at this point those guided by the truth from God since the expression ‘the people at your feet’ is used and ‘Moses’ represents God’s truth); and from the meaning of ‘at your feet’ as those who occupy a lower position, thus who are subordinate, since ‘feet’, meaning natural things, therefore means lower ones. For the natural world lies below the spiritual world, and ‘feet’ means natural things, see 2162, 7761, 3986, 4280, 4938-4952. All this explains why the words ‘the people at your feet’ are used. But they also mean highest to lowest, ‘Moses’ being the highest since he represents God’s truth, ‘the people at his feet’ every single person who is guided by the truth from God.

sRef Luke@12 @48 S0′ sRef Luke@12 @47 S0′ sRef Ex@11 @8 S0′ 7790. ‘And after that I will go out’ means that God’s truth will depart. This is clear from the meaning of ‘going out’ as departing; and from the representation of ‘Moses’ as God’s truth. These words mean that when those who have molested the upright are damned all God’s truth departs from them, for then their state is one in which their own evil reigns, and evil rejects and eliminates all God’s truth. Previously, before they were damned, they were, it is true, acquainted with the truths of faith; but even so, they did not have truths within themselves. Truths were on their lips but not in their hearts. Consequently, when they underwent vastation of those truths evil remained, and the falsity of evil that had lain concealed within them emerged at the same time also. For although they declared a belief in truths they were not guided by them but by falsities. Their declaration of belief in what is true did not spring from its proper origin – from good – but from evil; for gain, important positions, and reputation, and so self and the world, were the reasons for its existence with them. Truths which spring from that kind of origin cling to the surface, and therefore, when they are laid waste, they fall off like scales; and when they fall off they leave behind places with a terrible, rotten stink because of the falsities that emanate from the evils there. Such is the fate of those who have been acquainted with the truths of faith and yet have led a life contrary to them, as accords with the Lord’s words in Luke,

That servant who knows the Lord’s will, but neither prepares himself nor does his will, will be beaten with many [blows]. But he who does not know, although he does things worthy of blows, will be beaten with few. Luke 12:47, 48.

sRef Ex@11 @8 S0′ 7791. ‘And he went out from Pharaoh in wrath and anger’ means a violent breaking off of the presence of God’s truth from those who are to be damned. This is clear from the meaning of ‘going out’ as departing, at this point a violent breaking off since the words ‘in wrath and anger’ are used (in the end also, once damnation is reached, a violent breaking off takes place, for when people begin to feel a loathing of God’s truth, also to fear it, and at length to feel horror at its presence, they break away from it violently); from the representation of ‘Moses’ as God’s truth, dealt with often; from the representation of ‘Pharaoh’ as the ones who molested those who belonged to the spiritual Church, also dealt with often, but at this point those who are to be damned, damnation being meant by the declaration that the firstborn were going to be killed, 7778; and from the meaning of ‘wrath and anger’ as antagonism and loathing or aversion, dealt with in 3614, 5034, 5798. But when those feelings are attributed to the Divine, as they are here to Divine Truth, represented by ‘Moses’, it does not mean that the Divine turns away in aversion but that those immersed in evil do so, 5798. ‘Wrath’ is used in reference to falsity and ‘anger’ to evil, 3614.

sRef Ex@11 @8 S0′ 7792. Verses 9, 10 And Jehovah said to Moses, Pharaoh will not hear* you, so that My wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt. And Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh; and Jehovah made Pharaoh’s heart unyielding, and he did not send the children of Israel away from his land.

‘And Jehovah said to Moses’ means an informing. ‘Pharaoh will not hear you’ means disobedience. ‘So that My wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt’ means in order that they may receive corroboration that they have had no faith but are ruled by evil. ‘And Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh’ means that these stages of vastation, and the consequent corroborations that they are ruled by evil, were brought about by the truth emanating from God. ‘And Jehovah made Pharaoh’s heart unyielding’ means that they remained obstinate. ‘And he did not send the children of Israel away from his land’ means that they did not leave those who belonged to the spiritual Church.
* lit. hear towards

sRef Ex@11 @9 S0′ 7793. ‘And Jehovah said to Moses’ means an informing. This is clear from the meaning of ‘saying’, when Jehovah foretells what is going to take place, as an informing.

sRef Ex@11 @9 S0′ 7794. ‘Pharaoh will not hear you’ means disobedience. This is clear from the meaning of ‘hearing’ as obedience, dealt with in 2542, 3869, 4652-4660, 5017, 7216; and from the representation of ‘Pharaoh’ as those who have molested the upright in the next life, at this point these same molesters who are to be damned.

sRef Ex@11 @9 S0′ 7795. ‘So that My wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt’ means in order that they may receive corroboration that they have had no faith but are ruled by evil. This is clear from the meaning of the wonders and signs that were performed in Egypt as stages of vastation and consequent corroborations that they are ruled by evil, dealt with in 7633. For all those wonders were signs of an equal number of stages in the vastation undergone by those within the Church who had been acquainted with such things as are matters of faith and yet had led an evil life. And since these are the ones who molest the upright in the next life their state now is what is meant here, 7465. ‘Multiplying these wonders means the consecutive stages of those states. The reason why there are so many stages is that they serve to corroborate for the evil that they are ruled by evil and also to enlighten the good regarding the state of those within the Church who have led an evil life, 7673. If these reasons had not stood in the way the evil could have been damned without delay and let down into hell without going through so many consecutive changes of states.

sRef Luke@12 @3 S2′ sRef Luke@12 @2 S2′ [2] The fact that the evil pass through so many states before they are damned and let down into hell is completely unknown in the world. People think that a person is either damned or saved immediately, and that this is done without his having to go through anything. But the truth of the matter is different from that. Justice reigns there; no one is damned before he himself knows and is inwardly convinced that he is ruled by evil and cannot by any means have his being in heaven. His evils are also made plain to him, as accords with the Lord’s words in Luke,

Nothing has been hidden that will not be revealed, or concealed that will not be made known. Therefore whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light; and what you have spoken in the ear in bedchambers will be proclaimed on the housetops. Luke 12:2, 3, 9; Matt. 10:16; Mark 4:11.

And what is more, that person is also warned to refrain from evil. But when he cannot do so because he is ruled by evil the power to do ill through falsifications of truth and semblances of good is taken away from him. It is removed in stages, one after another; and eventually damnation follows, and being let down into hell, which happens when he comes into the evil of his life.

[3] The evil of a person’s life is evil constituting his will and consequently his thought. That is, it is what he is like inwardly, and would be like outwardly if laws did not stand in the way, or the fear that he might lose wealth, position, reputation, and even life. The life of his will and thought is what follows everyone after death, not his outward life, unless it emanates from his inward life. For outwardly a person feigns the opposite of his inner self; therefore when after death he undergoes vastation of externals, what he has been like in both will and thought made evident. This state is what every evil person is reduced to through the stages of vastation; for all vastation in the next life moves from externals to internals. All this shows what justice is like in the next life and what kind of experiences an evil person goes through before he is damned.

From this it is evident that ‘multiplying My signs in the land of Egypt’ means in order that they may receive corroboration that they have no faith but are ruled by evil. Regarding the absence of faith in those ruled by evil, see above in 7778.

sRef Ex@11 @10 S0′ 7796. ‘And Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh’ means that these stages of vastation, and the consequent corroborations that they are ruled by evil, were brought about by the truth emanating from God. This is clear from the representation of ‘Moses and Aaron’ as God’s truth, ‘Moses’ truth that emanates directly from God, and ‘Aaron’ that which does so indirectly, dealt with in 7010, 7089, 7382; and from the meaning of ‘the wonders’ performed in Egypt or belonging to the Church who have led an evil life. The fact that those things are depicted by the wonders of Egypt may be recognized from the meaning of each wonder. And for the fact that they also depict corroborations that those people do not have faith but are ruled by evil, see immediately above in 7795. It says that ‘Moses and Aaron performed these wonders’, when in fact they were not Performed by them but by God. But what happened has been stated in that way because God’s truth is represented by ‘Moses and Aaron’, and the wonders were performed by God through the truth emanating from Himself, since all that God Himself performs is performed through the truth emanating from Him. God Himself is the Being (Esse) of all things, but the truth emanating from Him is the Coming-into-Being (Existere) of all things, which rises out of His Being. Good itself, which is God’s Being (Esse), brings forth all things by means of its Truth. It is said that the stages of vastation were brought about by the truth emanating from God; but it should be understood that Divine Truth is not the cause of them since God subjects no one to vastation. Rather, an evil person subjects himself to it through obstinate opposition to God’s truth by eliminating, rejecting, or perverting it, and through turning God’s goodness, which flows in unceasingly, into evil. This then is what subjects him to vastation; and from this it is evident where the cause of it lies, not in the inflow of goodness and truth from God – for unless they inflow life is non-existent – but in their conversion to evil and falsity, committed by the person who is ruled by evil.

sRef Ex@11 @10 S0′ 7797. ‘And Jehovah made Pharaoh’s heart unyielding’ means that they remained obstinate. This is clear from the meaning of ‘making the heart unyielding’ as remaining obstinate, dealt with in 7272, 7300, 7305. The fact that Jehovah does not make the heart unyielding or do anything bad, even though it is attributed to Him in the literal sense of the Word, see 7533, 7631, 7643.

sRef Ex@11 @10 S0′ 7798. ‘And he did not send the children of Israel away from his land’ means that they did not leave those who belonged to the spiritual Church. This is clear from the meaning of ‘sending away’ as leaving; and from the representation of ‘the children of Israel’ as those who belong to the spiritual Church, dealt with in 6426, 6637, 6861, 6868, 7035, 7062, 7198, 7201, 7215, 7223.

7799. SPIRITS AND INHABITANTS OF THE PLANET JUPITER

I have been allowed to have social contact with spirits and angels belonging to the planet Jupiter for a longer time than with the spirits of the other planets. For that reason there is rather more to be said about their state and the state of the inhabitants of their planet.

7800. The planet Jupiter is not indeed visible to those who are in the next life; but spirits from it are. They appear out in front on the left, some distance away, and constantly in that position. In that position also lies the planet as it exists in the idea spirits and angels have of it. The spirits of each planet are separated from those of others and are close to their own globe. The reason why they are separated is that they differ in nature from the others and occupy a different province in the Grand Man; and spirits with a different nature from others appear in positions as far away from them as their nature is different. This situation in which all spirits and angels appear separated and divided, occupying different positions and placed at various distances from one another in the next life, is due to the differences in their natures and dispositions; for position corresponds to state, 2625, 2837, 3356, 3387, 4321, 4882, 5605, 7381.

7801. There are many kinds of spirits from the planet Jupiter, but there are three kinds whom I have moved among and often talked to. One kind, which is also the lowest, have a dark, almost black appearance. These are held in contempt by the others and are called chastisers, because they chastise the inhabitants of their planet who lead evil lives. They have a constant desire to get to heaven. The second kind have faces from which the reflected light of a candle seems to shine. They are seen sitting like idols, for they allow themselves to be worshipped by others, especially by the servants they had in the world. For there they convinced those servants that they were people who mediated with the Lord. They are called holy ones by them, and also lords. The third kind, which is the best, excel all the others in intelligence and wisdom. They appear dressed in clothing that is blue – sky-blue – together with sparks of gold woven into it. But actual angels from that planet live together with the angels belonging to all other planets; for all who are truly angels constitute one all-inclusive heaven.

7802. It is common on that planet for spirits to talk to inhabitants and instruct them, and also to chastise them if they have been behaving badly. Since this is a subject about which their angels have told me many things I would like to mention them in order. The reason why spirits there talk to people is that they concentrate much of their thought on heaven and life after death, and in comparison with this give little thought to life in the world. They know that they will be alive after death, living in a state of happiness that depends on the condition into which their internal man was brought in the world. Talking to spirits and angels was also common on our planet in ancient times, and for the same reason, that their thought was concentrated on heaven and little on the world. But in course of time that live contact with heaven was cut off, as people ceased to be internal and became external, that is, as man began to concentrate his thought on the world and little on heaven, and especially when he ceased to believe any longer in the existence of heaven or hell, or in the presence within himself of a person and spirit that lives after death. For the belief at the present day is that the body lives independently, not that it receives life from its spirit. Therefore unless people today were allowed to believe that they will rise again in their bodies they would have no belief at all in resurrection.

7803. With regard to the talking of spirits to the inhabitants of the planet Jupiter, there are spirits who chastise, those who instruct, and those who rule them. The spirits who chastise come to the left side of a person’s body and lean round towards the back of it. Once they are there they draw from the person’s memory all his deeds and thoughts; for spirits do this with ease, because on reaching a person they immediately enter into all his memory, 6192, 6193, 6198, 6199, 6214. If they find that he has behaved badly or thought wrongly they reproach him and also chastise him with pain in the joints of his feet or his hands, or with pain around the region of the epigastrium. Spirits can also do this with great skill when they are allowed to. When such spirits come towards a person they strike horror and fear into him; this is how one knows of their arrival. Evil spirits can strike fear when they approach someone, especially those who were robbers when they lived in the world. To enable me to know how those spirits act when they come towards a member of their planet one such spirit was also allowed to approach me. When he was near I was plainly seized by horror and fear; yet I did not shake inwardly with fear, only outwardly, because I knew he was one of their kind of spirits. I also saw him; he looked like a dark cloud with little moving stars in it, moving stars being a sign of falsities, but fixed stars a sign of truths. He came to my left side towards my back, and also began to reproach me because of my deeds and thoughts, which he drew from my memory and started to misconstrue. But angels who were also present put a stop to what he was doing. When he realized that he was with someone other than a member of his own planet, he began to talk to me, saying that when he went towards a person he learned every single thing that person had done or thought. He reproached that person severely too, and also chastised him with various pains.

7804. The spirits however who instruct come likewise to those people’s left side, but more towards the front of them. They too reproach them, but in a gentler way, and then teach them how they are to conduct their lives. They too have a dark appearance, but they do not look like clouds as the first kind of spirits do. Instead they appear to be dressed in sackcloth. These are called instructors, whereas the first kind are called chastisers.

7805. When those spirits are present angelic spirits who also belong to their planet are present too. These station themselves by the person’s head and fill it in a special way so to speak. Their presence there is felt as gentle breath, for they dread to cause a person even the slightest pain or anxiety when they approach and exert an influence on him. They rule the spirits who are chastisers and instructors, preventing the chastisers from treating a person more severely than the Lord permits, and ensuring that the instructors say what is true. I have been allowed to talk to those angelic spirits also.

7806. There are two signs that may appear to those spirits when they are with a person. If they see an old man with a white face this is a sign that they are to say nothing but the truth. And if they see a face in a window this is a sign that they are to depart from there. That old man has appeared to me also. So has the face in the window; and when it did so the spirits departed from me instantly.

7807. While the chastiser spirit was with me the angelic spirits kept my face all the time cheerful and smiling, the area around my lips projecting, and my mouth [slightly] opened. (Angels can accomplish this very easily by means of influx.) They said that when they are present with the inhabitants of their planet they produce that kind of expression on their faces.

7808. If after chastisement and instruction a person again does what is bad, or has thoughts of doing it, and is not in that case moved to restrain himself by commandments conveying the truth, then if the chastiser spirit returns he is punished more severely. But the angelic spirits moderate the punishment to match the intention behind the deeds and the desire behind the thoughts.

7809. Spirits there speak to a person, but the person does not talk back to them, except to utter these words when he receives instruction, I will not do it again. Nor is he allowed to tell any of his own people that the spirit has spoken to him. If he does he is punished severely. While those spirits belonging to Jupiter were present with me they imagined at first that they were with a member of their own planet. But when I talked back to them, and also when I thought that I might wish to publish such experiences, and they were not allowed to chastise or instruct me, they realized that they were with a stranger.

7810. At another time a chastiser spirit came towards me and placed himself by my left side below the middle of my body, like the previous one, and also wished to administer punishment. But he was withheld from doing so by their angels, who were also present at that time. He showed me then the kinds of punishments that they were allowed to inflict on members of their own planet if they behaved badly or intended to do so. Besides the infliction of pain in their joints there was also that of painful constriction round their waist, which feels like being squeezed by a tight belt. Then there was repeated restriction of their breathing till they felt that they were suffocating, and also the denial of all food except bread. Finally if they did not give up doing the things they did, there hung over them the threat of death, which would deprive them of the joy of married partner, children, and companions. The consequent grief was brought home to them at the same time too.

7811. From all this it may be recognized that their angels who station themselves by a person’s head exercise a kind of judicial power over him; for the angels permit, moderate, prevent, and exert an influence. But I was allowed to tell them that they should not think they were the judges, but that the Lord alone is Judge, and that everything they order and command those spirits, the chastisers and the instructors, flows into them from Him, yet seems to come from themselves.

7812. In addition to the spirits who have just been mentioned there are also spirits who urge things that are contrary. They are those who when they lived in the world were banished from association with others because they were evil. When they arrive they look like fire moving
through the air, which comes down close to one’s face. They place themselves low down at a person’s hinder parts, and from there they direct what they say to the upper parts. They make statements that contradict things said by an instructor spirit under the direction of the angels; that is, they declare that the person does not need to conduct his life in accordance with that instruction, but to follow his own inclination and desire, and similar ideas. Usually these spirits arrive immediately after the first ones have departed. But people there know exactly who these spirits are and what they are like, and therefore do not worry about them. All the same, they learn in this way what evil is, and so what good is; for one learns from evil what good is, indeed one knows the nature of good from its opposite, to be exact. Every perception of something is arrived at by relating it to, and reflecting on its differences from, things that are contrary to it in varying ways and degrees.

7813. ‘Spirits and inhabitants of the planet Jupiter’ is continued at the end of the next chapter.

7814. 12

TEACHINGS ABOUT CHARITY

The human being has been created in such a way that he can look upwards or above self, and also downwards or below self. Looking above self consists in looking towards neighbour, country, Church, heaven, and especially the Lord; but looking below self is looking towards the earth, the world, and especially self.

7815. The reason why looking towards neighbour, country, and Church constitutes looking above self is that it is looking towards the Lord; for the Lord is within charity, and it is the nature of charity to look towards neighbour, country, and Church, that is, to desire their welfare. But people who turn away from them and desire only their own welfare look below self.

7816. Looking above self is being raised by the Lord to a higher level, for nobody can look above self unless he is raised to a higher level by Him who is above. But looking below self is of human origin since the person does not in that case allow himself to be raised up.

7817. Those who have the good of charity and faith within them look above self because they are raised by the Lord to a higher level, whereas those who do not have the good of charity and faith within them look below self because they are not raised up by the Lord. A person looks below himself when he channels towards himself truth and good flowing in from the Lord. And one who channels towards himself the goodness and truth flowing from the Lord sees self and the world in front of him. He does not see the Lord or His goodness and truth because these are behind his range of vision and come to be so indistinct that he pays no attention to them and eventually denies their existence.

7818. The expressions ‘looking above self’ and ‘looking below self’ are used to mean having certain things as one’s end in view, or loving them above all else. Thus ‘looking above self’ means having as one’s end in view what is the Lord’s and heaven’s, or loving this above all else; and ‘looking below self’ means having as one’s end in view what belongs to self and the world, or loving that above all else. Inwardly, furthermore, a person is actually facing the same way as his love faces.

7819. A person who has the good of charity and faith within him also loves self and the world; but he does so solely as the means to an end are loved. With him self-love looks to love of the Lord since he loves himself as a means to an end, which is that he may serve the Lord. And love of the world with him looks to love of the neighbour since he loves the world as a means because he loves the end, which is that he may serve his neighbour. When therefore the means is loved for the sake of the end, it is not the means one loves but the end.

7820. From this it may be seen that those who are renowned in the world, that is, hold higher positions and are better off than others, can look above self to the Lord just as much as those who do not hold high positions and are not well off. For they look above self when they regard having a high position and being well off as the means to an end and not an end itself.

7821. Looking above self is proper to the human being, whereas looking below self is proper to beasts. It follows therefore that to the extent that a person looks below himself or downwards he is a beast, and also an image of hell; but to the extent that he looks above himself or upwards he is a human being, and also an image of the Lord.


EXODUS 12

1 And Jehovah said to Moses and to Aaron in the land of Egypt – He said,

2 This month shall be for you the head of months; the first shall it be for you in the months of the year.

3 Speak to all the assembly of Israel, saying, On the tenth of this month they shall take for themselves each one a member of the flock according to the household of his fathers, a member of the flock according to the household.

4 And if the household is too small for a member of the flock, let him and his neighbour immediately next to his house take one, by the number of the souls; each of them according to the mouth of his eating, you shall make your count for the member of the flock.

5 A perfect member, a male, the son of a year it shall be to you; from the lambs and from the she-goats you shall take it.

6 And you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; and all the congregation of the assembly of Israel shall slaughter it between the evenings.

7 And they shall take some of the blood and put it onto the two doorposts and onto the lintel, on the houses in which they will eat it.

8 And they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted with fire, and [with] unleavened bread on bitter herbs, they shall eat it.

9 Do not eat any of it raw, nor boiled at all in water, but roasted indeed with fire, its head over its legs and over its middle.

10 And you shall not leave any of it until the morning; and what does remain of it until the morning you shall burn with fire.

11 And thus you shall eat it: Your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your rod in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste; it is a Passover to Jehovah.

12 And I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from man (homo) even to beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will make judgements. I am Jehovah.

13 And the blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and I will see the blood and pass you by, and the plague will not be on you for the destroyer, when I strike the land of Egypt.

14 And that day shall be to you for a memorial, and you shall keep it as a feast to Jehovah, throughout your generations; you shall keep it as a feast by an eternal statute.

15 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; even on the first day you shall remove* yeast from your houses, for anyone eating anything made with yeast, that soul shall be cut off from Israel, from the first day until the seventh day.

16 And on the first day there shall be a holy convocation, and on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you. No work shall be done on them; only what must be eaten by every soul, this alone shall be done by you.

17 And you shall observe [the feast of] unleavened bread, for on this same day I have brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt; and you shall observe this day throughout your generations by an eternal statute.

18 In the first [month], on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month in the evening.

19 For seven days no yeast shall be found in your houses; for anyone eating anything made with yeast, that soul shall be cut off from the assembly of Israel, whether a sojourner or a native of the land.

20 You shall eat nothing made with yeast; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread.

21 And Moses called all the elders of Israel, and said to them, Draw out and take for yourselves a member of the flock according to your families, and slaughter the Passover.

22 And you shall take a bunch of hyssop, and you are to dip it in the blood that is in the basin and strike** the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. And you shall not go out, no one out of the door of his house until the morning.

23 And Jehovah will go through to inflict the plague on Egypt; and He will see the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, and Jehovah will pass by the door and not allow the destroyer to come to your houses to inflict the plague.

24 And you shall keep this custom*** as a statute for yourself and your children for evermore.

25 And it shall be, when you come to the land which Jehovah will give you, as He has spoken, that you shall keep this service.

26 And it shall be, when your children say to you, What do you mean by this service?****

27 That you shall say, This is the Passover sacrifice to Jehovah, because He passed by the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He inflicted the plague on Egypt, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed, and bowed down.

28 And the children of Israel went and did as Jehovah had commanded Moses and Aaron – so they did.

29 And it happened at midnight, that Jehovah struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from Pharaoh’s firstborn who was to sit on his throne even to the firstborn of the prisoner who was in the dungeon***** and all the firstborn of the beasts.

30 And Pharaoh rose that night, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was no house where there was not one dead.

31 And he called Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Rise, go out from the midst of my people, both you and the children of Israel; and go, serve Jehovah, in accordance with what you have spoken.

32 Take both your flocks and your herds, as you have spoken, and go; and may you also bless me.

33 And Egypt pressed the people, in a hurry to send them away from the land; for they said, We are all dying.

34 And the people carried their dough before the yeast was added, their kneading bowls bound up in their clothes on their shoulder.

35 And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they asked from the Egyptians vessels of silver and vessels of gold, and clothes.

36 And Jehovah gave the people favour****** in the eyes of the Egyptians, and they lent [these things] to them. And they despoiled the Egyptians.

37 And the children of Israel travelled from Rameses to Succoth, around six hundred thousand men (vir) on foot, besides young children.

38 And also a large mixed crowd went up with them, and flocks and herds, an extremely large acquisition of them.

39 And they baked the dough which they brought out of Egypt – unleavened cakes, since no yeast was added, because they were driven out of Egypt and could not wait, and also had not made for themselves provision for the way.

40 And the dwelling of the children of Israel, when they dwelt in Egypt, [lasted] four hundred and thirty years.

41 And so it was at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even on this same day it was, that all the hosts of Jehovah went out of the land of Egypt.

42 This was the night when Jehovah was keeping watch,******* to lead them out of the land of Egypt; this is that night when Jehovah was keeping watch,******* for all the children of Israel [to observe] throughout their generations.

43 And Jehovah said to Moses and Aaron, This is the statute of the Passover: No son of a foreigner shall eat it.

44 And every man’s slave, a purchase paid for with silver,******** when you have circumcised him, shall eat it.

45 A stranger and a hired servant shall not eat it.

46 It shall be eaten in one house; you shall not bring any of the flesh outside the house, and you shall not break a bone of it.

47 All the assembly of Israel shall keep it.

48 And when a sojourner sojourns with you and would keep the Passover to Jehovah, every male he has shall be circumcised, and then he shall come near to keep it, and shall be as if a native of the land. And no uncircumcised person shall eat it.

49 There shall be one law for the native and for the sojourner sojourning in the midst of you.

50 And all the children of Israel did as Jehovah had commanded Moses and Aaron – so they did.

51 And so it was on this same day, that Jehovah brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their hosts.
* lit. cause to cease
** lit. cause to touch
*** lit. thing, matter, or word
**** lit. What is this service to you?
***** lit. in the house of the pit
****** lit. grace
******* lit. night of watchings to Jehovah
******** lit. And every slave of a man (vir), a purchase of silver

sRef Ex@12 @0 S0′ 7822. CONTENTS

This chapter deals in the internal sense with the deliverance of those belonging to the spiritual Church, and the damnation of those governed by faith separated from charity. The damnation of the latter and the deliverance of the former is represented by the Passover; and the states of charity and faith enjoyed by those who were delivered are represented by the observances to be kept on Passover days.

sRef Ex@12 @0 S0′ 7823. In the highest sense the Passover represents the damnation of unfaithful and the deliverance of faithful believers by the Lord when He was glorified. What their state was like then and what it will be like subsequently, both as a general whole and in every detail, is described in that highest sense by the Passover regulations.

sRef Ex@12 @1 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @2 S0′ 7824. THE INTERNAL SENSE

Verses 1, 2 And Jehovah said to Moses and to Aaron in the land of Egypt – He said, This month shall be for you the head of months; the first shall it be for you in the months of the year.

‘And Jehovah said to Moses and to Aaron’ means instructions given by God’s truth. ‘In the land of Egypt’ means when those belonging to the spiritual Church were still in close proximity to the molesters. ‘He said, This month shall be for you the head of months’ means that this state is the chief of all states. ‘The first shall it be for you in the months of the year’ means the starting point of all states following for evermore.

sRef Ex@12 @1 S0′ 7825. ‘And Jehovah said to Moses and to Aaron’ means instructions given by God’s truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘saying’, when the message is from Jehovah regarding things to be established within the Church, as giving instructions, for ‘saying’ includes what comes after it; and from the representation of ‘Moses and Aaron’ as God’s truth, ‘Moses’ truth that emanates directly from God, ‘Aaron’ that which does so indirectly, dealt with in 7009, 7010, 7089, 7382.

sRef Ex@12 @1 S0′ 7826. ‘In the land of Egypt’ means when those belonging to the spiritual Church were still in close proximity to the molesters. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the land of Egypt’ as the place where the molesters were. For ‘Pharaoh’ and ‘the Egyptians’ represent and mean those belonging to the Church who have come to be governed by faith separated from charity and who molest the upright in the next life, 6692, 7097, 7107, 7110, 7116, 7142, 7317, and ‘the land of Egypt’ actual molestations, 7278, while ‘the children of Israel’ represent those belonging to the spiritual Church who undergo molestation, 6426, 6637, 6862, 6868, 7035, 7062, 7198, 72011 7215, 7223. And regarding the close proximity of the latter to molesters in the next life, see 7240. That close proximity is meant by the presence of the children of Israel in the middle of the land of Egypt – in the land of Goshen – and the molestations are meant by the burdens laid upon them. From this it is now evident that ‘Jehovah said to Moses and to Aaron in the land of Egypt’ means instructions given by God’s truth when those belonging to the spiritual Church were still in close proximity to the molesters.

sRef Ex@12 @2 S0′ 7827. ‘He said, This month shall be for you the head of months’ means that this state is the chief of all states. This is clear from the meaning of ‘month’ as the end of the state that is previous and the beginning of the one that comes next, thus a new state, dealt with in 3814; and from the meaning of ‘the head’, when used in reference to months of the year and in the internal sense to states of life, as the chief one. From this it is clear that ‘this month shall be for you the head of months’ means that this state is the chief of all states. The reason why that state is the chief one of all is contained in the words that come next.

sRef Ex@12 @2 S0′ 7828. ‘The first shall it be for you in the months of the year’ means the starting point of all states following for evermore. This is clear from the meaning of ‘being the first’, when used in reference to months of the year and in the internal sense to states of life, as the starting point; from the meaning of ‘the months’ as states, dealt with immediately above in 7827; and from the meaning of ‘the year’ as the period of life from start to finish, dealt with in 2906. Here, since it is speaking about members of the spiritual Church in the next life, whose period of life has a starting point but no finish, ‘the year’ means the period of life from the start and continuing for evermore (as ‘year’ can also mean, see end of 2906). The reason why this month became ‘the head of months’ and the first of all is that it means the starting point in the deliverance of those belonging to the spiritual Church who till then were in a state of captivity, since they were held back on the lower earth, where they were molested by the evil ones represented by Pharaoh and the Egyptians. The reason why their first state when they were delivered is the chief one of all and why it is the starting point of all following for evermore is that those who were there were delivered by the Lord’s Coming into the world. They could not possibly have been saved without the Lord’s Coming into the world; and their deliverance took place when the Lord rose again. From this it is evident that that state – when they were delivered – was for them the chief of all states. It was to be the same after that for all who belonged to the spiritual Church. They too could not have been saved unless the Lord had come into the world and glorified His Human, that is, made it Divine. With regard to those who belonged to the spiritual Church before the Lord’s Coming, that they were held back on the lower earth, and that the Lord delivered and saved them, see 6854, 6914; and in general, that members of the spiritual Church were saved by the Lord’s Coming, 2661, 1716, 6372, 7035, 7091 (end). So it is that the words under consideration here mean in the highest sense that the glorification and resurrection of the Lord, of His Human, are the source of all salvation.

sRef Ex@12 @2 S0′ 7829. Verses 3-6 Speak to all the assembly of Israel, saying, On the tenth of this month they shall take for themselves each one a member of the flock according to the household of his fathers, a member of the flock according to the household. And if the household is too small for a member of the flock, let him and his neighbour immediately next to his house take one, by the number of the souls; each of them according to the mouth of his eating, you shall make your count for the member of the flock. A perfect member, a male, the son of a year it shall be to you; from the lambs and from the she-goats you shall take it. And you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; and all [the congregation of] the assembly of Israel shall slaughter it between the evenings.

‘Speak to all the assembly of Israel, saying’ means influx bearing instructions for all belonging to the spiritual Church. ‘On the tenth of this month’ means the state of the initiation of the interiors. ‘They shall take for themselves each one a member of the flock’ means in respect of innocence. ‘According to the household of his fathers, a member of the flock according to the household’ means according to each one’s specific kind of good. ‘And if the household is too small for a member of the flock’ means if the individual type of good is insufficient for innocence. ‘Then he and his neighbour immediately next to his house shall take one’ means being joined to the nearest good of truth. ‘By the number of the souls, [each of them] according to the mouth of his eating, you shall make your count for the member of the flock’ means making the good sufficient for the innocence by filling it out with truths of good in the exact quantity needed for assimilating innocence. ‘A perfect member’ means spotless innocence. ‘A male’ means which is characteristic of faith rooted in charity. ‘The son of a year it shall be to you’ means a complete state. ‘From the lambs and from the she-goats you shall take it’ means the good of innocence, interior and exterior. ‘And you shall keep it’ means the time and state of the initiation. ‘Until the fourteenth of the month’ means leading up to a holy state. ‘And all the congregation of the assembly of Israel shall slaughter it’ means preparation for enjoyment by all in general belonging to the spiritual Church. ‘Between the evenings’ means a last and first state.

sRef Ex@12 @3 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @2 S0′ 7830. ‘Speak to all the assembly of Israel, saying’ means influx bearing instructions for all belonging to the spiritual Church. This is clear from the meaning of ‘speaking’ as influx, dealt with in 2951, 5481, 5743 (its further meaning as giving instructions – about the observances to be kept when they are delivered – is evident from what follows); and from the meaning of ‘the assembly of Israel’ as all truths and forms of good in their entirety. ‘The assembly of Israel’ is used to refer to all the tribes, by which all aspects of truth and good, or all aspects of faith and charity, are meant, see 7858, 7926, 4060, 6335. And as these are meant [by ‘the tribes’], ‘the assembly of Israel’ means the spiritual Church, 6337; for truths and forms of good make the Church. For the representation of the spiritual Church by the children of Israel, see 6426, 6637, 6862, 6868, 7035, 7062, 7198, 7201, 7215, 7223.

sRef Ex@12 @3 S0′ 7831. ‘On the tenth of this month’ means the state of the initiation of the interiors. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the tenth’ – day, that is to say – as the state of the interiors. For ‘day’ means state, 23, 487, 488, 493, 576, 893, 1738, 2788, 3462, 3785, 4850, 5672, and ‘ten’ means remnants, 576, 1906, 2284, that is, the truths and forms of good stored away by the Lord in a person’s interiors, 1050, 1906, 2284, 5135, 5897, 7560, 7564. And since the remnants reside in his interiors, and they are used to prepare the person for and initiate him into receiving goodness and truth from the Lord, ‘the tenth day’ here means the state of the initiation of the interiors. With regard to a person’s being regenerated by means of remnants, and so to his being initiated by means of them into receiving the inflow of goodness and truth from the Lord, see 5342, 5898, 6156, and with regard to his contact with heaven through them, 7560, for those forms of good and truths originate in the Lord, not in man, 7564. ‘Month’ is used to mean a whole state from start to finish, 7814, thus the complete state of deliverance, which the Passover in its entirety means. From all this it is evident that ‘on the tenth of this month’ means the state of the initiation of the interiors. This state – of the initiation of the interiors – lasted from the tenth day of that month through to the fourteenth day of it, between which days the Passover animal was to be held in safe keeping. ‘The Passover animal’ means the good of innocence, which is inmost; thus this good which is inmost, together with the interiors in which it resides, was in the meantime to be isolated and kept away from such things as defile it. This state is the state of the initiation of the interiors, that is, of being made ready to receive the inflow of goodness and truth from the Lord. This is the holy meaning contained in the words under consideration, for without that holy meaning deeply concealed within them no command would have been given for the Passover animal to be taken on the tenth of the month and held in safe keeping until the fourteenth day, or for it to be slaughtered after that between the evenings, and to be eaten roasted with fire and not boiled in water. Nor would they have been commanded not to leave any of it till morning, to burn with fire what remained, not to break a bone of it, and much else. These regulations, as anyone who ponders on them may recognize, have to do with things of a holy nature which no one is as yet acquainted with; and these holy things are spiritual ones that belong to the Church and heaven, and that are concerned with the Divine from whom every detail of the Word has come down.

sRef Ex@12 @3 S0′ 7832. ‘They shall take for themselves each one a member of the flock’ means in respect of innocence. This is clear from the meaning of a lamb or she-goat, to which ‘a member of the flock’ refers here, as innocence, ‘a lamb’ innocence in the interior man, ‘a she-goat’ innocence in the exterior man, 3519.

sRef Ex@12 @3 S0′ 7833. ‘According to the household of his fathers, a member of the flock according to the household’ means according to each one’s specific kind of good. This is clear from the meaning of ‘household of fathers’ as one family’s good, distinct from another’s good; for ‘a father’s house’ means a person in respect of internal good, 3128. The implications of this are as follows: All the tribes of Israel mean all forms of the truth and good of faith and charity in their entirety, each tribe meaning one general kind of good or of truth, see 3858, 3926, 3939, 4060, 6375, 6377, 6640. Thus every separate family within a tribe meant a specific kind of good, and therefore the good of one specifically, distinct from another’s good. But the household of the fathers within a family meant an individual type belonging to one specific kind. The reason why all these kinds of good were meant by the tribes, families, and households into which the children of Israel were divided was in order that they might represent heaven; for the varieties of good there are divided into general, specific, and individual. And these determine the ways in which angels are linked to one another. It should be recognized that one person’s good is never exactly the same as another’s good. Rather, they are varied, so varied that they can be distinguished into higher overall categories, and these into lower sub-divisions, down to particular and most particular kinds. Regarding forms of the good of love and faith, that they are so varied, see 684, 690, 3241, 3267, 3744-3746, 3986, 4005, 4149, 5598, 7236. From this it may now be evident why they were commanded to take for themselves each one a member of the flock according to the household of his fathers, a member according to the household.

sRef Ex@12 @4 S0′ 7834. ‘And if the household is too small for a member of the flock’ means if the individual type of good is insufficient for innocence. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the household’ as an individual type of good, dealt with immediately above in 7833; from the meaning of ‘being too small’ as being insufficient; and from the meaning of ‘a member of the flock’ as innocence, also dealt with just above, in 7832.

sRef Ex@12 @4 S0′ 7835. ‘Then he and his neighbour immediately next to his house shall take one’ means being joined to the nearest good of truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘taking’ – that is, taking along with one’s immediate neighbour, a single animal – as being joined together; and from the meaning of ‘neighbour next to his house’ as the nearest good of truth. The meaning of ‘immediate neighbour’ as the nearest is self-evident; and for the meaning of ‘house’ as good, see above in 7833. The term ‘good of truth’ is used because those belonging to the spiritual Church are the subject, and with them good is the good of truth, the good of truth being truth present in will and action. For when the truth of faith is received together with charitable affection it is implanted in the inward parts of the mind. And when that truth presents itself again, the affection to which that truth has been linked presents itself too, appearing in the form of good. So it is then that good in that Church is the good of truth, which is also called spiritual good.

sRef Ex@12 @4 S0′ 7836. ‘By the number of the souls, [each of them] according to the mouth of his eating, you shall make your count for the member of the flock’ means making the good sufficient for innocence by filling it out with truths of good in the exact quantity needed for assimilating innocence. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the number of the souls’ as the exact quantity of the truths of good, since ‘the number’ in the Word has reference to truth, and ‘a soul’ to spiritual good; from the meaning of ‘according to the mouth of his eating’ as the amount needed for assimilating it, ‘eating’ meaning assimilating or making one’s own, see 3168, 3517, 3596, 3832; and from the meaning of ‘the member of the flock’ as innocence, dealt with above in 7832. Making the good sufficient for innocence by filling it out is meant by the command to take from the house of an immediate neighbour the number that would be enough for the member of the flock, ‘the house’ meaning good, see above in 7873. When the expression ‘the truth of good’ is used here truth springing from good is meant. For when those who belong to the spiritual Church are being regenerated they are brought to the good of charity by means of the truth of faith; but once they have been brought to the good of charity, the truths born from it subsequently are called the truths of good.

[2] But how to understand these matters contained in this verse no one can possibly know unless he knows how the communities in heaven exist in relation to one another; for those communities were represented by the ways in which the children of Israel lived in association with one another according to tribes, families, and households. The communities of heaven are interrelated in a similar way, as follows: Heaven as a whole is one community, which the Lord governs as a single human being. The general communities there are the same in number as the members and various organs a person has, while the specific communities are the same in number as the component parts of each organ or member. And the individual communities are just so many as the smaller parts constituting larger ones. The truth of this is evident from the correspondences of the human being and of his members and various organs with the Grand Man, that is, with heaven, which have been described from experience at the ends of quite a number of chapters. From all this one may see what heaven is like so far as its organization into separate communities is concerned.

sRef 1Sam@9 @1 S3′ sRef 1Sam@1 @1 S3′ [3] But as regards what each community individually is like, it consists of a large number of angels who accord with one another in their types of good. The types of good are varying, for each one’s good is peculiar to himself; yet those varying types of good that are in accord with one another are organized by the Lord into the kind of form in which they stand together as a single body of good. Such communities were represented by the fathers’ houses among the children of Israel. This is the reason why the children of Israel were divided not only into tribes but also into families and households. And it is also why, when people are mentioned by name [in the Word], the names of their fathers are mentioned in order, right back to the tribe they belong to. It says, for example, of Samuel’s father in 1 Sam. 1:11 that he was from Mount Ephraim, and that his name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph; and 1 Sam. 9:1 states that Saul’s father was from Benjamin, and that his name was Kish, the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Bechorath, the son of Aphiah, the son of a Jeminite man.* Similar details concerning very many other fathers are given. When such were mentioned it was to the end that heaven might know the particular nature of the kind of good represented by that father, as it derived in consecutive degrees from the first.

[4] In heaven furthermore, if a community is not complete as it ought to be, then new members are taken from elsewhere, from some neighbouring community, just the number that will complete the form of that good. As many are taken as are needed in each state and in the changes it undergoes; for the form of good varies as the state changes. It should nevertheless be recognized that in the third or inmost heaven – which is immediately above the heaven where those who are spiritual are, since these constitute the middle or second heaven – innocence reigns. For the Lord, who is perfect innocence, flows directly into that heaven.

[5] But in the second heaven, where those who are spiritual are, the Lord flows in with innocence indirectly, that is to say, by way of the third heaven. This inflow is the means by which the communities in the second heaven are organized or arranged into order in respect of their types of good. Therefore the inflow of innocence is what leads to changes in the states of good and to consequent variations of the patterns linking communities to one another there. From this it becomes clear how one ought to understand the contents of this verse in the internal sense, namely as follows: If someone’s individual type of good is insufficient for innocence, it must be joined to the nearest good of truth, in order to make the good sufficient for the innocence by filling it out with truths of good in the exact quantity needed for assimilating innocence.
* i.e. a Benjaminite

sRef Ex@12 @5 S0′ 7837. ‘A perfect member’ means spotless innocence. This is clear from the meaning of ‘a member of the flock’ as innocence, dealt with above in 7832; and from the meaning of ‘perfect’ as without blemishes, and so spotless. The reason why it had to be without blemishes and spotless was that any blemish means in the spiritual world some falsity or evil.

sRef Ex@12 @5 S0′ 7838. ‘A male’ means which is characteristic of faith rooted in charity. This is clear from the meaning of ‘a male’ as the truth of faith, dealt with in 2046, 4005, and so faith rooted in charity, since the truth of faith is not the truth of faith unless it exists together with the good of charity, and springs from that good most of all. The reason why the Passover animal had to be a male was that that animal was a sign of the innocence of those belonging to the spiritual Church. And those belonging to the spiritual Church possess no other kind of good than that which is in itself the truth of faith; for this is called good when from charitable affection it is put into action, 7835. This is why it had to be a male animal. At other times female animals were also used in sacrifices, when worship springing from good was to be represented.

sRef Ezek@46 @13 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @5 S0′ 7839. ‘The son of a year it shall be to you’ means a complete state. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the son’ as truth, dealt with in 489, 491, 533, 1147, 2623, 1803, 1813, 3373, 3704; and from the meaning of ‘a year’ as a whole period from start to finish, dealt with in 2906, and so a complete state. What a complete state is must be explained. The expression ‘complete state’ is used when good is such that it lacks nothing it needs for receiving the inflow of innocence. The truths of faith when they have been joined to the good of charity cause good to be such; for spiritual good receives its specific quality from the truths of faith. This is how to understand what a complete state is, meant by ‘the son of a year’. But the state is not complete when truths have not as yet brought a specific quality to good, enabling it to receive a corresponding state of innocence. That complete state begins to exist when people look from good towards truths; it is not yet complete while they are looking from truths towards good. The second of these is the state of those undergoing regeneration, whereas the first is that of those who have been regenerated. Those undergoing regeneration are guided by truth that leads to good, those who have been regenerated by truth that springs from good; that is, the former live in obedience to truth, the latter are led by an affection to do it. The former are therefore members of the external Church, whereas the latter are members of the internal. Since ‘the son of a year’ meant a complete state, the command occurs so many times for a lamb or a kid, the son of a year, to be sacrificed, as in Exod. 29:38; Lev. 9:3; 12:6; 14:10; 23:12, 18, 19; Num. 6:12; 7:15ff, 87, 88; 15:27; 28:9, 11; and where the new temple is the subject in Ezekiel,

The prince shall make* a burnt offering of a lamb, a perfect, year-old lamb,** daily, to Jehovah; each morning he shall make* it. Ezek. 46:13.

Here ‘the new temple’ is used to mean the Lord’s spiritual kingdom. ‘The prince’ is those who know genuine truths and are led by them to good; ‘a burnt offering of a lamb’ is worship of the Lord that springs from the good of innocence; and ‘year-old’ means a complete state.
* The Hebrew means You shall make. But earlier verses in Ezekiel 46 refer to the prince.
** lit. a perfect son of a year

sRef Ex@12 @5 S0′ 7840. ‘From the lambs and from the she-goats you shall take it’ means the good of innocence, interior and exterior. This is clear from the meaning of ‘a lamb’ as the good of innocence, dealt with in 3994; and from the meaning of ‘a she-goat’ or of ‘a kid’ as the good of truth that has innocence within it, dealt with in 3995, 4005, 4006, 4871. For the meaning of ‘a lamb’ as the interior good of innocence, and of ‘a kid’ or ‘a she-goat’ as the exterior good of innocence, see 3519. What is meant by the good of innocence, interior and exterior, must be stated briefly. To be good, all good must have innocence within it. Without innocence good is devoid of its soul, so to speak. The reason for this is that the Lord flows in through innocence, and by means of it gives life to the good that exists with those who are being regenerated. The good that innocence gives life to is internal and external. Internal good resides with those who are called members of the internal Church, while external good resides with those who are members of the external Church. Members of the internal Church are those who have brought a specific quality to their good by means of interior truths such as belong to the internal sense of the Word, whereas members of the external Church are those who have brought a specific quality to their good by means of exterior truths such as belong to the literal sense of the Word. Members of the internal Church are those who are led to do good to the neighbour by an affection rising out of charity, whereas members of the external Church are led to do it by a sense of obedience. Every person who is being regenerated first becomes a member of the external Church, then later on a member of the internal Church. Those who belong to the internal Church excel in understanding and wisdom over those who belong to the external Church, and therefore also occupy a more internal position in heaven. From all this one may now see what the good of innocence, interior and exterior, is.

sRef Ex@12 @6 S0′ 7841. ‘And you shall keep it’ means the time and state of the initiation. This is clear from the meaning of the tenth day, from which the animal was to be kept until the fourteenth day, as the state of the initiation of the interiors, dealt with in 7831.

sRef Ex@12 @6 S0′ 7842. ‘Until the fourteenth of the month’ means leading up to a holy state. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the fourteenth day’ as a holy state. ‘Day’ means a state, see above in 7831, while ‘fourteen’ has the same meaning as seven, and ‘seven’ means what is holy, see 395, 433, 716, 881, 5265, 5268. For multiple numbers have meanings similar to those of their factors, 5291, 5335, 5708. This explains why the Passover had to begin on the fourteenth day of the month, continue for seven days, and end on the twenty-first day, which too means what is holy, because that number is the product of three multiplied by seven. That was why there had to be a holy convocation on the first day of the Passover, and a holy convocation on the twenty-first day [of the month], verse 16.

sRef Ex@12 @6 S0′ 7843. ‘And all the congregation of the assembly of Israel shall slaughter it’ means preparation for enjoyment by all in general belonging to the spiritual Church. This is clear from the meaning of ‘slaughtering’, when used in reference to the lamb or the she-goat for keeping the Passover, as preparation for enjoyment, the enjoyment of the good of innocence meant by the lamb and the she-goat; and from the meaning of ‘all the congregation of the assembly of Israel’ as by all in general belonging to the spiritual Church, dealt with above in 7830. ‘The congregation of the assembly’ means the truths of good which those belonging to that Church possess; for ‘congregation’ is used with reference to truth, 6355, and ‘assembly’ with reference to good.

sRef Ex@12 @6 S0′ sRef Deut@16 @6 S1′ sRef Deut@16 @4 S1′ 7844. ‘between the evenings’ means a last and first state. This is clear from the meaning of ‘evening’ as a state of falsity and also a state of ignorance of truth; for the shade of evening is falsity and also ignorance of truth. All the times of day, like all the seasons of the year, mean in the spiritual sense alternating states involving truth and good, 5672, 5962, 6110. The end of them and the beginning of them is the evening; consequently when it says ‘between the evenings’ it implies all those states. At this point therefore ‘between the evenings’ means the state of deliverance of those governed by truth springing from good, and the state of damnation of those governed by falsity arising from evil, states which are meant by the departure of the children of Israel from Egypt when the firstborn there were killed. The fact that all this is called ‘the evening’ is clear from the following in Moses,

You shall sacrifice* the Passover in the evening when the sun goes down, at the fixed time of your departure from Egypt. Deut. 16:4, 6.

[2] From this it is evident that the end of the state of molestations and the beginning of the state of the deliverance of those represented by the children of Israel is meant by ‘between the evenings’. From that beginning the state moves on for them towards morning, which is a raising to heaven. It is evident too that the end of the state of molestations and the beginning of the state of the damnation of those represented by the Egyptians is meant by ‘between the evenings’. But these people’s state moves on towards night, which is a casting into hell. The casting of the latter into hell is represented by being drowned in the Sea Suph, while the raising of the former to heaven is represented by being led into the land of Canaan.

[3] In the Word the expression ‘the evening’ is used in various places, and by it is meant a last phase of a Church and also a first phase of it – a last one with those among whom the Church is coming to an end, and a first with those among whom it is just beginning. This explains why ‘the evening’ primarily means the Lord’s Coming, for that was the time of the end of the former Church and of the beginning of the new. The first state of the new Church is also called ‘the evening’ since a member of the Church starts with light that is dim and advances to that which is clear, and this for him is the morning.

sRef Dan@8 @13 S4′ sRef Dan@8 @14 S4′ [4] The fact that the Lord’s Coming into the world is meant by ‘the evening’ and ‘the morning’ is clear in Daniel,

I heard a holy one speaking, For how long is this vision, the continual [burnt offering], and the transgression, and the treading down of the sanctuary and the host? And he said to me, Up to the evening [when it is becoming] morning two thousand three hundred times, for then the sanctuary will be made correct. Dan. 8:13, 14.

Here it is self-evident that ‘the evening’ is used to mean the last phase when the Church had been completely laid waste and the Lord came into the world, and ‘morning’ to mean light and the rise of a new Church from Him.

sRef Zech@14 @7 S5′ sRef Zeph@2 @7 S5′ sRef Ex@27 @20 S5′ sRef Ex@27 @21 S5′ [5] A similar prophecy appears in Zechariah,

There will be one day, which will be known to Jehovah, not day nor night, because around evening time there will be light. Zech. 14:7.

In Zephaniah,

Let there at length be a territory for the remnant of the house of Judah; they will pasture on them. In the houses of Ashkelon they will find rest in the evening, when Jehovah their God will visit them, and return their captives.** Zeph. 1:7.

‘The evening’ stands for the first state of an arising Church. Since ‘the evening’ meant the last state of an old Church and the first of a new, Aaron and his sons were commanded to cause a lamp to burn*** from evening until morning before Jehovah, Exod. 27:20, 21.

sRef Ezek@24 @18 S6′ sRef Jer@6 @4 S6′ sRef Ps@90 @6 S6′ [6] The fact that ‘the evening’ is the last state of the Church, when dense falsity reigns because there is no faith, and dense evil because there is no charity, is evident in Jeremiah,

Woe to us,**** for the day goes away, for the shadows of evening are set at an angle! Jer. 6:4.

In Ezekiel,

I spoke to the people in the morning, and my wife died at evening. Ezek. 24:18.

‘Wife’ stands for the Church. In David,

At dawn it will flourish and shoot up,***** at evening one will cut it down, it will wither. Ps. 90:6.
* The Latin means they shall sacrifice but the Hebrew means you shall sacrifice, which Sw. has in another place where he quotes this verse.
** lit. bring again their captivity
*** lit. to go up
**** The Latin means you but the Hebrew means us, which Sw. has in one other place where he quotes this verse.
***** lit. Pass on

7845. Verses 7-11 And they shall take some of the blood and put it onto the two doorposts and onto the lintel, on the houses in which they will eat it. And they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted with fire, and [with] unleavened bread on bitter herbs, they shall eat it. Do not eat any of it raw, nor boiled at all in water, but roasted indeed with fire, its head over its legs and over its middle. And you shall not leave any of it until the morning; and what does remain of it until the morning you shall burn with fire. And thus you shall eat it: Your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your rod in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste; it is a Passover to Jehovah.

‘And they shall take some of the blood’ means holy truth belonging to the good of innocence. ‘And put it onto the two doorposts and onto the lintel’ means the truths and forms of good of the natural. ‘On the houses’ means the desires composing a will that seeks what is good. ‘In which they will eat it’ means enjoyment. ‘And they shall eat the flesh’ means enjoyment of what is good. ‘On that night’ means when the damnation of the evil takes place. ‘Roasted with fire’ means good that is the product of love. ‘And unleavened bread’ means what has been purified from all falsity. ‘On bitter herbs’ means through the unpleasant experiences of temptation. ‘They shall eat it’ means enjoyment. ‘Do not eat any of it raw’ means that it must not be devoid of love. ‘Nor boiled at all in water’ means that it must not come out of truth. ‘But roasted indeed with fire’ means that it must be a product of love. ‘Its head over its legs and over its middle’ means from what is inmost to what is external. ‘And you shall not leave any of it until the morning’ means the duration of this state before the state of enlightenment in heaven. ‘And what does remain of it until the morning you shall burn with fire’ means the state leading up to the end arrived at through temptations. ‘And thus you shall eat it’ means enjoyment in a state of separation from the evil who have been molesters, and preservation at that time. ‘Your loins girded’ means in respect of their interiors. ‘Your shoes on your feet’ means in respect of their exteriors. ‘And your rod in your hand’ means in respect of means. ‘And you shall eat it in haste’ means their feeling in their state of separation. ‘It is a Passover to Jehovah’ means the Lord’s presence, and deliverance by Him.

sRef Ex@12 @7 S0′ 7846. ‘And they shall take some of the blood’ means holy truth belonging to the good of innocence. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the blood’ as holy truth coming forth from the Lord, dealt with in 4735, 6978, 7317, 7326. And ‘the blood’ being that of the lamb, by which the good of innocence is meant, 3994, it is holy truth belonging to the good of innocence.

sRef Ex@12 @7 S0′ 7847. ‘And put it onto the two doorposts and onto the lintel’ means the truths and forms of good of the natural. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the doorposts’ as the truths of the natural; and from the meaning of ‘the lintel’ as the forms of good belonging to it. The reason why the doorposts and lintel have this meaning is that ‘the house’ means the actual person or his mind, and parts forming the door mean the things that serve to lead into it. These, it may be evident, are the truths and forms of good of the natural; for the natural man receives instruction first, before the rational man, and the ideas he learns during that time are natural ones, into which spiritual ideas, which are more internal, are gradually instilled. From this one may see in what way the truths and forms of good of the natural serve to lead in. Furthermore lintel and doorposts are similar in meaning to a person’s frontlets and hands; for it is in the nature of angelic ideas to associate natural objects with human characteristics. The reason for this is that the spiritual world or heaven is in form like a person, and therefore all things in that world – that is, all spiritual realities, which are truths and forms of good – have connection with that form, as has been shown where correspondences are the subject, at the ends of quite a number of chapters. And since in angelic ideas natural objects become spiritual realities a house does so too. To them it is a person’s mind; the bedrooms and other rooms are the inner parts of the mind, and the windows, doors, doorposts, and lintels are the outer parts leading in. Since angelic ideas are like this they are also filled with life; and that being so, things which in the natural world are lifeless objects become objects filled with life when they pass into the spiritual world. For everything spiritual is filled with life since it comes from the Lord.

sRef Deut@6 @9 S2′ sRef Deut@6 @8 S2′ sRef Deut@6 @5 S2′ [2] The fact that ‘doorposts and lintel’ is similar in meaning to a person’s ‘frontlets and hands’ may be seen from the following words in Moses,

You shall love Jehovah your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. You are to bind them as a sign onto your hand, and let them be as frontlets between your eyes. And you are to write them onto the doorposts of your house, and on your gates. Deut. 6:5, 8, 9; 11:13, 18, 20.

Since they hold a similar meaning to each other both observances have been stated here.

sRef Ezek@45 @19 S3′ [3] As regards the meaning of ‘lintel and doorposts’ in the spiritual sense as the forms of good and the truths of the natural which lead into spiritual things, this is clear from the description in Ezekiel of the new temple, which means the spiritual Church. There reference is made many times to doorposts and lintels, objects which were also measured. This would never have been done unless those details had also meant something descriptive of the Church or of heaven, that is, something spiritual, such as the following details in that prophet,

The priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering, and put it onto the doorpost of the house, and onto the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and onto the post of the gate of the inner court, on the first day of the month. Ezek. 45:19.

sRef Ezek@46 @2 S4′ sRef 1Ki@6 @31 S4′ sRef 1Ki@6 @33 S4′ [4] In the same prophet,

The prince shall enter by the way of the portico outside, and stand by the gate post; and the priests shall make his burnt offering. At that time he shall worship on the threshold of the gate. Ezek. 46:2.

Anyone may recognize that ‘the temple’ here is not used to mean the temple but the Lord’s Church, for the kinds of things described here in a number of chapters have never come about, and never will. In the highest sense ‘the temple’ is used to mean the Lord’s Divine Human. He Himself teaches this meaning in John 2:19, 21, 22; and in the representative sense ‘the temple is therefore used to mean His Church. For statements that the angel measured the lintels of this new temple, see Ezek. 40:9, 10, 14, 16, 24; 41:21, 25. This measuring of them would have had no importance unless ‘the lintels’, and also the numbers involved, had meant some aspect of the Church. Because ‘the doorposts and lintel’ meant the truths and forms of good in the natural, which serve to lead in, the ones in this new temple were square, Ezek. 41:21. For the same reason the doorposts in Solomon’s temple were made of planks of olive wood, 1 Kings 6:31, 33. ‘Olive wood’ meant the good of truth or the good which is that of the spiritual Church.

sRef Ex@12 @7 S0′ 7848. ‘On the houses’ means the desires composing a will that seeks what is good. This is clear from the meaning of ‘house’ as a person, dealt with in 3128, and as the human mind, 3538, 4973, 5023, 7353, consequently that which composes the will, at this point that which composes a will seeking what is good. The reason why ‘house’ also means the will is that a person is meant by it, and a person is a person primarily by virtue of what he wills. Furthermore, whether you say a person or his mind it amounts to the same thing. For a person is not a person by virtue of his physical body but by virtue of his mind; and what his mind is like – that is, what his understanding and will are like, primarily what his will is like – determine what kind of person he is.

sRef Ex@12 @7 S0′ 7849. ‘In which they will eat it’ means enjoyment. This is clear from the meaning of ‘eating’ as making one’s own, dealt with in 3168, 3513 (end), 4745, but at this point enjoyment since the subject is the state of initiation. The situation is this: When those who had been held back in safe keeping on the lower earth before the Lord’s Coming – 6854, 6914, 7091 (end), 7828 – were about to be delivered they had to be made ready to receive the inflow of goodness and truth from the Lord; for they were going to pass through the midst of hell. And to guard, as they passed through, against any inflow of evils and falsities from hellish spirits round about, they had to be made ready so that when they went through they would be fully equipped with truth and good. But this passage through hell will in the Lord’s Divine mercy be spoken about later on. That preparation or initiation into a state when goodness and truth were received is described by the things they were to do between the tenth day of the month and the fourteenth, and were to observe in connection with the eating of the Passover lamb.

sRef Ex@12 @8 S0′ 7850. ‘And they shall eat the flesh’ means enjoyment of what is good. This is clear from the meaning of ‘eating’ as enjoyment, dealt with immediately above in 7849; and from the meaning of ‘the flesh’ as the human proprium made alive by the Lord’s Divine Human, thus all the celestial and spiritual good present with a person, dealt with in 3813, 6968. The fact that ‘flesh’ has this meaning was very well known among the ancients; but at the present day people are so ignorant of it that everyone is amazed when ‘flesh’ is said to mean such. If one speaks of the proprium as the spiritual entity to which ‘flesh’ corresponds, people have no understanding of this. If one speaks of it as the symbolic meaning of ‘flesh’ they do, it is true, understand that, yet their idea is entirely different from that in which the natural object corresponds to the entity it symbolizes; that is to say, they see it as something completely separate. But in actual fact the spiritual or symbolized entity to which it corresponds is linked to it as a person’s sight is linked to his eye and his hearing to his ear, and as his thought, which is spiritual, is linked to the form his interiors assume, and through that form to his organs of speech, or as his will, which too is spiritual, is linked to the fibres forming his muscles with which he acts. The same kind of relationship exists with every spiritual entity and its counterpart, that is, with every entity that is symbolized and the natural object that has a correspondence with it.

sRef John@6 @55 S2′ sRef John@6 @56 S2′ sRef John@6 @54 S2′ sRef John@6 @53 S2′ [2] Who can fail to see that ‘flesh’ is not used by the Lord to mean flesh or ‘blood’ to mean blood in John,

Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you will have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is truly food, and My blood is truly drink. John 6:53-56.

Few at the present day know that ‘flesh’ was used to mean the Divine Good of the Lord’s Divine Love, which comes from His Divine Human, and ‘blood’ to mean the Divine Truth emanating from His Divine Good, and also a person’s reciprocation. And those who are capable of knowing this have no wish to know it. They have no wish to know it because they have no affection for truth for its own sake, only for the sake of inducements the world offers, and also because people who think on a natural level wish to understand everything on that level.

sRef Rev@19 @18 S3′ sRef Rev@19 @17 S3′ [3] These matters have been stated in order that people may know what is meant by ‘eating flesh’ in the Passover supper, and what is consequently meant by it in the Holy Supper, which was instituted at the Passover supper. Regarding the bread and wine, which have the same meaning as flesh and blood, in the Holy Supper, see 2165, 2177, 2187, 3464, 3478, 3735, 3813, 4211, 4217, 4735, 4976, 5915. The fact that ‘flesh’ is not flesh in the spiritual sense of the Word is, in addition to other places, plainly evident from the following in John,

Come and gather yourselves to the supper of the great God, so that you may eat [the flesh of kings, and] the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses and those seated on them, and the flesh of all free men and slaves, both small and great. Rev. 19:17, 18.

‘The flesh’, as it is used here, means varying kinds of good.

sRef Ex@12 @8 S0′ 7851. ‘On that night’ means when the damnation of the evil takes place. This is clear from the meaning of ‘night’ as a state of devastation of truth and good, dealt with in 221, 709, 2353, 7776, and so damnation. For when truth and good are no longer present, only falsity and evil, there is damnation, at this point the damnation of the ones who molested those belonging to the spiritual Church.

sRef Ex@12 @8 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @9 S1′ 7852. ‘Roasted with fire’ means good that is the product of love. This is clear from the meaning of ‘what is roasted with fire’ as the good of love; for ‘fire’ means love, 934, 4906, 5215, 6314, 6832, 6834, 6849, 7324, and ‘what is roasted’ that which has been infused with love, consequently good. In the Word what has been roasted is distinguished from what has been boiled. ‘What has been roasted’ means good, because it has been cooked by means of fire, while ‘what has been boiled’ is used to mean truth, because it has been cooked by means of water. A similar distinction is made here, for it says in verse 9, Do not eat any of it raw, nor bailed at all in water, but roasted indeed with fire. The reason for this is that ‘the Passover lamb’ means the good of innocence, which is the good of love to the Lord.

sRef John@21 @13 S2′ sRef John@21 @9 S2′ [2] All this shows what ‘the roasted fish’, in Luke 24:42, 43, means in the spiritual sense, and also ‘the fish placed over the fire of coals’ when the Lord appeared to the disciples, described in John as follows,

After the disciples got down onto the land they saw a fire of coals that had been set, and a small fish lying over it, and bread. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the small fish. John 21:9, 13.

‘A fish’ means truth in the natural, 991, while ‘a fire of coals’ means good. Thus ‘a small fish lying over it’ means the truth of spiritual good within the natural. A person who does not believe in the existence of the internal sense within the Word inevitably thinks that the presence of the fish over the coal fire, when the Lord appeared to the disciples, and its being given them by the Lord to eat lack any deeper, hidden meaning.

sRef Isa@44 @16 S3′ sRef Isa@44 @19 S3′ [3] Since ‘roasted with fire’ means good that is the product of celestial and spiritual love, evil that is the product of selfish and worldly love is meant in the contrary sense by ‘roasted with fire’ in Isaiah,

He burnt part of it with fire, over part of it he ate flesh, he roasted a roast, in order that he might be satiated; also he was made warm. And he said, O brother,* I have been made warm, I have seen the fire. I have burned part of it with fire, and also I have baked bread over its coals, I have roasted flesh and am eating it. Isa. 44:16, 19.

This refers to worshippers of a carved image. ‘A carved image’ means falsity of evil, which is portrayed by such an image. ‘Roasting a roast’ and ‘roasting flesh’ are working evil under the influence of a filthy love. With regard to ‘fire’, that it is in the contrary sense the evil of self-love and love of the world, or the desires belonging to those kinds of love, see 1297, 1861, 2446, 5071, 5215, 6314, 6832, 7324, 7575.
* The word in the original language consists of three Hebrew letters, which with the vowel points of the Massoretic Text read as the interjection he’ach (ah!). But the Latin treats the same three letters as the (vocative) noun ha’ach (O brother).

sRef Ex@12 @8 S0′ 7853. ‘And unleavened bread’ means what has been purified from all falsity. This is clear from the meaning of what is ‘unleavened’, or has had no yeast added, as what has been purified from falsity, dealt with in 2342. The reason why ‘unleavened bread’ has this meaning is that ‘yeast’ means falsity, dealt with in what follows below.

sRef Ex@15 @25 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @8 S0′ sRef Ex@15 @23 S0′ sRef Ex@15 @24 S0′ sRef Rev@8 @11 S0′ sRef Rev@8 @10 S0′ sRef Isa@5 @20 S0′ sRef Isa@24 @9 S0′ 7854. ‘On bitter herbs’ means through the unpleasant experiences of temptation. This is clear from the meaning of ‘bitter herbs’, or bitterness, as what is undelightful, in this case the experiences of temptation. For the good of innocence, represented by ‘the Passover lamb’, cannot be assimilated by anyone except through temptations – ‘Unleavened bread’ means this kind of good; and since it is assimilated through temptations people were required to eat it ‘on bitter herbs’. What was more, that bread was for them, like the manna, ‘the bread of affliction’, Deut. 8:15, 16; 16:3, because it was without yeast, that is, any falsity arising from evil; for no one can bear pure truth or pure good. The use of ‘bitter’ to mean what is unpleasant is evident in Isaiah,

Woe to those who speak of evil as good, and of good as evil, who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Isa. 5:20.

And in the same prophet,

They will not drink wine with singing, strong drink will be bitter to those drinking it. Isa. 24:9.

The use of ‘bitter’ to mean the unpleasant experiences of temptation is evident from the following words: In Exodus,

At length they came to Marah,* but they could not drink the waters for bitterness; for they were bitter. The people therefore grumbled against Moses; and when he cried to Jehovah, Jehovah showed him [some] wood, which he threw into the waters, and the waters were made sweet. There He established for him a statute and a judgement, that He tempted him there. Exod. 15:23-25.

And also in John,

A great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch. The name of the star is called Wormwood; and many people died from the waters, because they were made bitter. Rev. 8:10, 11.

‘Bitter waters’ here stands for the unpleasant experiences of temptation. People died from the waters’ stands for those who gave way in temptations.
* A name that means bitterness

sRef Ex@12 @8 S0′ 7855. ‘They shall eat it’ means enjoyment. This is clear from what has been stated above in 7849.

sRef Ex@12 @9 S0′ 7856. ‘Do not eat any of it raw’ means that it must not be devoid of love. This is clear from the meaning of ‘eating’ as enjoyment, as above in 7849; and from the meaning of ‘raw’ as devoid of the good of love. It is plain that this is what ‘raw’ means from the meaning of ‘roasted with fire’ as the good of love, dealt with above in 7852. Since ‘raw’ describes what has not been roasted with fire, it therefore means what is devoid of love.

sRef Matt@24 @18 S0′ sRef Matt@24 @17 S0′ sRef Luke@17 @31 S0′ sRef Luke@17 @32 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @9 S0′ 7857. ‘Nor boiled at all in water’ means that it must not come out of the truth of faith. This is clear from the meaning of ‘water’ as the truths of faith, dealt with in 2702, 3058, 3424, 4976, 5668, and therefore ‘boiled in water’ means what comes out of it, that is, good that is the outcome of the truth of faith. This kind of good is distinct from good that is the product of love, meant by ‘roasted with fire’, 7852. All spiritual good emanates either from faith, that is, comes through faith, or from love. While a person is being regenerated good in his case emanates from the truth of faith; for during that time he acts in accordance with truth not out of affection for truth but in obedience to it because it commands him so to act. Subsequently however, when he has been regenerated, he does what is good out of an affection for it, thus out of love. A very clear distinction is drawn in the Word between these two states with people, because no one can be in both states simultaneously. A person in the first state cannot enter the second before he has been regenerated; and a person in the second must not take himself back into the first. If anyone does take himself back he loses his affection to do what is good out of love, and slips back into the state of faith which had served to bring him to good, and even slides out of that state of faith. This is what is meant in the internal sense by the Lord’s words on the subject of the last judgement in Matthew,

Then let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house; and let him who is in the field not return back to take his clothes. Matt. 24:17, 18.

The same is also meant by Lot’s wife, in that she looked back behind herself, Luke 17:31, 32.

All this may enable one to understand what being allowed to enjoy good that comes out of love is, but not good that comes out of the truth of faith, meant by the regulation that they were to eat flesh roasted with fire, but not any boiled in water.

sRef Zech@14 @21 S2′ [2] Worship of the Lord springing from faith and love was meant by sacrifices and burnt offerings – from faith by sacrifices and from love by burnt offerings. And glorification of the Lord and feelings of gladness for the enjoyment of good things that came from the Lord were meant by feasts of consecrated things. All this being so, they were allowed to boil flesh on such occasions. For glorification of the Lord and gladness for the enjoyment of good things emanates from an affection for the truth of faith, and so too does all thanksgiving (confessio). For evidence that the sacrificial flesh was boiled, see Exod. 29:31, 32; 1 Sam 2:13, 15; 1 Kings 19:21. The same is meant by ‘boiling’ in Zechariah,

On that day every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be holiness to Jehovah Zebaoth. And all who offer sacrifice will come and take from them and boil in them. Zech. 14:21.

sRef Ex@12 @9 S0′ 7858. ‘But roasted indeed with fire’ means that it must be a product of love. This is clear from the meaning of ‘roasted with fire’ as good that is the product of love, dealt with above in 7852.

sRef Ex@12 @9 S0′ 7859. ‘Its head over its legs and over its middle’ means from what is inmost to what is external. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the head’, when said to be ‘over the head and middle’, as what is inmost, for the head is on top, and what is on top is in the spiritual sense what is inmost, 2148, 3084, 4599, 5146 (for the meaning of ‘the head’ as the interiors and ‘the body’ as the exteriors, see 6436); from the meaning of ‘the legs’ as exteriors, for in relation to the head the legs are lower, and just as higher parts mean more internal ones, so lower parts mean more external ones; and from the meaning of ‘the middle’ as the parts that are lower still, as those of the belly and intestines are. The command that they were to roast the head over the legs and over the middle represented the necessity for interiors and exteriors to be combined, that is, to act as one. The interiors are what constitute the internal man, the exteriors what constitute the external man; or, the interiors are what constitute the spiritual man, while the exteriors are what constitute the natural man. These must be combined, that is, act as one, if a person is to have the Lord’s kingdom within him. They are separated when the natural or external man acts differently from what the spiritual or internal man desires. These considerations go to prove what was meant by the regulation that the Passover lamb should be roasted with fire, the head over the legs and middle. ‘The middle’ is used to mean the even more external part of the natural, which is the level of the senses. Anyone may see that a Divine arcanum is present within these commands, for the Passover lamb was the most holy thing in that Church. But that holy arcanum is indiscernible except through a spiritual understanding, such as is presented here, of the subject matter involved and the words used.

sRef Ex@12 @10 S0′ 7860. ‘And you shall not leave any of it until the morning’ means the duration of this state before the state of enlightenment in heaven. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the morning’ as heaven and the state of enlightenment there, dealt with in 2405, 3458, 3723, 5740, 5962. ‘Leaving nothing of it until that time’ plainly means the duration of that state, for at that time the prior state will come to an end. As has been shown already, the subject in the internal sense is the deliverance of those belonging to the spiritual Church from molestations. The state of their deliverance is represented by the Passover, and the state of their being raised to heaven by being led into the land of Canaan, this latter state being meant by ‘the morning’. These two states are entirely different from each other; they are like the state of the means to the end, and that of the end itself. When the state of the end itself is reached what belongs to the state of the means will have been accomplished. From this it is evident why they were commanded not to leave any of it till morning.

sRef Ex@12 @10 S0′ 7861. ‘And what does remain of it until the morning you shall burn with fire’ means the state leading up to the end arrived at through temptations. This is clear from the meaning of ‘what remains till morning’ as the state leading up to the last, the last being when they are raised to heaven (for ‘the morning’ means being raised to heaven and enlightenment there, see immediately above in 7860, and therefore the time before morning means the state leading up to this, during but not after which they were allowed to enjoy or eat what was left); and from the meaning of ‘burning with fire’ as undergoing temptations. Temptations are meant by ‘burning with fire’ because fire can be used to purify, and also because when a person enters temptations he is confronted with his evil desires, which are ‘fires’.

sRef Ex@12 @11 S0′ 7862. ‘And thus you shall eat it’ means enjoyment in a state of separation from the evil who have been molesters, and presentation at that time. This is clear from the meaning of ‘eating’ as enjoyment, dealt with above in 7849. Since the departure from Egypt is the subject, and separation from those who have been molesters is meant by it, that state is what one should understand by the instruction that ‘thus’ they were to eat it. The fact that preservation is also meant is self-evident.

sRef Ex@12 @11 S0′ 7863. ‘Your loins girded’ means in respect of their interiors. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the loins’ as those desires that belong to conjugial love, 3021, 4277, 4280, 5050-5062, thus those that belong to the love of goodness and truth, since conjugial love descends from this, 686, 2618, 2717-2759, 4434, 5054. For this reason, and because the loins are above the feet – which are the exteriors, dealt with immediately below – the interiors are meant by them. The requirement that their loins should be girded means being suitably made ready to receive the inflow of good and truth from the Lord, and also to act in accordance with what flows in. Every girding and clothing means a state in which one has been made ready to receive and act, for then every single thing is held in its proper place. It is different when they have not been girded.

sRef Ex@12 @11 S0′ 7864. ‘Your shoes on your feet’ means in respect of their exteriors. This is clear from the meaning of ‘shoes’ as the external or lowest parts of the natural, which in general overlie the interiors of the natural; and from the meaning of ‘the feet’ as the natural, dealt with in 2162, 3147, 3761, 3986, 4280, 4938-4952.

sRef Ex@12 @11 S0′ 7865. ‘And your rod in your hand’ means in respect of means. This is clear from the meaning of rod in hand’ – when journeying or travelling is referred to, and mention is made of ‘the loins’ and also ‘shoes on the feet’, which are the interiors and the exteriors – as means.

sRef Ex@12 @11 S0′ 7866. ‘And you shall eat it in haste’ means their feeling in their state of separation. This is clear from the meaning of ‘haste’ as a feeling, since haste is the expression of a feeling, dealt with in 7695. Here it is their feeling in their state of separation, for they had been separated from the
molesters, who are meant by ‘the Egyptians’.

sRef Ex@12 @11 S0′ 7867. ‘It is a Passover to Jehovah’ means the Lord’s presence, and deliverance by Him. This is clear from the things which have been stated up to this point, in particular regarding the deliverance of those belonging to the spiritual Church by the Lord’s Coming, 6854, 6914, 7035, 7091 (end), 7828. Regarding ‘Jehovah’ in the Word, that He is the Lord, see 1343, 1736, 2921, 3023, 3035, 5041, 5667, 6281, 6303, 6905.

sRef Ex@12 @14 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @15 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @16 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @13 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @12 S0′ 7868. Verses 12-16 And I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from man (homo) even to beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will make judgements. I am Jehovah. And the blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and I will see the blood and pass you by, and the plague will not be on you for the destroyer, when I strike the land of Egypt. And that day shall be to you for a memorial, and you shall keep it as a feast to Jehovah, throughout your generations; you shall keep it as a feast by an eternal statute. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; even on the first day you shall remove* yeast from your houses, for anyone eating anything made with yeast, that soul shall be cut off from Israel, from the first day until the seventh day. And on the first day there shalt be a holy convocation, and on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you. No work shall be done on them; only what must be eaten by every soul, this alone shall be done by you.

‘And I will go through the land of Egypt’ means presence among those who have engaged in molestation. ‘On that night’ means their state – a state of evil. ‘And will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt’ means the damnation of those governed by faith separated from charity. ‘From man even to beast’ means their evil desires, interior and exterior. ‘And on all the gods of Egypt I will make judgements’ means their falsities which are to be damned. ‘I am Jehovah’ means that the Lord is the only God. ‘And the blood will be’ means truth belonging to the good of innocence. ‘A sign for you on the houses where you are’ means that it bears witness to a will that seeks what is good. ‘And I will see the blood’ means the discernment of that truth by those who inflict damnation. ‘And pass you by’ means that it will stay away from there. ‘And the plague will not be on you for the destroyer’ means that damnation from hell will not enter in. ‘When I strike the land of Egypt’ means when those governed by faith separated from charity are damned. ‘And that day shall be to you for a memorial’ means the essential nature of that state in worship. ‘You shall keep it as a feast to Jehovah’ means worship of the Lord because of deliverance from damnation. ‘Throughout your generations’ means in those things that belong to faith and charity. ‘You shall keep it as a feast by an eternal statute’ means worship of the Lord in keeping with the order of heaven for those belonging to the spiritual Church. ‘Seven days’ means what is holy. ‘You shall eat unleavened bread’ means purification from falsities. ‘Even on the first day you shall remove yeast from your houses’ means that there must be no falsity whatever in good. ‘For anyone eating anything made with yeast’ means whoever makes falsity his own. ‘That soul shall be cut off from Israel’ means that he will be separated from those belonging to the spiritual Church, and that he will be damned. ‘From the first day until the seventh day’ means a holy and complete state. ‘And on the first day there shall be a holy convocation’ means that at the beginning all must be together. ‘On the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you’ means so must they be together at the end of the state. ‘No work shall be done on them’ means abstention during that time from earthly and worldly pursuits. ‘Only what must be eaten by every soul’ means when spiritual and celestial good is made their own. ‘This alone shall be done’ means that they must apply themselves at this time to these things only.
* lit. cause to cease

sRef Ex@12 @12 S0′ 7869. ‘And I will go through the land of Egypt’ means presence among those who have engaged in molestation. This is clear from the meaning of ‘going through’ – when it is a going ‘through the land’, and done by Jehovah – as presence; and from the meaning of ‘the Egyptians’ as the ones who have molested those belonging to the spiritual Church, dealt with in 6692, 7097. ‘The land of Egypt’ here stands for those molesters.

sRef Ex@12 @12 S0′ 7870. ‘On that night’ means their state – a state of evil. This is clear from the meaning of ‘night’ as a state when there is nothing but evil and falsity. For night describes the opposite of day and thick darkness the opposite of [clear] light, and ‘day’ and ‘[clear] light’ mean a state in which truth and good reign. This being so, ‘night’ also means the last phase of the Church, for at that time falsities and evils reign because there is no faith or charity, see 2353, 6000. In addition ‘night’ means when vastation is completed, 7776, and also damnation, 7851. From all this it is evident that the state of those who are in hell is called ‘night’. Not that the thick darkness of night envelops them, for they can see one another. But since the state of truth and good which exists in heaven is called ‘day’, the state of falsity and evil is called ‘night’. Also thick darkness exists in hell when any light at all from heaven flows into it; for then the inferior light which they see by is reduced to nothing and becomes thick darkness.

[2] The source of the inferior light they see by is, it is true, light from the Lord coming through heaven; for in the next life no light comes from anywhere else. But among those in hell that light from Him enters by way of the ability to understand what is true. The ability enabling them to understand remains with them, as it does with every human being, however much they may be steeped in evil or falsity. But when that heavenly light passes on into their will – that is to say, into unwillingness to understand – and consequently passes into the evil and falsity that reside with them, the heavenly light is turned for them into inferior light resembling that emitted from a coal fire. And, as has been stated, that inferior light is converted into utterly thick darkness by the light of heaven when this flows into it. Regarding the inferior light in hell, its being like that emitted from a coal fire, see 1528, 3340, 4418, 4571; and regarding its conversion into thick darkness at the presence of the light of heaven, 1783, 3412, 4533, 5057, 5058, 6000. From all this it may be recognized that in the next life the kind of light each one has depends on whether his ability to understand is furnished with truths springing from good or with falsities arising from evil.

sRef Ex@12 @12 S0′ 7871. ‘And will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt’ means the damnation of those governed by faith separated from charity. This is clear from the meaning of ‘striking’ as damnation, for striking is killing or putting to death, and ‘death’ in the spiritual sense means damnation, see 6119; from the meaning of ‘the firstborn’ – when used in reference to the Egyptians, who represent those steeped in falsities arising from evil – as faith separated from charity, 3325, 7039, 7766, 7778, 7779. In the genuine sense the expression ‘the firstborn’, when it describes a feature of the spiritual Church, means faith that is wedded to charity, see 367, 2435, 3325, 3494, 6344, 7035; therefore in the contrary sense ‘the firstborn’ is faith devoid of charity.

sRef Ex@12 @12 S0′ 7872. ‘From man even to beast’ means their evil desires, interior and exterior. This is clear from the meaning of ‘from man even to beast’ as the affection for interior good and exterior good, dealt with in 7424, 7523; for ‘man’ means the affection for interior good, and ‘beast’ the affection for exterior good. In the contrary sense, as at this point where the firstborn of the Egyptians are referred to, evil affections, or interior and exterior evil desires, are meant. For more about the meaning of ‘beasts’ as good affections, and in the contrary sense evil affections or desires, see 45, 46, 142, 143, 246, 714, 715, 719, 776, 1823, 2179, 2180, 2781, 3218, 3519, 5198.

sRef Ex@12 @12 S0′ 7873. ‘And on all the gods of Egypt I will make judgements’ means their falsities which are to be damned. This is clear from the meaning of ‘gods’ as falsities, dealt with below; and from the meaning of ‘making judgements’ as being damned, for to judge or to make judgements is to point either to life or to death; a judgement that points to life means salvation, one that points to death means damnation. The term ‘gods’ is used many times in the Word. When angels are called such, truths are meant, see 4295, 4402, 7268, and therefore in the contrary sense ‘the gods of the nations’ means falsities, 4402, 4544. The reason why truths are referred to as ‘gods’ is that truth emanates from God Himself and is in itself of God. Consequently those who receive that truth are called ‘gods’. Not that they are gods; rather, the truth with them is of God. This explains why in the original language God is referred to by the plural noun Elohim. God Himself is Divine Goodness, but what emanates from Him is Divine Truth which fills the whole of heaven. So then, because ‘god’ means truth, falsity is meant by that word in the contrary sense.

sRef Ex@12 @12 S0′ 7874. ‘I am Jehovah’ means that the Lord is the only God. This becomes clear from the explanations above in 7401, 7444, 7544, 7598, 7636.

sRef Ex@12 @13 S0′ 7875. ‘And the blood will be’ means truth belonging to the good of innocence. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the blood of the lamb’ as truth belonging to the good of innocence, as above in 7846.

sRef Ex@12 @13 S0′ 7876. ‘A sign for you on the houses where you are’ means that it bears witness to a will that seeks what is good. This is clear from the meaning of ‘being a sign as bearing witness; and from the meaning of ‘the houses’ as the desires composing a will that seeks what is good, dealt with above in 7848.

sRef Ex@12 @13 S0′ 7877. ‘And I will see the blood’ means the discernment of that truth by those who inflict damnation. This is clear from the meaning of ‘seeing’ as understanding and discerning, dealt with in 2150, 2325, 2807, 3764, 4403-4421, 4567, 4723, 5400 (its being the discernment by those who inflict damnation is shown in what follows); and from the meaning of ‘the blood’ as truth that belongs to the good of innocence, as above in 7846.

[2] What truth belonging to the good of innocence is must be stated. The good of innocence is the good of love to the Lord; for those governed by this love have innocence within them. This explains why those who are in the inmost or third heaven, being governed by love to the Lord, possess more innocence than all others. Because of their innocence those who are there look to others like young children, and yet they are the wisest of all in heaven, see 2306; for innocence resides within wisdom, 2305, 3495, 4797. The truth belonging to the good of innocence which exists with them is not the truth of faith but the good of charity. Those in the third heaven do not know what faith is, nor consequently what the truth of faith is; for they perceive intuitively the truth that composes faith, and in perceiving it intuitively know immediately that it is indeed the truth. They never engage in reasoning about whether it is such, let alone argue with one another about it. What is perceived in that intuitive way does not then come to be acquired knowledge. It is different with spiritual angels in the second heaven. The truth of faith leads them to the good of charity. They do therefore engage in reasoning about whether it is the truth or not, since they have no intuitive perception of whether it is or not. Truths then become knowledge they have acquired and are called matters of doctrine composing faith.

sRef Ex@12 @13 S3′ sRef Ex@12 @12 S3′ [3] For more about those in the inmost or third heaven, about their state being such that they perceive intuitively what the truth of faith is and do not therefore add it to their acquired knowledge, see 202, 337, 2715, 2718, 3246, 4448.

Why it is that Jehovah’s words ‘I will see’, thus something said about Himself, mean discernment by those who inflict damnation, that is, by spirits from hell, may become evident from what has been shown before about the attribution of evil to Jehovah or the Lord, though in fact no evil at all comes from Him but from hell, see 2447, 6071, 6991, 6997, 7533, 7632, 7643. Evil which is permitted to exist seems to come from Him who permits it, since He is able to remove it. That is how it is here when it says that the firstborn of the Egyptians were put to death. It is attributed to Jehovah, for it says in verses 12 and 29,

I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt.

And it happened at midnight, that Jehovah struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from Pharaoh’s firstborn who was to sit on his throne, even to the firstborn of the prisoner who was in the dungeon.

Yet in the present verse the one to do this is called ‘the destroyer’,

The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and I will see the blood and will pass you by, and the plague will not be on you for the destroyer.

[4] It is similar with the vastation undergone by the evil in the next life, their damnation, and their being cast into hell, which are meant in the internal sense by the plagues, the death of the firstborn, and their being drowned in the Sea Suph. Jehovah or the Lord does not subject anyone to vastation, still less damn or cast into hell. Rather an evil spirit himself is the one who does it to himself, that is, the evil within him does it. This then is why ‘I will see the blood’ means a discernment by those who inflict damnation.

[5] As regards permission, it is impossible to state briefly the nature of it since a very large number of arcana are involved in it. When the wicked suffer damnation and torment the Lord’s permission is not like that of one who desires what happens to them. It is like that of one who does not desire it yet cannot help them because His end in view, which is the salvation of the entire human race, is urgent and prevents Him from helping. For if He were to help them, that would be doing ill, which is completely contrary to the Divine. But more on these matters will in the Lord’s Divine mercy be stated elsewhere.

sRef Ex@12 @13 S0′ 7878. ‘And pass you by’ means that it – damnation from the hells – will stay away from there. This is clear from the meaning of ‘passing by’, when used in reference to damnation, as staying away from there. Also the sphere of damnation which flows out of the hells stays away from those guided by truth and governed by good from the Lord. Damnation enters in among those steeped in evil and falsity, since a state receptive of that sphere exists there, but not among those guided and governed by truth and good; for those things are opposites, one of which stays away from the other. All that has been decreed so far about the Passover lamb, about the cooking and eating of it, and also about putting some of its blood onto doorposts and lintel, is connected with this declaration that the destroyer will pass their houses by, meaning in the internal sense that they will be free from all damnation. To this end, that damnation might stay away from them, they had been made ready. The process of being made ready is what is described in the internal sense by the statutes regarding the Passover lamb.

sRef Ex@12 @13 S0′ 7879. ‘And the plague will not be on you for the destroyer’ means that damnation from hell will not enter in. This is clear from the meaning here of ‘the plague’ as damnation, for this plague is the death of all the firstborn in Egypt, which is damnation, see 7778; and from the meaning of ‘the destroyer’ as hell which inflicts damnation. The implications of this, that hell inflicts damnation, are as follows: The vastation that the evil undergo in the next life, also their damnation, and their being cast into hell too, is not brought about directly by the individual spirit immersed in evil but by the hells. For the evils that arise there all come about as a result of influx from the hells; none does so without that influx from there. Their rise also depends on the state of evil in which the spirits undergoing vastation and damnation are caught up; and that state of evil depends in turn on the degree to which goodness and truth have been removed. This state determines the amount of contact they have with the hells; and the hells are very ready to inflict ill, for inflicting ill is the greatest delight of their life. Since the hells are like this the Lord keeps them shut. Indeed if they were to be opened the whole human race would be destroyed; for the hells constantly long for the destruction of all. The destruction by pestilence of seventy thousand men, because of David’s numbering of the people, 2 Samuel 24, and the killing in the camp of the Assyrians of a hundred and eighty-five thousand in one night, 2 Kings 19:35, were done by the hells at times when they had been opened. Similar destruction would take place at the present day if they were opened; they are therefore kept strictly closed by the Lord. With regard to damnation from the hells being unable to enter in among those maintained by the Lord in goodness and truth, meant by ‘the plague will not be on you for the destroyer’, see immediately above in 7878.

sRef Ex@12 @13 S0′ 7880. ‘When I strike the land of Egypt’ means when those governed by faith separated from charity are damned. This is clear from what has been stated above in 7871.

sRef Ex@12 @14 S0′ 7881. ‘And that day shall be to you for a memorial’ means the essential nature of that state in worship. This is clear from the meaning of ‘day’ as state, dealt with in 23, 487, 488, 493, 2788, 3462, 3785, 4850, 5672, 5962, 6110; and from the meaning of ‘memorial’ as essential nature in worship, dealt with in 6888.

sRef Ex@12 @14 S0′ 7882. ‘You shall keep it as a feast to Jehovah’ means worship of the Lord because of deliverance from damnation. This is clear from the meaning of ‘keeping a feast to Jehovah’ as worship of the Lord, in particular because of deliverance from damnation, this being why that day is a feast day. The fact that the Passover was instituted because of the deliverance by the Lord of those who belonged to the spiritual Church, see 7867.

sRef Ex@12 @14 S0′ 7883. ‘Throughout your generations’ means in those things that belong to faith and charity. This is clear from the meaning of ‘generations’ as aspects of faith and charity, dealt with in 613, 2020, 2584, 6239.

sRef Ex@12 @14 S0′ 7884. ‘You shall keep it as a feast by an eternal statute’ means worship of the Lord in keeping with the order of heaven for those belonging to the spiritual Church. This is clear from the meaning of ‘an eternal statute’ as the order of heaven, dealt with below; and from the meaning of ‘keeping a feast’ as worship of the Lord, as just above in 7882. And since the children of Israel are the ones who are told to keep it as a feast, those belonging to the spiritual Church are meant. The reason why ‘an eternal statute’ means the order of heaven is that all the statutes which the children of Israel were commanded to observe were the kind that flowed from the order of heaven, and therefore also represented the things of heaven. By worship in keeping with the order of heaven one should understand all the good that is performed in keeping with the Lord’s commandments. By the worship of God people at the present day mean primarily worship of the lips in church, and also morning and evening. Worship of God does not however consist essentially in that, but in a life of performing useful services; this worship is in keeping with the order of heaven. Worship of the lips is also worship, but it achieves nothing whatever without worship in the life one leads, since this is worship of the heart. If worship on the lips is to be true worship it must spring from this.

sRef Ex@12 @15 S0′ 7885. ‘Seven days’ means what is holy. This is clear from the meaning of ‘seven’ as a number that implies holiness, and of ‘seven days’ as that which is holy. For ‘seven’ as a number implying holiness, see 395, 433, 716, 881, 5265, 5268.

sRef Ex@12 @15 S0′ 7886. ‘You shall eat unleavened bread’ means purification from falsities. This is clear from the meaning of unleavened bread’ as purification from falsities, dealt with in 2342.

sRef Ex@12 @15 S0′ 7887. ‘Even on the first day you shall remove yeast from your houses’ means that there must be no falsity whatever in good. This is clear from the meaning of the first ‘day’ as the beginning of that state, day’ being state, see just above in 7881; from the meaning of ‘yeast’ as falsity, dealt with below; and from the meaning of ‘house’ as good, dealt with in 2233, 2134, 2559, 3652, 3720, 7837-7835, 7848. From these meanings it is evident that ‘on the first day you shall remove yeast from your houses’ means that from the very beginning of that state there must be no falsity whatever in good. So far as good is concerned, the forms of it are unendingly various; and they derive their specific quality from truths. Consequently the good has the same quality as the truths that enter it. The truths that enter are rarely genuine. Instead they are appearances of truth, and also falsities, though not however opposites of truths. Even so, when these falsities enter good – which happens when a person leads a life in accordance with them – as a result of ignorance, ignorance that has innocence within it, and when the person’s end in view is that of doing good, they are regarded by the Lord and in heaven not as falsities but as the equivalents of truth. And according to the character of the person’s innocence they are accepted as truths. Such is the way that good obtains its specific quality. From all this one may recognize what is meant by the explanation that there must be no falsity whatever in good.

sRef Ex@12 @15 S0′ 7888. ‘For anyone eating anything made with yeast’ means whoever makes falsity his own. This is clear from the meaning of ‘eating’ as making one’s own, dealt with in 2187, 2343, 3168, 3513 (end), 3596, 4745; and from the meaning of ‘anything made with yeast’ as falsity, as above in 7887.

sRef Ex@12 @15 S0′ 7889. ‘That soul shall be cut off from Israel’ means that he will be separated from those belonging to the spiritual Church, and that he will be damned. This is clear from the meaning of ‘being cut off’ as being separated and also as being damned; and from the representation of ‘the children of Israel’ as those belonging to the spiritual Church, dealt with often. The reason why anyone who has falsity in his good will be separated and will be damned is that falsity – meant by ‘anything made with yeast’ – within good renders that good such that it cannot help receiving evil from the hells that inflict damnation. For when [those belonging to the spiritual Church] are to be delivered from the ones who have molested them, damnation will enter in from every side; and those who are governed by genuine good, which is good devoid of falsity, will pass unharmed through the midst of the damnation, see above in 7878.

sRef Ex@12 @15 S0′ 7890. ‘From the first day until the seventh day’ means a holy and complete state. This is clear from the meaning of ‘seven days’ as a holy state, dealt with above in 7885, and also as a complete state, 6508. The same is also meant by ‘a week’,* and ‘a week’ is a whole period, long or short, from beginning to end, see 2044, 3845.
* A week may describe a period of seven days, seven years, or seven ages.

sRef Lev@23 @37 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @16 S0′ 7891. ‘And on the first day there shall be a holy convocation’ means that at the beginning all must be together. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the first day’ as the beginning, that is to say, of the deliverance from those who have molested, and so from damnation; and from the meaning of ‘a holy convocation’ as the regulation that all must be together. The people were called to convocations in order that the whole of Israel might be assembled together and so represent heaven; for all were divided into tribes, tribes into families, and families into households. Regarding the representation of heaven and the communities there by the tribes, families, and households of the children of Israel, see 7836. Here was the reason why those convocations were called ‘holy’ and were held at each feast, Lev. 23:27, 36; Num. 28:26; 29:1, 7, 12. And the feasts themselves were consequently called ‘holy convocations’, for all male persons were commanded to be present at them. The fact that the feasts were referred to as ‘holy convocations’ is clear in Moses,

These are the appointed feasts of Jehovah, which you shall call holy convocations, to present a fire-offering to Jehovah. Lev. 23:37.

The fact that all male persons were to be present on those occasions is clear in the same author,

Three times in the year all your male persons shall appear before Jehovah your God in the place which He will have chosen – at the feast of unleavened bread, at the feast of weeks, and at the feast of tabernacles. Deut. 16:16.

sRef Ex@12 @16 S0′ 7892. ‘On the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you means so must they be together at the end of the state. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the seventh day’, which was the last day of the feast, as the end of it. What ‘a holy convocation’ is, see immediately above in 7891.

sRef Ex@12 @16 S0′ 7893. ‘No work shall be done on them’ means abstention during that time from earthly and worldly pursuits. This is clear from the meaning of ‘work’ as toils and endeavours that have things of a worldly and earthly nature in view, and therefore ‘no work shall be done on them’ means abstention from such pursuits. The reason why they were forbidden so strictly to do any work during feasts and sabbaths was in order that on those occasions a complete representative state, that is, the kinds of things that represented celestial and spiritual realities, might exist among them. That state would have been thrown into disorder if they had done any kinds of work that had the world or earth in view. For the representative acts of the Church among the descendants of Jacob were established in order that through those acts heaven might be put in communication with mankind, the end for which the Church exists. That communication would not have been achieved unless those people had been forbidden under pain of death to do any work on feast and sabbath days. For their minds were firmly fixed on worldly and earthly pursuits in which they engrossed themselves with all their heart, since they were worldly and earthly themselves. If therefore they had been free at the same time on those days to engage in such pursuits, the communication effected through representative acts would have been completely severed and would have ceased to exist. In later times however the same feasts were kept in being for the sake of heavenly life experienced on those occasions, and for the sake of teaching they received then which enabled them to learn what faith and charity were.

sRef Ex@12 @16 S0′ 7894. ‘Only what must be eaten by every soul’ means when spiritual and celestial good is made their own. This is clear from the meaning of eating’ as making one’s own, dealt with in 2187, 2343, 3168, 3513 (end ), 3596, 4745. That what was spiritual and celestial was to be made their own is meant by the established customs connected with the Passover lamb.

sRef Ex@12 @16 S0′ 7895. ‘This alone shall be done by you means that they must apply themselves to these things only. This is clear without explanation.

sRef Ex@12 @17 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @20 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @19 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @18 S0′ 7896. Verses 17-20 And you shall observe [the feast of] unleavened bread, for on this same day I have brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt; and you shall keep this day throughout your generations by an eternal statute. In the first [month], on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month in the evening. For seven days no yeast shall be found in your houses; for anyone eating anything made with yeast, that soul shall be cut off from the assembly of Israel, whether a sojourner or a native of the land. You shall eat nothing made with yeast; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread.

‘And you shall observe [the feast of] unleavened bread’ means that there must be no falsity. ‘For on this same day I have brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt’ means because that time is a state of charity and faith, during which separation from those steeped in evils and falsities takes place. ‘And you shall keep this day throughout your generations by an eternal statute’ means worship that springs from faith and charity in keeping with Divine order. ‘In the first [month], on the fourteenth day of the month’ means at the beginning of a holy state. ‘In the evening’ means the end of the previous state and the beginning of the new one. ‘You shall eat unleavened bread’ means the assimilation by good of truth purified from falsity. ‘Until the twenty-first day of the month’ means the end of that holy state. ‘In the evening’ means the end of the previous state and the beginning of the new one. ‘For seven days’ means the whole period of this state. ‘No yeast shall be found in your houses means no falsity whatever shall come near good. ‘For anyone eating anything made with yeast, that soul shall be cut off from the assembly of Israel’ means that whoever links falsity to his good is damned. ‘Whether a sojourner or a native of the land’ means someone belonging to the Church, whether he was not born in it or was born in it. ‘You shall eat nothing made with yeast’ means being fully on their guard against making falsity their own. ‘In all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread’ means that in their interiors, where good is, truth must be made their own.

7897. ‘And you shall observe [the feast of] unleavened bread’ means that there must be no falsity. This is clear from the meaning of ‘unleavened bread’ as what has been purified from all falsity, dealt with in 2342.

7898. ‘For on this same day I have brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt’ means because that time is a state of charity and faith, during which separation from those steeped in evils and falsities takes place. This is clear from the meaning of ‘day’ as state, dealt with above in 7881; from the meaning of ‘hosts’ or ‘armies’ as things that are the components of charity and faith, dealt with in 7448, 7236; from the meaning of ‘bringing out’ as being separated; and from the meaning of ‘the Egyptians’ as those steeped in evils and falsities, dealt with often.

7899. ‘And you shall keep this day throughout your generations by an eternal statute’ means worship that springs from faith and charity in keeping with Divine order. This is clear from the meaning of ‘keeping’ as worship, for that day was kept when the Passover was celebrated on it; from the meaning of ‘generations’ as aspects of faith and charity, dealt with above in 7883; and from the meaning of ‘an eternal statute’ as in keeping with Divine order, also dealt with above, in 7884.

sRef Ex@12 @18 S0′ 7900. ‘In the first [month], on the fourteenth day of the month’ means at the beginning of a holy state. This is clear from the meaning of ‘in the first’ as the beginning, as above in 7887, 7891; and from the meaning of ‘the fourteenth day’ as a holy state. For the meaning of the number fourteen as what is holy, see above in 7842; and for ‘day’ as state, 7881. The reason why fourteen means what is holy is that it arises from seven, and where seven is mentioned in the Word what is holy is meant. For the meanings held by simple numbers are much the same as those held by compound ones, 5291, 5335, 5708. Since the Passover was the holiest of feast days, it was laid down that it should be celebrated on the fourteenth day of the month, last seven days, and be brought to an end on the twenty-first day, which also means what is holy. It was therefore also established that those who were unable to celebrate the Passover in the first month should do so the following month, likewise on the fourteenth day. This provision is stated in Moses as follows,

When any man is unclean because of a dead body,* or is on a journey far away, among you or your descendants,** he shall still keep the Passover to Jehovah. In the second month, on the fourteenth day between the evenings they shall keep it. Num. 9:10, 11.
* lit. a soul
** lit. generations

sRef Ex@12 @18 S0′ 7901. ‘In the evening’ means the end of the previous state and the beginning of the new one. This is clear from the meaning of ‘evening’ as the end of a previous state and the beginning of another, dealt with in 7844.

sRef Ex@12 @18 S0′ 7902. ‘You shall eat unleavened bread’ means the assimilation by good of truth purified from falsity. This is clear from the meaning of eating as making one’s own or assimilating, dealt with in 2187, 2343, 3168, 3513 (end), 3596, 4745 (the assimilation of truth by good is meant because truth is assimilated by good, and good – as shown in various places already – derives its specific quality from truth; therefore to make truth one’s own truth must be assimilated by good, and to make good one’s own good must be conditioned by truth); and from the meaning of what is ‘unleavened’ as truth purified from all falsity, dealt with in 2342. As regards truth purified from all falsity, it should be recognized that pure truth cannot ever reside with anyone. It cannot both because falsity issues constantly from the evil present and firmly fixed within him, and because the truths are interconnected; therefore if one falsity is present, worse still if a number are present, the actual truths remaining are consequently defiled and have something of falsity in them. But truth is said to be purified from falsity when a person can be preserved by the Lord in the good of innocence. Innocence consists in acknowledging that nothing but evil resides in oneself and that any good comes in from the Lord, and also in believing that one neither knows nor perceives anything, including the truth of faith, if left to oneself, only with the Lord’s help. When this is a person’s state falsity can be removed from him and truth instilled by the Lord. This state is what is meant by ‘unleavened bread’ and also by the eating of the Passover lamb.

sRef Ex@12 @18 S0′ 7903. ‘Until the twenty-first day of the month’ means the end of that holy [state]. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the twenty-first day’ as a holy state, and also as the end of that state. A holy state is meant because that number is the product of seven and three multiplied together, and ‘seven’ means what is holy, as also does ‘three’. And the end of that state is plainly meant by that twenty-first day because it was the last.

sRef Ex@12 @18 S0′ 7904. ‘In the evening’ means the end of the previous state and the beginning of the new one, as above in 7901.

sRef Ex@12 @19 S0′ 7905. ‘For seven days’ means the whole period of this state. This is clear from the meaning of ‘seven days’ as a holy state, as above in 7885, and also a whole period from start to finish, or a complete state, 728, 6508 – like the meaning of ‘a week’, 2044, 3845.* These things being meant, it was established that this feast should last ‘for seven days’.
* A week may describe a period of seven days, seven years, or seven ages.

sRef Matt@16 @12 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @19 S0′ sRef Matt@16 @6 S0′ sRef Lev@7 @11 S1′ sRef Lev@6 @14 S1′ sRef Ex@23 @18 S1′ sRef Lev@7 @12 S1′ sRef Lev@7 @13 S1′ sRef Lev@6 @15 S1′ sRef Lev@6 @17 S1′ sRef Lev@6 @16 S1′ 7906. ‘No yeast shall be found in your houses’ means no falsity whatever shall come near good. This is clear from the meaning of ‘yeast’ as falsity, dealt with below; and from the meaning of ‘house’ as good, dealt with in 3652, 3720, 4982, 7873-7835. The meaning of ‘yeast’ as falsity becomes clear from the places where yeast and anything made with yeast, and also where unleavened and anything made without yeast are mentioned, such as in Matthew,

Jesus said, Look out for and beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Then the disciples understood that He had not said that they should beware of the yeast used in bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Matt. 16:6, 11.

Here ‘yeast’ plainly stands for false teaching. Because ‘yeast’ meant falsity it was forbidden to sacrifice the blood of the sacrifice with anything made with yeast, Exod. 23:18; 34:25. For ‘the blood of the sacrifice’ meant holy truth, thus truth pure and free from all falsity, 4735, 6978, 7317, 7326, 7846, 7850. It was also laid down that the minchah offered on the altar should not be baked with yeast in it, Lev. 6:15-17, and that cakes and wafers also should be made without yeast, Lev. 7:11-13.

[2] To go further with what ‘made with yeast’ and ‘not made with yeast’ refer to, it should be recognized that the purification of truth from falsity cannot ever come about in a person without so called fermentation, that is, without the conflict of falsity with truth and of truth with falsity. But after the conflict has taken place and truth has triumphed, the falsity falls away like dregs and the truth emerges purified. It is like wine that becomes clear after fermentation as the dregs sink to the bottom. That fermentation or conflict takes place especially when a person’s state undergoes a change, that is to say, when his actions begin to spring from the good of charity, and not as previously from the truth of faith. For a person’s state is not yet made pure while his actions spring from the truth of faith, but they have been made pure when they spring from the good of charity, since they now spring from his will. Previously they sprang merely from his understanding.

sRef Lev@23 @17 S3′ sRef Hos@7 @4 S3′ sRef Lev@23 @16 S3′ sRef Matt@13 @33 S3′ [3] Spiritual conflicts or temptations are fermentations in the spiritual sense, for during them falsities wish to link themselves to truths, but the truths reject them, eventually sending them to the bottom so to speak and in that way becoming refined. This is the sense in which to understand what the Lord teaches about ‘yeast’ in Matthew,

The kingdom of heaven is like yeast, which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until the whole was fermented by it. Matt. 13:33.

‘Flour’ is truth from which good is derived. Also in Hosea,

They are all committing adultery, like an oven heated by a baker; the raiser* ceases from kneading the dough until it has fermented. Hosea 7:4.

Since such conflicts, meant by ‘fermentations’, take place with a person in the state before he attains newness of life, as has been stated, it was also laid down that the new minchah, the bread of the wave-offering, that was to be brought at the feast of first fruits, should be baked with yeast; and that was to be the first fruits to Jehovah, Lev. 13:16, 17.
* Whether the raiser means the stirrer of the fire or the raiser of the dough is not clear.

sRef Ex@12 @19 S0′ 7907. ‘For anyone eating anything made with yeast, that soul shall be cut off from the assembly of Israel’ means that whoever links falsity to his good is damned. This is clear from the meaning of ‘eating’ as making one’s own, dealt with in 2343, 3168, 3513 (end), 3596, 4745, and so linking, 2187, for one who makes something his own links it to himself; from the meaning of ‘that made with yeast’ as falsity, dealt with immediately above in 7906; from the meaning of ‘being cut off’ as being separated and damned, dealt with in 7889; from the meaning of ‘soul’ as a person; and from the meaning of ‘the assembly of Israel’ as those belonging to the spiritual Church, dealt with in 7870, 7843. From these meanings it is evident that ‘anyone eating anything made with yeast, that soul shall be cut off from the assembly of Israel’ means that whoever links falsity to his good will be separated from the spiritual Church and will be damned.

sRef Ex@12 @19 S0′ 7908. ‘Whether a sojourner or a native of the land’ means someone belonging to the Church, whether he was not born in it or was born in it. This is clear from the meaning of ‘a sojourner’ as one who receives instruction in the Church’s truths and forms of good and accepts them, dealt with in 1467, 4444, thus one who was not born within the Church but nevertheless joins it; and from the meaning of ‘a native of the land’ as one who was born within the Church.

sRef Ex@12 @20 S0′ 7909. ‘You shall eat nothing made with yeast’ means being fully on their guard against making falsity their own. This is clear from the meaning of ‘anything made with yeast’ as falsity, dealt with above in 7906; and from the meaning of ‘eating’ as making one’s own, also dealt with above, in 7907. The prohibition stated so frequently that what is made with yeast must not be eaten, as in verses 15, 17-19, implies being fully on guard against falsity. The reason a person should be fully on his guard against falsity is in order that he may be governed by good. Falsity does not agree with good but destroys it, for falsity is wedded to evil, and truth is wedded to good. If falsity is made one’s own, that is, if one firmly believes it, no reception of the good of innocence takes place, consequently no deliverance from damnation. It is one thing to make falsity one’s own, another only to take hold of it. If governed by good, those who take hold of falsity cast it away when the truth appears to them. But those who make falsity their own hang on to it and stand opposed to the truth when it appears. This then is the reason for the prohibition stated so frequently that what is made with yeast must not be eaten.

sRef Ex@12 @20 S0′ 7910. ‘In all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread’ means that in their interiors, where good is, truth must be made their own. This is clear from the meaning of ‘dwellings’ as parts of the mind, thus aspects of intelligence and wisdom, dealt with in 7719, consequently the interiors since intelligence and wisdom reside there, and also good; and from the meaning of ‘eating unleavened bread’ as making truth one’s own, dealt with several times above. As regards the fact that people’s interiors are the place where they make things their own, and the fact that the interiors are where good is, it should be recognized that with those who rely on the Lord, that is, who lead a life of faith and charity, good resides in their interiors; and the more deeply it resides in them, the purer and more heavenly that good is. But in their exteriors truth resides; and the more external its seat is, the more bereft of good that truth is. The reason for this is that so far as his interiors are concerned a person is in heaven, the innermost of them being close to the Lord; but so far as his exteriors are concerned he is in the world. Thus it is that the truths of faith enter by an external route, but good by an internal one, 7756, 7757, and thus it also is that people’s interiors, where good is, are the place where they make truth their own.

sRef Ex@12 @21 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @22 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @23 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @24 S0′ 7911. Verses 21-24 And Moses called all the elders of Israel, and said to them, Draw out and take for yourselves a member of the flock according to Your families, and slaughter the Passover. And you shall take a bunch of hyssop, and you are to dip it in the blood that is in the basin and strike* the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. And you shall not go out, no one out of the door of his house until the morning. And Jehovah will go through to inflict the plague on Egypt; and He will see the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, and Jehovah will pass by the door and not allow the destroyer to come to your houses to inflict the plague. And you shall keep this custom** as a statute for yourself and your children for evermore.

‘And Moses called all the elders of Israel’ means the enlightenment of the understanding of those belonging to the spiritual Church through the influx and presence of God’s truth. ‘And said to them’ means perception. ‘Draw out’ means that they should compel themselves. ‘And take for yourselves a member of the flock’ means to receive the good of innocence. ‘According to Your families’ means in keeping with the good of each truth. ‘And slaughter the Passover’ means preparation for the Lord’s presence, and consequent deliverance. ‘And you shall take a bunch of hyssop’ means the outward means by which purification is effected. ‘And you shall dip it in the blood’ means holy truth belonging to the good of innocence. ‘That is in the basin’ means contained in the good of the natural. ‘And strike the lintel and the two doorposts’ means the forms of good and the truths of the natural. ‘With the blood that is in the basin’ means the holy truth belonging to the good of innocence in the natural. ‘And you shall not go out, no one out of the door of his house’ means that they must remain governed by good that is not to be viewed from truth. ‘Until the morning’ means until a state of enlightenment arrives. ‘And Jehovah will go through’ means the presence of the Divine. ‘To inflict the plague on Egypt’ means as a result of which damnation comes to those belonging to the Church who have been governed by faith separated from charity. ‘And He will see the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts’ means a discernment of the holy truth belonging to the good of innocence in the natural. ‘And Jehovah will pass by the door’ means that damnation will stay away from there. ‘And not allow the destroyer to come to your houses’ means that falsity and evil from the hells will not at all come near the will. To inflict the plague means damnation which they bring on themselves. And you shall keep this custom as a statute for yourself and your children for evermore’ means that all this will be in keeping with Divine order as it will apply from now on to those belonging to the spiritual Church.
* lit. cause to touch
** lit. thing, matter, or word

sRef Ex@12 @21 S0′ 7912. ‘And Moses called all the elders of Israel’ means the enlightenment of the understanding of those belonging to the spiritual Church through the influx and presence of God’s truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘calling’, when used in reference to God’s truth, as influx and presence, dealt with in 6177, 6840, 7390, 7451, 7721; from the representation of ‘Moses’ as God’s law, thus the Word and God’s truth, dealt with in the Preface to Genesis 18, and also in 4859 (end), 5922, 6723, 6752, 6771, 6827, 7010, 7014, 7089, 7382; from the meaning of ‘the elders’ as the chief characteristics of wisdom and intelligence that accord with truth and good, dealt with in 6524, 6525, 6890, and of ‘calling’ these, or causing them to be present, as enlightening the understanding; and from the representation of ‘Israel’ as the spiritual Church, dealt with in 4286, 6426, 6637. From all this it is evident that ‘Moses called all the elders of Israel’ means the enlightenment of the understanding of those belonging to the spiritual Church through the influx and presence of God’s truth.

sRef Ex@12 @21 S0′ 7913. ‘And said to them’ means perception. This is clear from the meaning of ‘saying’ in the historical narratives of the Word as perception, dealt with in 1791, 1815, 1819, 1822, 1898, 1919, 2080, 2619, 2862, 3395, 3509, 5687, 5743, 5877, 6251.

sRef Ex@12 @21 S0′ 7914. ‘Draw out’ means that they should compel themselves. This is clear from the meaning of ‘drawing out’, when used in reference to the good of innocence which those belonging to the spiritual Church are to receive, as compelling themselves. The good of innocence, which is the good of love to the Lord, is not received by one who belongs to the spiritual Church unless he exercises self-compulsion; for the belief that the Lord is the only God, and also that His Human is Divine, does not come easily to him. Therefore, since he is short of faith, no love to Him, or consequently any good of innocence, can be present in him unless he exercises self-compulsion. The fact that a person ought to exercise self-compulsion, and that when he does he is in freedom but not when subject to compulsion from without, see 1937, 1947. This is what is meant by ‘draw out’, that is to say, the Passover animal. Drawing out that animal, it is self-evident, holds an arcanum within it that is not perceptible in the sense of the letter.

sRef Ex@12 @21 S0′ 7915. ‘And take for yourselves a member of the flock’ means to receive the good of innocence. This is clear from the meaning of the Passover lamb, to which ‘a member of the flock’ refers here, as the good of innocence, dealt with in 3519, 3994, 7840.

sRef Ex@12 @21 S0′ 7916. ‘According to your families’ means in keeping with the good of each truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘families’, when used in reference to the children of Israel, by whom the spiritual Church is represented, as forms of the good of truth; for that Church’s forms of good are called forms of the good of truth. They are meant by ‘families because nothing else is understood in the spiritual sense by ‘families than spiritual things, that is, things of heaven and the Church, and so aspects of faith and charity. So it is that ‘families’, which in the spiritual sense are the descendants of good through truth, are forms of the good of truth.

sRef Ex@12 @21 S0′ 7917. ‘And slaughter the Passover’ means preparation for the Lord’s presence, and consequent deliverance. This is clear from the meaning of ‘slaughtering’ as preparation, as above in 7843; and from the meaning of ‘the Passover’ as the Lord’s presence, and the deliverance of those belonging to the spiritual Church.

sRef Ex@12 @22 S0′ 7918. ‘And you shall take a bunch of hyssop’ means the outward means by which purification is effected. This is clear from the meaning of ‘hyssop’ as outward truth, the means by which purification is effected, dealt with below. It says that they were to take a bunch of hyssop because ‘a bunch’ is used to refer to truths and the arrangement of them, 5530, 5881, 7408. The reason why ‘hyssop’ means outward truth, the means of purification, is that all spiritual purification is effected by means of truths. For the earthly and worldly types of love from which a person has to be purified are not recognized except by means of truths. When these truths are instilled by the Lord a horror of those types of love, as of things unclean and damnable, is also at the same time instilled. The effect this horror has is that when something similar enters the person’s thinking the feeling of horror returns, producing a loathing of those types of love. That is how a person is purified by truths, which serve as outward means. This was the reason why it was laid down that knives or ‘small swords’ made of flint should be used when circumcision took place, ‘small swords’ or knives made of flint being the truths of faith by means of which purification is effected, see 2799, 7044, and ‘circumcision purification from filthy types of love, 2039, 2632, 3412, 3413, 4461, 7045.

sRef Lev@14 @6 S2′ sRef Lev@14 @7 S2′ sRef Lev@14 @5 S2′ sRef Ps@51 @7 S2′ sRef Lev@14 @4 S2′ sRef 1Ki@4 @33 S2′ sRef Lev@14 @51 S2′ sRef Lev@14 @49 S2′ sRef Lev@14 @50 S2′ [2] Since ‘hyssop’ had that meaning it was used in cleansings, which in the internal sense meant purifications from falsities and evils, as in the cleansing of leprosy in Moses,

The priest shall take for cleansing a leper two living clean birds, and cedarwood, and scarlet, and hyssop; and he shall dip them in the blood of the slaughtered bird, and sprinkle over the one to be cleansed. Lev. 14:4-7.

Hyssop was likewise used in the cleansing of the house, if leprosy was in it, Lev. 14:49-51. The preparation of the water of separation by which cleansings were accomplished also involved the use of cedarwood and hyssop, Num. 19:6, 18. ‘Cedarwood’ meant inward spiritual truth, whereas ‘hyssop’ meant outward [spiritual] truth. Thus ‘cedarwood’ is the means effecting purification more internally, ‘hyssop’ the means effecting it more externally. That ‘hyssop’ is a means of purification is plainly evident in David,

You will purge me with hyssop and I shall become clean; You will wash me and I shall be made whiter than snow. Ps. 51:7.

‘Purging with hyssop and becoming clean’ stands for external purification, ‘washing and being made whiter than snow’ for internal purification, ‘snow’ and ‘whiteness’ having reference to truth, 3301, 3993, 4007, 5319. ‘Hyssop’ means a very low kind of truth and ‘cedar’ a superior kind of truth, as is evident from the following words in the first Book of Kings, Solomon spoke about trees, from the cedar which is in Lebanon even to the hyssop which comes out of the wall. 1 Kings 4:33.

Here ‘the cedar’ stands for the internal kind of truth and ‘hyssop’ for the external kind of truth that belong to intelligence.

sRef Ex@12 @22 S0′ 7919. ‘And you shall dip it in the blood’ means holy truth belonging to the good of innocence. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the blood’, here the blood of the lamb, as holy truth belonging to the good of innocence, dealt with above in 7846, 7877. What truth belonging to the good of innocence is, see 7877.

sRef Ex@12 @22 S0′ 7920. That is in the basin’ means contained in the good of the natural. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the basin’ as the good of the natural; for in general vessels mean known facts that belong to the natural, 3068, because those facts are receptacles of goodness and truth that flow in. And since vessels mean known facts they also mean the natural; for factual knowledge belongs to the natural, and the natural is a general receptacle. But more specifically, vessels made of wood and of bronze meant forms of good belonging to the natural; for ‘wood’ and also ‘bronze’ mean good. This is why ‘the basin’ means the good of the natural. It should be recognized that one thing is meant by natural good, another by the good of the natural. Natural good is what a person possesses by heredity, but the good of the natural is what comes to him from the Lord through regeneration. Regarding natural good, see 7197.

sRef Ex@12 @22 S0′ 7921. ‘And strike the lintel and the two doorposts’ means the forms of good and the truths of the natural. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the lintel’ as the good of the natural, and from the meaning of ‘the doorposts’ as the truths of it, dealt with in 7847.

sRef Ex@12 @22 S0′ 7922. ‘With the blood that is in the basin’ means the holy truth belonging to the good of innocence in the natural. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the blood’, the blood of the lamb, as holy truth belonging to the good of innocence, dealt with in 7919; and from the meaning of ‘the basin’ as the natural, dealt with just above in 7920.

sRef Ex@12 @22 S0′ 7923. ‘And you shall not go out, no one out of the door of his house’ means that they must remain governed by good that is not to be viewed from truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘not going out’ as remaining; and from the meaning of ‘house’ as good, dealt with in 2233, 2234, 2559, 3652, 3720, 7833-7835, 7848. From this it is evident that ‘you shall not go out, no one out of the door of his house’ means that they must remain governed by good. The reason why good that is not to be viewed from truth is meant is that remaining in the house is being governed by good, but ‘going out of the door of the house’ is forsaking good for truth; for good resides on the inside, but truth on the outside, 7910. What viewing truths from good is, see 5895 (end), 5897, 7857. Viewing good from truth is viewing the inside from the outside; but viewing truth from good is viewing the outside from the inside. For as has just been stated, good resides on the inside but truth on the outside. Viewing truth from good is in keeping with order, for the path all Divine influx takes is through interiors into exteriors. But viewing good from truth is not in keeping with order. While a person is being regenerated therefore, order is being turned the right way round, and good or charity is seen to occupy the first place and truth or faith the second.

sRef Ex@12 @22 S0′ 7924. ‘Until the morning’ means until a state of enlightenment arrives. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the morning’ as a state of enlightenment, dealt with in 3458, 3723, 5740, 7860.

sRef Ex@12 @23 S0′ 7925. ‘And Jehovah will go through’ means the presence of the Divine. This is clear from the meaning of ‘going through’, through the land of Egypt, when said of Jehovah, as the presence of the Divine, dealt with above in 7869.

sRef Ex@12 @23 S0′ 7926. ‘To inflict the plague on Egypt’ means as a result of which damnation comes to those belonging to the Church who have been governed by faith separated from charity. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the plague’, which in this case is the death of the firstborn, as the damnation of those belonging to the Church [who have been governed by faith] separated from charity, dealt with in 7766, 7778. For ‘Egypt’ – that is, the Egyptians – means those who have had a knowledge of those kinds of things that belong to the Church, yet have separated life from religious teaching, that is, charity from faith. The Egyptians too were like them, for they possessed a knowledge of the things belonging to the Church at that time, a Church that was representative. They were familiar with the representations of spiritual realities through natural things, which constituted the ceremonies of the Church at that time, and were accordingly familiar with correspondences, as is plainly shown by their hieroglyphics, which were pictures of natural things representing spiritual realities. This explains why ‘the Egyptians’ means those who have a knowledge of matters of faith yet lead an evil life. In the next life such people undergo vastation of all that composes faith, that is, all that composes the Church, and are eventually damned. That damnation is what is understood in the internal sense by the death of the firstborn in Egypt.

[2] Since it says ‘Jehovah will go through to inflict the plague on Egypt’, and these words mean the presence of the Divine, as a result of which damnation comes to those belonging to the Church who have been governed by faith separated from charity, something must be said to explain all this. Jehovah or the Lord does not present Himself among those in hell in order to inflict damnation; but even so His presence is what brings it about. The hells have a constant desire to molest the good and also a constant longing to rise into heaven and dislodge those who are there, though their efforts cannot get them past those living in the outermost parts of heaven. For it is enmity constantly exhaling hostility and violence. But the Lord makes unceasing provision to keep those living in the outermost parts of heaven secure and undisturbed. This He accomplishes by His presence among them. When those belonging to hell bring themselves to where the Lord is present, that is, into His presence, they cast themselves into the miseries of vastation, and eventually into damnation; for as shown already in various places, the Lord’s presence which they run into brings those things about. From this it is evident that the Lord does not present Himself among them in order to inflict the miseries of punishment on them, but that they cast themselves into those miseries. These considerations show that nothing but good is attributable to the Lord, and that everything bad is attributable to those themselves who are immersed in evil, thus that the ones to inflict vastation, damnation, and hell on the evil are the evil themselves. This shows one how to understand ‘Jehovah will go through to inflict the plague on Egypt’.

sRef Ex@12 @23 S0′ 7927. ‘And He will see the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts’ means a discernment of the holy truth belonging to the good of innocence in the natural. This is clear from the meaning of ‘seeing’ as understanding and discerning, dealt with in 2150, 2325, 2807, 3764, 4403-4421, 4567, 4723, 5400; from the meaning of ‘the blood’ as holy truth belonging to the good of innocence, as above in 7919; and from the meaning of ‘the lintel and the two doorposts’ as the forms of good and the truths of the natural, also dealt with above, in 7847.

sRef Ex@12 @23 S0′ 7928. ‘And Jehovah will pass by the door’ means that damnation will stay away from there. This is clear from what has been stated above in 7878, where similar words occur.

sRef Ex@12 @23 S0′ 7929. ‘And not allow the destroyer to come to your houses’ means that falsity and evil from the hells will not at all come near the will. This is clear from the meaning of ‘will not allow’ as will not come near; from the meaning of ‘the destroyer’ as hell, dealt with in 7879, thus falsity and evil from the hells, since the hells derive their existence from falsity and evil; and from the meaning of ‘houses’ as aspects of the will, dealt with in 710, 7848. For ‘house’ means a person, therefore also his mind, since a person is a person by virtue of his understanding of truth and his desire for good, which are abilities belonging to the mind. And since a person is a person primarily by virtue of that part of the mind called the will, the will is therefore also meant by ‘house’. But which of these is meant is evident from the train of thought in the internal sense.

sRef Ex@12 @23 S0′ 7930. To inflict the plague’ means damnation which they bring on themselves. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the plague’ here as the damnation of those belonging to the spiritual Church who have been governed by faith separated from charity, dealt with in 7879, 7926. Regarding damnation, that the ones to inflict it on the evil are the evil themselves, see just above in 7926.

7930a ‘And you shall keep this custom as a statute for yourself and your children for evermore’ means that all this will be in keeping with Divine order as it will apply from now on to those belonging to the spiritual Church. This is clear from the meaning of ‘keeping this custom for evermore’ as that all this is to be observed from now on; from the meaning of ‘as a statute’ as in keeping with order, dealt with in 7884; and from the representation of the children of Israel, [to whom ‘yourself and your children’ refers here,]* as those who belong to the spiritual Church, dealt with in 4286, 6426, 6637, 6862, 6868, 7035, 7062, 7198, 7201, 7215, 7223. The order meant here is that which has existed in heaven since the time that the Lord, from His Divine Human, began to bring order to all things in heaven and on earth, which was immediately after the Resurrection, Matt. 28:18. In keeping with this new order those belonging to the spiritual Church could now be raised to heaven and enjoy eternal blessedness; it could not be done in keeping with the old order. Formerly the Lord brought things into order by means of heaven; but latterly He did so by means of His Human which He glorified and made Divine in the world. The glorification of His Human brought so great an increase of might that those were raised to heaven who could not be raised previously, and also so great an increase that the evil departed from all around and were shut away in their hells. This order is what is meant here.
* This clause translates what Sw. has in his rough draft

sRef Ex@12 @24 S0′ 7931. Verses 25-28 And it shall be, when you come to the land which Jehovah will give you, as He has spoken, that you shall keep this service. And it shall be, when your children say to you, What do you mean by this service?* that you shall say, This is the Passover sacrifice to Jehovah, because He passed by the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He inflicted the plague on Egypt, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed, and bowed down. And the children of Israel went and did as Jehovah had commanded Moses and Aaron – so they did.

‘And it shall be, when you come to the land which Jehovah will give you means when they reach heaven, given them by the Lord. ‘As He has spoken’ means in accordance with the promise contained in the Word. ‘That you shall keep this service’ means worship because of the deliverance. ‘And it shall be, when your children say to you’ means the inward perception of truth that belongs to conscience. ‘What do you mean by this service?’ means when engaged in worship. ‘That you shall say means thought. ‘This is the Passover sacrifice to Jehovah’ means worship of the Lord because of the deliverance. ‘Because He passed by the houses of Israel’ means that damnation would stay away from the forms of good in which they were maintained by the Lord. ‘In Egypt’ means when in close proximity to the evil. ‘When He inflicted the plague on Egypt’ means when those belonging to the Church who had been governed by faith separated from charity were damned. ‘And delivered our houses’ means that nevertheless nothing damnable touched them because they were maintained in good by the Lord. ‘And the people bowed, and bowed down’ means self-abasement on the lips and in the heart. ‘And the children of Israel went and did as Jehovah had commanded Moses and Aaron’ means that those belonging to the spiritual Church obeyed God’s truth. ‘So they did’ means an act initiated by the will.
* lit. What is this service to you?

sRef Ex@12 @25 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @27 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @28 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @26 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @25 S0′ 7932. ‘And it shall be, when you come to the land which Jehovah will give you’ means when they reach heaven, given them by the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the land’, at this point the land of Canaan, which they will ‘come to’ as the Lord’s kingdom, which is heaven, dealt with in 1607, 1866, 3078, 3481, 3705, 4116, 4240, 4447, 5757. The Children of Israel represented those belonging to the spiritual Church who lived in the world before the Lord’s Coming, but could not be saved except by the Lord, on account of which they were preserved and held back on the lower earth, where they were in the meantime molested by the hells which were round about them. When therefore the Lord came into the world and made the Human within Him Divine, He then – when He rose again – delivered those who had been preserved and held back there. And after they had undergone temptations He raised them to heaven. These matters are what the internal sense of the second Book of Moses or Exodus contains. By ‘the Egyptians’ those who molested are meant; by ‘being led away from them’ deliverance is meant; by ‘living forty years in the wilderness’ temptations are meant; and by ‘being led into the land of Canaan’ being raised into heaven is meant. For what has been mentioned already about these meanings, see 6854, 6914, 7091 (end), 7828. From all this it is evident that ‘when you come into the land’ means when they reach heaven, given them by the Lord.

sRef Ex@12 @25 S0′ 7933. ‘As He has spoken’ means in accordance with the promise contained in the Word. This is clear from the meaning of ‘speaking’, when the Lord talks of heaven to which those belonging to the spiritual Church are to come, as the promise contained in the Word. For the internal sense of the Word, both in the Books of Moses and in the Prophets, deals with the deliverance of those who before the Lord’s Coming were held back on the lower earth, where they were molested by the evil, and with their being raised into heaven. And these people are meant in those books by ‘the children of Israel’. This promise [of deliverance] is what ‘as Jehovah has spoken’ means here.

sRef Luke@18 @31 S2′ sRef Matt@5 @18 S2′ sRef Luke@24 @44 S2′ sRef Luke@24 @45 S2′ sRef Matt@5 @17 S2′ [2] When the Lord says in various places that all things in Scripture are to be or have been brought to completion in Him, He means the things contained in the internal sense of the Word; for that sense deals exclusively with the Lord’s kingdom, and the highest sense with the Lord Himself. For example in Luke,

Jesus said to the disciples, These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me. Then He opened their minds, in order that they might understand the Scriptures. Luke 24:44, 45.

In the same gospel,

Behold, we are going up into Jerusalem where all things will be accomplished that have been written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man. Luke 18:31.

And in Matthew,

Do not think that I came to destroy the Law and the Prophets; I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. Truly I say to you, Even until heaven and earth pass away, one lot or one little horn [on a letter] will not pass away in the Law till all things are done. Matt. 5:17, 18.

sRef Luke@16 @17 S3′ [3] In these statements and in those which the Lord makes elsewhere about the fulfilment of the Law or Scripture He means, as has been stated, the things foretold about Himself in the internal sense. Every single detail in that sense, even to each jot or each smallest tittle, has to do with the Lord. This is why He says that ‘one jot or one little horn will not pass away in the Law till all things are done’. And in Luke,

It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the Law to fall. Luke 16:17.

Anyone who does not know that every detail even to the smallest of all has to do in the internal sense with the Lord and His kingdom, and that for this reason the Word is most holy, cannot begin to understand what this may mean, that not one tittle will fall, that not one jot or little horn will pass away, and that it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away. For although the details that present themselves in the outward sense do not seem to be so important, the continuity of the text inwardly is such that not a part of a word could be left out without causing a break in the sequence of thought.

sRef Ex@12 @25 S0′ 7934. ‘That you shall keep this service’ means worship because of the deliverance. This is clear from the meaning of ‘keeping’ as that which is to be observed, as above in 7930a; and from the meaning of ‘serving’ or ‘service’ as worship of the Lord.

sRef Ex@12 @26 S0′ 7935. ‘And it shall be, when your children say to you’ means the inward perception of truth that belongs to conscience. This is clear from the meaning of ‘saying’ as perception, dealt with above in 7913; and from the meaning of ‘children’ or ‘sons’ as truths, dealt with in 489, 491, 573, 1147, 2623, 3373, 4257. The reason why the inward perception that belongs to conscience is meant is that reference is being made to the state from then on, or the future state, of members of the spiritual Church who have been delivered by the Lord. In that state the truth must be lodged firmly in their minds that the Lord alone should receive the credit for their salvation. The perception of this truth belongs to conscience, because members of the spiritual Church do not have the gift of perception such as those of the celestial Church have; instead they have conscience. Conscience existing with them is born and formed from the truths of the Church in which they were born. They have learned those truths in childhood and after it, and have endorsed them in life, thereby making them truths of faith. Acting in accordance with those truths is doing so in accordance with conscience, and acting contrary to them is doing so contrary to conscience. They are lodged in the interior memory as though written into it and ultimately come to be like those things which have been imprinted in earliest childhood and after that appear to be fully known and so to speak inborn. They appear to be like a person’s ability to speak, think, recollect, and reflect on various things, and like his physical ability to walk, make gestures, and use facial expressions, and like many other abilities which he is not born with but acquires through habitual practice. When the truths of faith have been imprinted in that way too, which happens in the interior man, they likewise become fully known; and ultimately, when they have become as if inborn, they impel the person to think, will, and act in conformity with them. This driving force in his life is called conscience. It is the life of the spiritual man, and that life should be evaluated according to how far genuine truths of faith are the source of his thoughts and how far forms of the genuine good of charity are the source of his actions, and also to what extent they take the lead. From the whole train of thought too it is evident that the words at this point mean the inward perception that belongs to conscience.

sRef Ex@12 @26 S0′ 7936. ‘What do you mean by this service?’ means when engaged in worship, that is to say, that at this time perception belonging to conscience exists. This is clear from the meaning of ‘service’ as worship, as above in 7934.

sRef Ex@12 @27 S0′ 7937. ‘That you shall say’ means thought. This is clear from the meaning of ‘saying’ as thought, dealt with in 3395, 7094. The reason why ‘saying’ here means thought is that ‘saying’ just above in 7935 meant perception belonging to conscience; but here it introduces a reply, which in relation to the perception belonging to conscience is thought.

sRef Ex@12 @27 S0′ 7938. ‘This is the Passover sacrifice to Jehovah’ means worship of the Lord because of the deliverance. This is clear from the meaning of ‘sacrifice’ as worship, dealt with in 922, 6905; and from the meaning of ‘the Passover’ as the presence of the Lord and the deliverance of those belonging to the spiritual Church, dealt with in 7097(end), 7867.

sRef Ex@12 @20 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @43 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @17 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @18 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @19 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @11 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @27 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @16 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @15 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @4 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @3 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @44 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @5 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @46 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @45 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @48 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @47 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @6 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @9 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @8 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @22 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @7 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @10 S0′ 7939. ‘because He passed by the houses of Israel’ means that damnation would stay away from the forms of good in which they were maintained by the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of ‘Jehovah will pass by’ as the fact that damnation will stay away from there, as above in 7878, 7928; from the meaning of ‘the houses’ as forms of good, dealt with in 3652, 3720, 4982, 7833-7835; and from the representation of ‘Israel’ as those who belong to the spiritual Church, dealt with often. The reason for saying that they were maintained in forms of good by the Lord is that when they passed through places of damnation or the hells, which happened when they were delivered, they were maintained in good by the Lord. To this end they were made ready, and the process by which they were made ready is described by the statutes regarding the blood, the Passover lamb, and the eating of it, which are the subject in verses 3-11, 15-20, 22, 43-48 of this chapter. The fact that when they were delivered they passed through places of damnation or the hells will be seen below.

sRef Ex@12 @27 S0′ 7940. ‘In Egypt’ means when in close proximity to the evil. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the Egyptians’ as the evil who molested those belonging to the spiritual Church, dealt with often; and from this ‘Egypt’ means the state or place where they were. They were plainly in close proximity, for they were in the land of Goshen. To know the nature of these matters, see what has been stated above in 7932.

sRef Ex@12 @27 S0′ 7941. ‘When He inflicted the plague on Egypt’ means when those belonging to the Church who had been governed by faith separated from charity were damned. This is clear from the meaning of ‘inflicting the plague on Egypt’ as the damnation of those governed by faith separated from charity, dealt with in 7766, 7778, 7926.

sRef Ex@12 @27 S0′ 7942. ‘And delivered our houses’ means that nevertheless nothing damnable touched them because they were maintained in good by the Lord. This is clear from the explanation above in 7979.

sRef Ex@12 @27 S0′ 7943. ‘And the people bowed, and bowed down’ means self-abasement on the lips and in the heart. This is clear from the meaning of ‘bowing’ as outward self-abasement, thus that on the lips, and from the meaning of ‘bowing down’ as inward self-abasement, thus that of the heart, both dealt with in 5682, 7068.

sRef Ex@12 @28 S0′ 7944. ‘And the children of Israel went and did as Jehovah had commanded Moses and Aaron’ means that those belonging to the spiritual Church obeyed God’s truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘going and doing’ as obeying; from the representation of ‘the children of Israel’ as those belonging to the spiritual Church, dealt with often; and from the representation of ‘Moses and Aaron’ as God’s truth, ‘Moses’ being inward truth and ‘Aaron’ outward, dealt with in 7089, 7382.

sRef Ex@12 @28 S0′ 7945. ‘So they did’ means an act initiated by the will. This is clear from the fact that ‘did’ is repeated here, and that when used first it meant an act initiated by the understanding, whereas here it means an act initiated by the will. In the Word it is common for what seem like repetitions to occur in which one matter is mentioned twice. But the first mention has reference to truth that belongs to the understanding, and the second to good that belongs to the will. The reason for this is that every detail of the Word contains the heavenly marriage, which is the marriage of goodness and truth, 683, 793, 801, 2173, 2516, 2712, 4138 (end), 5138, 5502, 6343, and contains in the highest sense the Divine marriage, which is that of Divine Good within the Lord and Divine Truth going forth from Him, 3004, 5502, 6179. These considerations show also that the Word is most holy.

sRef Ex@12 @30 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @29 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @33 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @32 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @31 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @34 S0′ 7946. Verses 29-34 And it happened at midnight, that Jehovah struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from Pharaoh’s firstborn who was to sit on his throne even to the firstborn of the prisoner who was in the dungeon,* [and all the firstborn of the beasts]. And Pharaoh rose that night, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was no house where there was not one dead. And he called Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Rise, go out from the midst of my people, both you and the children of Israel; and go, serve Jehovah, in accordance with what you have spoken. Take both your flocks and your herds, as you have spoken, and go; and may you also bless me. And Egypt pressed the people, in a hurry to send them away from the land; for they said, We are all dying. And the people carried their dough before the yeast was added, their kneading bowls bound up in their clothes on their shoulder.

‘And it happened at midnight’ means a state of nothing but falsity arising from evil. ‘That Jehovah struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt’ means the damnation of faith separated from charity. ‘From Pharaoh’s firstborn who was to sit on his throne’ means falsified truths of faith that occupy the first place. ‘Even to the firstborn of the prisoner who was in the dungeon’ means falsified truths of faith that occupy the last place of all. ‘And all the firstborn of the beasts’ means adulterated good of faith. ‘And Pharaoh rose that night, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians’ means that when all the damned without exception were brought into a state of nothing but falsity arising from evil they felt a loathing and fear of those belonging to the spiritual Church. ‘And there was a great cry in Egypt’ means deep grief. ‘For there was no house where there was not one dead’ means because there was none who was not damned. ‘And he called Moses and Aaron by night’ means the afflux of truth from God in that state. ‘And said, Rise, go out from the midst of my people’ means that they should depart from them. ‘Both you and the children of Israel’ means together with their truth from God, and with truth that leads to good and truth which springs from good. ‘Go, serve Jehovah’ means in order to worship the Lord. ‘In accordance with what you have spoken’ means in accordance with their will. ‘Take both your flocks and your herds’ means interior forms and exterior forms of the good of charity. ‘As you have spoken’ means in accordance with their will. ‘And go’ means that they should altogether depart. ‘And may you also bless me’ means that they should intercede. ‘And Egypt pressed the people, in a hurry to send them away from the land’ means that because of their loathing and fear of them they were urging them to depart. ‘For they said, We are all dying’ means for the reason that hell was facing them. ‘And the people carried their dough before the yeast was added’ means the first state of truth from good, in which there is no falsity at all. ‘Their kneading bowls bound up in their clothes’ means delights that belong to affections and cling to truths. ‘On their shoulder’ means supported with all the power they had.
* lit. in the house of the pit

sRef Ex@12 @29 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @34 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @32 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @31 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @29 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @33 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @30 S0′ 7947. ‘And it happened at midnight’ means a state of nothing but falsity arising from evil. This is clear from the meaning of ‘midnight’ as vastation when completed, dealt with in 7776, that is, an absence of anything good or true, consequently a state of nothing but falsity arising from evil. As regards its being a state of evil, see 2357, 6000, 7870.

sRef Ex@12 @29 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @34 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @32 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @31 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @33 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @29 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @30 S0′ 7948. ‘That Jehovah struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt’ means the damnation of faith separated from charity. This is clear from the meaning of ‘striking as damnation, as in 7871; and from the meaning of ‘the firstborn in the land of Egypt’ as faith separated from charity, dealt with in 7039, 7766, 7778.

sRef Ex@12 @33 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @31 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @29 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @29 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @30 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @32 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @34 S0′ 7949. ‘From Pharaoh’s firstborn who was to sit on his throne means falsified truths of faith that occupy the first place. This is clear from the explanation in 7779, where similar words occur.

sRef Ex@12 @29 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @32 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @34 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @33 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @31 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @30 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @29 S0′ 7950. ‘Even to the firstborn of the prisoner who was in the dungeon’ means falsified truths of faith that occupy the last place of all. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the firstborn in the land of Egypt’ as faith separated from charity, as just above in 7948, and so also falsified truth of faith, dealt with below; and from the meaning of ‘the prisoner who is in the dungeon’ as those who occupy the last place of all, for his firstborn is placed at the opposite end of the scale from ‘Pharaoh’s firstborn who was to sit on his throne’, which means falsified truth of faith that occupies the first place, 7779, 7949. ‘The prisoner who is in the dungeon’ is used to mean in the spiritual sense closest to the actual words one who thinks only on the level of his physical senses, and so is in utterly thick darkness so far as matters of truth and good are concerned; for he does not even possess the ability to perceive, as those who think on a more internal level of the senses do. This is the reason why those who occupy the last place of all are meant.

[2] The reason why ‘the firstborn in the land of Egypt’ means falsified truth of faith is that ‘the firstborn of Egypt’ is faith separated from charity, 7948; and those with this kind of faith are in nothing but complete and utter darkness so far as truths of faith are concerned. They cannot be in any light, and so cannot at all perceive what truth is or whether something is true. This is because all spiritual light comes from the Lord through good, that is, through charity. For the good of charity is like a flame from which light radiates, since good comes of love, and love is spiritual fire, the source of enlightenment. Anyone who imagines that people leading an evil life can also receive enlightenment in the truths of faith is very much mistaken. Their state may be such that they are able to produce proofs, that is, they may be able to prove the teachings of their Church, sometimes with skill and ingenuity; yet they are not able to see whether the things they prove are true or not. The fact that even falsity can be proved so adroitly that it seems to be the truth, and that a person is wise not when he can prove that something is right but when he can see whether it is, see 4741, 5033, 6865, 7011, 7680.

[3] Therefore a person whose life is sunk in evil is steeped in falsity arising from his evil; and no matter how well he knows what is true he does not believe it. Sometimes he thinks he does, but he is mistaken. He will be allowed to know in the next life that he does not believe it, when his perceiving is made to conform to his desiring. When that is done he will disown the truth, oppose it, and spurn it, and will acknowledge its opposite – falsity – as the truth. This now explains why those who are governed by faith separated from charity cannot help falsifying the truths of faith.

sRef Ex@12 @30 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @29 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @32 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @34 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @29 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @31 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @33 S0′ 7951. ‘And all the firstborn of the beasts’ means adulterated good of faith, as previously in 7781.

sRef Ex@12 @33 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @30 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @34 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @32 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @31 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @29 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @30 S0′ 7952. ‘And Pharaoh rose that night, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians’ means that when all the damned without exception were brought into a state of nothing but falsity arising from evil they felt a loathing and fear of those belonging to the spiritual Church. This is clear from the meaning of ‘night’ as a state of nothing but falsity arising from evil, as above in 7947, and therefore damnation, for whether you say a state of nothing but falsity arising from evil or damnation it amounts to the same thing since those in that state have been damned; and from the meaning of ‘Pharaoh, his servants, and all the Egyptians’ as all of them without exception. The further meaning that they felt a loathing and fear of those belonging to the spiritual Church is evident from what follows. For [the next verse] says that Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and told them to go away from the midst of his people, and verse 39 that the Egyptians drove them out.

sRef Ex@12 @31 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @30 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @34 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @32 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @30 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @33 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @29 S0′ 7953. ‘And there was a great cry in Egypt’ means deep grief, as in 7782, where the same words occur.

sRef Ex@12 @32 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @31 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @33 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @29 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @30 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @30 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @34 S0′ 7954. ‘For there was no house where there was not one dead’ means because there was none who was not damned. This is clear from the meaning of ‘no house where there was not …’ as none there who was not . . .; and from the meaning of ‘one dead’ as one damned, dealt with in 5407, 6119, 7494, 7871.

sRef Ex@12 @32 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @34 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @33 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @31 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @30 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @29 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @31 S0′ 7955. ‘And he called Moses and Aaron by night’ means the afflux of truth from God in that state. This is clear from the meaning of ‘he called’ as presence and influx (or flowing into), dealt with in 6177, 6840, 7790, 7451, 7721, at this point an afflux (or flowing towards) since it is speaking about those in a state of damnation, that is, in a state of nothing but falsity arising from evil (these people are unable to receive into themselves inwardly any influx of truth and good; they receive it only outwardly, which is afflux); representation of ‘Moses and from the Aaron’ as the truth from God, dealt with in 6771, 6827 (the expression ‘the truth from God’ is used, not ‘God’s truth’, because it has reference to those lost in damnation); and from the meaning of ‘by night’ as a state of damnation, dealt with above in 7851, 7870.

sRef Ex@12 @34 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @33 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @29 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @32 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @30 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @31 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @31 S0′ 7956. ‘And said, Rise, go out from the midst of my people’ means that they should depart. This is clear without explanation.

sRef Ex@12 @29 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @33 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @32 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @34 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @31 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @31 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @30 S0′ 7957. ‘Both you and the children of Israel’ means together with their truth from God, and with truth that leads to good and truth which springs from good. This is clear from the representation of ‘Moses’ as the truth from God, dealt with just above in 7955; and from the representation of ‘the children of Israel’ as those belonging to the spiritual Church, dealt with often, thus those guided by truth that leads to good and by truth which springs from good. For the spiritual Church differs from the celestial Church in that it is brought to the good of charity by means of the truth of faith, which being so it considers truth to be the essential thing. Initial contact with that good for them is effected through truth, for truth teaches them what they ought to do; and when they do that truth it is called good. This good, once they have been brought in contact with it, becomes the standpoint from which they see truths, that show them further how to act. From this it is evident that whether you say those belonging to the spiritual Church or those guided by truth through Which good is done, and by truth seen from the standpoint of good, it amounts to the same thing.

sRef Ex@12 @29 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @31 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @30 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @34 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @31 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @33 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @32 S0′ 7958. ‘Go, serve Jehovah ‘means in order to worship the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of ‘serving’ as worshipping. When the name ‘Jehovah’ is used in the Word the Lord is meant, see 1343, 1736, 2921, 3023, 3035, 5041, 5663, 6281, 6303, 6905.

sRef Ex@12 @31 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @32 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @31 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @29 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @34 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @30 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @33 S0′ 7959. ‘In accordance with what you have spoken’ means in accordance with their will. This is Clear from the meaning of ‘speaking’ as the will, dealt with in 2626.

sRef Ex@12 @33 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @32 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @34 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @29 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @32 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @31 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @30 S0′ 7960. ‘Take both your flocks and your herds’ means interior forms and exterior forms of the good of charity. This is clear from the meaning of ‘flocks’ as interior forms of the good of charity, and from the meaning Of ‘herds’ as exterior forms of the good of charity, both of which are dealt with in 2566, 5913, 6048.

sRef Ex@12 @34 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @30 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @31 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @32 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @29 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @33 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @32 S0′ 7961. ‘As you have spoken’ means in accordance with their will, as just above in 7959.

sRef Ex@12 @32 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @29 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @31 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @34 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @32 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @33 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @30 S0′ 7962. ‘And go’ means that they should altogether depart. This is clear from the meaning of ‘going’ – that is, going away – as departing; and since this is being said a second lime it means that they were altogether to depart.

sRef Ex@12 @32 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @30 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @32 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @34 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @33 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @31 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @29 S0′ 7963. ‘And may you also bless me’ means that they should intercede. This is clear from the meaning of ‘blessing’ as interceding; for interceding here means that they should plead for him. For the meaning of ‘pleading for Pharaoh’ as interceding, see 7396, 7462.

sRef Ex@12 @34 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @30 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @29 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @33 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @32 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @33 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @31 S0′ 7964. ‘And Egypt pressed the people, in a hurry to send them away from the land’ means that because of their loathing and fear of them they were urging them to depart. This is clear from the meaning of ‘pressing the people, in a hurry to send them away’ as urging them to depart. The fact that loathing and fear caused them to do so is self-evident, for those steeped in nothing but falsity arising from evil so loathe those guided by truth from good that they cannot stand even their presence. This is why those governed by evil cast themselves down into hell, to a depth determined by the nature and amount of that evil, to get far away from good. Not only loathing but also fear makes them do it, for in the presence of good they suffer torment.

sRef Ex@12 @31 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @34 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @29 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @33 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @30 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @32 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @33 S0′ 7965. ‘For they said, We are all dying’ means for the reason that hell was facing them. This is clear from the meaning of ‘dying’ as hell, ‘death’ in the spiritual sense being hell, see 5407, 6119.

sRef Ex@12 @34 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @33 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @31 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @34 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @30 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @29 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @32 S0′ 7966. ‘And the people carried their dough before the yeast was added’ means the first state of truth from good, in which there is no falsity at all. This is clear from the meaning of ‘dough’ as truth from good, for ‘meal’ and ‘fine flour’ mean truth, ‘dough’ that is made from them means the good of truth, and ‘bread’ that is made out of the dough means the good of love; and when ‘bread’ means the good of love the other things – ‘dough’ and ‘meal’ – mean forms of good and truth in their proper order (for the meaning of ‘bread’ as the good of love, see 276, 680, 2165, 2177, 3464, 3478, 3735, 3813, 4211, 4117, 4735, 4976, 5915); and from the meaning of ‘before the yeast was added’ as that in which there is no falsity at all. For the meaning of ‘yeast’ as falsity, see above in 7906.

[2] This is plainly their first state, that is to say, when they were delivered, since it says that the people carried the dough; they were doing so when they went out. Their second state however is described in verse 39 below, where it says that they baked the dough which they had brought out of Egypt into unleavened cakes since no yeast had been added, meaning that from the truth of good further good was produced that had no evil at all in it. These are the two states in which those belonging to the spiritual Church, when governed by good, are maintained by the Lord. In the first state good present in the will is the standpoint from which they see and contemplate truth; in the second good and truth now wedded together are the source from which they produce truths, which through the willing and doing of them become further forms of good, and so on repeatedly. Such are the direct products and further developments of truth among those who belong to the spiritual Church. In the spiritual world this whole process is portrayed in a representative manner, as a tree with leaves and fruit. The leaves portray truths, the fruit forms of the good of truth, and the seeds forms of good itself from which everything else springs.

sRef Ex@12 @33 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @32 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @34 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @30 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @29 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @34 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @31 S0′ 7967. ‘Their kneading bowls bound up in their clothes’ means delights that belong to affections and cling to truths. This is clear from the meaning of ‘kneading bowls’ as delights belonging to affections, dealt with in 7356; from the meaning of ‘being bound’ as clinging to; and from the meaning of ‘clothes’ as truths, dealt with in 1073, 2576, 4545, 4763, 5248, 5319, 5954, 6914, 6918. What delights that belong to affections and cling to truths are must be stated. All the truths that enter and reside with a person have become linked to some delight; for without delight truths have no vitality. The delights that have become linked to the truths residing with a person reveal what the situation is with those truths. If his delights belong to evil affections the situation is bad, but if his delights belong to good affections it is good. For the angels present with a person enter in constantly with good affections and stir to life the truths that have become linked to them. On the other hand if truths have not become linked to good affections the angels strive in vain to arouse any stirrings of matters of faith and charity. These considerations show what one is to understand by delights that belong to affections and cling to truths, meant by ‘kneading bowls bound up in their clothes’.

sRef Ex@12 @34 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @31 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @29 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @32 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @30 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @34 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @33 S0′ 7968. ‘On their shoulder’ means supported with all the power they had. This is clear from the meaning of ‘shoulder’ as all power, dealt with in 1085, 4931-4937.

sRef Ex@12 @36 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @35 S0′ 7969. Verses 35, 36 And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they asked from the Egyptians vessels of silver and vessels of gold, and clothes. And Jehovah gave the people favour* in the eyes of the Egyptians, and they lent [these things] to them. And they despoiled the Egyptians.

‘And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses’ means that they obeyed God’s truth. ‘And they asked from the Egyptians vessels of silver and vessels of gold, and clothes’ means that known facts containing truth and goodness were removed from the evil belonging to the Church, to be assigned to the good belonging to it. ‘And Jehovah gave the people favour in the eyes of the Egyptians’ means fear which those who were damned had of those belonging to the spiritual Church. ‘And they lent [these things] to them’ means that those facts were transferred. ‘And they despoiled the Egyptians’ means that those lost in damnation were made completely devoid of such things.
* lit. grace

sRef Ex@12 @36 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @35 S0′ 7970. Detailed explanation of these matters can be dispensed with since they have been explained twice before, at Exod. 3:21, 22, in 6914-6920, and at Exod. 11:2, 3 in 7768-7773.

7971. Verses 37-39 And the children of Israel travelled from Rameses to Succoth, around six hundred thousand men (vir) on foot, besides young children. And also a large mixed crowd went up with them, and flocks and herds, an extremely large acquisition of them. And they baked the dough which they brought out of Egypt – unleavened cakes, since no yeast was added, because they were driven out of Egypt and could not wait, and also had not made for themselves provision for the way.

‘And the children of Israel travelled from Rameses to Succoth’ means the first state of departure and the essential nature of it. ‘Around six hundred thousand men on foot’ means all aspects of the truth and good of faith in their entirety. ‘Besides young children’ means the good of innocence. ‘And also a large mixed crowd’ means truths [and forms of good]* that were not genuine. ‘Went up with them’ means which were joined on. ‘And flocks and herds, an extremely large acquisition of them’ means good acquired through truth, interior and exterior, a great abundance of it. ‘And they baked the dough which they brought out of Egypt – unleavened cakes’ means that from the truth of good further good was produced that had no falsity at all in it. ‘Since no yeast was added’ means since the truth from good had no falsity at all within it. ‘Because they were driven out of Egypt and could not wait’ means because they were removed from those steeped in falsity arising from evil. ‘And also had not made for themselves provision for the way’ means that they did not have with them any other support from truth and good.
* These four words translate what Sw. has in his rough draft.

sRef Ex@12 @37 S0′ 7972. ‘And the children of Israel travelled from Rameses to Succoth’ means the first state of departure and the essential nature of it. This is clear from the meaning of ‘travelling’ as the order and established patterns of life, dealt with in 1293, 3335, 4882, 5493, 5605, so that the travels of the children of Israel, described in Exodus, are states of life and their changes from first to last. At this point therefore ‘the travelling from Rameses to Succoth’ means the first state and the essential nature of it. For names of places, like those of persons too, all mean spiritual things and their essential nature, see 768, 1224, 1264, 1876, 1888, 3422, 4298, 4710, 4442, 5095, 6516.

sRef Ex@12 @37 S0′ 7973. ‘Around six hundred thousand men on foot’ means all aspects of the truth and good of faith in their entirety. This is clear from the meaning of the number ‘six hundred thousand’ as all aspects of faith in their entirety, for this number is a multiple of six and also of twelve, and ‘twelve’ means all aspects of faith and charity, 577, 2089, 2129 (end), 2130 (end), 3272, 3858, 3913. This is why Jacob’s sons were twelve in number, why their descendants were divided into the same number of tribes, and also why the Lord chose twelve disciples, that is to say, in order that they might represent all aspects of faith and charity. Regarding the tribes, see 3858, 3862, 3926, 3979, 4060, 6335, 6737, 6640, 7876, 7891; and regarding the disciples, 3354, 3488, 5858 (end), 6397.

sRef Rev@7 @5 S2′ sRef Rev@7 @4 S2′ [2] At this point ‘six hundred thousand’ has a similar meaning because a larger or smaller number that is a multiple or a factor carries a meaning similar to that of the simple numbers that are being multiplied or divided, 5291, 5335, 5708. This is plainly evident from the number twelve. Whether this is divided into six or multiplied into seventy-two, 144 (which is twelve twelves), 12000, or 144000, the meaning is similar, as with 144000 in John,

I heard the number of the sealed, a hundred and forty-four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of Israel – out of each tribe twelve thousand. Rev. 7:4, 5 and following verses.

Here ‘the children of Israel’ is not used to mean the children of Israel, ‘tribes’ the tribes, or ‘the number’ a number, but to mean the kinds of things contained in the internal sense, namely all aspects of faith and charity. Each tribe in particular accordingly means one kind or one group, in keeping with the explanations at Genesis 29 and 30.

sRef Rev@14 @4 S3′ sRef Rev@14 @3 S3′ sRef Rev@14 @1 S3′ [3] Similarly with the following in the same author,

Behold, a Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him 144000, having His Father’s name written on their foreheads. They were singing a new song before the throne, and no one could learn the song except 144000 bought from the earth. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These were bought from men (homo), being the first fruits to God and the Lamb. Rev. 14:1, 3, 4.

From this description it is evident that those governed by charity are meant by 144000. It is also evident that the sole purpose of this number is to indicate the state and its essential nature. That number is similar to twelve in what it indicates, for it is the product of 12000 and it multiplied.

sRef Rev@21 @17 S4′ sRef Rev@21 @2 S4′ [4] It is similar with the smaller number 144, Which is twelve times twelve, in the same author,

He measured the wall of the holy Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, 144 cubits, which is the measure of a man (homo), that is, of an angel. Rev. 21:2, 17.

‘The wall of the holy Jerusalem’ is not in the spiritual sense a wall; instead it is the truth of faith defending things of the Church, see 6419; and this also is why it is said to have been ‘144 cubits’. It is plainly evident that such must be meant, since it says ‘it is the measure of a man, that is, of an angel’. ‘Man’ and ‘angel’ mean every aspect of the truth and good of faith.

[5] The same is also evident from the twelve precious stones that the foundation of the wall consisted of, and from the twelve gates, each of which was a pearl, Rev. 21:19-21. For by ‘precious stones’ truths of faith that spring from the good of charity are meant, 643, 3720, 6426, and similarly by ‘gate’ and also by ‘pearl’. From this it is now clear that a smaller or larger number carries a meaning similar to the simple number that is divided or multiplied. As regards the fact that all numbers in the Word mean spiritual things, see 481, 487, 575, 647, 648, 755, 813, 1963, 1988, 2075, 2252, 3252, 4164, 4495, 4670, 5265.

[6] From these considerations one may now see that the number ‘six hundred thousand’ men going out of Egypt also means such things. But scarcely anyone is able to believe that such are meant by this number because it refers to a historical event; and any historical event fixes the mind all the time on the external sense and draws it away from the internal sense. Nevertheless that number too means such spiritual things, for there is not a part of a word, not even indeed one jot or one tittle in the Word, that is not in itself holy, because it holds what is holy within it. Anyone at all can see that there is nothing holy about a merely historical event.

sRef Ex@12 @37 S0′ 7974. ‘besides young children’ means the good of innocence. This is clear from the meaning of ‘young child’ as the good of innocence, dealt with in 430, 1616, 2126, 2305, 3183, 3494, 4797.

sRef Ex@12 @38 S0′ 7975. ‘And also a large mixed crowd’ means [truths and] forms of good that were not genuine. This is clear from the meaning of ‘a mixed crowd’ as non-genuine forms of good; for when ‘the children of Israel’ represents the genuine forms of good and truths that the spiritual Church possesses, 7957, ‘a mixed crowd’ going along with them means truths and forms of good that are not genuine. For the situation so far as those belonging to the spiritual Church are concerned is this: They possess forms of good and truths that are genuine, and they possess those that are not genuine. For a member of the spiritual Church has no intuitive perception of what is good and true; instead he acknowledges and believes that to be good and true which is taught by the teachings of his Church. This being so, he is in possession of a great number of truths that are not genuine, and also as a consequence desires forms of good of a similar nature since forms of good derive their specific quality from truths. For more about spiritual people, that a great number of truths in their possession are not genuine, see 2708, 2715, 2718, 2831, 2849, 2935, 2937, 3240, 3241, 3246, 3833, 4402, 4788, 5113, 7233; and that therefore the forms of good with them are not pure, 6427. Even so the Lord maintains in them forms of good which are as genuine as possible. He accomplishes this by flowing in through their interiors, 6499, at which point non-genuine truths and forms of good are separated from the genuine and cast to the sides. The latter are what ‘an extremely large mixed crowd’ means.

sRef Rev@7 @9 S2′ sRef Rev@7 @4 S2′ [2] Such a crowd in a similar way means those who belong to the Church, yet are not within it, like gentiles who live in obedience and in charity with one another. They are not in possession of genuine truths either, because they do not have the Word. These people too, as well as the non-genuine truths, are meant by ‘a large crowd’ in John,

I heard the number of the sealed, a hundred and forty-four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of Israel. After these things I saw, and behold, a large crowd which no one could number, out of every nation and tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes, and palm branches in their hands. Rev. 7:4, 9.

sRef Ex@12 @38 S0′ 7976. ‘Went up with them’ means which were joined on. This is clear from the meaning of ‘going up with them’, when said of forms of good and truths, as the fact that they were joined on. For with a spiritual person truths and forms of good that are not genuine are indeed separated from the forms of good and the truths which are genuine; but they are not taken away. They remain, joined on at the sides, where they have been cast, 7975. A similar situation exists with the Lord’s Church among gentile nations in possession of truths that are not genuine. Those nations in heaven too are joined on to those who are in possession of genuine truths and forms of good.

sRef Ex@12 @38 S0′ 7977. ‘And flocks and herds, an extremely large acquisition of them’ means good acquired through truth, interior and exterior, a great abundance of it. This is clear from the meaning of ‘flock’ as interior good, and from the meaning of ‘herd’ as exterior good, both of which are dealt with in 2566, 5913, 6048, 7960, their having been acquired being meant by ‘an acquisition’. All the good present with those belonging to the spiritual Church has been acquired through truth; for without the truth of faith they do not know what spiritual truth is or what spiritual good is. They may certainly be acquainted with civic truth, and with the good that accompanies civic truth and moral truth, since all these are compatible with worldly interests, interests that give them their perception of such truth and good. But spiritual truth and the good that accompanies it are not compatible with worldly interests; indeed in a large number of instances they are completely divergent from them, which is why those people have to receive instruction about them. These matters have been stated to make it known that all good with those belonging to the spiritual Church has to be acquired through truth. The fact that ‘extremely large’ means a great abundance is self-evident.

sRef Ex@12 @39 S0′ aRef Ex@29 @32 S1′ 7978. ‘And they baked the dough which they brought out of Egypt – unleavened cakes’ means that from the truth of good further good was produced that had no falsity at all in it. This is clear from the meaning of ‘baking’ – when used in reference to the truth of good, meant by ‘the dough’ – as producing; from the meaning of ‘the dough’ as the truth of good, dealt with above in 7966; and from the meaning of ‘unleavened cakes’ as forms of good that have no falsity at all in them, since ‘unleavened’ means without falsity, see 2342, 7906. This is the second state of truth from good that they passed through when they were delivered, see above in 7966, 7972. The reason why ‘cakes’ means forms of good is that they are cakes of bread, and ‘bread’ in the internal sense is the good of love, dealt with in 276, 680, 2165, 2177, 3464, 3478, 3735, 3813, 4211, 4217, 4735, 4976, 5915. But bread in the form of cakes is distinguished from bread in general, in that bread in the form of cakes means the good of love towards the neighbour, which is spiritual good, while bread in general means the good of love to the Lord, which is celestial good. Such spiritual good was meant by ‘the minchah’ which was offered and burned with the sacrifice on the altar; for ‘the minchah’ was baked into cakes and into wafers, as is made clear in Exod. 29:2, 3, 23, 24, 32; Lev. 2:2 and following verses; 6:20, 21; Num. 6:15, 19; 15:18-21.

sRef Lev@24 @7 S2′ sRef Lev@24 @5 S2′ sRef Lev@24 @6 S2′ [2] Something similar was meant by ‘the twelve leaves of the presence which too were baked into cakes, described in Moses as follows,

You shall take fine flour and bake it into twelve cakes; two-tenths [of an ephah] shall there be in one cake. And you shall place them in two rows, six in a row, on the clean table before Jehovah. And you shall put pure frankincense on each row, and it shall be leaves of bread serving as a memorial, a fire-offering to Jehovah. Lev. 24:5-9.

From these instructions it becomes clear that ‘the leaves’ meant what was holy, for such instructions would never have been issued but for that reason. And since they meant what was holy they were also called in verse 9 of the same chapter ‘holiness of holinesses.’* But these leaves meant the good of celestial love, and their being baked into cakes meant forms of the good of spiritual love. From these verses and from those in the references given above it becomes clear that something similar is meant by the bread in the Holy Supper.
* A very literal rendering of the Hebrew

sRef Ex@12 @39 S0′ 7979. ‘Since no yeast was added’ means since the truth from good had no falsity at all within it. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the dough’, to which ‘no yeast was added’ refers, as the truth of good, dealt with above in 7966; and from the meaning of ‘no yeast was added’ as without falsity, dealt with in 2342, 7906.

sRef Ex@12 @39 S0′ 7980. ‘because they were driven out of Egypt and could not wait’ means because they were removed from those steeped in falsity arising from evil. This is clear from the meaning of ‘being driven out’ as being removed, since one who is driven out is removed, see above in 7964; from the meaning of ‘Egypt’ as those steeped in falsity arising from evil, dealt with before; and from the meaning of ‘not being able to wait’ as circumstances necessitating removal.

sRef Ex@12 @39 S0′ 7981. ‘And also had not made for themselves provision for the way means that they did not have with them any other support from truth and good – none, that is to say, other than that meant by ‘the dough to which no yeast was added’, which is the truth of good that has no falsity at all in it, see 7966. This is clear from the meaning of ‘provision for the way’ as support received from truth and good, dealt with in 5490, 5953.

sRef Ex@12 @42 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @41 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @40 S0′ 7982. Verses 40-42 And the dwelling of the children of Israel, when they dwelt in Egypt, [lasted] four hundred and thirty years. And so it was at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even on this same day it was, that all the hosts of Jehovah went out of the land of Egypt. This was the night when Jehovah was keeping watch,* to lead them out of the land of Egypt; this is that night when Jehovah was keeping watch’, for all the children of Israel [to observe] throughout their generations.

‘And the dwelling of the children of Israel, when they dwelt in Egypt’ means the duration of the molestations. ‘Four hundred and thirty years’ means the essential nature and state of them. ‘And so it was at the end of the four hundred and thirty years’ means the time of the Lord’s Coming, when they were delivered. ‘Even on this same day it was’ means that it was at that very time. ‘That all the hosts of Jehovah went out of the land of Egypt’ means that those with whom truth and good were present but who had been held back until then were released. ‘This was the night when Jehovah was keeping watch’ means the Lord’s presence with those governed by truth and good and with those ruled by evil and consequently by utter falsity. ‘To lead them out of the land of Egypt’ means deliverance from spiritual captivity. ‘This is that night when Jehovah was keeping watch’ means that at that time they were held back from all falsity and evil. ‘For all the children of Israel [to observe] throughout their generations’ means those belonging to the spiritual Church among whom there is good resulting from truth and truth springing from good.
* lit. night of watchings to Jehovah

sRef Ex@12 @40 S0′ 7983. ‘And the dwelling of the children of Israel, when they dwelt in Egypt’ means the duration of the molestations. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the dwelling’ as a state of life, dealt with in 1293, 3384, 3613, 4451, 6051, at this point a state consisting of molestations, this being the state of life which is the subject at present and which is meant by the number ‘four hundred and thirty’, to which the words under consideration refer.

sRef Ex@12 @40 S0′ 7984. ‘Four hundred and thirty years’ means the essential nature and state of them. This is clear from the meaning of ‘thirty’ as a state when the quantity of remnants is complete, for that number is the product of three and ten multiplied, and ‘three’ means a state made complete, 2788, 4495, 7715, and ‘ten’ means remnants, 576, 1906, 2284 (what a state made complete is will be explained below); and from the meaning of ‘four hundred’ as the duration of vastation, dealt with in 2959, 2966, and from this the joining together of goodness and truth, 4341, The fact that all numbers mean real things and states, and that a compound number is similar to the simple ones of which it is a product, see above in 7973.

[2] As regards vastation, meant by ‘four hundred years’, there are two kinds, namely the vastation of evil and falsity and the vastation of goodness and truth. With those suffering damnation it is the vastation of goodness and truth, but with those who are being saved it is the vastation of evil and falsity, vastation being the taking away of those things. So far it has been shown that the evil who have belonged to the Church undergo vastation of all goodness and truth, for stages of vastation one after another are meant by the plagues in Egypt. But the good undergo vastation of evil and falsity. Evil and falsity residing with them are gradually separated, that is, removed to the sides, and forms of good and truths are gathered towards the middle. The term ‘remnants’ is used to describe goodness and truth gathered together in that way. And when their state of remnants has been made complete the good are raised to heaven. This state is what is meant by ‘thirty’, and vastation what is meant by ‘four hundred’. With the good the vastation of evil and falsity and the instilling of goodness and truth is effected by means of molestations and by means of temptations. By means of both these, falsities and evils are removed and forms of good and truths are inserted; and this process continues until the state is made complete.

[3] What a state made complete is must also be explained briefly. Everyone, whether damned or saved, has a certain measure that can be made complete. The evil, or those who are damned, have a certain measure of evil and falsity, while the good, or those who are saved, have a certain measure of goodness and truth. This measure that everyone has is made complete in the next life, though with some the measure may be quite large, with others rather small. People acquire that measure in the world through the affections belonging to their love. The more anyone has loved evil and the falsity arising from it, the greater is the measure acquired by him; and the more anyone has loved good and the truth springing from it, the greater is his measure. The breadths and heights to which that measure can go are clearly apparent in the next life. These limits cannot be exceeded there, but they can be reached, and in fact are reached; that is to say, those whose affection has been for goodness and truth have their measure made complete with forms of good and truths, while those whose affection has been for evil and falsity have theirs made complete with evils and falsities. From this it is evident that this measure is a propensity acquired in the world to receive either evil and falsity or goodness and truth.

sRef Luke@19 @26 S4′ sRef Luke@6 @38 S4′ sRef Luke@19 @25 S4′ sRef Luke@19 @24 S4′ sRef Matt@25 @29 S4′ [4] This state is what a state made complete refers to and what is meant by ‘thirty’. It is described by the Lord in the parable of the talents, Matthew 25:14-30, and in that of the minas, Luke 19:11-27, and at length by these words in Matthew,

To everyone who has, it will be given, so that he may have in abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away. Matt. 25:29.

And in Luke,

To those standing by he said, Take the mina from him, and give to him who has ten minas. They said, Sir, he has ten minas. I say to you, that to everyone who has, it will be given; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Luke 19:24-26.

That everyone’s measure is made complete is the Lord’s teaching elsewhere in the same gospel, Give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over they will give into your bosom. Luke 6:38.

From all this one may now see what is meant by a state made complete.

sRef Ex@12 @40 S0′ 7985. It says that ‘the dwelling of the children of Israel, when they dwelt in Egypt, lasted four hundred and thirty years’, and in addition to this that ‘at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even on this same day, all the hosts of Jehovah went out of the land of Egypt’. But in actual fact the dwelling of the children of Israel from Jacob’s going down into Egypt until the departure of his descendants at this time lasted no more than half that time, no more than 215 years, as is evident from chronological references in Sacred Scripture. For Moses was begotten by Amram, Amram by Kohath, and Kohath by Levi; and Kohath came into Egypt along with Levi his father, Gen. 46:11. Kohath lived 133 years, Exod. 6:18; Amram, who beget Aaron and Moses, lived 137 years, Exod. 6:20 and Moses was eighty years old when he stood before Pharaoh, Exod. 7:7. No mention is made of Kohath’s age in years when Amram was born, or of Amram’s when Moses was born. But the length of time the people were in Egypt was clearly not 430 years, since the ages of these three do not add up to as much as 430 years, only to 350, as one may see by adding the 133 years of Kohath’s life to the 137 years of Amram’s, and then these to Moses’ 80 years when he stood before Pharaoh. And they are less than that if one adds the years from father’s birth to son’s. The length of time was 215 years, as chronological references show. But the time from Abraham’s going down into Egypt to the departure of the children of Israel was 430 years, as again chronological references show. And from this it now becomes clear that 430 years here is used to mean the whole period of time beginning right back with Abraham, not with Jacob. These years have been marked out and referred to as ‘the years of the dwelling of the children of Israel in Egypt’ on account of the internal sense. In the internal sense those years mean a state made complete and the duration of vastation undergone by those belonging to the spiritual Church who were held back on the lower earth until the Lord’s Coming, when they were delivered, matters regarding which, see 6854, 6914, 7035, 7091, 7828, 7932.

sRef Ex@12 @41 S0′ 7986. ‘And so it was at the end of the four hundred and thirty years’ means the time of the Lord’s Coming, when they were saved. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the four hundred and thirty years’ as a state made complete and the duration of the vastation or molestation of those belonging to the spiritual Church who were held back on the lower earth until the Lord’s Coming, when they were delivered, dealt with immediately above in 7985, and in 6854, 6914, 7035, 7091, 7828, 7932. So it is that ‘at the end of those years’ means the time of the Lord’s Coming, when
they were saved.

sRef Ex@12 @41 S0′ 7987. ‘Even on this same day it was’ means that it was at that very time. This is clear from the meaning of ‘day’ as state, dealt with in 23, 487, 488, 493, 2788, 3462, 3785, 4850, 5672, 5962, 7680. ‘0n this same day’ consequently means in that state, and so at that very time, that is to say, when the Lord’s Coming took place, meant by ‘at the end of the four hundred and thirty years’, and the deliverance of those belonging to the spiritual Church, meant by ‘all the hosts of Jehovah went out of the land of Egypt’.

sRef Dan@8 @14 S0′ sRef Dan@8 @9 S0′ sRef Dan@8 @10 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @41 S0′ sRef Dan@8 @11 S0′ sRef Dan@8 @13 S0′ sRef Dan@8 @12 S0′ 7988. ‘That all the hosts of Jehovah went out of the land of Egypt’ means that those with whom truth and good were present but who had been held back until then were released. This is clear from the meaning of ‘going out of the land of Egypt’ as being released and delivered from molestations, ‘going out’ self-evidently meaning being released, while ‘the land of Egypt’ means molestations, see 7278; and from the meaning of ‘the hosts of Jehovah’ as the truths and forms of good that the spiritual Church possesses, and so those with whom truth and good are present, dealt with in 3448, 7236. The fact that truths and forms of good are meant by ‘the hosts of Jehovah’ is clear in Daniel,

There came out one small-sized horn of the he-goat, and it grew exceedingly towards the south, and towards the east, and towards the glorious [land]. And it grew even towards the hosts of heaven, and cast down to the earth some of the host, and of the stars, and trampled on them. It drew itself up even towards the prince of the host. And the host was set over the continual [burnt offering] on account of the transgression, because it cast down truth to the earth. At that point I heard a holy one speaking, How long is both the sanctuary and the host being trodden down? He said to me, Up to the evening and morning, two thousand three hundred times; then the sanctuary will be made correct. Dan. 8:9-14.

Here it is plainly evident that ‘the hosts’ means truths and forms of good, for it says that [the hem] cast down to the earth some of the host and of the stars, and after this that it cast down truth to the earth, and that the host was to be trodden down up to the evening and morning, which is the Lord’s Coming.

sRef Ps@148 @2 S2′ sRef Ps@148 @3 S2′ sRef Ps@103 @20 S2′ sRef 1Ki@22 @19 S2′ sRef Gen@2 @1 S2′ sRef Ps@103 @21 S2′ [2] Since truths and forms of good make up ‘the hosts of Jehovah’, angels are therefore called His ‘hosts’ in the first Book of Kings,

Micah the prophet said, I saw Jehovah sitting on His throne, and the entire host of heaven standing beside Him. 1 Kings 22:19.

And in David,

Bless Jehovah, His angels, powerful with strength; bless Jehovah, all His hosts, His ministers. Ps. 103:20, 21.

Angels are called ‘hosts’ by virtue of the truths and forms of good present with them. Not only angels used to be referred to as the hosts of Jehovah but also the lights in the sky – the sun, moon, and stars. And they were referred to as such because ‘the sun’ was a sign of the good of love, ‘the moon’ a sign of the good of faith, and ‘the stars’ a sign of cognitions of goodness and truth. Reference to those lights as ‘hosts’ is evident in the Book of Genesis,

The heavens and the earth were finished, and all their hosts. Gen. 1:1.

Here ‘hosts’ is used to mean all the lights in the sky; but in the internal sense, in which the subject at that point is the new creation of a person, ‘hosts’ is used to mean truths and forms of good.

[3] Likewise in David,

Praise Jehovah, all His angels, praise Him, all His hosts; praise Him, sun and moon, praise Him, all stars of light. Ps. 148:1, 3.

‘Sun’ means the good of love, and ‘moon’ the good of faith, see 1529, 1530, 2441, 2495, 4060, 4696, 5377, 7083; and ‘stars’ means cognitions of good and truth, 1808, 2120, 2495, 2849, 4697.

sRef Dan@12 @3 S4′ [4] One reason why ‘sun, moon, and stars’ means forms of good and truths is that in heaven the Lord is a Sun to those who are celestial and a Moon to those who are spiritual, 1521, 1529-1531, 3636, 3643, 4300, 4721 (end), 5097, 7078, 7083, 7171, 7173; and another reason is that angelic dwelling-places shine like stars, in keeping with the following in Daniel,

Then those who have intelligence will shine like the brightness of the expanse, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and into eternity. Dan. 12:9.

aRef Ex@32 @0 S5′ [5] Since angels, by virtue of truths and forms of good, are spoken of as ‘the hosts of Jehovah’, and also the sun, moon, and stars are called such, and since all truth and good come from the Lord, the Word refers to the Lord as Jehovah Zebaoth, that is, Jehovah of Hosts, 3448. And another reason why it refers to Him in this way is that He fights on a person’s behalf against the hells.

From all this one may now see what ‘the hosts of Jehovah’ is used to mean in the internal sense. The children of Jacob who went out of Egypt were not such, though they represented them. This is evident from their life in Egypt, where they were unacquainted with Jehovah, even with His name before it was made known to Moses from the bramble bush, Exod. 3:13-16; and also they were calf-worshippers no less than the Egyptians were, as may be deduced from Exodus 32. And their life in the wilderness too shows that their character was such that they could not be led into the land of Canaan. Thus they were anything but the hosts of Jehovah.

sRef Ex@12 @42 S0′ 7989. ‘This was the night when Jehovah was keeping watch’ means the Lord’s presence with those governed by truth and good and with those ruled by evil and consequently by utter falsity. This is clear from the meaning of ‘night’ as a state of damnation, dealt with in 7851; and from the meaning of ‘Jehovah’s keeping watch’ as the Lord’s presence and consequent protection. For through the Lord’s presence those governed by good and therefore guided by truth are given light, and those ruled by evil and consequently by falsity are made blind. Also through the Lord’s presence those who are to be raised into heaven are brought out of damnation, for they are held back from evil and maintained in good by the Lord, and with great force. And through the Lord’s presence too those who are to be cast down into hell are brought to damnation, for as the Lord presents Himself to them more completely, so they descend into evil, 7643, 7926. This then is why that state and that time are called ‘the night when Jehovah was keeping watch’. Further on, the Lord’s presence is described by the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, present there to lead them, Exod. 13:21. And His presence both with those guided by goodness and truth and with those steeped in evil and falsity is described when it says that the pillar positioned itself between the camp of Israel and the camp of the Egyptians, and that when Jehovah looked from it towards the camp of the Egyptians, the Egyptians were drowned in the Sea Suph, Exod. 14:19, 20, 24-27.

sRef Ex@12 @42 S0′ 7990. ‘To lead them out of the land of Egypt’ means deliverance from spiritual captivity. This is clear from the meaning of ‘leading out’ as delivering; and from the meaning of ‘the land of Egypt’ as the place where they were molested by the evil, thus where they were in spiritual captivity, as accords with the matters introduced in 6854, 6914, 7035, 7091, 7828, 7932, 7985. People are said to be in spiritual captivity when inwardly they are maintained by the Lord in goodness and truth, but outwardly they are kept by hell in evil and falsity, as a result of which there is conflict between the external man and the internal man. This is the state in which those who are being molested are held. During it, by an influx (or flowing into them) by way of their interiors, the Lord fights on their behalf against the afflux (or flowing towards them) of evil and falsity from the hells. At this time they are held like captives; for as a result of the influx from the Lord they wish to be guided by truth and good, but the afflux from the hells makes it seem to them that they are incapable of it. This conflict takes place to the end that the external man may be brought into obedience to the internal man, and in that way natural things may be made subordinate to spiritual ones.

sRef Ex@12 @42 S0′ 7991. ‘This is that night when Jehovah was keeping watch’ means that at that time they were held back from all falsity and evil. This is clear from what has been stated just above in 7989 about ‘the night when Jehovah was keeping watch’.

sRef Ex@12 @42 S0′ 7992. ‘For all the children of Israel (to observe] throughout their generations’ means those belonging to the spiritual Church among whom there is good resulting from truth and truth springing from good. This is clear from the representation of ‘the children of Israel’ as those belonging to the spiritual Church, dealt with often; and from the meaning of ‘generations’ as matters of faith and charity, dealt with in 2010, 2584, 6239. Those among whom there is good resulting from truth and truth springing from good are accordingly meant; for people belonging to the spiritual Church are led through the truth of faith into the good of charity, and having been led into good are then led from good to truths. Those led from good to truths are people who constitute the internal Church, whereas those led through truth into good are people who constitute the external Church.

sRef Ex@12 @48 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @49 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @47 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @45 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @44 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @46 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @43 S0′ 7993. Verses 43-49 And Jehovah said to Moses and Aaron, This is the statute of the Passover: No son of a foreigner shall eat it. And every man’s slave, a purchase paid for with silver,* when you have circumcised him, shall eat it. A stranger and a hired servant shall not eat it. It shall be eaten in one house; you shall not bring any of the flesh outside the house, and you shall not break a bone of it. All the assembly of Israel shall keep it. And when a sojourner sojourns with you and would keep the Passover to Jehovah, every male he has shall be circumcised, and then he shall come near to keep it, and shall be as if a native of the land. And no uncircumcised person shall eat it. There shall be one law for the native and for the sojourner sojourning in the midst of you.

‘And Jehovah said to Moses and Aaron’ means instructions given by God’s truth. ‘This is the statute of the Passover’ means the laws of order for those who have been delivered from damnation and molestations. ‘No son of a foreigner shall eat it’ means that those not in possession of truth and good are set apart from them. ‘And every man’s slave’ means the natural man up to now. ‘A purchase paid for with silver’ means who is in possession of some spiritual truth. ‘When you have circumcised him’ means on being purified from filthy kinds of love. ‘Shall eat it’ means that he shall be together with them. ‘A stranger and a hired servant shall not eat it’ means that those who are prompted by a merely natural inclination to do good, and those who do it for the sake of gain, shall not be together with them. ‘It shall be eaten in one house’ means compatible forms of good grouped together to compose a single body of good. ‘You shall not bring any of the flesh outside the house’ means that this good must not be intermingled with another’s good. ‘And you shall not break a bone of it’ means that factual knowledge of truth must also remain intact. ‘All the assembly of Israel shall keep it’ means that this law of order is for all who are governed by the good of truth and guided by the truth of good. ‘And when a sojourner sojourns with you’ means those who have received instruction in the Church’s truth and good, and have accepted them. ‘And would keep the Passover to Jehovah’ means if he wishes to be together with them. ‘Every male he has shall be circumcised’ means that his truth is to be purged from impure kinds of love. ‘And then he shall come near to keep it’ means that then he shall be together with them. ‘And shall be as if a native of the land’ means that he shall be received as one who is in possession of that truth and good and who has been purified from filthy kinds of love. ‘And no uncircumcised person shall eat it’ means that no one ruled by self-love and love of the world may be together with them. ‘There shall be one law for the native and for the sojourner sojourning in the midst of you’ means that someone who has received instruction in and accepted the Church’s truth and good, and leads a life in keeping with them, will be as someone within the Church who has already been instructed and leads a life conforming to the commandments of faith and charity.
* lit. And every slave of a man (vir), a purchase of silver

sRef Ex@12 @43 S0′ 7994. ‘And Jehovah said to Moses and Aaron’ means instructions given by God’s truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘Jehovah said’, when the statutes of the Church are the subject, as giving instructions, dealt with in 7186, 7267, 7304, 7380, 7517, 7769, 7793, 7825; and from the representation of ‘Moses and Aaron’ as God’s truth, ‘Moses’ being internal truth and ‘Aaron’ external truth, dealt with in 7009, 7010, 7089, 7382.

sRef Ex@12 @43 S0′ 7995. This is the statute of the Passover’ means the laws of order for those who have been delivered from damnation and molestations. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the statute’ as that which arises from order, dealt with below; and from the meaning of ‘the Passover’ as the Lord’s presence and deliverance from damnation, dealt with in 7097 (end), 7867. As regards that which arises from order, meant by ‘the statute’, it should be recognized that all the statutes which the children of Israel were commanded were the laws of order in their outward form, while the realities which those statutes were representations and meaningful signs of were the laws of order in their inward form, laws of order being truths deriving from good. The complex whole to which all the laws of order belong is Divine Truth emanating from the Lord’s Divine Good. From this it is evident that in heaven order consists in what is completely Divine and the Lord’s, Divine Good being the inner essence of order and Divine Truth its outward form.

sRef Ex@12 @43 S0′ 7996. ‘No son of a foreigner shall eat it’ means that those not in possession of truth and good are set apart from them. This is clear from the meaning of ‘a foreigner’ as those who are outside the Church and unreceptive of anything of the truth or good of faith, as the nations in the land of Canaan were, dealt with in 2049, 2115, thus those who are not in possession of truth and good; and from the meaning of ‘not eating it’ as not having any contact with them or being joined to them, thus being set apart from them. The verses immediately following deal with those who shall eat the Passover together and those who shall not eat it. The Passover was a supper, representing the groups of good people living in association with one another in heaven. The statutes in the verses that follow indicate who exactly could be included and who could not. In general the banquets within the Church in ancient times, both midday meals and suppers, were held in order that people might be brought into association with one another and joined together in love, and in order that they might inform one another about matters of love and faith, and so about the things of heaven, see 3596, 3832, 5161. Such were the delights surrounding feasts in those times, and they were the end in view in holding midday meals and suppers. People’s minds were thereby nourished, and also their bodies in a parallel and corresponding way. As a result they enjoyed good health and long life, they received intelligence and wisdom, and they were also brought into communication with heaven, some into open communication with angels. But as in course of time all internal things disappear and give way to external ones, so it is with the ends to which banquets and feasts are held. At the present day these are held not to draw people together into any spiritual fellowship but to create worldly connections. That is to say, they are held for the sake of material gain, the quest for high office, and mere pleasures. They provide nourishment for the body, but none for the mind.

sRef Ex@12 @43 S0′ 7997. The Passover supper represented the groups of angels in heaven living in association with one another according to their forms of good and truths, see above in 7836, 7996. And since it represented those groups it was decreed not only that each household should be together by itself to eat it on that occasion but also that none should be associated with them except those who could represent togetherness in love characteristic of heavenly communities. All others were to be set apart. Those to be set apart were ‘foreigners’, for these meant people who were not in possession of the Church’s goodness and truth. Those to be set apart also ‘strangers’ and ‘hired servants’, since these represented people prompted by natural inclination alone and people seeking material gain who would make a show of doing what was good and true. None of these can be integrated among the angels in heaven. But they are allowed to wander around during the initial period after their arrival in the next life, before they undergo the stages of vastation of good and truth. When during that initial period they approach any heavenly community and sense the sphere of holiness emanating from the truth belonging to the good of innocence, meant by ‘the blood of the Passover lamb’, 7846, 7877, they can go no further but in fear and loathing make a hasty retreat.

sRef Ex@12 @44 S0′ 7998. ‘And every man’s slave’ means the natural man up to now. This is clear from the meaning of ‘slave’ or ‘servant’ as the natural, dealt with in 3019, 3020, 3191, 3192, 3204, 3206, 3209, 5305, and so the natural man. The reason why the natural man is called ‘a slave’ is that it was made to minister to the spiritual, and also to obey it, as a slave obeys his master.

sRef Ex@12 @44 S0′ 7999. ‘A purchase paid for with silver’ means who is in possession of some spiritual truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘a purchase’ as that which is acquired and made one’s own, dealt with in 4397, 4487, 5374, 5397, 5406, 5410, 5426; and from the meaning of ‘silver’ as truth, dealt with in 1551, 2954, 5658, at this point spiritual truth since a slave who was bought means in the internal sense the natural man, and the master who bought him therefore means the spiritual man. No one can know what this really implies unless he knows in what way the spiritual buys the natural for itself, that is, acquires and makes it its own. When a person is being regenerated his internal and external, that is, his spiritual and natural, are at variance with each other at first; for his spiritual desires the things of heaven, whereas his natural desires those of the world. But at this time the spiritual is constantly entering the natural and bringing it into agreement. This is done by means of truth; and what the spiritual brings into agreement with itself within the natural is said to be ‘bought with silver’, that is, acquired and made its own by means of truth.

sRef Ex@12 @44 S0′ 8000. ‘When you have circumcised him’ means on being purified from filthy kinds of love. This is clear from the meaning of ‘being circumcised’ as being purified from self-love and love of the world, thus from filthy kinds of love, dealt with in 2039, 2056, 2632, 3412, 3413, 4462, 7045.

sRef Ex@12 @44 S0′ 8001. ‘Shall eat it’ means that he shall be together with them. This is clear from the meaning of ‘eating’ – eating the Passover lamb together with all the others – as communicating, and being joined together, dealt with in 2187, 5643. For the Passover supper represented, as stated above in 7836, 7891, 7996, 7997, groups of angels associated together according to forms of good and truths; and the statutes regarding foreigners, slaves, strangers, hired servants, and sojourners, who are dealt with in these verses, in the internal sense indicate who exactly could be integrated among them and who could not. This then is why ‘eating’ means being together with them or integrated among them, while ‘not eating’ means not being together among them, that is, being set apart from them.

sRef Ex@12 @45 S0′ 8002. ‘A stranger and a hired servant shall not eat it’ means that those who are prompted by a merely natural inclination to do good, and those who do it for the sake of gain, shall not be together with them. This is clear from the meaning of ‘a stranger’ as those who are prompted to do good by a merely natural inclination, dealt with below; from the meaning of ‘a hired servant’ as those who do good for the sake of gain, also dealt with below; and from the meaning of ‘not eating it’ as not being together with them, dealt with immediately above in 8001. ‘A stranger’ means those who are prompted by a merely natural inclination to do good because strangers were newcomers from other peoples. They were inhabitants, dwelling with the Israelites and Jews in one house; and ‘dwelling with’ means sharing in the same good. But since, as has just been said, they were from peoples outside the Church the good that is meant is not a kind of good that is prominent in the Church but is the kind to be found outside the Church. And this is called natural good because it is a product of the hereditary inclinations that a person is born with. With some people such good may also be the product of poor health or debility of mind. This is what one should understand when the good done by those meant by ‘strangers’ is mentioned.

[2] This kind of good is completely different from the good prominent in the Church, for by means of the Church’s kind of good conscience is established in a person; and conscience is the level on which the angels come in and which brings him into company with them. Natural good cannot provide any such level for angels to enter. Those whose good is natural do good in the dark, led by blind instinct, not in the light of truth, under the influence of heaven. In the next life therefore they are carried away like chaff by the wind, by anyone and everyone, whether evil or good, but especially by an evil person who knows how to add a certain amount of charm and persuasion to his arguments. Nor can angels at this time guide them away, for angels operate through the truths and forms of the good of faith; they enter in on the level formed within a person out of those truths and forms of the good of faith. From all this it is evident that those who are prompted by a merely natural inclination to do good cannot be integrated among angels. Regarding these people and their lot in the next life, see 3470, 3471, 3518, 4988, 4992, 5032, 6208, 7197.

sRef Gen@23 @4 S3′ sRef Lev@25 @23 S3′ sRef Ps@39 @12 S3′ [3] The fact that ‘strangers’ are those who are not in their own land nor in their own house but are those staying in a foreign land is clear in Moses,

The land shall [not] be sold outright, for the land is Mine; but you are sojourners and strangers with Me. Lev. 25:23.

In David,

Hear my prayers, O Jehovah; do not be silent at my tears. For I am a sojourner with You, a stranger as all my fathers were. Ps. 39:12.

And in the Book of Genesis,

Abraham said to the sons of Heth, I am a sojourner and a stranger among you; give me possession of a grave. Gen. 13:3, 4.

‘A sojourner’, like ‘a stranger’, means a newcomer and inhabitant from another land; but ‘a sojourner’ means those who were taught and accepted the Church’s truths, whereas those who were not taught them because they were unwilling to accept them are meant by ‘strangers’.

[4] As for hired servants, they were people who worked for wages; they were servants, but not ones who had been bought. The fact that they were called ‘hired’, see Lev. 19:13; 25:4-6; Deut. 24:14, 15. Because hired servants were those who worked for wages they mean in the internal sense those who do good for the sake of gain in the world, and in a yet more internal sense those who do good for the sake of reward in the next life, thus those who wish to earn merit through works.

sRef John@10 @12 S5′ sRef John@10 @11 S5′ sRef John@10 @13 S5′ sRef Jer@46 @20 S5′ sRef Jer@46 @21 S5′ [5] Those who do good solely for the sake of gain in the world cannot possibly be integrated among angels, since their final objective for doing it is the world, that is, affluence and prestige, not heaven, that is, the blessedness and happiness of their souls. The final objective is what gives direction to actions and what gives them their specific character. Those who do good solely for the sake of gain are described by the Lord as follows in John,

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life* for the sheep. But a hired servant, he who is not the shepherd, whose sheep are not his own, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf seizes them, and scatters the sheep. But the hired servant flees because he is a hired servant. John 10:11-13.

And in Jeremiah,

A very beautiful heifer was Egypt; destruction has come from the north. Her hired servants are like calves of the stall,** for they also have turned about, fled away together, and not made a stand, because the day of their ruin has come upon them. Jer. 46:20, 21.

sRef Lev@25 @46 S6′ sRef Lev@25 @44 S6′ sRef Lev@22 @10 S6′ sRef Lev@25 @45 S6′ [6] A law forbidding strangers and hired servants to share in holy things along with those belonging to the Church is stated in Moses as follows,

No outsider shall eat what is holy; a stranger staying with a priest, or a hired servant, shall not eat what is holy. Lev. 22:10.

And a law which allowed people to buy from the sons of strangers slaves who would serve them for evermore appears in the same book,

You shall buy a male or a female slave from the nations that are around you. And also from the sons of strangers sojourning among you – from them you shall buy, and from their families which are with you, even if they were born in your land, in order that they may be your possession. And you may pass them on as an inheritance to your sons after you to inherit as a possession. Forever you shall be their masters. Lev. 25:44-46.

‘The sons of strangers’ means factual knowledge acquired with the aid of merely natural light. The necessity for spiritual truths to dominate that knowledge is meant by the law that slaves should be bought from the sons of strangers as possessions for evermore.

sRef Luke@6 @35 S7′ sRef Luke@6 @34 S7′ sRef Luke@6 @32 S7′ sRef Luke@6 @33 S7′ [7] People however who do good for the sake of reward in the next life, people who are also meant by ‘hired servants’, differ from those spoken about immediately above, in that they have life and happiness in heaven as their final objective. But this objective turns and alters the direction of their Divine worship away from the Lord towards themselves, as a consequence of which they want things to go well only for themselves, not for others except insofar as these want the same for them. When this is so self-love resides in their every desire, not love of the neighbour; that is, they do not have any genuine charity. Nor can these people be integrated among angels, for angels utterly loathe both the word and the notion of reward or repayment. The Lord teaches in Luke that one ought to do what is good without reward as the objective,

Love your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing from it; then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Highest. Luke 6:32-35; 14:12-14.

Regarding the nature of good deeds performed to earn merit, see 1110, 1111, 1774, 1835, 1877, 2027, 2273, 2340, 2373, 2400, 3816, 4007 (end), 4174, 4943, 6388-6390, 6392, 6393, 6478.

[8] The reason why the Lord says so many times that those who do good will have their reward in heaven – as in Matt. 5:11, 12; 6:1, 2, 26; 10:41, 42; 20:1-16; Mark 9:41; Luke 6:23, 35; 14:14; John 4:36 – is that before a person has been regenerated he cannot help thinking about reward. But it is different once he has been regenerated. Then he is indignant if anyone thinks that he does good to his neighbour for the sake of reward; for he feels delight and bliss in the doing of good, but not in repayment. In the internal sense ‘reward’ is the delight belonging to the affection that goes with charity, see 3816, 3956, 6388, 6478.
* lit. soul
** i.e. mercenaries who are like fat bulls

sRef Ex@12 @46 S0′ 8003. ‘It shall be eaten in one house’ means compatible forms of good grouped together to compose a single body of good. This is clear from the considerations that the Passover supper represented groups of angels living in association with one another in heaven, and that each household of the children of Israel represented an individual community, see 7836, 7891, 7996, 7997. Angelic communities are all distinct from one another, separated according to varieties of good at general, specific, and individual levels, 3241, 4625. Those governed by a like good live in association with one another. The reason why they compose a single body of good is that every complete whole is a product not of one but of a number of constituent parts. For a number of parts that are varying but nevertheless compatible produce a form which constitutes a single whole because of the harmony among the parts. That harmony in heaven is a spiritual harmony, which forms of the good of love possess, see 3241, 3167, 3744-3746, 3986, 4005, 4149, 5598, 7236, 7837, 7836. From these considerations it is evident that ‘it shall be eaten in one house’ means associations of forms of good so suited to one another that together they compose a single body of good. As regards ‘eating’ – eating the Passover – that it means being integrated among or being together with them, see above in 8001.

sRef Ex@12 @46 S0′ 8004. ‘You shall not bring any of the flesh outside the house’ means that this good must not be intermingled with another’s good. This is clear from the meaning of ‘bringing something outside the house’ as giving it to another to eat, thus intermingling it with a variety of good different from that of their own community; and from the meaning of ‘the flesh’ as good, dealt with in 6968, 7850. The communities in heaven are all distinct from one another, in keeping with the functions performed by all the members and organs of the body, as was shown at the ends of quite a number of chapters. Through correspondence the function that each member or organ performs has connection with one particular variety of good that is distinct from another. From this it is evident that the varieties of good are manifold, and that they must never be intermingled if they are to give rise to distinct forms which, taken together, will constitute the absolutely perfect form of heaven. For if they were intermingled the distinctness of each would be destroyed. This is what is meant by their being forbidden to bring any of the flesh outside their house.

sRef Ex@12 @46 S0′ 8005. ‘And you shall not break a bone of it’ means that factual knowledge of truth must also remain intact. This is clear from the meaning of ‘a bone’ as what is last and lowest, serving as a foundation for more internal things to rest on and as a support to prevent them from falling apart. This last and lowest support in spiritual things is factual knowledge; for all spiritual truths and forms of good flow down in accordance with order towards lower levels, coming to rest finally in factual knowledge, in which a person can then catch sight of them. As for the meaning of ‘you shall not break’ – that such knowledge must remain intact – this is self-evident. Factual knowledge is said to remain intact when it lets into itself nothing but truths that are in accord with its good; for factual knowledge is the general receptacle of them. Furthermore items of knowledge are like the bones in a person’s body. If they do not remain intact or properly arranged, as when they are dislocated or are bent out of shape, the form of the body is consequently altered, and that altered form conditions its movements. Factual knowledge of truth may be equated with matters of doctrine.

sRef Ex@12 @47 S0′ 8006. ‘All the assembly of Israel shall keep it’ means that this law of order is for all who are governed by the good of truth and guided by the truth of good. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the assembly of Israel’ as all truths and forms of good in their entirety, 7830, thus those who are guided by truth that leads to good, and governed by good through which truth comes, 7957, consequently those who belong to the spiritual Church. They were all required to keep the Passover in order that they might represent the deliverance of those belonging to the spiritual Church who were held back on the lower earth until the Lord’s Coming, 6854, 6914, 7091 (end), 7849, 7932; and their eating it ‘in one house’ represented groups of angels living in association with one another in heaven, 7836, 7996, 7997, so that the keeping of it by the whole assembly of Israel represented the whole of heaven. At that time the Church did not exist anywhere, only a representative of the Church, for which Abraham’s descendants through Jacob were selected. Through representatives of the Church contact with heaven was established, and through heaven with the Lord. This was why that nation was commanded to maintain a strict observance of all statutes and all laws, above all the statutes relating to the Passover, so strict that anyone who was clean and did not keep the Passover was to be cut off, Num. 9:13.

sRef Ex@12 @48 S0′ 8007. ‘And when a sojourner sojourns with you’ means those who have received instruction in the Church’s truth and good, and have accepted them. This is clear from the meaning of ‘a sojourner’ as those who received instruction in and accepted the statutes and laws of the Church, dealt with in 2025, 4444, 7908. The words ‘when he sojourns with you’ are used because ‘sojourning’ means receiving instruction and living, 1463, 3672, so that’ sojourners sojourning with them’ means not only those who received instruction in the Church’s truth and good and accepted them, but also those who led lives in keeping with them.

sRef Ex@12 @48 S0′ 8008. ‘And would keep the Passover to Jehovah’ means if he wishes to be together with them. This is clear from the meaning of ‘keeping the Passover to Jehovah’, or eating it, as being together with them, dealt with in 8001.

sRef Ex@12 @48 S0′ 8009. ‘Every male he has shall be circumcised’ means that his truth is to be purged from impure kinds of love. This is clear from the meaning of ‘being circumcised’ as being made pure or being purged from impure kinds of love, dealt with in 2039, 2056, 2632, 3412, 3413, 4462, 7045; and from the meaning of ‘male’ as the truth of faith, dealt with in 749, 1046, 4005, 7838.

sRef Ex@12 @48 S0′ 8010. ‘And [then] he shall come near to keep it’ means that then he shall be together with them, as above in 8008.

sRef Ex@12 @48 S0′ 8011. ‘And shall be as if a native of the land’ means that he shall be received as one who is in possession of that truth and good and who has been purified from filthy kinds of love. This is clear from the meaning of ‘a native of the land’ as one who was born within the Church and is in possession of its truth and good, consequently one who has been purified from filthy kinds of love. The expression ‘a native of the land’ is used because ‘the land’ means the Church. For the meaning of ‘the land’ in the Word as the Church, see 566, 662, 1066, 1067, 1262, 1413, 1607, 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118, 2571, 2928, 3355, 4447, 4535, 5577. And the reason why ‘the land’ means the Church is that in the Word ‘the land’ refers to the land of Canaan, and ‘the land of Canaan’ means the Lord’s kingdom and the Church, 1413, 1477, 1585, 1607, 1866, 3038, 3481, 3686, 3705, 4116, 4240, 4447, 4454, 4516, 4517, 5136, 5757, 6516. No land that is mentioned in the Word is taken by angels to mean that land but the nation inhabiting it. And in taking it to mean the nation they understand the character of that nation on the spiritual level, that is, in regard to things of the Church. It is well known that the idea of a nation’s character comes to mind when a land is mentioned; for this is also what happens with a person, and especially with angels, who think in a spiritual manner about everything natural.

sRef Ex@12 @48 S0′ 8012. ‘And no uncircumcised person shall eat it’ means that no one ruled by self-love and love of the world may be together with them. This is clear from the meaning of one who is ‘uncircumcised’ as one who is ruled by self-love and love of the world, dealt with in 2056, 3412, 3413, 7045; and from the meaning of ‘eating it’ – eating the Passover – as being together with them, dealt with above in 8001.

sRef Ex@12 @49 S0′ 8013. ‘There shall be one law for the native and for the sojourner sojourning in the midst of you’ means that someone who has received instruction in and accepted the Church’s truth and good, and leads a life in keeping with them, will be as someone within the Church who has already been instructed and leads a life conforming to the commandments of faith and charity. This is clear from the meaning of ‘there shall be one law’ as a similar right, thus that it shall be as it is with another; from the meaning of ‘the native’ as one born within the Church who is in possession of its truth and good in respect of doctrine and in respect of life, dealt with just above in Sell; and from the meaning of ‘the sojourner sojourning in the midst of you’ as one who receives instruction in the Church’s truth and good and accepts them, and leads a life in keeping with them, also dealt with above, in 8007.

[2] The expression ‘in keeping with the commandments of faith and charity’ is used because of the difference, which is that before regeneration one leads a life in keeping with the commandments of faith, but after regeneration in keeping with the commandments of charity. Before regeneration no one knows from affection what charity is, only from doctrine, whose commandments, which are called the commandments of faith, at that time direct a person’s life. But after regeneration he does know from affection what charity is. This is because he now loves his neighbour and has a heartfelt desire for his welfare; his life is now directed by a law written on his heart, for an affection that belongs to charity governs his actions. This state is entirely different from the previous one. People in the first state are in dim light so far as the truths and the forms of the good of faith are concerned, but those in the latter state are in comparison in bright light. They see truths and corroborate them in a state of enlightenment, whereas the former see truths and corroborate them not in a state of enlightenment but because they have been convinced that the teachings of the Church are true. And since they do not see them in a state of enlightenment they are equally capable of corroborating falsities as truths, and having corroborated them they see them altogether as truths. From this one may recognize what is meant by leading a life in keeping with the commandments of faith, and what by leading a life in keeping with the commandments of charity.

sRef Lev@24 @22 S3′ sRef Lev@19 @34 S3′ sRef Num@15 @15 S3′ sRef Num@15 @14 S3′ sRef Num@9 @14 S3′ sRef Num@15 @16 S3′ [3] With regard to sojourners, the people were commanded several times in the Word not to make any distinction between ‘the native of the land’ and ‘the sojourner sojourning with them’. The reason why was that gentile nations from whom sojourners came are just as much received into heaven as those within the Church are, after they have received instruction in and accepted the truths of faith. Regarding gentiles in the next life, see 932, 1032, 1059, 2049, 2284, 2589-2604, 2861, 1863, 3263, 4190, 4197. This was why it was commanded that as it was with the native, so it should be with the sojourner, as in Moses,

If a sojourner should sojourn with you who would make a fire-offering of an odour of rest to Jehovah, he shall do as you do. As for the assembly, one statute shall there be for you and for the sojourner who sojourns, an eternal statute throughout your generations. As you are, so shall the sojourner be before Jehovah. There shall be one law and one judgement for you and for the sojourner sojourning with you. Num. 15:14-16.

In the same author,

As the native among you shall the sojourner sojourning with you be to you. Lev. 19:34.

In the same author,

One judgement shall there be for you; it shall be for the sojourner as for the native. Lev. 14:22.

In the same author,

When the sojourner has sojourned with you, he shall keep the Passover to Jehovah, according to the statute for the Passover, and according to the regulations* for it. There shall be one statute for you, both for the sojourner and for the native of the land. Num. 9:14.
* lit. statutes

sRef Ex@12 @51 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @50 S0′ 8014. Verses 50, 51 And all the children of Israel did as Jehovah had commanded Moses and Aaron – so they did. And so it was on this same day, that Jehovah brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their hosts.

‘And all the children of Israel did as Jehovah had commanded Moses and Aaron’ means an act of obedience in accordance with God’s truth. ‘So they did’ means an act initiated by the will. ‘And so it was on this same day’ means a state of the Lord’s presence. ‘That Jehovah brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt’ means that the Lord delivered those governed by the good of truth and guided by the truth of good from damnation. ‘By their hosts’ means those people made distinct from one another by the specific character of their good, which is derived from truth.

sRef Ex@12 @50 S0′ 8015. ‘And all the children of Israel did as Jehovah had commanded Moses and Aaron’ means an act of obedience in accordance with God’s truth. This is clear from what has been stated above in 7944, where similar words occur.

sRef Ex@12 @50 S0′ 8016. ‘So they did’ means an act initiated by the will. This is clear from the meaning of ‘doing’, when used a second time, as an act initiated by the will, as above in 7945.

sRef Num@33 @3 S0′ sRef Num@33 @4 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @51 S0′ 8017. ‘And so it was on this same day’ means a state of the Lord’s presence. This is clear from the meaning of ‘day’ as a period of time and a state, dealt with in 23, 487, 488, 493, 893, 2788, 3462, 3785, 4850, 7680. The reason why a state of the Lord’s presence is meant is that it was Passover day, and ‘the Passover’ means the Lord’s presence and the deliverance of those belonging to the spiritual Church from spiritual captivity and from damnation, 7867. Deliverance then is meant by what this verse goes on to say, namely that on that day Jehovah brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their hosts. The fact that this was on the day after the Passover is clear in Moses,

They set out from Egypt on the fifteenth day of the first month, on the day after the Passover, in the sight* of all the Egyptians, at the time that the Egyptians were burying the firstborn who had been killed. Num. 33:3, 4.

The Lord’s presence delivers from damnation those who are governed by good, and brings to damnation those who are ruled by evil, see 7926, 7989.
* lit. the eyes

sRef Ex@12 @51 S0′ 8018. ‘That Jehovah brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt’ means that the Lord delivered those governed by the good of truth and guided by the truth of good from damnation. This is clear from the meaning of ‘bringing out’ as delivering; from the representation of ‘the children of Israel’ as those belonging to the spiritual Church, or what amounts to the same thing, those governed by the good of truth and guided by the truth of good, dealt with above in 7957, 8006; and from the meaning of ‘the land of Egypt’ as damnation. ‘The land of Egypt’ at this point means damnation because damnation is meant by the Egyptians’ state at this time, 7766, 7778. The fact that the Lord delivered from damnation those belonging to the spiritual Church, that is, those governed by the good of truth and guided by the truth of good, see 6854, 6914, 7091 (end), 7828, 7932.

sRef Matt@27 @52 S2′ sRef Matt@27 @53 S2′ [2] Their deliverance by the Lord when He rose again is meant by the Lord’s descent to the lower regions (ad inferos);* and it was made plain by the raising of the dead from their tombs, described in Matthew,

And the tombs were opened, and many bodies of sleeping saints were raised; and coming out of their tombs after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many. Matt. 27:52, 53.

Their coming out of tombs, their going into the holy city, and also their appearing to many took place to bear witness to the deliverance by the Lord of those who until then had been held back in spiritual captivity, and to the introduction of them into heaven, heaven being meant in the internal sense by ‘the holy city’. This is why the expression ‘the holy city’ is used when in actual fact it was not a holy but a profane city, since the Lord Himself – who was represented in all the ritual observances of their Church and described in the Word existing among them, and so was the God of their Church – was treated by them in so cruel a manner.

sRef Ezek@37 @12 S3′ sRef Ezek@37 @13 S3′ sRef Dan@12 @2 S3′ sRef Dan@12 @1 S3′ sRef Ezek@37 @14 S3′ [3] Much the same is meant by this in Daniel,

At that time Your people will be rescued, every one who is found written in the book. Finally, many of those sleeping in the dust of the earth will awake – these to eternal life, but the rest to reproaches and to eternal disgrace. Dan. 12:1, 2.

And also by this in Ezekiel,

Prophesy and say, Thus said the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, O My people, and I will bring you onto the land of Israel, in order that you may know that I am Jehovah when I open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, O My people. And I will put My spirit in you, in order that you may live, and I will place you on your own land, in order that you may know that I Jehovah have spoken it and done it, said Jehovah. Ezek. 37:11-14.

‘The land of Israel’, which is the land of Canaan, is used to mean heaven, 8011. The words quoted here from the prophet describe the new creation or birth of a person, and also the vivifying by the Lord of those belonging to the spiritual Church.
* The Latin here is per descensum Domini ad inferos. This appears to be a reference to the Apostles’ Creed and the Athanasian Creed, which, in their traditional Latin versions, contain the phrase descendit ad inferos (He descended to the lower regions). The traditional English version says He descended into hell.

sRef Ex@12 @51 S0′ 8019. ‘By their hosts’ means those people made distinct from one another by the specific character of their good, which is derived from truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘hosts’ as forms of good and truths, dealt with above in 7988. ‘By hosts’ means that those people, those who are represented by ‘the children of Israel’, were made distinct from one another by the specific character of their good, which is derived from truth; for all in the next life are made distinct from, yet are linked to one another by their varieties of good, see 7833-7836, 8003. The expression ‘by the specific character of their good, which is derived from truth’ is used because all good derives its specific character from truth, and is for that reason varied, 3804, 4149, 5345, 5355, 6916.

sRef Ex@12 @51 S0′ 8020. It is plainly evident from the statutes and laws regarding the eating of the Passover lamb which appear in this chapter that in every detail they contain and conceal heavenly arcana, and that without knowledge gained from the internal sense one can see no more in them than the outward form of a religious custom, and nothing heavenly, let alone Divine. Without that knowledge one does not know the reason for any of the following: Why the Passover animal was to be a lamb or a kid; why the animal was to be a male, and ‘the son of a year’; why it was to be slaughtered on the fourteenth day of the month; why the blood from it was to be sprinkled on the doorposts and lintel; why it was to be eaten roasted with fire, together with unleavened bread on bitter herbs, and not any of it raw or boiled in water; why its head was to be roasted over its legs and over its middle; why none of it was to be left till morning, and why what remained was to be burned with fire; why they were to eat unleavened bread for seven days, and why anyone eating anything made with yeast was to be cut off; why the foreigner, the stranger, and the hired servant could not eat it, but a man’s slave, a purchase paid for with silver, and a sojourner, could eat it if they were circumcised; why it was to be eaten in one house and none of the flesh was to be brought outside; and why no bone of it was to be broken. What these and very many other regulations hold within them, and why they were commanded, would remain completely unknown unless the laws of order in the spiritual world to which they correspond were known, unless knowledge were acquired from the internal sense of what each regulation means in that world, that is, in heaven, and in particular unless the belief existed that all of them contain a spiritual level of meaning. Unless every single one contained this spiritual level of meaning the angels present with a person would understand little or scarcely anything of the Word when read by the person; for all the things which have been described in the Word in a natural way are understood by the angels on a spiritual level of meaning.

8021. SPIRITS AND INHABITANTS OF THE PLANET JUPITER – continued

One of those spirits belonging to Jupiter already spoken about who produce the feeling of fear in people as they move towards them came close to my left side beneath my forearm and spoke from there. But his speech was grating; his words were so very indistinct, without any separations between them, that I had to concentrate a long time before I could gather the meaning of them. And as he spoke he also introduced some amount of fear. He said that what he had just done was what they do on his planet; that before their angels go to someone spirits like him are sent on ahead to prepare that person in that way. At the same time he warned me to receive them well when they arrived. But I was led to reply, It does not depend on me; I welcome all people just as they are.

8022. Then angels belonging to that planet arrived, and from the way they communicated with me I was made to realize that they were completely different from angels belonging to our planet. They did not use spoken words to communicate with me but ideas which entered my interiors, spread through them in every direction, and from there also passed on into my face, exerting so strong an influence on it that my face moved in accord with each particular idea. They began at the lips and then moved out in every direction towards the circumference of my face. These ideas taking the place of words were distinct from one another, though only slightly. The angels said that this was a way in which they could communicate with their people on their planet, and that there the method of communication was likewise one that employed the face, beginning at the lips.

8023. After this these angels communicated with me by means of ideas even less distinct from one another; I could detect hardly any spaces at all between them. To my mind it was like the meaning contained in words spoken by those who concentrate entirely on the meaning without thinking about the words. This kind of communicating was more intelligible to me than the first, and also contained more. It passed into my face as the first kind had, but the very nature of the method of communication made the inflow more continuous. However it did not begin, as the first had done, at the lips, but at the eyes. They said that this too was a way in which they communicate with the people on their planet, those there who are endowed with deeper insight and discernment than the rest.

8024. Then they began to communicate with me in a flow of ideas even more continuous with one another and even fuller; but now my face did not have sufficient mobility to remain in accord with them. However I felt them flowing into my brain, which was then being acted on in a similar fashion.

8025. Finally they communicated in such a way that what they expressed went no further than the inner level of my understanding. The rapid flow of it was like that of rarefied air. I detected the actual flow but could not distinguish the details of what they expressed. They said that there are also people on their planet with whom they communicate using this way of communicating, and that they are those who after death are immediately taken to heaven.

8026. These kinds of communication were like the fluid elements. The first kind was like water in a normal fluid state, and the second like water in a state not so dense; the third was in comparison with these like air, and the fourth like rarefied air.

8027. The spirit spoken of above who was by my left side was from time to time interposing remarks. In particular he warned me to behave in an unassuming manner towards his angels; for there were spirits from our planet who had a way of displaying behaviour that would be displeasing. He also said that he could not understand what it was the angels were declaring, not until after he had moved up to my left ear. His speech then also ceased to be grating, as it had been before, becoming instead like that of other spirits.

8028. All that had happened went to show the orderly way in which things are done in heaven and therefore on earth – the way things are done when angels are about to arrive. A spirit is sent on ahead to prepare the way. He then produces a feeling of fear in people, and warns them to receive the angels in a kindly manner. He injects remarks, though at first he does not understand what it is the angels are declaring. But after he has been brought into a better state he does understand. In short, the spirit is present throughout, preparing the mind and trying to forestall anything disrespectful. All this made me think about John the Baptist, that in keeping with heavenly order he was sent on ahead to proclaim the Lord’s Coming and to prepare the way for Him to be received respectfully, as stated in Matthew 3:3; Luke 1:17; 3:4; John 1:23.

aRef 2Ki@2 @11 S0′ 8029. From what has been mentioned several times already about a person’s state after death it is clear that those who go straight to heaven when they enter the next life are few. Instead people stay for some time beneath heaven, in order that the defilements of earthly and bodily kinds of love, which they have brought with them from the world, may be wiped away, and in that way they may be prepared and enabled to be integrated among angels. This kind of experience is undergone by people belonging to all planets. That is to say, after death they are first below heaven among spirits; but subsequently, when they have undergone preparation, they become angels. I was allowed to see what happened when spirits belonging to that planet became angels. Bright horses as if of fire appeared, and these took them away in the same manner as Elijah was taken, the bright horses as if of fire serving to mean an enlightened understanding. In the Word horses mean the power of understanding, see 2760-2762, 3217, 5321, 6125, 6534; and ‘the fiery horses’ and ‘the fiery chariots’ that took Elijah away mean an understanding of the inner contents of the Word, 2761.

8030. The angelic heaven to which they are taken away is the first heaven or the lowest of the three heavens. This heaven is seen to the right of their planet and is entirely separate from the first or lowest heaven of angels belonging to our planet. The inhabitants of that heaven appear wearing sky-blue clothing dotted with tiny golden stars, since they believe that this is the truest heavenly colour. When they are in the world and gaze at the starry sky they call it the angels’ dwelling-place, which also explains their fondness for the colour sky-blue.

8031. Spirits belonging to that planet have no desire at all to mix with spirits belonging to our planet, since they have different inclinations and customs. They say that spirits belonging to our planet are deceitful, and are quick and clever at devising wicked deeds, having little knowledge of what is good and giving little thought to it. They also say that spirits from our planet do not acknowledge the one and only Lord, as they themselves do. Furthermore spirits belonging to the planet Jupiter have far more wisdom than spirits belonging to our planet, about whom they also say that they talk a lot but think little, and so cannot have a deep perception of many things, and certainly not of what is good. From all this they infer that people belonging to our planet are external people.

8032. ‘Spirits and inhabitants of the planet Jupiter’ is continued at the end of the next chapter.

8033. TEACHINGS ABOUT CHARITY

What charity is and what faith is when they are present in a person must now be stated. Charity is an inward affection, consisting in a desire which springs from a person’s heart to do good to the neighbour, which is the delight of his life. And that desire involves no thought of reward.

8034. But faith is an inward affection consisting in a desire which springs from a person’s heart to know what truth is and what good is, and to do so not with a view to doctrine but with a view to life. This affection links itself to the affection that is identified with charity because it involves the desire to act in accordance with truth, thus to do the truth itself.

8035. People governed by the genuine affection identified with charity and faith believe that none of their desire for good and none of their understanding of truth originates in themselves, but that a will which desires good and an understanding which sees truth come from the Lord.

8036. Such then is charity, and such is faith. Those in whom they are present have the Lord’s kingdom and heaven within them; and they have the Church within them. They are those who have been regenerated by the Lord, and have received from Him a new will and a new understanding.

8037. Those who have self-love and love of the world as their end in view cannot have any charity or faith at all within them. People ruled by those loves do not even know what charity is or what faith is; they do not begin to understand that when a person desires his neighbour’s good without thought of reward he has heaven within himself, or that this affection brings happiness as great as that enjoyed by the angels, which is indescribable. For those people think that if they are deprived of the joy received from the glory of holding important positions and possessing wealth, no joy at all exists any longer. But that is just when heavenly joy begins; and this joy is infinitely superior.

EXODUS 13

1 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,

2 Sanctify to Me all the firstborn, whatever opens the womb* among the children of Israel, of man and of beast; it is Mine.

3 And Moses said to the people, Remember this day on which you came out of Egypt, out of the house of slaves; for by strength of hand Jehovah brought you out from there. And nothing made with yeast shall be eaten.

4 Today you are going out, in the month of Abib.

5 And it shall be when Jehovah brings you into the land of the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Amorite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite, which He swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, that you shall keep this service in this month.

6 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to Jehovah.

7 Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days; and nothing made with yeast shall be seen among you, and no yeast shall be seen among you within all your borders.

8 And you shall tell your son on that day, saying, [This is done] because of what Jehovah did for me when I came out of Egypt.

9 And it shall be for you as a sign on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes, in order that the law of Jehovah may be in your mouth; for within a strong hand Jehovah has brought you out of Egypt.

10 And you shall keep this statute at the appointed time from year to year.

11 And it shall be when Jehovah brings you into the land of the Canaanite, as He swore to you and your fathers, and gives it to you,

12 That you shall make over to Jehovah all that open the womb;** and all offspring opening it among the beasts which you will have, if they are males, shall be for Jehovah.***

13 And all that open it among the asses**** you shall redeem with a member of the flock; and if you do not redeem it you shall break its neck. And all the firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem.

14 And it shall be when your son asks you tomorrow, saying, What is this? that you are to say to him, By strength of hand Jehovah brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of slaves.

15 And so it was when Pharaoh hardened himself against sending us away, that Jehovah killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of man even to the firstborn of beast. Therefore I sacrifice to Jehovah all that open the womb, if they are males;***** and all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.

16 And it shall be as a sign on your hand and as frontlets between your eyes; for by strength of hand Jehovah brought us out of Egypt.

17 And so it was when Pharaoh sent the people away, that God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, although****** that was near; for God said, Perhaps the people will change their minds when they see war, and will return to Egypt.

18 And God led the people around by the way of the wilderness, the Sea Suph. And the children of Israel went up equipped for battle, out of the land of Egypt.

19 And Moses took Joseph’s bones with him, for he had made the children of Israel swear solemnly, saying, God will certainly visit you, and you shall cause my bones to go up from here with you.

20 And they travelled from Succoth and encamped in Etham, on the edge of the wilderness.

21 And Jehovah went before them during the daytime in a pillar of cloud to lead them [along] the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and by night.

22 The pillar of cloud during the daytime and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.
* lit. the opening of every womb
** lit. every opening of the womb
*** lit. and every opening by the offspring of beast which you will have,
the males, shall be for Jehovah
**** lit. every opening by the ass
***** lit. every opening of the womb, the males,
****** lit. because

sRef Ex@13 @0 S0′ 8038. CONTENTS

This chapter deals in the internal sense with faith in the Lord, and with the perpetual remembrance that they were delivered by the Lord from damnation. Faith in the Lord is meant by sanctifying the firstborn, and perpetual remembrance of the deliverance of the Lord is meant by keeping the Passover.

sRef Ex@13 @0 S0′ 8039. The latter part of the present chapter, and what comes after it, deals with the further preparation of those belonging to the spiritual Church who were held back on the lower earth before the Lord’s Coming, until they could be led into heaven. To the end that they might be brought there they were first conveyed safely through the midst of damnation, then underwent temptations, during all of which the Lord was present constantly. Their conveyance through the midst of damnation is meant by the passage through the Sea Suph; their temptations are meant by life in the wilderness to which the people were led; and the Lord’s presence is meant by the pillar of cloud during the daytime and of fire by night.

sRef Ex@13 @2 S0′ sRef Ex@13 @1 S0′ 8040. THE INTERNAL SENSE

Verses 1, 2 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying, Sanctify to Me all the firstborn, whatever opens the womb* among the children of Israel, of man and of beast; it is Mine.
* lit. The opening of every womb

‘And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying’ means instructions given by the Divine. ‘Sanctify to Me al the firstborn’ means faith _ that it comes from the Lord. ‘Whatever opens the womb’ means which springs from charity. ‘Among the children of Israel’ means in the spiritual Church. ‘Of man and of beast’ means interior and exterior good of faith. ‘It is Mine’ means that it is the Lord’s.

sRef Ex@13 @1 S0′ 8041. ‘And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying’ means instructions given by the Divine. This is clear from the meaning of ‘speaking’ and ‘saying’, when Jehovah talks about things of the Church that are to be observed, as instructions, dealt with in 7769, 7793, 7825, and – since Jehovah is the speaker – as instructions given by the Divine; and from the representation of ‘Moses’ as God’s truth, dealt with in 6771, 7014, 7382. So it is that ‘Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying’ means instructions given by the Divine through Divine Truth.

sRef Ex@13 @2 S0′ 8042. ‘Sanctify to Me all the firstborn’ means faith – that it comes from the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of ‘sanctifying’ to Jehovah or the Lord, as ascribing something to Him, that is, confessing or acknowledging that it comes from Him; and from the meaning of ‘the firstborn’ as faith, dealt with in 352, 2435, 6344, 7035. When the term faith is used all the truth that the spiritual Church possesses is meant; and since all the truth that the Church possesses is meant, the spiritual Church itself is also meant, for truth is the essential element of this Church. Good is, it is true, the essential element of a Church, and really is the firstborn, 2435, 3325, 4925, 4926, 4928, 4930; but good as it exists among those belonging to the spiritual Church is in itself truth. For when these people act in accordance with the truth they have been taught, that truth is called good; for it has then passed from their understanding into their will, and from their will into action, and anything done which springs from the will is called good. In itself, in essence, this good is still truth, and this is because for those people things taught by the Church are truths; and since teachings within Churches are diverse, so too are truths. But in spite of that, though they vary so much, such truths become good, as has just been stated, when people will them and act them out. [2] While a person is being regenerated he is led by means of faith in the understanding, or doctrine, to faith in the will, or life; that is, he is led through the truth of faith to the good of charity. When the good of charity resides with a person he has been regenerated; and from that good he now gives birth to truths which are called the truths of good. These are the truths which are the most authentic truths of faith; and they are meant by the firstborn. For the generations or births of truths from good are like the generations or births of sons and daughters from a parent, later on of grandsons and granddaughters, then of great-grandsons and great granddaughters, and so on. The first generation or those born from the actual parent, the generation of sons and daughters, is what is meant by ‘the firstborn’, however many they may be; the second and third generations are not meant, except when considered in relation to their own parents. The reason why the firstborn were consecrated to Jehovah or the Lord is that all secondary or descending generations of truths and forms of good derive their essential nature from the primary ones. This spiritual reality is at the root of the right of the firstborn spoken of in the Word.

sRef Ex@13 @2 S0′ 8043. ‘Whatever opens the womb’ means which springs from charity. This is clear from the meaning of ‘whatever opens the womb’ as that which is born directly from someone who has been regenerated, thus which springs from charity, in accordance with what has been stated immediately above in 8042. For when a person is conceived anew he so to speak enters the womb again; and when a person is born anew he so to speak comes out of the womb again. But this time, what is conceived in and born from the womb is not the person as a person; rather it is faith, the offspring of charity. This faith gives the person a spiritual character; it so to speak remakes the person himself since his life is now begotten by it. From all this one may now see what is meant in the spiritual sense by ‘whatever opens the womb’. Angels, whose ideas are solely spiritual ones, do not understand the expression in any other way. What ‘the womb’ means, and also what ‘being in the womb’ and ‘coming out of the womb’ mean, see 3293 (end), 3294, 3967, 4904, 4918, 4931, 5052, 5054, 6433.

sRef John@3 @6 S2′ sRef John@3 @3 S2′ sRef John@3 @10 S2′ sRef John@3 @5 S2′ sRef John@3 @4 S2′ sRef Isa@44 @2 S2′ sRef Isa@44 @3 S2′ [2] Since those things are meant by ‘the womb’, the Word speaks of the Lord as Him who ‘formed from the womb’, that is, who is the Regenerator, as in Isaiah,

Thus said Jehovah who made you and formed you from the womb, who helps you, Fear not, O My servant Jacob, and Jeshurun whom I have chosen, for I will pour out water upon thirsty land, and streams upon the dry I will pour out My spirit upon your seed, and blessing upon your sons. Isa. 44:2, 3.

The Lord is spoken of as Him who ‘made and formed from the womb’ because He regenerates a person, making a spiritual person out of one who is natural. Since regeneration is accomplished through truth and good it says that He will pour out water upon thirsty land and spirit upon his seed; for ‘water’ means the truth of faith, 2702, 3058, 3424, 4976, 5668, 7307, and ‘spirit’ means the good of charity, in the same way as ‘water’ and ‘spirit’ do in John,

Jesus said to Nicodemus, Truly, truly I say to you, Unless a person is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to Him, How can a person be born when he is old? Can he come a second time into his mother’s womb? Jesus answered, Truly, truly I say to you, Unless a person has been born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which has been born of the flesh is flesh, but that which has been born of the spirit is spirit. Are you a teacher in Israel, and do not know this? John 3:3-6, 10.

sRef Isa@44 @24 S3′ [3] The Lord is again called the One who ‘formed from the womb’ elsewhere in Isaiah,

Thus said Jehovah, your Redeemer, and He who formed you from the womb, I am Jehovah who makes all things, who spreads out the heavens Alone, and who stretches out the earth by Myself. Isa. 44:24.

‘The heavens’ and ‘the earth’ are used to mean in a general sense the internal and the external Church, 82, 1411, 1733, 1850, 3355, 4535, and in a particular sense the internal and the external aspects of the Church with a person who has been regenerated; and ‘spreading out’ and ‘stretching out’ mean making or creating by the use of Divine power, 7673. This is why the Lord as Regenerator is referred to as Maker and Creator, and why regeneration is referred to as a new creation.

sRef Ps@71 @6 S4′ sRef Isa@46 @3 S4′ [4] ‘Womb’ is used in a similar way in the same prophet,

Hearken to Me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel who have been carried from the belly who have been borne from the womb. Isa. 46:3.

And in David,

On You, O Lord Jehovih, I have been laid from the womb; You brought me out of my mother’s bowels; You are my praise continually Ps. 71:6.

From all this one may now see what is meant in the internal sense by ‘whatever opens the womb’ and consequently by ‘the firstborn’.

sRef Ex@13 @2 S0′ 8044. ‘Among the children of Israel’ means in the spiritual Church. This is clear from the representation of ‘the children of Israel’ as the spiritual Church, dealt with in 4286, 6426, 6637, 6862, 6868, 7035, 7062, 7198, 7201, 7215, 7223.

sRef Ex@13 @2 S0′ 8045. ‘Of man and of beast’ means interior and exterior good of faith, as in 7424, 7523.

sRef Ex@13 @2 S0′ 8046. ‘It is Mine’ means that it is the Lord’s. This is clear from the fact that in the Word ‘Jehovah’ is the Lord, 1343, 1736, 2921, 3023, 3035, 5041, 5663, 6281, 6303, 6905, 6945, 6956, so that ‘it is Mine’ means that it is the Lord’s. The fact that all good and all truth, thus charity and faith, have their origin in the Lord, and none whatever in man, see 904 (end), 2411, 3142, 3147, 4151, 5482, 5649, 6193, 6325, 6466-6495, 6613-6626, 6982, 6985, 6996, 7004, 7055, 7056, 7058, 7270, 7343.

sRef Ex@13 @6 S0′ sRef Ex@13 @7 S0′ sRef Ex@13 @8 S0′ sRef Ex@13 @3 S0′ sRef Ex@13 @4 S0′ sRef Ex@13 @5 S0′ sRef Ex@13 @9 S0′ sRef Ex@13 @10 S0′ 8047. Verses 3-lo And Moses said to the people, Remember this day on which you came out of Egypt, out of the house of slaves; for by strength of hand Jehovah brought you out from there. And nothing made with yeast shall be eaten. Today you are going out, in the month of Abib. And it shall be when Jehovah brings you into the land of the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Amorite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite, which He swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, that you shall keep this service in this month. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to Jehovah. Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days; and nothing made with yeast shall be seen among you, and no yeast shall be seen among you within all your borders. And you shall tell your son on that day, saying, [This is done] because of what Jehovah did for me when I came out of Egypt. And it shall be for you as a sign on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes, in order that the law of Jehovah may be in your mouth; for with a strong hand Jehovah has brought you out of Egypt. And you shall keep this statute at the appointed time from year to year.

‘And Moses said to the people’ means instruction through God’s truth. ‘Remember this day on which you came out of Egypt, out of the house of slaves’ means that especially should they call to mind that state which was theirs when they were delivered from spiritual captivity by the Lord. ‘For by strength of hand Jehovah brought you out from there’ means that they were delivered by the Lord’s Divine power. ‘And nothing made with yeast shall be eaten’ means that they shall not make anything that has been falsified their own. ‘Today you are going out’ means deliverance for evermore. ‘In the month of Abib’ means the beginning of a new state. ‘And it shall be when Jehovah brings you into the land of the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Amorite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite’ means into the region of heaven occupied by those steeped in evil and falsity. ‘Which He swore to your fathers to give you’ means which the Divine promised to those governed by goodness and truth. ‘A land flowing with milk and honey’ means where there is gladness and joy. ‘That you shall keep this service in this month’ means everlasting worship of the Lord because of His deliverance. ‘Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread’ means purification from falsities. ‘And on the seventh day there shall be a feast to Jehovah’ means holy worship of the Lord. ‘Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days’ means that they are to be purified thoroughly from falsities. ‘And nothing made with yeast shall be seen among you’ means that on no account shall anything falsified be accepted. ‘And no yeast shall be seen among you’ means that nor shall any falsity at all be accepted. ‘Within all your borders’ means within the range of truth that springs from good. ‘And you shall tell your son on that day, saying’ means the inward perception of truth that belongs to conscience. ‘Because of what Jehovah did for me when I came out of Egypt’ means that they were delivered by the Lord from spiritual captivity and from damnation. ‘And it shall be for you as a sign on your hand’ means that it shall be constantly in their will. ‘And as a memorial between your eyes’ means that it shall be constantly in their understanding. ‘That the law of Jehovah may be in your mouth’ means in order that Divine Truth may be in everything coming from there. ‘For with a strong hand Jehovah has brought you out of Egypt’ means that they were delivered by Divine power. ‘And you shall keep this statute at the appointed time from year to year’ means that this law of order shall always hold for that state.

sRef Ex@13 @3 S0′ 8048. ‘And Moses said to the people’ means instruction through God’s truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘saying’, when things to be observed within the Church are specified by means of God’s truth, as instruction, dealt with in 7186, 7267, 7304, 7380, 7517; and from the representation of ‘Moses’ as God’s truth, dealt with above in 8041.

sRef Ex@13 @3 S0′ 8049. ‘Remember this day on which you came out of Egypt, out of the house of slaves’ means that especially should they call to mind that state which was theirs when they were delivered from spiritual captivity by the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of ‘remember’ as that they should call to mind; from the meaning of ‘day’ as state, dealt with in 23, 487, 488, 493, 893, 2788, 3462, 3785, 4850, 5672, 5962, 7680; from the meaning of ‘coming out’ as being delivered, for the exodus of the children of Israel means the deliverance by the Lord of those belonging to the spiritual Church, regarding which deliverance see 6854, 6914, 7091 (end), 7828, 7932, 8018; and from the meaning of ‘Egypt’ and ‘the house of slaves’ as spiritual captivity. For ‘Pharaoh’ and ‘the Egyptians’ mean those in the next life who molested spiritual people by means of falsities, 7097, 7107, 7110, 7126, 7142, 7220, 7228, 7317, and therefore ‘the land of Egypt’ means molestation, 7278. Molestation by means of falsities is nothing else than spiritual captivity, for when people suffer molestation they are held captive so to speak in falsities from which they constantly strive to be delivered. This also explains why they are called in the Word ‘the bound in the pit’, 6854. That spiritual captivity is what is also meant by ‘the house of slaves (or servants)’. ‘Slavery’ (or service) means being under attack from falsities, which is molestation, see 7120, 7129.

sRef Ex@13 @3 S0′ 8050. ‘For by strength of hand Jehovah brought you out from there’ means that they were delivered by the Lord’s Divine power. This is clear from the meaning of ‘strength of hand’ as power or, when used in reference to Jehovah, as almighty power (the fact that ‘strength’ means power is self-evident; and the fact that ‘hand’ likewise means power, see 878, 3387, 4931-4937, 5327, 5328, 5544, 6947, 7188, 7189, 7518, 7673); and from the meaning of ‘bringing out’ as delivering. That ‘Jehovah’ is the Lord, see above in 8046.

sRef Ex@13 @3 S0′ 8051. ‘And nothing made with yeast shall be eaten’ means that they shall not make anything that has been falsified their own. This is clear from the meaning of ‘eating’ as making one’s own, dealt with in 3168, 3513 (end), 3596, 4745; and from the meaning of ‘yeast’ as falsity, dealt with in 2342, 7906, so that ‘something made with yeast’ is something falsified. So far as making falsity and making something falsified one’s own are concerned, it should be recognized that no falsity as such or anything falsified as such can be made his own by anyone who is governed by good and therefore wishes to know the truth, only by someone who is ruled by evil and therefore has no wish to know the truth. The reason why one who is governed by good and therefore wishes to know the truth cannot make falsity as such his own is that he thinks in a proper way about God, about God’s kingdom, and about spiritual life, and therefore uses falsity in such a way that it is not at odds with them but somehow in agreement. Thus he softens it, and none of its harshness or hardness enters his ideas. If this were not so scarcely anyone could be saved, for falsities are more prevalent than truths. Yet it should be recognized that people governed by good also have a love of truth, and therefore in the next life, when instructed by angels, they cast falsities aside and embrace truths. They do this according to the degree of the love of truth they had in the world.

sRef Ex@13 @4 S0′ 8052. ‘Today you are going out’ means deliverance for evermore. This is clear from the meaning of ‘today’ as for evermore, dealt with in 2838, 3998, 4304, 6165, 6984; and from the meaning of ‘going out’ as being delivered, as above in 8049.

sRef Ex@13 @4 S0′ sRef Ex@12 @2 S0′ 8053. ‘In the month of Abib’ means the beginning of a new state. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the month’ as the end of the previous state and the beginning of the next, thus also a new state, dealt with in 3814. The fact that ‘the month of Abib’ means the beginning from which all the following states ensue is evident from what is said in verse 2 of the previous chapter about this month,

This month shall be for you the head of months; the first shall it be for you in the months of the year.

See 7827, 7828.

sRef Ex@13 @5 S0′ 8054. ‘And it shall be when Jehovah brings you into the land of the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Amorite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite’ means into the region of heaven occupied by those steeped in evil and falsity. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the land of the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Amorite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite’ as heaven, at this point the region of heaven occupied by those steeped in evil and falsity. ‘The land of Canaan’ is the Lord’s kingdom in heaven, and His kingdom on earth, which is the Church, see 1413, 1437, 1585, 1607, 1866, 3038, 3481, 3686, 3705, 4116, 4240, 4447, 4454, 4516, 4517, 5136, 5757, 6516. Evils and falsities are meant by the nations mentioned here, evil begotten by falsity that springs from evil being meant by ‘the Canaanite’, 4818; falsity from which evil arises by ‘the Hittite’, 2913; evil and consequent falsity by ‘the Amorite’, 1857, 6306; that which is idolatrous but has some kind of goodness in it by ‘the Hivite’, 6860; and that which is idolatrous but has some kind of truth in it by ‘the Jebusite’, 6860. The region of heaven into which those belonging to the spiritual Church were to come was occupied by evils and falsities before the Lord’s Coming, see above in 6858.

[2] To pursue this matter further, it should be recognized that before the Lord’s Coming heaven was not divided into three separate heavens – the inmost or third, the middle or second, and the lowest or first – as it was after the Lord’s Coming, but was a single heaven. The spiritual heaven did not yet exist. The region where the spiritual heaven was going to exist was occupied by those who were ruled by falsity and evil, yet could be kept in a state in which they felt encouraged by external means to adhere to some truth and good, especially by ideas of holding important positions and rank. It was just like what happens in the world. Here those ruled by evil, and by falsity, are nevertheless obliged by external means – by rank and position and by monetary gain – to look as if they are thinking and speaking things that are true, and willing and doing those that are good. The reason why that region of heaven was at that time occupied by such spirits was that there was a lack of good people, and those who belonged to the spiritual Church had not yet been made ready; yet every part of heaven needed to be filled with spirits to provide a continuous chain from the Lord at one end to mankind at the other. For had the chain been broken mankind would have perished. At the present day too there are some regions of heaven which are occupied by such spirits; but those who are in them are withheld by great force from doing evil. Directly overhead there are spirits who use innocence to deceive others and lead them astray; but above those spirits there are celestial ones belonging to the Most Ancient Church, who restrain them so forcibly that they cannot possibly inflict harm on anyone. At the back of the head there is also at the present day a region which was once part of heaven but is now occupied by evil spirits, as well as another region in front, over on the left.

sRef Rev@12 @8 S3′ sRef Rev@12 @7 S3′ [3] The evil also constantly endeavour to take over the places where the good are, and do in actual fact take them over as soon as they cease to be filled with the good. I have often been made aware of their endeavour. Those regions are occupied when the number of wicked people in the world increases and that of the good diminishes; for then evil spirits come nearer mankind and good spirits move away. And the more the good spirits move away, the more the regions nearest mankind come to be occupied by evil spirits. When this becomes the situation generally, the inhabitants of those regions are changed completely. The change takes place when the Church is near its end since evil and falsity reign then. But around the end of the Church those who have taken over are expelled, and the regions once occupied by them are given to the good, who have in the meantime been made ready for heaven. This is the meaning of the following words in John,

War took place in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon fought, and his angels, but they did not prevail, nor was their place found any longer in heaven. Rev. 12:7, 8.

This state of heaven was represented by the land of Canaan, in that the nations occupied it, and by the children of Israel, in that they expelled the nations from there. For the land of Canaan means the Lord’s kingdom, thus heaven and the Church, as may be seen from the places enumerated above.

sRef Ex@13 @5 S0′ 8055. ‘Which He swore to your fathers to give you’ means which the Divine promised to those governed by goodness and truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘swearing’, when done by Jehovah, as unchangeable confirmation from the Divine, 2842, 3375, so that ‘swearing to give’ means a promise; and from the meaning of ‘fathers’ as those governed by goodness and truth, for when the Church is the subject ‘fathers’ means the ancients, that is, the Ancient Churches, which were governed by goodness and truth, 6050, 6075, 6589, 6876, 6884, 7649.

sRef Ex@13 @5 S0′ 8056. ‘A land flowing with milk and honey’ means where there is gladness and joy. This is clear from the meaning of ‘a land flowing with milk and honey’ as pleasure and delight, dealt with in 5620, 6857, and so gladness and joy. The words ‘gladness and joy’ are used because in the Word ‘gladness’ has reference to truth, and ‘joy’ to good; and pleasure and delight have similar reference. In addition ‘milk’ has reference to the truth of good, and ‘honey’ to the good of truth.

sRef Ex@13 @5 S0′ 8057. ‘That you shall keep this service in this month’ means everlasting worship of the Lord because of His deliverance. This is clear from the meaning of ‘service’ as worship, as in 7934; and from the meaning of ‘month’ as the end of the previous state and the beginning of the new one, and of ‘the month of Abib’ as the beginning from which all following states ensue, dealt with in 8053. Therefore also ‘month’ means that which is everlasting.

sRef Ex@13 @6 S0′ 8058. ‘Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread’ means purification from falsities. This is clear from the meaning of ‘seven days’ as that which implies something holy, dealt with in 395, 433, 716, 881, 5265, 5268, and as a complete state, 6508; and from the meaning of ‘eating unleavened bread’ as making truth one’s own and as purification from falsity, for ‘the unleavened’ is good purified from falsity, and ‘eating’ making one’s own, 3168, 3513, 3596, 3832, 4745. The reason why ‘the unleavened’ is good purified from falsity is that ‘bread’ means good and ‘yeast’ falsity.

sRef Ex@13 @6 S0′ 8059. ‘And on the seventh day there shall be a feast to Jehovah’ means holy worship of the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the seventh day’ as a holy state, state being meant by ‘day’, see 23, 487, 488, 493, 893, 2788, 3462, 3785, 4850, 5672, 5962, and what is holy by ‘seven’, 395, 433, 716, 881, 5265, 5268; and from the meaning of ‘a feast to Jehovah’ as worship of the Lord, worship with gladness of mind being meant by ‘a feast’, see 7093, and the Lord by ‘Jehovah’, 8046.

sRef Ex@13 @7 S0′ 8060. ‘Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days’ means that they are to be purified thoroughly from falsities. This is clear from the meaning of ‘eating unleavened bread’ as making good purified from falsities one’s own, as just above in 8058, and since the words here repeat the command they mean that the purification must be done thoroughly; and from the meaning of ‘seven days’ as that which is holy and also a complete state, dealt with above in 8058.

sRef Ex@13 @7 S0′ 8061. ‘And nothing made with yeast shall be seen among you’ means that on no account shall anything falsified be accepted, that is to say, accepted so that it may become their own, in keeping with the explanation above in 8051. That it should on no account be done is meant by the fact that the words here are a repetition.

sRef Ex@13 @7 S0′ 8062. ‘And no yeast shall be seen among you’ means that nor shall any falsity at all be accepted. This is clear from the meaning of ‘yeast’ as falsity, dealt with in 7906. The difference between something falsified, which is meant by ‘something made with yeast’, and falsity, which is meant by ‘yeast’, is that something falsified is truth used to justify evil, whereas falsity is everything that is the opposite of truth.

sRef Ex@13 @7 S0′ 8063. ‘Within all your borders’ means within the range of truth that springs from good. This is clear from the meaning of ‘borders’ as the range of truth springing from good. For every truth has its own range, which is sometimes manifested in a sphere; and because it has its own range it has its own ‘borders’. The sphere belonging to the range of truth is subject to the nature and amount of good, for good is like a flame and truth like the light from it. In the spiritual world a sphere extends to communities round about, and its range determines the range of communication there, see 6598-6613. Everyone in heaven has intelligence and wisdom, also happiness, in proportion to that extending sphere, that is, in proportion to the strength and at the same time the character of it. From this one may see what ‘in all the borders’ means in the spiritual sense, here that good must have nothing false within it. For false ideas lie outside the sphere; they begin where the truths leave off. But if they enter the sphere they are assimilated. The idea that they must not enter is meant by the words ‘nothing made with yeast shall be seen among you’ nor ‘yeast within all your borders’.

sRef Ex@13 @8 S0′ 8064. ‘And you shall tell your son on that day, saying’ means the inward perception of truth that belongs to conscience. This is clear from the explanation in 7935, where similar words occur.

sRef Ex@13 @8 S0′ 8065. ‘Because of what Jehovah did for me when I came out of Egypt’ means that they were delivered by the Lord from spiritual captivity and from damnation. This is clear from the meaning of ‘coming out’ as being delivered, and from the meaning of ‘Egypt’ as spiritual captivity and damnation, both of which meanings are dealt with above in 8049.

sRef Ex@13 @9 S0′ 8066. ‘And it shall be for you as a sign on your hand’ means that it shall be constantly in their will. This is clear from the meaning of ‘a sign’ as constant recollection (for an object serving as a sign or one serving as a memorial acts as a constant reminder; and the purpose of ‘a sign on the hand’ was that every time they moved their hand or did anything they would be reminded of it, and the purpose of ‘a memorial between the eyes’ was that every time they looked at something they would be reminded of it); and from the meaning of ‘hand’ as power, dealt with in 878, 3387, 4931-4937, 5327, 5328, 5544, 6292, 6947, 7011, 7188, 7189, 7518, 7673, here as the will because every action and the power of action exercised by the hand comes from the will.

sRef Ex@13 @9 S0′ 8067. ‘And as a memorial between your eyes’ means that it shall be constantly in their understanding. This is clear from the meaning of ‘memorial’ too as constant recollection, the word ‘memorial’ being used because it has reference in the Word to the understanding, whereas ‘sign’ has reference to the will; and from the meaning of ‘the eyes’ as the understanding, dealt with in 2701, 3820, 4403-4421, 4523-4534. This is why ‘as a memorial between the eyes’ means that it shall be constantly in their understanding, that is, their thinking.

Something brief will be said to show how one should understand the explanation that it shall be constantly in the understanding and constantly in the will. The things which have imprinted themselves on a person through faith and charity, that is, which he fully believes and loves, are constantly in his thought and will. He thinks them and wills them even when he contemplates and deals with other matters, and imagines that those things are not present in his mind at that time. For they are indeed there among other things which determine the character of his mind. The truth of this is plainly evident from the spiritual sphere surrounding a spirit or angel; for when the spirit or angel approaches, that sphere tells one immediately about his faith and about his charity, and about much more that he has at heart, even though he is not thinking about them at the time. Such are the things that constitute the life of every mind and remain constantly there. These considerations could be illustrated by very many details to be observed in a person, such as his reflections on different things, his affections, the ways to act that have been ingrained in him since early childhood, and the like, which are continually present and hold sway although he does not consciously think about them at all. It is similar with love to the neighbour, love to God, and a love of goodness and truth, and with faith. People with those kinds of love and with faith will and think them constantly; for such love and faith reside within these people, and when they do so they are said to be reigning throughout, see 6159, 6571, 7648.

sRef Ex@13 @9 S0′ 8068. ‘That the law of Jehovah may be in your mouth’ means in order that Divine Truth may be in everything coming from there. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the law of Jehovah’ as Divine Truth, dealt with in 7463; and from the meaning of ‘being in the mouth’ as in everything coming from there, that is, from the understanding and the will. For ‘in the mouth’ is in speech, and speech includes both parts of the mind, both the understanding and the will parts, the understanding being within the meaning conveyed by words and descriptions, the will within the affection that gives speech its life.

sRef Ex@13 @9 S0′ 8069. ‘For with a strong hand Jehovah has brought you out of Egypt’ means that they were delivered by Divine power. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the strong hand of Jehovah’ as the Lord’s Divine power, and from the meaning of ‘bringing out’ as delivering, both of which are dealt with above in 8050.

sRef Ex@13 @10 S0′ 8070. ‘And you shall keep this statute at the appointed time from year to year’ means that this law of order shall always hold for that state. This is clear from the meaning of ‘statute’ as a law of order, dealt with in 7884, 7995; from the meaning of ‘time’ as state, dealt with in 2625, 2788, 2837, 3254, 3356, 3404, 3827, 3938, 4814, 4882, 4901, 4916, 6110, 7381, so that ‘at the appointed time’ means in that state; and from the meaning of ‘year’ as a whole period from start to finish, dealt with in 2906, so that ‘from year to year’ means always.

sRef Ex@13 @15 S0′ sRef Ex@13 @13 S0′ sRef Ex@13 @12 S0′ sRef Ex@13 @11 S0′ sRef Ex@13 @14 S0′ sRef Ex@13 @16 S0′ 8071. Verses 11-16 And it shall be when Jehovah brings you into the land of the Canaanite, as He swore to you and your fathers, and gives it to you, that you shall make over to Jehovah all that open the womb;* and all offspring opening it among the beasts which you will have, if they are males, shall be for Jehovah.** And all that open it among the asses*** you shall redeem with a member of the flock; and if you do not redeem it you shall break its neck. And all the firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem. And it shall be when your son asks you tomorrow, saying, What is this? that you are to say to him, By strength of hand Jehovah brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of slaves. And so it was when Pharaoh hardened himself against sending us away, that Jehovah killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of man even to the firstborn of beast. Therefore I sacrifice to Jehovah all that open the womb, if they are males****; and all the firstborn of my sons I redeem. And it shall be as a sign on your hand and as frontlets between your eyes; for by strength of hand Jehovah brought us out of Egypt.

‘And it shall be when Jehovah brings you into the land of the Canaanite’ means the region of heaven occupied by those steeped in evil and falsity. ‘As He swore to you and your fathers, and gives it to you’ means which the Divine promised to those governed by goodness and truth. ‘That you shall make over to Jehovah all that open the womb’ means that faith springing from charity, which comes with regeneration, is the Lord’s. ‘And all offspring opening it among the beasts’ means all charity belonging to the new birth. ‘Which you will have, if they are males’ means which is intrinsically the truth of faith. ‘Shall be for Jehovah’ means that it is the Lord’s. ‘And all that open it among the asses you shall redeem with a member of the flock’ means that merely natural faith must not be ascribed to the Lord, but the truth of innocence present within it.

‘And if you do not redeem it you shall break its neck’ means that if the truth of innocence is not present within it, it is to be separated and cast aside. ‘And all the firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem’ means that the truths of faith are not to be ascribed to the Lord, but forms of the good of faith. ‘And it shall be when your son asks you’ means perception springing from truth that belongs to conscience. ‘Tomorrow’ means always when this takes place. ‘What is this?’ means enquiry why it is so. ‘That you are to say to him’ means the reply. ‘By strength of hand Jehovah brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of slaves’ means that by the Lord’s Divine power they were delivered from spiritual captivity. ‘And so it was when Pharaoh hardened himself against sending us away’ means when those who molested by means of falsities were obstinately determined not to let them be released. ‘That Jehovah killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt’ means that all governed by faith separated from charity were damned. ‘From the firstborn of man even to the firstborn of beast’ means the falsity, interior and exterior, belonging to separated faith. ‘Therefore I sacrifice to Jehovah all that open the womb, if they are males’ means that therefore the faith springing from charity, which belongs to the new birth, is to be ascribed to the Lord. ‘And all the firstborn of my sons I redeem’ means that the truths of faith are not to be ascribed to the Lord, but forms of the good of faith. ‘And it shall be as a sign on your hand’ means that it shall be constantly in the will. ‘And as frontlets between the eyes’ means that it shall be constantly in the understanding. ‘For by strength of hand Jehovah brought us out of Egypt’ means that they were delivered by the Lord’s Divine power.
* lit. every opening of the womb
** lit. and every opening by the offspring of beast which you will have, the males, shall be for Jehovah
*** lit. every opening by the ass
****lit. every opening of the womb, the males,

sRef Ex@13 @11 S0′ 8072. ‘And it shall be when Jehovah brings you into the land of the Canaanite’ means the region of heaven occupied by those steeped in evil and falsity. This is clear from the things mentioned above in 8054.

sRef Ex@13 @11 S0′ 8073. ‘As He swore to you and your fathers, and gives it to you’ means which the Divine promised to those governed by goodness and truth. This is clear from what has been stated above in 8055, where similar words occur.

sRef Ex@13 @12 S0′ 8074. ‘That you shall make over to Jehovah all that open the womb’ means that faith springing from charity, which comes with regeneration, is the Lord’s. This is clear from the meaning of ‘making over’ as ascribing, the same meaning that ‘sanctifying’ above in 8042, and ‘sacrificing’ belong in 8088, have; and from the meaning of ‘whatever opens the womb’ as faith springing from charity, the faith present in one who has been regenerated, dealt with above in 8042, 8043. And ‘Jehovah’ is the Lord, see 8046.

sRef Ex@13 @12 S0′ 8075. ‘And all offspring opening it among the beasts’ means all charity belonging to the new birth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘whatever opens the womb’ as faith springing from charity, which belongs to the new birth, dealt with in 8043; and from the meaning of offspring of the beasts’ as the affection for good, dealt with in 45, 46, 142, 143, 246, 714, 715, 719, 776, 1823, 2179, 2180, 3218, 3519, 5198, thus the good of charity.

sRef Ex@13 @12 S0′ 8076. ‘Which you will have, if they are males’ means which is intrinsically the truth of faith. This is clear from the meaning of ‘male’ as the truth of faith, dealt with in 2046, 4005, 7838.

sRef Ex@13 @12 S0′ 8077. ‘Shall be for Jehovah’ means that it is the Lord’s, for in the Word ‘Jehovah’ is used to mean none other than the Lord, see 1343, 1736, 2921, 3023, 3035, 5041, 5663, 6281, 6303, 6905, 6945, 6956. The contents of these two verses are not explained any further here because they have been explained already at verse 2 of the present chapter, in 8042-8045.

sRef Ex@13 @13 S0′ 8078. ‘And all that open it among the asses you shall redeem with a member of the flock’ means that merely natural faith must not be ascribed to the Lord, only the truth of innocence present within it. This is clear from the meaning of ‘that which opens’ as that which is born first in a regenerate person or is the firstborn, namely faith (it has been shown already that ‘the firstborn’ means faith); from the meaning of ‘ass’ as the natural, for ‘ass’ means factual knowledge, 5492, 5741, also subservience, 5958, 6389, and the natural as well (since factual knowledge belongs to the natural, and the natural in relation to the spiritual is subservient), so that ‘[all] that open it among the asses’ here means merely natural faith, dealt with below; from the meaning of ‘redeeming’ as giving something else instead (the fact that ‘redeeming’ has this meaning is evident from the full message implied by these words, which is that ‘you shall not make over to Jehovah one that opens it among the asses, but you shall redeem it with a member of the flock’, [2] and ‘making over to Jehovah’ means ascribing to the Lord, just as ‘sanctifying’ and ‘sacrificing’ do, see just above in 8074, so that ‘not making it over but redeeming it’ means not ascribing it but giving something else instead); and from the meaning of ‘a member of the flock’ as the truth of innocence. ‘A member of the flock’ means the truth of innocence because the expression is used to mean lamb or kid, and innocence is meant by these, 3519, 3994, 7840, at this point the truth of innocence since neither the word ‘lamb’ nor the word ‘kid’ is used, but ‘a member of the flock’. From all this it is evident that ‘all that open it among the asses you shall redeem with a member of the flock’ means that merely natural faith is not to be ascribed to the Lord, but the truth of innocence present within it.

sRef John@20 @29 S3′ [3] Merely natural faith is faith that is instilled along the outward but not the inward path. One type of it is faith that depends entirely on the senses, which exists when a person believes something to be so because he has seen it with his eye or touched it with his hand. The Lord referred to this kind of faith when He said to Thomas,

Because you have seen, Thomas, you have believed; blessed are those who do not see yet believe. John 20:29

Another type is faith induced by miracles, which exists when a person believes something to be so solely as a result of miracles; regarding this kind of faith see 7290. And another type is authoritarian faith, which exists when a person believes something to be so because another in whom he trusts has declared it.

[4] But spiritual faith is that which is instilled along the inward path at the same time as the outward one. The instilling along the inward path gives rise to belief, and what is instilled at the same time along the outward path serves to corroborate it. The spiritual element of faith is charitable affection, and consequently an affection for truth for the sake of true service and for life’s sake. These cause faith to be spiritual. Faith is instilled along the inward path when a person reads the Word and at the same time receives enlightenment from the Lord. This enlightenment is given to him in accordance with his affection, that is, in accordance with the reason he has for wishing to know the truth.

[5] These considerations now show what merely natural faith is, and that because such faith is not spiritual it cannot be ascribed to the Lord, that is, there can be no acknowledgement or belief that comes from the Lord. For the Lord flows in through the affection for truth and good; and faith is an inward affection, see 8034. The truth of innocence which can be present within that merely natural faith and can be accredited to the Lord is anything that a person believes in innocence to be true. From all this one may now see how to understand the explanation that merely natural faith must not be ascribed to the Lord, but the truth of innocence present within it.

sRef Ex@13 @13 S0′ 8079. ‘And if you do not redeem it you shall break its neck’ means that if the truth of innocence is not present within it, it is to be separated and cast aside. This is clear from the meaning of ‘not redeeming’ as not ascribing it to the Lord but giving something else instead, as immediately above in 8078; and from the meaning of ‘breaking the neck’ as separating and casting aside. The reason why ‘breaking the neck’ has this meaning is that ‘the neck’ means a joining together of interior and exterior things, 3542, 3603, 3695, 3725, 5320, 5328, 5926, 6033, so that ‘breaking the neck’ is separating and casting aside, that is to say, doing so to merely natural faith if the truth of innocence is not present within it.

sRef Ex@13 @13 S0′ 8080. ‘And all the firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem, means that the truths of faith are not to be ascribed to the Lord, but forms of the good of faith. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the firstborn’ as faith, dealt with in 352, 2435, 6344, 7035, 8042; from the meaning of ‘sons’ as truths, dealt with in 489, 491, 533, 1147, 2623, 3373; and from the meaning of ‘redeeming’ as giving something else instead, as above in 8078, 8079. The fact that those truths of faith are not to be ascribed follows from the full message that is implied by these words, And all the firstborn of man among your sons you shall not make over, that is, you shall not sacrifice, but you shall redeem’, ‘not making over’ being not ascribing, as above in 8074, 8078. From this it is evident that ‘all the firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem’ means that the truths of faith are not to be ascribed to the Lord, but something else instead. Proof that this something else is the good of faith is provided by the consideration that generally ‘the firstborn’ means the good of faith, as above in 8042, 8043. But since it speaks here about ‘the firstborn of man among his sons’, the truth of faith is meant; for there is the truth of faith and there is the good of faith.

[2] Further proof that the good of faith, which is charity, is this something else which is to be ascribed to the Lord instead of the truths of faith is provided by the fact that the firstborn of the children of Israel were not accepted but the Levites instead; and the reason for this was that ‘Levi’ represented the good of faith, or charity, 3875, 4497, 4502, 4503. With regard to the acceptance of the tribe of Levi instead of all the firstborn, see Num. 3:12, 13, 40-end; 8:16-18. Even more proof that the good of faith is the something else to be ascribed to the Lord is provided by the consideration that faith without charity is not faith, 654, 724, 1162, 1176, 2231, 2343, 2349, 2429, 2839, 2982, 3146, 3325, 3849, 3865, 4368, 5351, 7039, 7082-7084, 7342 (end), 7950, and also by the consideration that the good of faith in actual fact occupies first place, while the truth of faith merely appears to do so, 3539, 3548, 3556, 3563, 3570, 3576, 3603, 3701, 4925, 4926, 4928, 4930, 4977, 5351, 6256, 6269, 6272, 6273, so that charity is the firstborn, 3325, 3494, 4925, 4926, 4928, 4930.

[3] The reason why the truth of faith regarded in itself without the good of faith is not to be ascribed to the Lord, that is, not to be given to Him or acknowledged to come from Him, is that no truth of faith has any life within it until it becomes the good of faith; and the truth of faith becomes the good of faith through the willing and doing of it, 7835. When therefore it becomes the good of faith it is acknowledged by the Lord as being His, for the Lord imparts faith indirectly through the good of faith. Every truth of faith too that a member of the spiritual Church possesses becomes the good of faith when he is regenerated. Not till then does it become the Lord’s.

sRef Luke@2 @24 S4′ sRef Luke@2 @22 S4′ sRef Luke@2 @23 S4′ [4] The law regarding the redemption of the firstborn of man was laid down to prevent them from sacrificing their sons, a practice that had come into use among gentiles with whom statutes of the Ancient Church – which was a representative Church – remained in force, but in a form that had been completely adulterated in the course of time. The consecration of the firstborn to God was one of those statutes of the Ancient Church; but by consecration they began to understand sacrifice. The descendants of Jacob leaned likewise towards the same practice, and therefore that law of redemption was marked out for them. And to prevent them from following that practice the Levites were adopted instead of the firstborn, as has been stated. The law was marked out in keeping with its corresponding meaning in the spiritual world, which is that the truths of faith are not holy, thus that these are not to be consecrated or ascribed to the Lord but forms of the good of faith. Later on that consecration to Him was taken to mean that they were to give or present the firstborn to Jehovah, and to offer a sacrifice for him, as the following stated in Luke shows,

When the days of their purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Jesus to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord (as it has been written in the Law of the Lord, that every male opening the womb should be called holy to the Lord) and to offer a sacrifice. Luke 2:22-24.

sRef Ex@13 @14 S0′ 8081. ‘And it shall be when your son asks you’ means perception springing from truth that belongs to conscience. This is clear from the meaning of ‘asking’ as knowledge gained by perception, dealt with in 5597, 5800, 6250; and from the meaning of ‘son’ as truth, dealt with in 489, 491, 533, 1147, 2623, 3373. The fact that perception springing from truth that belongs to conscience is meant is evident from the explanation in 7935, where similar words occur. The expression ‘springing from truth that belongs to conscience’ is used because the conscience of members of the spiritual Church is a conscience composed of truth; for it is acquired from the things taught by the Church which are believed to be truths, whether they are in fact truths or not. But they become matters of conscience when they also become matters of life.

sRef Ex@13 @14 S0′ 8082. ‘Tomorrow’ means always when this takes place. This is clear from the meaning of ‘tomorrow’ as what is eternal, dealt with in 3998, and so perpetually or always, at this point always when this takes place.

sRef Ex@13 @14 S0′ 8083. ‘What is this?’ means enquiry why it is so, and ‘that you are to say to him’ means the reply. This is clear without explanation.

sRef Ex@13 @14 S0′ 8084. ‘By strength of hand Jehovah brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of slaves’ means that by the Lord’s Divine power they were delivered from spiritual captivity. This is clear from what has been stated above in 8049, 8050.

sRef Ex@13 @15 S0′ 8085. ‘And so it was when Pharaoh hardened himself against sending us away’ means when those who molested by means of falsities were obstinately determined not to let them be released. This is clear from the meaning of ‘hardening oneself’ as being obstinately determined, dealt with in 7272, 7300, 7305; from the representation of ‘Pharaoh’ as those who molested by means of falsities, dealt with in 7107, 7110, 7126, 7142, 7220, 7228, 7317; and from the meaning of ‘sending away’ as releasing.

sRef Ex@13 @15 S0′ 8086. ‘That Jehovah killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt’ means that all governed by faith separated from charity were damned. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the firstborn of Egypt’ as faith separated from charity, dealt with in 7039, 7797; as for the death of the firstborn, that it means the damnation of those who are governed by that faith and lead a life of evil, see 7766, 7778.

sRef Ex@13 @15 S0′ 8087. ‘From the firstborn of man even to the firstborn of beast’ means the falsity, interior and exterior, belonging to separated faith. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the firstborn of Egypt’ as faith separated from charity, as immediately above in 8086, and so falsity belonging to faith, for those who separate faith from charity both in doctrine and in life are inescapably subject to falsity since the evil that pervades their life is constantly active, pressing falsity into agreement with itself (or if truth presents itself that evil then misapplies it and thereby brings it into agreement with itself, thus falsifies it); and from the meaning of ‘man and beast’ as what is interior and what is exterior, dealt with in 4724, 7523.

sRef Ex@13 @15 S0′ 8088. ‘Therefore I sacrifice to Jehovah all that open the womb, if they are males’ means that therefore the faith springing from charity, which belongs to the new birth, is to be ascribed to the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of ‘sacrificing to Jehovah’ as ascribing to the Lord (‘sacrificing’ here has a meaning similar to that which ‘sanctify’ has in verse 2 of this chapter, and ‘making over to’ in verse 12, for ‘sanctifying to Jehovah’ means ascribing to the Lord, see 8042 and so too does ‘making over to Him’, 8074; ‘ascribing’ is used to mean refusing to claim something as one’s own, and confessing and acknowledging that it comes from the Lord); from the meaning of ‘whatever opens the womb’ as matters of faith springing from charity, dealt with in 8043 (for evidence that they belong to the new birth, see above in 8042); and from the meaning of ‘male’ as the truth of faith, dealt with in 2026, 4005, 7838.

sRef Ex@13 @15 S0′ 8089. ‘And all the firstborn of my sons I redeem’ means that the truths of faith are not to be ascribed to the Lord, but forms of the good of faith. This is clear from the explanation above in 8080, where similar words occur.

sRef Ex@13 @16 S0′ 8090. ‘And it shall be as a sign on your hand’ means that it shall be constantly in the will; ‘and as frontlets between the eyes’ means that it shall be constantly in the understanding; and ‘for by strength of hand Jehovah brought us out of Egypt’ means that they were delivered by the Lord’s Divine power. These meanings are clear from the explanations at verse 9 of this chapter, where similar words occur, which are dealt with in 8066, 8067, 8069.

sRef Ex@13 @17 S0′ sRef Ex@13 @18 S0′ 8091. Verses 17, 18 And so it was when Pharaoh sent the people away, that God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, although* that was near; for God said, Perhaps the people will change their minds when they see war, and will return to Egypt. And God led the people around by the way of the wilderness, the Sea Suph. And the children of Israel went up equipped for battle, out of the land of Egypt.

‘And so it was when Pharaoh sent the people away’ means when those who molested left those belonging to the spiritual Church. ‘That God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines’ means that the Divine saw to it that they should not pass on to the truth of faith that does not spring from good. ‘Although that was near’ means that this is the first to present itself. ‘For God said’ means Divine foresight. ‘Perhaps the people will change their minds when they see war’ means that they will fall away from the truth as a result of attacks. ‘And may return to Egypt’ means a consequent relapse into falsities which are entirely opposed to the truths and forms of the good of faith. ‘And God led the people around by the way of the wilderness’ means that under Divine guidance they were led by means of temptations to firm acceptance of the truths and forms of the good of faith. ‘The Sea Suph’ means the damnation which they first had to pass through. ‘And the children of Israel went up equipped for battle, out of the land of Egypt’ means that they had been released from the state in which they underwent molestations and so had been made ready to suffer temptations.
* lit. because

sRef Ex@13 @17 S0′ 8092. ‘And so it was when Pharaoh sent the people away’ means when those who molested left those belonging to the spiritual Church. This is clear from the meaning of ‘sending away’ as leaving; from the representation of ‘Pharaoh’ as those who molested by means of falsities, dealt with in 7107, 7110, 7126, 7142, 7220, 7228, 7317; and from the meaning of the children of Israel, who are ‘the people’ here, as those who belong to the spiritual Church, dealt with above in 8044.

sRef Ex@13 @17 S0′ 8093. ‘That God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines’ means that the Divine saw to it that they should not pass on to the truth of faith that does not spring from good. This is clear from the meaning of ‘God did not lead them by the way’ as the Divine saw to it that they should not pass on to, for ‘leading’, when done by God, means providence, and ‘the way’ means truth, 627, 2333, in this instance passing on to it; and from the representation of ‘the Philistines’ as those who have a knowledge of the cognitions of faith but do not lead a life of charity, dealt with in 1197, 1198, 3412, 3413, thus those who possess the truth of faith that does not spring from good. The fact that ‘the Philistines’ and ‘the land of the Philistines’ have this meaning may be recognized from places in the Word where they are mentioned, in particular in Jeremiah 47:1-end, where they are described, also in Joel 3:5, 6, as well as from the historical accounts in the Word referring to wars between the children of Israel and the Philistines, to the subjection of the children of Israel by the Philistines and then of the Philistines by the children of Israel. By ‘the Philistines’ in these places those who champion separated faith are represented, that is, people for whom the knowledge of cognitions of faith is all-important but not a life led in accordance with that knowledge, consequently people who teach and believe that a person is saved by faith alone.

[2] This particular belief about faith alone or separated faith is not new or something that belongs solely to the present time. It had come to exist in the ancient Churches, growing ever stronger along with evil in life. It is also described in various places in the Word, but by means of names, by Cain’ first, in that he killed his brother Abel, 337, 340, 1179. In the internal representative sense of that story ‘Cain’ is that kind of faith, while ‘Abel’ is charity. Such faith is also described by ‘Ham’, when cursed by his father, 1062, 1063; after that by ‘Reuben’, in that he went up to his father’s bed, 3870, 4601, and by ‘Simeon and Levi’, in that they killed Hamor and the men of Shechem and were for that reason cursed by their father, 3870, 6352. That faith is also described by ‘the Egyptians’ and by ‘their firstborn’, in that the latter were killed, 7766, 7778, and the former drowned in the Sea Suph. It is described too by ‘the Philistines’, 3412, 3413, and also by ‘Tyre and Sidon’, in various places in the Prophets; there a knowledge of the cognitions of faith is meant by ‘the Philistines’, and the cognitions themselves, interior and exterior, by ‘Tyre and Sidon’. Lastly such faith is represented by ‘Peter’ when he denied the Lord three times, 6000, 6073(end). But see what has been shown already regarding this faith, in 36, 379, 389, 916, 1017, 1076, 1077, 1162, 1176, 1798, 1799, 1834, 1844, 2049, 2116, 2228, 2231, 2261, 2343, 2349, 2364, 2383, 2385, 2401, 2435, 2982, 3146, 3242, 3325, 3412, 3413, 3416, 3427, 3773, 4663, 4672, 4673, 4683, 4721, 4730, 4766, 4783, 4925, 5351, 5820, 5826, 6269, 6272, 6273, 6348, 6353, 7039, 7097, 7127, 7317, 7502, 7545, 7623-7627, 7724, 7779, 7790, 7950.

sRef Ex@13 @17 S0′ 8094. ‘Although that was near’ means that this is the first to present itself. This is clear from the meaning of ‘being near’, when said in reference to separated faith, as the fact that it is the first to present itself. A brief statement needs to be made about how one should understand this explanation, that the particular belief regarding separated faith or faith alone is the first to present itself. Evil in life is accompanied by its own falsity, and a person subject to evil in life has this falsity hidden away inside himself. Sometimes he does not even know that it is there. But the moment he thinks about the Church’s truths, and in particular about salvation, that falsity emerges and reveals itself; and if he is unable to deny the truth itself, the general aspects of it, he explains it in a way to suit his evil, and in so doing falsifies it. When therefore he thinks about faith and charity, which are the indispensable elements of the Church and of salvation, faith instantly presents itself, but not charity since this is opposed to evil in life. As a consequence too he sets aside charity and gives preference to faith alone. From this it is evident that the truths of faith are ‘near’, but not forms of the good of faith; that is, those truths are the first to present themselves, but not these forms of good.

[2] From this incorrect and false starting-point many more ideas that are false and incorrect then follow, such as the ideas that good works contribute nothing to salvation; that a person’s life does not follow him after death; that a person is then saved by mercy alone through faith, irrespective of the life he has been leading in the world; that the worst criminal is saved through faith in the final hour of his life; and that evils are wiped away in an instant. These and others like them are the ideas that enter human thought and establish themselves from that false starting-point; they extend from it in a continuous chain. But the way in which these ideas are seen would be altogether different if charity and life were the starting-point.

sRef Ex@13 @17 S0′ 8095. ‘For God said’ means Divine foresight. This is clear from the meaning of ‘God said’, when used in reference to things to come, as Divine foresight, as also in 5361, 6946.

sRef Ex@13 @17 S0′ 8096. ‘Perhaps the people will change their minds when they see war’ means that they will fall away from the truth as a result of attacks. This is clear from the meaning of ‘changing one’s mind’ as falling away from the truth, dealt with below; and from the meaning of ‘war’ as spiritual conflicts, dealt with in 1664, 1788, 2686, and so as attacks. The reason why ‘changing one’s mind’ means falling away from the truth is that the departure of the children of Israel from Egypt, their stay in the wilderness, and their introduction into the land of Canaan mean that they were being led constantly to good, and so to heaven. So it is that changing one’s mind and returning to Egypt means moving away from good and so falling away from the truth; for ‘Egypt’ or ‘the Egyptians’ means those who are governed by faith separated from charity and are opposed to the Church’s truths, 6692, 7039, 7097, 7317, 7766, 7926.

[2] With regard to attacks from those governed by the truth of faith which does not spring from good, that is, those meant by ‘the Philistines’, it should be recognized that in the next life they molest the upright and constantly make attacks on the good of faith, which is charity. For they take with them into the next life the basic ideas they adopted in the world, and they retain them until they have undergone vastation, that is, been deprived of all their knowledge of the cognitions of faith, and have been sent down to hell. At the present day there is a great number of spirits such as these; and they live out in front on the right, on a level below the soles of the feet. The place where they live is a sort of city. I have been allowed many times to speak to spirits from there, and to listen to their reasonings in favour of faith alone, which are sharp, and their attacks on charity, which are persistent. These then are the things which are meant in the internal sense when it says that the people were not led by the way of the land of the Philistines, and that if they were they would perhaps change their minds when they saw war.

sRef Ex@13 @17 S0′ 8097. ‘And may return to Egypt’ means a consequent relapse into falsities which are entirely opposed to the truths and forms of the good of faith. This is clear from the meaning of ‘Egypt’ as things opposed to the truths and forms of the good of faith, 6692, 7039, 7097, 7317, 7766, 7926. The fact that returning to that place means relapsing into falsities is self-evident.

sRef Deut@8 @16 S0′ sRef Ex@13 @18 S0′ sRef Deut@8 @2 S0′ 8098. ‘And God led the people around by the way of the wilderness’ means that under Divine guidance they were led by means of temptations to a firm acceptance of the truths and forms of the good of faith. This is clear from the meaning of ‘God led’ as providence, as above in 8093, or what amounts to the same thing, as Divine guidance; and from the meaning of ‘by the way of the wilderness’ as a way that leads people to undergo temptations and so to reach a firm acceptance of the truths and forms of the good of faith since temptations are the means by which they become firmly accepted. ‘The wilderness’ means a place which is uninhabited and uncultivated, dealt with in 2708, in the spiritual sense a situation in which there is no good or truth, and also a situation in which truth has not yet been bonded to good. That being so, ‘the wilderness’ means the state of those with whom the two are to be bonded together; but since the bonding is not accomplished except by means of temptations, these also are meant. Temptations are meant when the number forty is included, which can be forty years, forty months, or forty days. For ‘forty’ means temptations and their duration, however long that may be, 730, 862, 2272, 2273. These things are meant by the travels of the children of Israel in the wilderness for forty years; the temptations they underwent are also described. The fact that they were led into the wilderness to undergo temptations and in so doing to represent them is evident from the following words in Moses,

You shall remember all the way in which Jehovah your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order that He might afflict you, in order that He might tempt you, in order that He might know what is in your heart. He fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, in order that He might afflict you, in order that He might tempt you, to do good to you in your descendants. Deut. 8:2, 16.

Because ‘forty’ meant temptations and their durations, and ‘the wilderness’ meant the states of people undergoing them, the Lord too, when He was tempted, went out into the wilderness and was there for forty days, Matt. 4:1, 2, and following verses; Luke 4:1, 2, and following verses; Mark 1:12, 13.

sRef Ex@13 @18 S0′ 8099. ‘The Sea Suph’ means the damnation which they first had to pass through. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the Sea Suph’ as the hell where those spirits are who are governed by faith separated from charity and lead a life of evil; and since ‘the Sea Suph’ means hell it also means damnation. The reason why they first had to pass through damnation is this: There were people belonging to the spiritual Church who were held back on the lower earth until the Lord’s Coming, where they were molested by those governed by faith separated from charity. These have been the subject in the preceding chapters. When those people were delivered from that place they were not raised to heaven immediately. Before this they were led into a second state – a state of purification, which is a state of temptations. For truths and forms of the good of faith can be neither firmly accepted nor bonded together without temptations; and until these had been firmly accepted and bonded together those people could not be raised into heaven. These things were represented by the children of Israel, by their not being led straightaway into the land of Canaan but living first in the wilderness, where they remained for forty years, undergoing various temptations, which are described in the books of Moses.

[2] In regard to this matter, that they first passed through the Sea Suph, which means the hell of those who are governed by separated faith and lead an evil life, thus that they first passed through the middle of damnation, it should be recognized that this hell is situated deep down out in front beneath the adulterers’ hells, stretching rather widely towards the left. It is separated from the adulterers’ hells by waters like those of the sea on the right there, but higher up, is the place where those governed by the truth of faith but not by the good of faith are gathered – those meant by ‘the Philistines’, who are referred to just above in 8096. But the lower earth, the region where those who suffer molestation are, is beneath the soles of the feet, slightly out in front. Those who are delivered from molestation are not led towards the right since the ones meant by the Philistines are there. Instead they are led towards the left, through the midst of the hell that has been mentioned and they come out on the left, where there is a kind of wilderness. I have been allowed on two occasions to see that this is the way which they pass through when rescued from molestations. As they pass through they are protected by the Lord in such a way that nothing bad at all can touch them, let alone any damnation. For they are encompassed by a pillar of angels with whom the Lord is present. sRef Isa@51 @9 S3′ sRef Isa@51 @10 S3′ [3] This is represented by the passage of the children of Israel through the Sea Suph. Such was also meant by the following in Isaiah,

Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of Jehovah. Were You not that which dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, which made the deep places of the sea a road, in order that the redeemed might pass through? Isa. 51:9, 10.

‘The arm of Jehovah’ is the Lord’s Divine Human. ‘The waters of the great deep’ and ‘the depths of the sea’ are the hell in which those live who are governed by faith separated from charity and lead a life of evil. The waters like those of the sea beneath which they live are falsities; for in the next life falsities appear as thick, dark clouds, and also as deluges of water, 739, 4423, 7307. The redeemed who were to pass through them are those whom the Lord has delivered.

sRef Isa@63 @11 S4′ [4] In the same prophet,

Jehovah remembered the days of old, Moses, [and] His people, [saying,] Where is He who caused them to come up out of the sea with the shepherd of His flock? Where is He who put the spirit of His holiness in the midst of them? Isa. 63:11.

In this prophetic utterance ‘Moses’ is used to mean the Lord, who is also ‘the shepherd of the flock’. ‘The people whom He caused to come up out of the sea’ are those who were delivered from damnation. In Jeremiah,

At the noise of their fall the earth shook; [as for their] cry, the noise of it was heard in the Sea Suph. Jer. 49:21.

‘The Sea Suph’ stands for hell, for Edom and its damnation is the subject there. It says that the noise of it was heard coming out of the Sea Suph, when yet they were not the ones who were drowned in that sea but the Egyptians. From this it is evident that ‘the Sea Suph’ means hell and damnation ‘Edom’ there means those who are led by the evil of self-love to reject the truths taught by doctrine and to embrace falsities, 3322.

From all this one may now see what is meant in the representative internal sense by ‘the sea Suph’, and what is meant by the passage through it of the children of Israel and the drowning in it of the Egyptians, events described in the next chapter.

sRef Ex@13 @18 S0′ 8100. ‘And the children of Israel went up equipped for battle, out of the land of Egypt’ means that they had been released from the state in which they underwent molestations and so had been made ready to suffer temptations. This is clear from the meaning of ‘going up equipped for battle’ as their being made ready, at this point to suffer temptations (for they were led through the Sea Suph into the wilderness, and ‘the wilderness’ is a state in which people undergo temptations, see above in 8098); from the representation of ‘the children of Israel’ as those who belong to the spiritual Church, dealt with often; and from the meaning of ‘the land of Egypt’ as a state of molestations, dealt with in 7278, so that ‘going up out of the land’ means being released or delivered. From all this it is evident that ‘the children of Israel went up equipped for battle, out of the land of Egypt’ means that they had been released from the state in which they underwent molestations and so had been made ready to suffer temptations. For the difference between temptations and molestations, see 7474.

sRef Ex@13 @19 S0′ 8101. Verse 19 And Moses took Joseph’s bones with him, for he had made the children of Israel swear solemnly, saying, God will certainly visit you, and you shall cause my bones to go up from here with you.

‘And Moses took Joseph’s bones with him’ means a representative of the Church which existed among them. ‘For he had made the children of Israel swear solemnly, saying’ means an obligation. ‘God will certainly visit you’ means since the end of one period of the Church and the beginning of the next is about to come. ‘And you shall cause my bones to go up from here with you’ means, as above, a representative of the Church among them but not a Church which also exists on an internal level.

sRef Ex@13 @21 S0′ sRef Ex@13 @20 S0′ sRef Ex@13 @22 S0′ 8102. Further explanation of these matters can be dispensed with since they have been explained before, at Gen. 50:24, 25, where similar words occur, see 6590, 6592.

8102a Verses 20-22 And they travelled from Succoth and encamped in Etham, on the edge of the wilderness. And Jehovah went before them during the daytime in a pillar of cloud to lead them [along] the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and by night. The pillar of cloud during the daytime and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.

‘And they travelled from Succoth and encamped in Etham’ means the second state after they were delivered. ‘On the edge of the wilderness’ means the first state of temptations. ‘And Jehovah went before them’ means the Lord’s constant presence. ‘During the daytime in a pillar of cloud’ means that when there was a state of enlightenment, this was moderated by a dimming of truth. ‘To lead them [along] the way’ means Divine guidance. ‘And by night in a pillar of fire to give them light’ means that when there was a state of dimness, this was moderated by enlightenment from good. ‘So as to go by day and by night’ means thus life in both states. ‘The pillar of cloud during the daytime and the pillar of fire by night, did not depart from before the people’ means the Lord’s presence, that it was unceasing.

sRef Ex@13 @20 S0′ 8103. ‘And they travelled from Succoth and encamped in Etham’ means the second state after they were delivered. This is clear from the consideration that the travels and encampments of the children of Israel after they had departed from Egypt mean the spiritual states of those delivered by the Lord, who have been the subject above. A change of state is meant by each journey from one place to another, and by each stopping-place. The second state is meant here by travelling from Succoth to Etham, since the first state was meant by travelling from Rameses to Succoth, 7972. Also by ‘travels’ in the internal sense of the Word states and established patterns of life are meant, 1293, 3335, 5605, and arrangements of truth and good which have to do with life by ‘encampments’, 4236.

sRef Ex@13 @20 S0′ 8104. ‘On the edge of the wilderness’ means the first state of temptations. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the wilderness’ as a state for undergoing temptations, dealt with above in 8098; and since that state begins ‘on the edge of the wilderness’, the first state is therefore meant by ‘the edge of the wilderness’.

sRef Ex@13 @21 S0′ 8105. ‘And Jehovah went before them’ means the Lord’s constant presence. This is clear without explanation. That Jehovah’ means the Lord, see above in 8046.

sRef Ex@13 @21 S0′ 8106. ‘During the daytime in a pillar of cloud’ means that when there was a state of enlightenment, this was moderated by a dimming of truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘during the daytime’ or ‘in the day’ as in a state of enlightenment, for the times of day – morning, midday, evening, and night – correspond to degrees of enlightenment in the next life, that is, of intelligence and wisdom, 5672, 5962, 6110, so that ‘the day’ is a state of enlightenment or clear perception, and ‘the night’ a state of unenlightenment or dimmed perception, 7680; and from the meaning of ‘cloud’ as a dimming of truth, since a cloud takes away the brilliance of the light from the sun and also moderates it.

sRef Matt@24 @30 S2′ [2] Various places in the Word say that Jehovah appeared in a cloud, that He was clothed with a cloud, or that ‘clouds were under His feet’. In those places ‘cloud’ is used to mean a dimming of truth; in particular the literal sense of the Word is meant, for in comparison with the internal sense the literal sense is a dimmed presentation of truth, see the Preface to Genesis 18, and also 4391, 5922, 6343, 6752. This was meant by ‘the cloud’ when the Lord appeared in glory to Peter, James, and John, Luke 9:34; when He appeared to the people from Mount Sinai, and to Moses when he went in to Him there, Exod. 19:9; 20:21; 24:15-18; 34:5. The same was also meant by what the Lord declared so many times, that He would come in the clouds of heaven, Matt. 24:30; 26:63, 64; Mark 13:26; 14:61, 62; Luke 21:27.

[3] The literal sense of the Word is called ‘a cloud’ because the internal sense, which is called ‘the glory’, cannot be understood by anyone unless he has been regenerated and therefore enlightened. If the internal sense of the Word, or God’s truth in its glory, were to appear in front of someone who has not been regenerated it would be like thick darkness in which he would see absolutely nothing, and also would leave him blind, that is, with no belief at all.

From all this one may see what the description ‘a cloud during the daytime’ means, namely a dimming of truth and, when it has reference to the Word, the literal sense. [4] The expressions ‘in a pillar of cloud’ and ‘in a pillar of fire’ are used because ‘a pillar’ means a load-bearing support, as in Jer. 1:18; Ps. 75:3; Rev. 3:12; Job 9:6; and it is used to refer to the natural level, since the natural level is a kind of support or pedestal for the spiritual level. For the spiritual level terminates at the natural level and rests on it. This explains why the feet of an angel coming down from heaven looked like pillars of fire, Rev. 10:1; for the natural level is meant by ‘feet’, 2162, 3147, 3761, 3986, 4280, 4938-4952, 5327, 5328.

sRef Ex@13 @21 S0′ 8107. ‘To lead them [along] the way’ means Divine guidance. This is clear from the meaning of ‘leading [along] the way’, when said of Jehovah, as providence and Divine guidance, dealt with in 8093, 8098.

sRef Ex@13 @21 S0′ 8108. ‘And by night in a pillar of fire to give them light’ means that when there was a state of dimness, this was moderated by enlightenment from good. This is clear from the meaning of ‘night’ as a state of obscurity or dimness, dealt with in 1712, 6000; from the meaning of ‘fire’ as the good of love, dealt with in 934, 4906, 5215, 6314, 6832, 6834, 6849, 7324, 7852; and from the meaning of ‘giving light’ as enlightenment. The reason why Jehovah or the Lord appeared or led the way in a pillar of cloud during the daytime and in a pillar of fire by night was that the state of heaven was represented thereby. In heaven variations and changes of state occur unceasingly; for angels are being perfected constantly, and without unceasing changes of states this perfecting could not possibly take place. In general those variations and changes are like the cyclic changes in the world – like the round of yearly seasons, which are spring, summer, autumn, winter, and spring again, and like the round of times of day, which are morning, midday, evening, night, and morning again. Morning and midday in heaven occurs when the understanding is being enlightened by the Lord; but in this state the light is moderated by a dimming of truth, as if by a cloud. And evening and night there occur when the understanding grows dim; but the Lord moderates that dimness by means of the good of love, as if by means of a fire giving light. These provisions by the Lord are what were represented by the pillar of cloud during the daytime, and the pillar of fire by night, present with the children of Israel in the wilderness.

sRef Ex@13 @21 S0′ 8109. ‘So as to go by day and by night’ means life in both states. This is clear from the meaning of ‘going’ and ‘travelling’ as life, dealt with in 3335, 3690, 4882, 5493, 5605; and from the meaning of ‘day’ as a state of enlightenment and ‘night’ as a state of dimness, dealt with immediately above in 8106, 8108, thus both states.

sRef Ex@13 @22 S0′ 8110. ‘The pillar of cloud during the daytime and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people’ means the Lord’s presence, that it was unceasing. This is clear from the things that have just been explained; for this was the way that the angels, with the Lord in their midst, appeared before the people.

8111. SPIRITS AND INHABITANTS OF THE PLANET JUPITER – continued

By mixing for a long time with spirits belonging to the planet Jupiter I came to see that they were more upright than spirits belonging to very many other planets. The manner of their approach whenever they came to me, their stay, and their influence then were so gentle and sweet as to be beyond description; for uprightness reveals itself in the next life as gentleness and sweetness. The gentleness and sweetness of these spirits were very plainly distinguishable from the same virtues in good spirits belonging to our planet.

8112. When any small division of opinion occurs among those spirits they see a thin bright flash like a streak of lightning, or else they see a belt of sparkling stars. These are signs indicating division; but the division among them is quickly healed. Sparkling stars which wander are not a good sign, whereas stars sparkling but motionless are a good sign.

8113. I was able to recognize that spirits belonging to Jupiter were present, not only from their gentleness and sweetness as they made their approach and when they exerted an influence but also from the fact that their influence was directed mainly onto my face. They made it smiling and cheerful and kept it like that while they were present. I was told that they made the faces of inhabitants on their planet like that, for they wish to instill calm and delight into their hearts. When they instilled that calm and delight into me I felt it filling my chest and heart; at the same time those desires and anxious cares about things to come which lead to the absence of peace and joy, disturbing the mind and creating all kinds of turmoil there, were removed. This made clear to me what the life of the inhabitants of the planet Jupiter was like. Those spirits told me that their people have no fear of death, except for the little they have over the loss of husband or wife and of children. They have no fear of it because they know for certain that the death of the body is a continuation of life, and that subsequently they become all the happier.

8114. I could see that they enjoyed a state of happiness even more internal, and that they were capable of accepting a state of happiness still more internal than that. It is seen in the fact that their interiors are not closed but opened in the Lord’s direction; for the more opened interiors are, the more they are capable of accepting Divine Good and Divine happiness. It is altogether different with those whose lives do not conform to the order of heaven. Their interiors are closed and their exteriors opened in the direction of hell, from which flow feelings of contempt for others, hatred, vengeance, and cruelty, which they delight to vent against those who do not defer to them or fall in with their wishes.

8115. Spirits belonging to the planet Jupiter cannot remain together with spirits belonging to our planet because the latter have a completely different disposition and have no liking for the delightful atmosphere that goes with the calm like theirs. They were astonished when they heard that people from our planet who become angels are altogether different in heart, retaining scarcely anything that resembles their state when they were spirits. To let them know that this was so groups or choirs of angels who had lived on our planet came, one choir after another. (A choir exists when a considerable number group together, thinking, speaking, and acting as one in continuous progression. In heaven praise to the Lord is offered in most instances by choirs. Regarding choirs, see 1648, 1649, 2595, 2596, 3350, 5182.) Those choirs gave the spirits belonging to Jupiter who were present with me so much pleasure that it seemed to them as though they were caught up to heaven. The glorification by the choirs lasted for a whole hour or thereabouts. The delight which the choirs gave those spirits was transmitted to me to experience for myself. They said that they would tell their companions who were elsewhere about it.

8116. They declared that the region of the planet where they had lived was inhabited by a large multitude of people, as large as the planet could feed, and that it was fertile, producing an abundance of everything. They also declared that the inhabitants there desired nothing in excess of the necessities of life, and that this was why the multitude of people was so large.

8117. They went on to declare that people there are divided up into clans or nations, families, and households, and that all live separately in their own groups, mixing for the most part among relatives. They said too that no one ever covets another person’s goods, and that it does not enter anyone’s head to lay claim to any of them, let alone to come in and rob him of it. They regard that as a crime against human nature and a horrible deed. When I wanted to tell them that on our planet wars pillaging, and killing take place they turned away and refused to listen.

8118. Angels have told me that the most ancients on our planet lived in similar groupings, divided up into nations, families, and households. All were content with their goods; and it was totally unknown in their day for people to grow rich on others’ goods and also to exercise control over others. Ancient times therefore, and especially the most ancient times, were more acceptable to the Lord than those which followed. And since that kind of state existed innocence also reigned at that time, and wisdom with it. Everyone did good out of a desire for good, and behaved righteously out of a desire for righteousness. Doing anything good and righteous for the sake of one’s own position or for the sake of gain was unknown to them. Nor did they speak anything other than the truth which they were led to do not by a desire for truth but for good, that is, not by an understanding separated from the will but by a will linked to the understanding. This is what the ancient times were like, and therefore angels were able to mix with men. They were able to carry a person’s mind, virtually separated from bodily connections, up into heaven with them to lead him around and show him the magnificent and happy sights there, as well as to share their own happiness and delight with them. These times were also well known to ancient authors, who called them the Golden Age as well as the Saturnian.

[2] The reason why those times were such was, as has been stated, that people lived divided up into nations, nations into families, and families into households; and each household lived by itself. It did not enter anyone’s head to encroach on another’s inheritance and thereby to acquire wealth and control. Self-love and love of the world were far from them then. Each person rejoiced in his heart in his own well-being, and no less in that of another.

[3] But this scene was changed. In course of time it turned into the opposite, when people’s minds were taken over by the desire to control others and possess their goods. For its own protection the human race was then gathered into kingdoms and empires. And because the laws of charity and conscience which had been inscribed on people’s hearts ceased to exist, it was necessary to produce laws that would curb acts of violence, laws that rewarded people by giving them position and gain or punished them by withdrawing the same things. When the human condition changed in this way heaven moved away from mankind; it has retreated further and further, until the present centuries, when no one knows any longer whether heaven really exists, and therefore whether hell does. Indeed there is a denial of their existence. These details have been mentioned in order that a parallel situation may serve to cast some light on the state of those on the planet Jupiter, on the source of their uprightness, and also their wisdom, about which much more will be said further on.

8119. ‘Spirits and inhabitants of the planet Jupiter’ is continued at the end of the next chapter.

8120. TEACHINGS ABOUT CHARITY

Charity towards the neighbour is thought to consist in giving to the poor, helping a person in need, and doing good to everyone. But genuine charity involves acting circumspectly and with the end in view that good may result. Anybody who gives help to some poor or needy person who is a wrong-doer does ill to the neighbour through him, for through the help he gives that wrong-doer he strengthens him in evil and supplies him the wherewithal to do ill to others. It is different with one who supplies help to the good.

8121. But charity towards the neighbour is far wider in scope than helping the poor and needy. Charity towards the neighbour involves doing what is right in every task, and doing what is required in any official position. If a judge administers justice for the sake of justice he exercises charity towards the neighbour; and if he punishes the guilty and acquits the innocent he exercises charity towards the neighbour. For in so doing he shows concern for his fellow citizen; he shows concern for his country, and also for the Lord’s kingdom. He shows concern for the Lord’s kingdom in his administration of justice for the sake of justice, he shows concern for his fellow citizen in his acquittal of the innocent, and he shows concern for his country in his punishment of the guilty. The priest who teaches truth and leads to good for the sake of truth and good exercises charity; but the one who does so for selfish and worldly reasons does not exercise charity because he does not love his neighbour, only himself.

8122. The same applies to all other people, both to those who have an occupation and to those who do not. It applies to children’s behaviour towards parents, and parents’ behaviour towards children; servants’ behaviour towards masters, and masters’ behaviour towards servants; subjects’ behaviour towards a monarch, and a monarch’s behaviour towards citizens. Whoever among them does his duty for duty’s sake, and what is just for its own sake, exercises charity.

8123. The reason why these are acts of charity towards the neighbour is that each individual person is the neighbour. though each in a different way from others, 6818; the community whether small or large is in a greater degree the neighbour, 6819, 6820; one’s country is in an even greater degree the neighbour, 6819, 6821; the Church in a still greater degree, 6819, 6822; the Lord’s kingdom in a yet greater degree, 6819, 6823; and the Lord above all, 6819, 6824. In an overall sense good emanating from the Lord is the neighbour, 6706, 6711, consequently also what is just and right. Therefore a person who does any kind of good for the sake of good, and what is just for its own sake, loves the neighbour and exercises charity, for he acts from a love of good and from a love of what is just, and so from a love of those things in which goodness and justice reside. But a person who acts unjustly for the sake of any kind of gain hates the neighbour.

8124. With a person who is governed by charity towards the neighbour that is kindled by inward affection, charity towards the neighbour exists in every detail of his thought and speech, and of his will and actions. The interiors of a person or of an angel, when good is his neighbour, can be called charity. So wide is the scope of charity towards the neighbour.

EXODUS 14

1 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,

2 Speak to the children of Israel, and let them turn back and encamp before Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, before Baal Zephon; over against it you are to encamp, close to the sea.

3 And Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are enmeshed in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.

4 And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them, and I will be glorified in Pharaoh and in all his army; and the Egyptians will know that I am Jehovah. And they did so.

5 And it was pointed out to the king of Egypt that the people had fled; _ and the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people, and they said, What is this we have done, that we have sent Israel away from serving us?

6 And he harnessed his chariot, and took his people with him.

7 And he took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt; and there were tertiary commanders over them all.*

8 And Jehovah hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the children of Israel; and the children of Israel went out with a lofty hand.

9 And the Egyptians pursued them; and they overtook them encamping close to the sea – all Pharaoh’s chariot-horses, and his horsemen, and his army [did so], close to Pi Hahiroth before Baal Zephon.

10 And Pharaoh drew near. And the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were travelling after them; and they were in great fear, and the children of Israel cried out to Jehovah.

11 And they said to Moses, Were there no graves in Egypt, [since] you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What is this you have done to us, to bring us out of Egypt?

12 Is this not the word that we spoke to you in Egypt, saying, Leave us alone, and let us serve the Egyptians; for it is better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness?

13 And Moses said to the people, Have no fear; stand firm and see the salvation of Jehovah, which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today you will see again no more for ever.

14 Jehovah will fight for you, and you are to be silent.

15 And Jehovah said to Moses, Why do you cry to Me? Speak to the children of Israel, and let them travel on.

16 And you, lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea, and divide it; and let the children of Israel come into the middle of the sea on dry ground.

17 And I, behold, I am hardening the hearts of the Egyptians, and they will come after them, and I will be glorified in Pharaoh, and in all his army, in his chariots, and in his horsemen.

18 And the Egyptians will know that I am Jehovah, when I am glorified in Pharaoh, in his chariots, and in his horsemen.

19 And the angel of God travelled on, marching before the camp of Israel; and he went behind them. And the pillar of cloud travelled from before them and stood behind them.

20 And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was cloud and darkness [for the former], and it lit up the night [for the latter]. And the latter did not come near the former the whole night.

21 And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and Jehovah caused the sea to go away by a strong east wind the whole night, and made the sea into dry ground; and the waters were divided.

22 And the children of Israel came into the middle of the sea on dry ground; and the waters were a wall for them on their right and on their left.

23 And the Egyptians pursued, and came after them – all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen – into the middle of the sea.

24 And so it was in the morning watch, that Jehovah looked out onto the camp of the Egyptians, from within the pillar of fire and cloud, and troubled the camp of the Egyptians.

25 And He took off the wheels of his chariots and made them** drive heavily; and the Egyptians said, Let us flee before Israel, for Jehovah fights for them against the Egyptians.

26 And Jehovah said to Moses, Stretch out your hand over the sea, and let the waters return onto the Egyptians, onto his chariots, and onto his horsemen.

27 And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned,
as morning was breaking, to its normal strength;*** and the Egyptians were fleeing to meet it and Jehovah overturned**** the Egyptians into the middle of the sea.

28 And the waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen, even all Pharaoh’s army, coming after them into the sea; not so much as one of them remained.

29 And the children of Israel went on dry ground into the middle of the sea; and the waters were a wall for them on their right and on their left.

30 And Jehovah saved Israel on that day from the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.

31 And Israel saw the great hand***** which Jehovah displayed****** among the Egyptians; and the people feared Jehovah, and they believed in Jehovah and in Moses His servant.
* A tertiary commander was possibly an officer ranking third after Pharaoh, or possibly one in charge of a chariot in which there was also a driver and a warrior.
** i.e. the wheels
*** lit. to the strength of its flow
****lit. shook out
*****i.e. the great work
****** lit. Jehovah did

sRef Ex@14 @0 S0′ 8125. CONTENTS

This chapter deals in the internal sense with the first temptation, undergone by those belonging to the spiritual Church, and with their guidance through the middle of hell and protection then by the Lord. The chapter also deals with the submersion of those governed by faith separated from charity into the hell where falsities arising from evils prevail. Those belonging to the spiritual Church are represented by the children of Israel, and those governed by faith separated from charity by the Egyptians. The first temptation is described by the grumbling of the children of Israel when they saw Pharaoh’s army. Hell is meant by the Sea Suph through which the children of Israel were guided in safety and in which the Egyptians were drowned, falsities arising from evils being meant by the waters that overwhelmed them.

sRef Ex@14 @4 S0′ sRef Ex@14 @2 S0′ sRef Ex@14 @3 S0′ sRef Ex@14 @1 S0′ 8126. THE INTERNAL SENSE

Verses 1-4 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and let them turn back and encamp before Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, before Baal Zephon; over against it you are to encamp, close to the sea. And Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are enmeshed in the land; the wilderness has shut them in. And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them, and I will be glorified in Pharaoh and in all his army; and the Egyptians will know that I am Jehovah. And they did so

‘And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying’ means instruction received from the Divine through Divine Truth. ‘Speak to the children of Israel’ means the influx of God’s truth among those belonging to the spiritual Church. ‘And let them turn back’ means that they have not yet been prepared. ‘And encamp before Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, before Baal Zephon’ means the beginning of the state for undergoing temptations. ‘Over against it you are to encamp, close to the sea’ means that the influx of temptation comes from there. ‘And Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel’ means the thought of those lost in damnation regarding the state of those belonging to the spiritual Church. ‘They are enmeshed in the land’ means that they are in a state of confusion so far as things of the Church are concerned. ‘The wilderness has shut them in’ means that obscurity has taken hold of them. ‘And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart’ means that the obstinacy of those steeped in falsities arising from evil would still remain. ‘And he will pursue them’ means that they would go on trying to bring them under their control. ‘And I will be glorified’ means that they were about to see a Divine feat, accomplished by the Lord’s Divine Human, in the dispersion of falsity. ‘In Pharaoh and in all his army’ means the submersion into hell of those steeped in falsities arising from evil, and their encompassment there by falsities as if by waters. ‘And the Egyptians will know that I am Jehovah’ means that it will thereby be made known that the Lord is the only God. ‘And they did so’ means obedience.

sRef Ex@14 @1 S0′ sRef John@1 @18 S0′ 8127. ‘And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying’ means instruction received from the Divine through Divine Truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘Jehovah spoke and said’, in reference to things which are going to be done or take place, as instruction received from the Divine, as in 7186, 7241, 7267, 7304, 7380, 7517; and from the representation of ‘Moses’ as the Lord in respect of Divine Truth, dealt with in 6723, 6752, 6771, 6827, 7010, 7014, 7089, 7382. The reason why the instruction came through Divine Truth is that Moses, who represents Divine Truth, was to speak to the people. The Divine Himself does not instruct and speak to anyone directly, not even to an angel; He does so indirectly through Divine Truth, 7796. This is the meaning of the Lord’s words in John,

Nobody has ever seen God; the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known. John 1:18; 5:37.

‘The only begotten Son’ is used to mean the Lord in respect of Divine Truth. This also is why the Lord calls Himself the Son of Man, 2628, 2803, 2813, 3704. In addition, when He was in the world the Lord was Divine Truth, but after that, when He had been glorified, He also became – in respect of His Human – Divine Good. And from this Good Divine Truth now proceeded, that is, the Spirit of Truth or Holy Spirit.

sRef Ex@14 @2 S0′ 8128. ‘Speak to the children of Israel’ means the influx of God’s truth among those belonging to the spiritual Church. This is clear from the meaning of ‘speaking’ as influx, dealt with in 2951, 5481, 5797, 7270; and from the representation of ‘the children of Israel’ as those who belong to the spiritual Church, dealt with in 6426, 6637, 6862, 6868, 7035, 7062, 7198, 7201, 7215, 7223. The reason why ‘speaking’ means influx is that in the internal representative sense ‘Moses’ is Divine Truth, and Divine Truth enters a person’s perception and thought through influx. Thought as a result of perception is inward speech, to which outward speech corresponds; and for that reason the former kind of speaking is meant in the internal sense by the latter.

sRef Ex@14 @2 S0′ 8129. ‘And let them turn back’ means that they have not yet been prepared. This is clear from the meaning of ‘turning back’ – that is to say, from the way of the land of the Philistines to the way of the wilderness, to the Sea Suph – as their not yet having been prepared, prepared for introduction into heaven, meant by their entrance into the land of Canaan. The implications of this, and the meaning of ‘turning back’ as their being unprepared, become clear from what has been explained and demonstrated at verse 18 of the previous chapter, in 8098, 8099 – that they could not be led into heaven until they had undergone temptations, and through these the Lord had firmly established truths and forms of good and had bonded them together. This is what being prepared means here.

sRef Ex@14 @2 S0′ 8130. ‘And encamp before Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, before Baal Zephon’ means the beginning of the state for undergoing temptations. This is clear from the meaning of ‘encamping’ as the arrangement of truth and good, dealt with in 4236, 8103(end), in this case for undergoing temptations. This is the state that is meant by the places at which they were to encamp. The fact that this state is meant is evident from what followed next: Pharaoh with his army subsequently pitched his camp there, and at the sight of them the children of Israel were subjected to a feeling of great anxiety, by which an initial state of temptations is meant. See what follows at verses 9-12.

sRef Ex@14 @2 S0′ 8131. ‘Over against it you are to encamp, close to the sea’ means that the influx of temptation comes from there. This is clear from the meaning of ‘over against it’ as close enough for it to be within view, in the internal sense close enough for the influx to come from there; from the meaning of ‘encamping’ as the arrangement of truth and good for undergoing temptations, as immediately above in 8130; and from the meaning of ‘the Sea Suph’ as the hell where falsities arising from evils prevail, dealt with in 8099. How one should understand the explanation that the influx of temptation comes from there must be stated briefly. The temptations a person undergoes are spiritual conflicts between evil spirits and good ones. The conflicts arise from and have to do with the things the person has done or thought, recorded in his memory. The evil spirits incriminate and attack, but the good ones pardon and defend. It appears as though those conflicts are within the person, for what flows into a person from the spiritual world presents itself not as something from there but as something inside him, see 741, 751, 761, 1820, 3927, 4249, 4307, 4572, 5036, 6657, 6666. A similar situation exists with spirits when they undergo temptations. When therefore they are about to undergo temptations interior things residing with them, that is, the truths and forms of good, are rearranged by the Lord into a condition which is such that by means of direct influx from Himself, and indirect influx through heaven, resistance can be offered to the falsities and evils coming from the hells, and in that way the one undergoing temptation can be protected. When a person is tempted he is also close to hell, in particular to this hell that is meant by ‘the Sea Suph’; for its inhabitants are people who had a knowledge of truth but led a life of evil, and are consequently ruled by falsities arising from evil. From the hells through evil spirits come those influences which lead to the anxiety experienced by a person in temptations. From all this one may see what one should understand by the influx of temptation from hell, meant by the command the people received to encamp over against it, close to the Sea Suph.

sRef Ex@14 @3 S0′ 8132. ‘And Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel’ means the thought of those lost in damnation regarding the state of those belonging to the spiritual Church. This is clear from the meaning of ‘saying’ as thought, dealt with in 7094, 7107, 7244, 7937; from the representation of ‘Pharaoh’ as those who molest by means of falsities, dealt with in 7107, 7110, 7126, 7142, 7220, 7228, 7317, at this point those who are lost in damnation, that is, who are steeped in utter falsities arising from evil since those thoroughly steeped in such falsities are lost in damnation (this state is meant by ‘Pharaoh’ and ‘the Egyptians’, after the firstborn there have been killed, for by the killing of the firstborn is meant damnation, 7766, 7778); and from the representation of ‘the children of Israel’ as those who belong to the spiritual Church, dealt with just above in 8128.

sRef Ex@14 @3 S0′ 8133. ‘They are enmeshed in the land’ means that they are in a state of confusion so far as things of the Church are concerned. This is clear from the meaning of ‘being enmeshed’ as being entangled in, thus as being in a state of confusion, dealt with in 2831; and from the meaning of ‘the land’ as things of the Church. For the meaning of ‘the land’ as the Church, see 8011.

sRef Ex@14 @3 S0′ 8134. ‘The wilderness has shut them in’ means that obscurity has taken hold of them. This is clear from the meaning of ‘shutting them in’ – when this refers to obscurity, meant by ‘the wilderness’ – as taking complete hold of them; and from the meaning of ‘the wilderness’ as obscurity of faith, dealt with in 7313.

sRef Ex@14 @4 S0′ 8135. ‘And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart’ means that the obstinacy of those steeped in falsities arising from evil would still remain. This is clear from the meaning of ‘being hardened’ as their obstinate determination, dealt with in 7272, 7300, 7305; and from the representation of ‘Pharaoh’ as those who are steeped in falsities arising from evil, or what amounts to the same thing, those who are lost in damnation, as above in 8132. The words ‘Pharaoh’s heart’ are used because in the genuine sense ‘heart’ means the good of heavenly love, 3313, 3635, 3883-3896, 7542, and therefore in the contrary sense means evil, at this point the evil of those who have known [the truths of] faith and led a life of evil.

sRef Ex@14 @4 S0′ 8136. ‘And he will pursue them’ means that they would go on trying to bring them under their control. This is clear from the meaning of ‘pursuing them’ as trying to bring under their control, for their aim in pursuing them was to return them to the state of servitude, and ‘serving’, when the Egyptians are being referred to, means the aim to bring under their control, 6666, 6670, 6671.

sRef Ex@14 @4 S0′ 8137. ‘And I will be glorified’ means that they were about to see a Divine feat, accomplished by the Lord’s Divine Human, in the dispersion of falsity. This is clear from the meaning of ‘being glorified’, when it refers to Jehovah or the Lord, as a Divine feat, here a Divine feat accomplished by His Divine Human. For through His coming into the world, assuming the Human, and making it Divine the Lord cast into the hells all evils and falsities, restored the heavens to order, and also delivered from damnation those belonging to the spiritual Church, see 6854, 6914, 7091, 7828, 7932, 8018. These things are meant generally by ‘being glorified’; but at this point the meaning is that those who molested the upright were to be cast into hell, where they would be engulfed by falsities as if by the waters of the sea. And this would take place as a Divine feat, accomplished simply by the Lord’s presence.

[2] So that the nature of all this may become known, the matter will be explained further. The number of the hells is as great as that of the genera and species of evils. Every hell is separated from the next as if by mists, clouds, or waters. In the next life evils and falsities appear before the eyes of spirits as mists and clouds, and also as waters. The falsities arising from evils of those who belonged to the spiritual Church and led an evil life appear as waters, while the falsities arising from evils of those who belonged to the celestial Church appear as mists. The inhabitants of the hells appear engulfed by such waters or mists, though everywhere the amount and nature of them, the thickness and thinness, the murkiness and dimness varies as determined by each genus and species of falsity arising from evil. The hell inhabited by those who were governed by faith separated from charity and led a life of evil is engulfed as if by waters of the sea. The falsities arising from evil, it is true, do not appear as waters to its inhabitants, only to those looking on from outside. Above that sea they are engulfed in are the adulterers’ hells. The reason why they are above it is that in the internal sense adulteries are adulterations of good and consequent perversions of truth, thus evils from which stem falsities opposed to the truths and forms of the good of faith, 2466, 2729, 3399. This kind of falsities exists with those in the hell below, who led a life contrary to the Church’s truth and considered its good to be of no importance whatever. And because they considered it to be of no importance they also adulterated and perverted everything the Word states about good, that is, about charity towards the neighbour and love to God.

[3] As regards ‘being glorified in Pharaoh and in his army’, this implies here their submersion into that hell and their engulfment by waters like those of the sea, simply at the presence of the Lord, as has been stated above. The evil flee from the Lord’s presence, that is, from the presence of the goodness and truth that spring from Him; for at their mere approach the evil feel terrified and tormented, and also as a result of the presence of that goodness and truth they are engulfed by their own evils and falsities, because these now burst out from them. They envelop the evil and are interposed to prevent the Divine from flowing into them, as a consequence of which they would suffer torment. This Divine feat is the meaning here of ‘being glorified in Pharaoh and in his army’. The reason why the feat is accomplished by the Lord’s Divine Human is, as stated above, that through His Coming into the world, assuming the Human and making it Divine the Lord cast all falsities and evils into hell, restored to order truths and forms of good in the heavens, and delivered from damnation those belonging to the spiritual Church.

sRef Ex@14 @4 S0′ 8138. ‘In Pharaoh and in all his army’ means the submersion into hell of those steeped in falsities arising from evil, and their encompassment there by falsities as if by waters. This is clear from what has been mentioned immediately above in 8137, that ‘Pharaoh’ means those who were cast into hell, as also does ‘his army’, ‘Pharaoh’ being those steeped in falsities arising from evil, and ‘his army’ the falsities themselves. ‘Armies’ are truths springing from good, see 3448, 7236, 7988, and therefore in the contrary sense they are falsities arising from evil, 3448. The expression ‘encompassment by falsities as if by waters’ is used because falsities that arise from evil – the kind of falsities that exist with those belonging to the Church who have championed separated faith and have led a life of evil – are seen there as waters, 8137. This also is why deluges of water mean situations in which truth is laid waste while the water present in them means falsities, 705, 739, 756, 6346, 6853.

sRef Ex@14 @4 S0′ 8139. ‘And the Egyptians will know that I am Jehovah’ means that it will I thereby be made known that the Lord is the only God. This is clear from the explanations in 7401, 7444, 7544, 7598, 7636, where similar words occur.

sRef Ex@14 @4 S0′ 8140. ‘And they did so’ means obedience. This is clear without explanation.

sRef Ex@14 @8 S0′ sRef Ex@14 @9 S0′ sRef Ex@14 @6 S0′ sRef Ex@14 @5 S0′ sRef Ex@14 @7 S0′ 8141. Verses 5-9 And it was pointed out to the king of Egypt that the people had fled; and the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people, and they said, What is this we have done, that we have sent Israel away from serving us? And he harnessed his chariot, and took his people with him. And he took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt; and there were tertiary commanders over them all.* And Jehovah hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the children of Israel; and the children of Israel went out with a lofty hand. And the Egyptians pursued them; and they overtook them encamping close to the sea – all Pharaoh’s chariot-horses, and his horsemen, and his army [did so], close to Pi Hahiroth before Baal Zephon.

‘And it was pointed out to the king of Egypt that the people had fled’ means the thought of those steeped in utter falsities arising from evil, that they had become entirely separated. ‘And the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people’ means a change of state, a change to evil within those steeped in falsities arising from evil. ‘And they said, What is this we have done’ means [self-]reproach. ‘That we have sent Israel away from serving us?’ means that they had left them alone and not brought them under their control. ‘And he harnessed his chariot’ means doctrine championing falsity that belongs to separated faith in general. ‘And took his people with him’ means together with each and every falsity. ‘And he took six hundred chosen chariots’ means each and every doctrinal teaching that upholds falsity belonging to separated faith, in their own order. ‘And all the chariots of Egypt’ means also doctrinal teachings upholding falsity that were subservient to these. ‘And there were tertiary commanders over them all’ means having been arranged into order under general headings. ‘And Jehovah hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt’ means obstinate opposition from the falsity that arose from evil. ‘And he pursued the children of Israel’ means the attempt to bring under his control those governed by faith bonded to charity. ‘And the children of Israel went out with a lofty hand’ means although they had been rescued by God’s power from their attempt to bring them under their control. ‘And the Egyptians pursued them’ means action resulting from the attempt of those steeped in falsities arising from evil to bring them under their control. ‘And they overtook them encamping close to the sea’ means communication around the region of hell where falsities arising from evil are present. ‘All Pharaoh’s chariot-horses, and his horsemen, and his army’ means everything composing the falsity belonging to a perverted understanding. ‘Close to Pi Hahiroth before Baal Zephon’ means the source of communication, and from this the beginning of the state for undergoing temptations.
* A tertiary commander was possibly an officer ranking third after Pharaoh, or possibly one in charge of a chariot in which there was also a driver and a warrior.

sRef Ex@14 @5 S0′ 8142. ‘And it was pointed out to the king of Egypt that the people had fled’ means the thought of those steeped in utter falsities arising from evil, that they had become entirely separated. This is clear from the meaning of ‘pointing out to someone’ as thinking and reflecting, dealt with in 2862, 5508; from the representation of Pharaoh as those steeped in falsities arising from evil, dealt with above in 8132, 8135, or – when he is called ‘the king of Egypt’ – as those steeped in utter falsities, 7220, 7228, since ‘king’ means truths, 1672, 2015, 2069, 4575, 4581, 4966, 5044, 6148, and therefore in the contrary sense means falsities; and from the meaning of ‘fleeing’ as becoming separated.

sRef Ex@14 @5 S0′ 8143. ‘And the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people’ means a change of state, a change to evil within those steeped in falsities arising from evil. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the turning of the heart’ as a change of state, to evil (the fact that ‘being turned’ means undergoing a change – at this point a change of mind, and so a change of state – is self-evident; and for the meaning of ‘heart’ as evil, see above in 8135); from the representation of ‘Pharaoh’ as those steeped in falsities arising from evil, dealt with above in 8132; from the meaning of ‘servants’ as those who belong to a lower rank and minister, and since these are meant, each and every one steeped in falsities arising from evil is meant, 7396; and from the representation of ‘the children of Israel’ as those who belong to the spiritual Church. From all this it is evident that ‘the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people’ means a change of state, a change to evil feelings within all those steeped in falsities arising from evil, directed against those belonging to the spiritual Church.

sRef Ex@14 @5 S0′ 8144. ‘And they said, What is this we have done’ means self-reproach. This is clear without explanation.

sRef Ex@14 @5 S0′ 8145. ‘That we have sent Israel away from serving us?’ means that they had left them alone and not brought them under their control. This is clear from the meaning of ‘sending away’ as leaving alone; and from the meaning of ‘from serving them’, when said by the Egyptians regarding the children of Israel, as refraining from assaulting them by means of falsities and from molesting them, dealt with in 7120, 7129, and from thereby bringing them under their control, 6666, 6670, 6671.

sRef Ex@14 @6 S0′ 8146. ‘And he harnessed his chariot’ means doctrine championing falsity that belongs to separated faith in general. This is clear from the meaning of ‘chariot’ as doctrine, dealt with in 2760, 5321, 5945, in this case doctrine championing falsity that belongs to separated faith, since the chariot is Pharaoh’s and ‘Pharaoh’ represents the falsities that belong to separated faith. For those who subscribe to faith separated from charity and at the same time lead a life of evil are inevitably steeped in falsities, 8094.

[2] The descriptions that follow on from here refer to the gathering together of all the falsities arising from evil that existed with people who subscribed to faith separated from charity and led a life of evil. Descriptions prior to this have dealt with the vastation of the truths of faith that exist with those people, and with the eventual reduction of those people to a condition which is such that they are steeped in utter falsities arising from evil, and so are lost in damnation. The present chapter now deals with their being cast down into hell, for being cast down into hell follows damnation. What happens in this state – a state in which people are cast down into hell – is as follows: When they are going to be cast down all the falsities that exist with them are first gathered together (which is accomplished by the opening up of all the hells with which they have had contact) and then are poured into them. As a result those people have around them dense masses of falsities arising from evil, which appear as waters to those looking on from outside, 8137, 8138; they are vapours emanating from their life. When they are engulfed by those dense masses they are in hell. When the falsities arising from evil are gathered into one and poured into them the purpose is that those people may become surrounded by the kinds of things that have come to be part of their life, and after that may be confined within them. The type of evil, together with the falsity arising from it, then mark them and their hell off from other hells.

sRef Ex@14 @26 S3′ sRef Ex@14 @9 S3′ sRef Ex@14 @17 S3′ sRef Ex@14 @28 S3′ sRef Ex@14 @18 S3′ sRef Ex@14 @23 S3′ sRef Ex@14 @25 S3′ sRef Ex@14 @7 S3′ [3] Because of the subject here – the gathering together of all the falsities arising from evil that existed with those people – references are made so many times in this chapter to Pharaoh’s chariot, his horses, horsemen, army, and people; for these mean all the powers of falsity that reside with those people. Such references are,

He harnessed his chariot, and took his people with him. Verse 6.
He took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt. Verse 7.
And the Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh’s chariot-horses, and his horsemen, and his army. Verse 9.
I will be glorified in Pharaoh, and in all his army, in his chariots, and in his horsemen. Verse 17, and similarly verse 18.
And the Egyptians pursued, and came after them, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. Verse 23.
Jehovah took off the wheels of their chariots. Verse 25.
Let the waters return onto the Egyptians, onto their chariots, and onto their horsemen. Verse 26.
The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen, even all Pharaoh’s army. Verse 28.

These references to them occur so many times because falsities arising from evil – their being gathered together and poured into those people – are the subject. The things referred to so many times mean all the powers of falsity arising from evil. ‘Pharaoh’ and ‘the Egyptians’ are the people themselves who are steeped in falsities arising from evil; ‘the chariots’ are doctrinal teachings that uphold falsity; ‘the horses’ are false factual knowledge belonging to a perverted understanding; ‘the horsemen’ are reasonings resting on that knowledge; and ‘the army’ and ‘the people’ are the falsities themselves.

sRef Ex@14 @6 S0′ 8147. ‘And took his people with him’ means together with each and every falsity. This is clear from the meaning of ‘people’ as truths and in the contrary sense as falsities, dealt with in 1259, 1260, 3295, 3581, in this instance falsities arising from evil, which are represented by ‘Pharaoh’ and ‘the Egyptians’. When the phrase ‘pharaoh and his servants’ is used, or ‘Pharaoh and his people’, each and every person steeped in those falsities, also each and every falsity, is meant, 7396.

sRef Ex@14 @7 S0′ 8148. ‘And he took six hundred chosen chariots’ means each and every doctrinal teaching that upholds falsity belonging to separated faith, in their own order. This is clear from the meaning of the number ‘six hundred’ as each and every aspect of the truth and good of faith taken all together, and so in the contrary sense as each and every aspect of the falsity and evil of faith separated from charity (this meaning of ‘six hundred’ may become clear from what has been shown regarding the number ‘six hundred thousand’ in 7973); and from the meaning of ‘chariots’ as doctrinal teachings upholding faith, in this instance separated faith, dealt with just above in 8146. ‘Chosen chariots’ means the chief doctrinal teachings that uphold that faith, to which all other teachings are subordinate. Those that are subordinate to them or serve them are meant by ‘the chariots of Egypt’, referred to immediately after the six hundred chosen ones.

[2] It should be recognized that these falsities – the ones that are meant here by Pharaoh, his army and people, and also his chariots, horses, and horsemen – are chiefly falsities present with people whose faith is no more than persuasion, that is, people who persuade themselves that the teachings of the Church they are in are true and who nevertheless lead a life of evil. This kind of faith, unlike saving faith, goes together with evil in life, because it is a faith in which people persuade themselves that everything the Church teaches is true, yet do so not for the sake of truth, or for the sake of life, or even for the sake of salvation (since they have scarcely any belief in this), only for their own advantage, that is, to acquire important positions and wealth, and reputation because of these. It is to gain such advantages that they imbibe religious teachings. Thus they do not learn them to the end that they may be of service to the Church and the salvation of souls, but to themselves and their dependents. Therefore it makes no difference to them whether those teachings are true or false. They do not care which they are, much less do they bother to find out; for they have no affection for truth because it is the truth. They endorse those teachings regardless of the character of them; and when they have endorsed them they tell themselves that they are true, without stopping to think that falsities can be endorsed just as much as truths, 4741, 5033, 6865, 7012, 7680, 7950.

[3] This is how faith that is no more than persuasion arises. And since it does not see the neighbour and the good of the neighbour, or therefore the Lord, as the end in view, only self and the world, that is, important positions and material gain, that kind of faith is linked to evil in life, and not to good in life. For faith, when linked to this good, is saving faith. This kind of faith is imparted by the Lord, but the other has its origin in people themselves. Faith imparted by the Lord remains forever, the other kind melts away in the next life. It even melts away in the world if they can gain nothing by it. As long as they can gain anything they fight for it as if for heaven itself, though in fact they do so not for that faith but for themselves. For the things that belong to faith, which are religious teachings, are for those people simply the means to an end, which is high position and wealth. People in the world with this type of faith are scarcely distinguishable from those possessing saving faith, since they speak and proclaim in favour of religious teachings with an ardour that seemingly belongs to true zeal, but is an ardour fired by selfish and worldly love.

[4] These are the people who are meant in particular by ‘Pharaoh’ and ‘the Egyptians’, who in the next life undergo vastation of that kind of faith. When that vastation is completed they are steeped in utter falsities arising from evil, for falsities now burst out of evil. Falsities do so because all evil has falsity present with it, since the two have been joined together. Those falsities make their appearance when such people are left exposed to the evil in their life. That evil is then like fire, and the falsities are like the light coming from a fire. This kind of evil, and the falsity arising from it, is altogether different from other kinds of evil and derivative falsities. It is more loathsome than all the rest, because it is contrary to the forms of good and the truths of faith, and that kind of evil consequently holds profanation within it. Profanation consists in acknowledging truth and good and yet living contrary to them, 593, 1008, 1010, 1059, 2051, 3398, 3898, 4289, 4601, 6959, 6963, 6971.

sRef Ex@14 @7 S0′ 8149. ‘And all the chariots of Egypt’ means also doctrinal teachings upholding falsity that were subservient to these. This is clear from the meaning of ‘Pharaoh’s chariots’ as the chief doctrinal teachings that uphold falsity, to which all others are subordinate, so that ‘the chariots of Egypt’ means doctrinal teachings upholding falsity that were subservient to them, dealt with immediately above in 8148. For ‘the king’ and ‘his chariots’ mean the chief things, while ‘the people’ or the Egyptians and ‘their chariots’ mean the secondary ones. The Church’s teachings among those who lead a life of evil are called doctrinal teachings that uphold falsity, even though in part, to a greater or a lesser extent, they may contain the truth. The reason for this is that truths residing with those who lead a life of evil are not truths insofar as they exist with those people; for when they are applied to evil in life they lose the essential quality of truth and take on the nature of falsity, because they look towards the evil to which they are joined. Truths cannot be joined to evil without being falsified, which comes about through misinterpretations and so perversions of them. So it is that the Church’s teachings among those people are called doctrinal teachings that uphold falsity, even though they have been truths. For it is a law or principle that truths among people who lead a life of evil are made false, and falsities among those who lead a life of good are made true. The reason why falsities among them are made true is that they are used to accord with good, and when that is done the crudities of falsity are wiped away, see 8051.

sRef Ex@14 @7 S0′ 8150. ‘And there were tertiary commanders over them all’ means having been arranged into order under general headings. This is clear from the meaning of ‘tertiary commanders’ as general headings under which come particular aspects. The reason why ‘tertiary commanders’ has this meaning is that ‘three’, which lies behind the term ‘tertiary’, means something completed and entire, 2788, 4495, 7715, and commanders’ means the things that rank first. And these together with the particular aspects constitute general wholes, for every single component of a series is arranged into order under a general heading. This arrangement into order under general headings enables individual aspects to act in unison, have form, and at the same time possess a particular quality. Regarding general headings, that they have particular aspects under them, and specific details under these, see 920, 2384, 3739, 4325 (end), 4329, 4345, 4383, 5208, 5339, 6115, 6146.

sRef Ex@14 @8 S0′ 8151. ‘And Jehovah hardened the heart of Pharaoh [king of Egypt]’ means obstinate opposition from the falsity that arose from evil. This is clear from the meaning of ‘hardening the heart’ as behaving obstinately, dealt with in 7272, 7300, 7305, 7616. When it says that Jehovah hardened his heart the meaning in the internal sense is that those steeped in evil and falsity hardened themselves, thus that the actual evils and falsities did so. On this matter see 2447, 6071, 6991, 6997, 7533, 7643, 7877, 7926.

sRef Ex@14 @8 S0′ 8152. ‘And he pursued the children of Israel’ means the attempt to bring under his control those governed by faith bonded to charity. This is clear from the meaning of ‘pursuing’ as the attempt to bring under one’s control, as in 8136; and from the representation of ‘the children of Israel’ as those who belong to the spiritual Church, dealt with often, thus those governed by faith bonded to charity. For members of that Church are governed by this faith both in doctrine and in life. The good of faith, which is charity, is the essential element, and so occupies first place with those who belong to the genuine spiritual Church. But with those with whom faith is separated from the good of faith both in doctrine and in life the truth of faith, or simply faith, is the essential element or occupies first place. The latter are not members of that Church, for life constitutes the Church, not doctrine except in the measure that it becomes applicable to life. From this it is evident that the Lord’s Church is not in this particular location or in that, but that it resides wherever people lead lives in keeping with the commandments of charity, both within the kingdoms in which the Church exists and outside them. So it is that the Lord’s Church is spread throughout the whole world, and yet is one; for when life constitutes the Church, and not doctrine separated from life, there is one Church. But when doctrine constitutes the Church there are many.

sRef Isa@33 @5 S0′ sRef Ps@18 @16 S0′ sRef Ex@14 @8 S0′ 8153. ‘And the children of Israel went out with a lofty hand’ means although they had been rescued by God’s power from their attempt to bring them under their control. This is clear from the representation of ‘the children of Israel’ as those who belong to the spiritual Church, that is, who are governed by faith bonded to charity, as immediately above in 8152; from the meaning of ‘going out’ as being delivered or rescued from the others’ attempt to bring them under their control, which attempt is meant by ‘pursuing’, 8152; and from the meaning of ‘a lofty hand’ as God’s power, for ‘hand’ means power, 878, 3387, 4931-4937, 5327, 5328, 5544, 6292, 6947, 7011, 7188, 7189, 7518, 7673, 8050, 8069, and ‘lofty’ means God’s. The reason why ‘lofty’ means God’s is that the word is used to indicate heaven, where God is. This is why the Word says of Jehovah or the Lord that He dwells ‘in the lofty place’ and why He is called ‘the Most High’, as in Isaiah,

Jehovah is exalted, for He dwells in the lofty place. Isa. 33:5.

In the same prophet,

Thus said the High and Lofty One inhabiting eternity, whose name is the Holy One, I inhabit the holy and high [place]. Isa. 57:15.

In David,

Jehovah sent from on high and snatched me away Ps. 18:16.

So it is that Jehovah is called the Most High in Deut. 32:8; Dan. 4:17, 24, 34; 7:18, 22, 25; Ps. 7:17; 9:2; 18:13; 46:4; 50:14; 57:2; 82:6. Because ‘high’ meant heaven, and God in heaven, the worship of God performed by those who belonged to the representative Church was established on mountains and on high places. It was therefore also performed in lofty shrines which they built for themselves, referred to in various places in the historical sections and prophetical parts of the Word, as in Ezekiel,

You built for yourself a lofty shrine, and made a high place for yourself in every street; at every head of a road you built your lofty shrine. Ezek. 16:24, 25, 31.

The reason why God’s was meant by ‘high’ is that the starry heaven was a sign of the angelic heaven, which was also thought to be located there. But the wiser ones among them knew that heaven was not located on high but where the good of love was, and that this resided within a person, wherever he might be. For the meaning of ‘high places’ as interiors, or forms of good residing in them, see 450, 1735, 2148, 4210, 4599.

sRef Ex@14 @9 S0′ 8154. ‘And the Egyptians pursued them’ means action resulting from the attempt of those steeped in falsities arising from evil to bring them under their control. This is clear from the meaning of ‘pursuing’ as the attempt to bring under their control, as above in 8152, at this point action resulting from the attempt, since the word is being used a second time; and from the meaning of ‘the Egyptians’ as those steeped in falsities arising from evil, often dealt with already.

sRef Ex@14 @9 S0′ 8155. ‘And they overtook them encamping close to the sea’ means communication around the region of hell where falsities arising from evils are present. This is clear from the meaning of ‘overtaking’ as communication, for in the spiritual sense ‘overtaking’, or catching up with, describes an influx through which communication takes place, in this instance of the falsities arising from evil of those meant by ‘the Egyptians’ with those meant by ‘Israel’ (the fact that communication there is meant is clear from the temptation they first underwent at that place, which is described in what follows; every temptation comes about through influx from the hells, and so through communication, 8131); from the meaning of ‘encamping’ as arrangements of truth and good by the Lord for undergoing temptations, 8103, 8130, 8131; and from the meaning of ‘the sea’, here ‘the Sea Suph’, as the hell which contains the falsities arising from evil of those who are ruled by faith separated from charity and lead a life of evil, 8099, 8137, 8148.

sRef Ex@14 @9 S0′ 8156. ‘All Pharaoh’s chariot-horses, and his horsemen, and his army’ means everything composing the falsity belonging to a perverted understanding. This is clear from the meaning of ‘horses’ as the power of understanding, dealt with in 2761, 2762, 3217, 5321, 7024, 8029, at this point a perverted understanding, such as that which exists in people who are steeped in evil, and in falsity arising from it; from the meaning of ‘chariots’ as doctrinal teachings, dealt with in 2760, 5321, 5945, 8146; from the meaning of ‘horsemen’ as things connected with the understanding, dealt with in 6534, at this point false reasonings belonging to a perverted understanding; and from the meaning of ‘army’ as falsities, dealt with above in 8138. From all these meanings it is evident that ‘Pharaoh’s chariot-horses, and his horsemen, and his army’ means the factual knowledge, reasonings, and falsities belonging to a perverted understanding, thus everything composing the falsity there.

sRef Ex@14 @9 S0′ 8157. ‘Close to Pi Hahiroth before Baal Zephon’ means the source of communication, and from this the beginning of the state for undergoing temptations. This is clear from what has been stated above in 8130.

sRef Ex@14 @12 S0′ sRef Ex@14 @11 S0′ sRef Ex@14 @14 S0′ sRef Ex@14 @13 S0′ sRef Ex@14 @10 S0′ 8158. Verses 10-14 And Pharaoh drew near. And the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were travelling after them; and they were in great fear, and the children of Israel cried out to Jehovah. And they said to Moses, Were there no graves in Egypt, [since] you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What is this you have done to us, to bring us out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we spoke to you in Egypt, saying, Leave us alone, and let us serve the Egyptians; for it is better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness? And Moses said to the people, Have no fear; stand firm and see the salvation of Jehovah, which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today you will see again no more for ever. Jehovah will fight for you, and you are to be silent.

And Pharaoh drew near’ means an oppressive influx from there of falsity arising from evil. ‘And the children of Israel lifted up their eyes’ means the understanding part of the mind, and thought. ‘And behold, the Egyptians were travelling after them’ means the constantly increasing oppressiveness of falsity. ‘And they were in great fear’ means a feeling of horror. ‘And the children of Israel cried out to Jehovah’ means pleading for help. ‘And they said to Moses’ means the climax of the temptation, when there is despair. ‘Were there no graves in Egypt, [since] you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?’ means that if damnation was their lot it made no difference whether it came to them through the falsities of molesters or through a state of temptations in which they would go under. ‘What is this you have done to us, to bring us out of Egypt?’ means that their deliverance from molestations by falsities had been to no avail. ‘Is this not the word that we spoke to you in Egypt, saying’ means that something such as this had been thought by them when they were molested by falsities. ‘Leave us alone, and let us serve the Egyptians’ means that they would not be drawn back from surrendering themselves. ‘For it is better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness?’ means that damnation through the violence of falsity in the state of molestations would be preferable to damnation that came about through yielding in a state of temptations. ‘And Moses said to the people’ means being raised by God’s truth from a state of despair. ‘Have no fear’ means that there should be no feeling of despair. ‘Stand firm and see the salvation of Jehovah’ means salvation from the Lord alone and not at all from themselves. ‘Which He will accomplish today’ means which will continue into eternity. ‘For the Egyptians whom you see today you will see again no more for ever’ means that falsities which are moved aside once will remain moved aside even into eternity. ‘Jehovah will fight for you’ means that the Lord alone endures the conflicts brought by temptations. ‘And you are to be silent’ means that by their own powers they will achieve absolutely nothing.

sRef Ex@14 @10 S0′ 8159. ‘And Pharaoh drew near’ means an oppressive influx from there of falsity arising from evil. This is clear from the representation of ‘Pharaoh’ as those steeped in falsities arising from evil, dealt with in 8132, 8135, 8146, 8148; and from the meaning of ‘drawing near’ as influx. The internal sense deals with the first temptation of those who have been delivered, and all temptation comes about through influx from the hells. For spirits from there stir up and bring out all the wicked deeds a person has performed and wicked thoughts he has entertained, and they use these to incriminate him and condemn him. As a result he suffers pangs of conscience, and anxiety fills his mind. These feelings are brought about by an influx from the hells, in particular from the hell that is represented by the Sea Suph. From all this one may see that in the spiritual sense, which is dealing with temptations, ‘drawing near’ means influx.

sRef Mal@3 @2 S2′ sRef Mal@3 @3 S2′ sRef Mal@3 @4 S2′ sRef Mal@3 @1 S2′ [2] Since the verses which immediately follow deal with the first temptation of those belonging to the spiritual Church, it should be realized that those people could not undergo temptations until after the Lord had glorified His Human, that is, made it Divine, and was present among them in this glorified Human. If they had undergone them before then they would have given way; for those belonging to the spiritual Church were saved solely by the Lord’s Divine Human. The temptations of those belonging to the spiritual Church, which they were to undergo after the Lord had come into the world, when He would be able to fight from the Divine Human for them against the hells, are meant by the following words in Malachi,

Suddenly there will come to His temple the Lord whom you seek, and the angel of the covenant in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming, said Jehovah Zebaoth. Who can endure the day of His Coming, and who will stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and purge them like gold, and like silver, in order that they may bring to Jehovah a minchah in righteousness. Then the minchah of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to Jehovah, as in the days of eternity, and as in former years. Mal. 3:1-4.

This plainly refers to the Lord’s Coming. ‘The sons of Levi’ here are members of the spiritual Church, for ‘Levi’ means charity or spiritual good, 3875, 4497, 4502, 4503. ‘A refiner’s fire’ is temptation, the means of purification, which ‘purifying and purging them like gold and silver’ is used to mean. ‘The minchah’ they will bring to Jehovah is faith and charity; and ‘the days of eternity’ and ‘former years’ are the Ancient Churches and states of worship of the Lord in those times.

[3] As regards the nature of temptations, it is as has been stated above in 8131, that the hells fight against a person and the Lord for a person. Any falsity that the hells introduce is met with a response from the Divine. The falsities which come from hell are thrust into and enter the external or natural man, but the response from the Divine enters the internal or spiritual man. The person is less conscious of this response which comes from the Divine than he is of those falsities. It does not touch his individual thoughts, only his general awareness, yet in such a way that he scarcely comes to be conscious of it except as hope and consequent comfort, which however hold within them countless blessings that the person has no knowledge of. These are such that they are suited to his affection or love, especially his affection for or love of truth and goodness, which form his conscience.

sRef Matt@10 @38 S4′ sRef Matt@10 @39 S4′ sRef Matt@10 @34 S4′ sRef Luke@14 @27 S4′ sRef Matt@16 @24 S4′ sRef Matt@16 @25 S4′ sRef Mark@10 @21 S4′ [4] These things have been stated to let it be known that the life of the children of Israel in the wilderness describes the temptations, in the sequence in which they occurred, that were undergone by those who belonged to the Lord’s spiritual Church and were delivered. The reason why they underwent the temptations was in order that they might be prepared further for heaven. For through temptations, through them as the one and only means, forms of good and truths are corroborated and joined together. Through them charity becomes the charity that goes with faith, and faith becomes the faith that goes with charity. The fact that those who belong to the Church must undergo temptations is what one should understand by the following things the Lord said, in Matthew,

Whoever does not take up his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. Matt. 10:38, 39; Mark 8:31 end.

In the same gospel,

He said to His disciples, If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. Matt. 16:24, 25; Luke 9:23, 24.

In Luke,

Whoever does not carry his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. Luke 14:27.

In Mark,

Jesus said to the rich [young ruler], Come, follow Me, taking up the cross. Mark 10:21.

And in Matthew,

Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. Matt. 10:34.

[5] But it should be recognized that in temptations a person does not do the fighting; the Lord alone does it for the person, though the appearance is that it is done by the person. And when the Lord does the fighting for a person, the person is in all things victorious. At the present day few are allowed to experience temptations because they do not live as faith requires and do not therefore possess a conscience composed of truth; and anyone without a conscience composed of truth as a result of leading a good life goes under, and then his latter state is worse than his former.

sRef Ex@14 @10 S0′ 8160. ‘And the children of Israel lifted up their eyes’ means the understanding part of the mind, and thought. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the eyes’ as the understanding part of the mind, dealt with in 2701, 3820, 4403-4421, 4523-4534, so that ‘lifting up the eyes’ is insight, perception, and thought, 2789, 2829, 3198, 3202, 4083, 4086, 4339.

sRef Ex@14 @10 S0′ 8161. ‘And behold, the Egyptians were travelling after them’ means the constantly increasing oppressiveness of falsity. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the Egyptians’ as those steeped in falsities arising from evil, thus also as the actual falsity arising from evil, dealt with in 8132, 8135, 8146, 8148; and from the meaning of ‘travelling after them’ as a more immediate influx and communication. ‘Pharaoh drew near’ has meant the influx of falsity arising from evil, 8159, and therefore ‘travelling after them’ means an influx even more immediate, and so more oppressive. So it is that the constantly increasing oppressiveness of falsity is meant. What immediately follows describes a temptation; and since this is brought about by the influx from the hells of falsity arising from evil, its getting nearer, that is, its increasing oppressiveness, is described now.

sRef Ex@14 @10 S0′ 8162. ‘And they were in great fear’ means a feeling of horror. This is clear from the meaning of ‘being in fear’, when used in reference to temptation, as horror or a feeling of horror. ‘Fear’ means a feeling of horror because when temptation presses on a person his conscience is stricken by falsities and evils, and so is his internal man since conscience belongs to the internal man. This gives rise to horror, which is repulsion combined with a fear of spiritual death. With those who have conscience horror arises from the mere influx of falsity and evil, for conscience consists of the truth and good of faith, and so of those things which constitute spiritual life. Falsities and evils are destructive of that life, and so are constantly attempting to inflict death, that is, damnation, which gives rise to a feeling of horror.

sRef Ex@14 @10 S0′ 8163. ‘And the children of Israel cried out to Jehovah’ means pleading for help. This is clear without explanation.

8164. ‘And they said to Moses’ means the climax of the temptation, and despair. This is clear from the words that follow, for ‘they said’ includes them. The fact that the words which follow are words uttered in temptation when this has reached its climax and when there is despair is self-evident. The term ‘despair’ is used because this is usually the final phase or comes within the final phase of spiritual temptations, 1787, 2694, 5279, 5280, 7147, 7155, 7166. Since there are few at the present day who undergo spiritual temptations and therefore the nature of them is unknown, let something more be said about them. There are spiritual temptations or trials and there are natural temptations or trials. Spiritual temptations belong to the internal man, whereas natural trials belong to the external man. Spiritual temptations sometimes occur separately from natural trials, at other times together with them. They are natural trials when a person suffers in ways that affect his physical body, position in society, and wealth, in short his natural life, that is, the kinds of sufferings he undergoes when he is sick, unfortunate, persecuted, wrongly punished, and so on. Anxious feelings in such circumstances are what are meant by natural trials. But these trials contribute nothing whatever to the person’s spiritual life; nor should they be called trials or temptations but miseries. For they arise as a result of harm done to his natural life, which is the life of self-love and love of the world. Criminals sometimes endure such miseries; and the more that they love self and the world, and so depend on these for their life, the greater is their misery and anguish.

[2] But spiritual temptations belong to the internal man; they are attacks made on his spiritual life. Anxious feelings in this case do not exist on account of any loss in their natural life, but on account of the loss of faith and charity, and consequently of salvation. Natural trials are often the means by which those spiritual temptations come about. For if a person is suffering natural trials – that is to say, sickness, sorrow, loss of wealth or position, and so on – and during them comes to think of the Lord’s help, His Providence, and the state of the wicked, in that they boast and rejoice when the good suffer and endure various miseries and losses, then spiritual temptation is bound up with natural trial. Such was the Lord’s final temptation, in Gethsemane, and when He endured the Cross, which was the severest of all. From all this one may see what natural trial is and what spiritual temptation is. A third kind of temptation or trial also exists, which is anxiety and depression caused for the most part by physical or mental infirmity. Such anxiety may involve some degree of spiritual temptation or it may not involve any at all.

8165. ‘Were there no graves in Egypt, [since] you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?’ means that if damnation was their lot it made no difference whether it came to them through the falsities of molesters or through a state of temptations in which they would go under. This is clear from the meaning of ‘graves’ as damnation, dealt with in 2916, 5832; from the meaning of ‘Egypt’ as molestations, dealt with in 7278, for ‘the Egyptians’ and ‘Pharaoh’ represent those in the next life who molest by means of falsities, 7097, 7107, 7110, 7126, 7142, 7317; from the meaning of ‘dying’ too as damnation, dealt with in 5407, 6119, 7494; and from the meaning of ‘the wilderness’ as a state for undergoing temptations, 8098, and therefore ‘dying in the wilderness’ means going under in temptation and consequently suffering damnation. From all this it is evident that ‘Were there no graves in Egypt, [since] you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?’ means that if damnation was their lot it made no difference whether it came to them through the falsities of molesters, thus within the previous state that was theirs, or through temptations in which they would go under, thus within the subsequent state they were entering.

[2] These words, it is self-evident, are words of despair. They are also the kind that are thought by people in a state of despair, which is the final phase of a temptation. At that time they are on a slope so to speak or slipping down to hell. Yet thinking in that way at such times does no harm, and the angels take no notice of it; for each person’s power is limited, and when temptation stretches him to the absolute limit of his power he cannot stand up to anything further and starts to slip. At that point however, that is, when he is on the slope and starts to slip, he is raised by the Lord and thereby delivered from despair. More often than not he is then brought into a bright state of hope and the comfort this brings, and also into a state of bliss. The words ‘damnation through a state of temptations in which they would go under’ are used because people who go under in temptations pass into a state of damnation. For the end in view with temptations is that truths and forms of good, and therefore faith and charity, may be strengthened and bonded together. But that end is achieved only when a person is victorious in temptations; if he goes under truths and forms of good are set aside and falsities and evils are strengthened. Hence those people’s state of damnation.

8166. ‘What is this you have done to us, to bring us out of Egypt?’ means that their deliverance from molestations by falsities had been to no avail. This is clear from the meaning of ‘what is this you have done to us?’ as that it had been to no avail; from the meaning of ‘being brought out’ as being delivered; and from the meaning of ‘Egypt’ as molestations, dealt with immediately above in 8165.

sRef Ex@14 @12 S0′ 8167. ‘Is this not the word that we spoke to you in Egypt, saying’ means that something such as this had been thought by them when they were molested by falsities. This is clear from the meaning of ‘is this not the word that we spoke?’ as something such as had been thought, for ‘this word’ means this matter, thus something such as this, while ‘speaking’ means thinking (‘speaking’ means influx and consequent reception, see 5797, 7270, 8128, thus also thought, 2271, 2287, 2619); and from the meaning of ‘Egypt’ as molestation by falsities, as above in 8165.

sRef Ex@14 @12 S0′ 8168. ‘Leave us alone, and let us serve the Egyptians’ means that they would not be drawn back from surrendering themselves. This is clear from the meaning of ‘leaving us alone’, when said with regard to molestations, as not preventing and not drawing back; and from the meaning of ‘serving the Egyptians’ as giving themselves up, like those who have been vanquished, to those who molest by means of falsities, thus that they would surrender themselves. The reason for the meaning of ‘leaving us alone’ – when addressed, in a state of molestations and also in a state of temptations, to the influx of God’s truth, which ‘Moses’ represents – as not preventing and not drawing back is that two forces or powers are at work in them. One comes from the falsities cast by the hells into the external man, the other from the truths instilled by the Lord into the internal man, 8164. These two forces act one against the other. The falsities which are cast in by the hells derive their force and power from the self-love and love of the world that are within a person; but the truths which are instilled by the Lord derive their force and power from love towards the neighbour and love to the Lord. When a person is victorious the internal force and power is always prevalent, because it is Divine; and it does not allow the force or power the falsities possess to become too great for it to be repulsed. When therefore those two forces act the internal force from the Lord is constantly drawing the person back so to speak; it prevents falsities from dragging him down and his consequently going under. For it is a general rule that when two forces act in opposition to each other, one is drawing forward, the other back. In the spiritual world forces are affections belonging to different kinds of love; the instruments by means of which they act are truths, and in the contrary sense falsities.

sRef Ex@14 @12 S0′ 8169. ‘For it is better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness?’ means that damnation through the violence of falsity in the state of molestations would be preferable to damnation that came about through yielding in a state of temptations. This is clear from the meaning of ‘being better for them’ as that it would be preferable; from the meaning of ‘serving the Egyptians’ as yielding to the falsities of the molesters, for ‘serving’ means being under another’s control, 6666, 6670, 6671, thus yielding, in this instance to the falsities of the molesters; from the meaning of ‘dying’ as damnation, as above in 8165; and from the meaning of ‘the wilderness’ as a state for undergoing temptations, dealt with in 8098. From all this it is evident that ‘it is better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness’ means that it would be preferable to yield to falsities, when molested by them, than to yield in temptations. Yielding in the former state is indeed preferable to doing so in the latter; for when a person yields in temptations his acceptance of falsities and evils in opposition to the truths and forms of the good of faith is made stronger. But when he yields in a state of molestations his acceptance of falsities and evils is made stronger, but not so plainly in opposition to the truths and forms of the good of faith. From this it is evident that yielding in temptations involves blasphemy against truth and goodness, and sometimes profanation of them; and the worst and most terrible damnation of all is damnation as a result of profanation.

sRef Ex@14 @13 S0′ 8170. ‘And Moses said to the people’ means being raised by God’s truth from a state of despair. This is clear from the things following next that Moses actually said, which imply being raised from a state of despair. It is said to be done by God’s truth because any raising up in a state of temptations is done by God’s truth. For the use of ‘Moses’ to mean God’s truth in the representative internal sense, see 6752, 7010, 7014, 7089, 7382.

sRef Ex@14 @13 S0′ 8171. ‘Have no fear’ means that there should be no feeling of despair. This is clear from the meaning of ‘fearing’ as feeling horror, dealt with above in 8162, at this point feeling despair, for spiritual fear in temptations is at first a feeling of horror, and finally it is despair, spiritual fear being the fear of damnation.

sRef Ex@14 @13 S0′ 8172. ‘Stand firm and see the salvation of Jehovah’ means salvation from the Lord alone and not at all from themselves. This is clear from the meaning of ‘standing firm and seeing’ as faithfully believing (‘seeing’ means understanding, acknowledging, and faithfully believing, see 897, 2150, 2325, 2807, 3863, 3869, 4403-4421, 5400); and from the meaning of ‘the salvation of Jehovah’ as salvation from the Lord. At this point, where deliverance from temptations is the subject, salvation from the Lord alone and not at all from themselves is meant, the Lord being meant in the Word by ‘Jehovah’, see 1343, 1736, 2921, 3023, 3035, 5041, 5663, 6281, 6303, 6905, 6945, 6956. It is said here that they should faithfully believe that salvation comes from the Lord alone and not at all from themselves, because this is the chief thing to be believed in temptations. The person who believes when he is tempted that he has strength of his own with which he can offer resistance goes under. The reason for this is that he is subject to a falsity that leads him to ascribe merit to himself; and in doing this he claims that he himself accomplishes his salvation, in which case he shuts out influx from the Divine. But the person who believes that the Lord alone offers resistance in temptations is victorious, for he is guided by the truth and ascribes merit to the Lord; and he perceives that his salvation is accomplished by the Lord alone. A person whose faith is bonded to charity ascribes salvation wholly to the Lord and not at all to himself.

sRef Ex@14 @13 S0′ 8173. ‘Which He will accomplish today’ means which will continue into eternity. This is clear from the meaning of ‘today’ as that which is eternal, dealt with in 2838, 3998, 4304, 6165, 6984.

sRef Ex@14 @13 S0′ 8174. ‘For the Egyptians whom you see [today] you will see again no more for ever’ means that falsities which are moved aside once will remain moved aside even into eternity. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the Egyptians’ as those steeped in falsities arising from evil, dealt with in 8132, 8135, 8146, 8148, thus also the falsities themselves that arise from evil; and from the meaning of ‘seeing no more’, when falsities are spoken of, as their being moved aside, for the falsities residing with a person are not banished but moved aside (a person is held back from evils and the falsities arising from them, and maintained in good by the Lord, 1581, 2256, 2269, 2406, 4564); and from the meaning of ‘for ever’ as into eternity.

sRef Ex@14 @14 S0′ 8175. ‘Jehovah will fight for you’ means that the Lord alone endures the conflicts brought by temptations. This is clear from the meaning of ‘fighting for you’, when it refers to what Jehovah does in temptations, as enduring alone the conflicts brought by temptations, ‘Jehovah’ being the Lord, see just above in 8172. The reason why the Lord alone endures the conflicts brought by temptations and is conqueror is that the Divine alone can conquer the hells. If the Divine did not counteract them they would rush in like a mighty ocean, one hell after another; and man is utterly powerless to resist them, all the more so since a person’s selfhood is nothing but evil, and so is a hell from which the Lord drags him out then, and after that holds him back, see what has been stated in 1581, 1661, 1692, 6574.

sRef Ex@14 @14 S0′ 8176. ‘And you are to be silent’ means that by their own powers they will achieve [absolutely] nothing. This is clear from the meaning of ‘being silent’ as resting content and, since temptations are the subject, refusing to think or believe that they achieve anything by their own powers, regarding which matter see what has been stated and shown above in 8172, 8175. Even so this does not mean that they should stay their hands and wait for immediate influx; rather they should fight as though they acted from themselves, but nevertheless should acknowledge and believe that they act from the Lord, see 1712, 1937, 1947, 2882, 2883, 2891.

sRef Ex@14 @16 S0′ sRef Ex@14 @17 S0′ sRef Ex@14 @18 S0′ sRef Ex@14 @15 S0′ 8177. Verses 15-18 And Jehovah said to Moses, Why do you cry to Me? Speak to the children of Israel, and let them travel on. And you, lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea, and divide it; and let the children of Israel come into the middle of the sea on dry ground. And I, behold, I am hardening the hearts of the Egyptians, and they will come after them, and I will be glorified in Pharaoh, and in all his army, in his chariots, and in his horsemen. And the Egyptians will know that I am Jehovah, when I am glorified in Pharaoh, in his chariots, and in his horsemen.

‘And Jehovah said to Moses’ means an admonition. ‘Why do you cry to Me?’ means that there is no need of intercession. ‘Speak to the children of Israel’ means influx and perception. ‘And let them travel on’ means a further stage, continuing until their preparation has been accomplished. ‘And you, lift up your rod’ means the power of Divine Truth. ‘Stretch out your hand over the sea’ means the exercising of power where the hell of falsity arising from evil is situated. ‘Divide it’ means dispersing falsity from there. ‘And let the children of Israel come into the middle of the sea on dry ground’ means in order that those belonging to the spiritual Church may pass through in safety and without falsity flowing in. ‘And I, behold, I am hardening the hearts of the Egyptians’ means obstinate resistance by falsity arising from evil. ‘And they will come after them’ means the attempt to do violence by flowing in with falsity arising from evil. ‘And I will be glorified in Pharaoh, and in all his army, and in his chariots, and in his horsemen’ means that they are about to see the accomplishment of the dispersing of falsity and reasonings by the Divine Good of the Lord’s Divine Human. ‘And the Egyptians will know that I am Jehovah’ means in order that it may be known that the Lord alone is God, and apart from Him there is no other. ‘When I am glorified in Pharaoh, in his chariots, and in his horsemen’ means, as above, [known] from this, that they are about to see the accomplishment of the dispersing of falsity, of teachings upholding it, and of reasonings, by the Lord alone.

sRef Ex@14 @15 S0′ 8178. ‘And Jehovah said to Moses’ means an admonition. This is clear from the meaning of ‘Jehovah said’, when the subject is being raised and delivered from temptation, as an admonition, as in 7033, 7090.

sRef Ex@14 @15 S0′ 8179. ‘Why do you cry to Me?’ means that there is no need of intercession. This is clear from the meaning of ‘crying to Jehovah’ as interceding, that is, pleading for them to be delivered from temptation, and therefore the question ‘Why do you cry to Me?’ means, Why do you intercede when there is no need of intercession? And as there is no need of it the words ‘Speak to the children of Israel, and let them travel on’ immediately follow, meaning that the people will be given help, but that temptation will still go on until their preparation has been accomplished.

[2] With regard to there being no need of intercession, the situation is that when people are in the throes of temptation they usually stay their hands and resort solely to prayers, which they then pour forth feverishly, unaware that such prayers achieve nothing, but that they should battle against the falsities and evils which the hells introduce. The truths of faith are the means for fighting that battle, and they are of help because they strengthen the forms of good and the truths opposed to falsities and evils. In the conflicts brought by temptations furthermore a person should fight as if he did so in his own strength, yet he should acknowledge and believe that he does so in the Lord’s, see above in 8176. If a person does not fight as if in his own strength he does not make his own the goodness and truth which flow in from the Lord by way of heaven. But when a person does fight as if in his own strength and yet believes that he does so in the Lord’s, he does make those things his own. This gives him a new proprium or selfhood, called a heavenly proprium, which is a new will.

[3] Moreover people in the throes of temptation who take no action other than to send up prayers do not realize that if their temptation were terminated before running its full course their preparation for heaven would not be accomplished, and so they could not be saved. For this reason also little heed is paid to the prayers of those in the throes of temptation; for the Lord desires the end in view, which is the person’s salvation. The Lord knows that end, but the person does not, and the Lord does not do what prayers ask for if that is contrary to the end, which is salvation. The truth of this also becomes more firmly established with the person who conquers in temptations; but one who does not conquer entertains doubts about God’s help and power because he is not heard. Then sometimes, because he stays his hands, he gives in to a degree.

From all this one may see how to understand the explanation that there is no need of intercession, namely that one should not rely on prayer. For in prayer, when inspired by God, there is always the thought and belief that the Lord alone knows whether what is sought would be beneficial or not. Therefore the one who prays leaves the Lord to decide whether to listen to what he asks for, then accordingly pleads that the Lord’s will may be done, not his own, in keeping with the Lord’s words uttered in Gethsemane during His severest temptation, Matt. 26:39, 42, 44.

sRef Ex@14 @15 S0′ 8180. ‘Speak to the children of Israel’ means influx and perception. This is clear from the meaning of ‘speaking’ – when said of God’s truth, represented by ‘Moses’, addressing those belonging to the spiritual Church, who are ‘the children of Israel’ – as influx and consequent perception, as also in 2951, 5481, 5797, 7270, 8128.

sRef Ex@14 @15 S0′ 8181. ‘And let them travel on’ means a further stage, continuing until their preparation has been accomplished. This is clear from the meaning of ‘travelling on’ as a stage further and a continuation, dealt with in 4375, 4554, 4585, 5996. For this directive to travel on means that there should be no cry from them, that is, no pleading, but that the journeying should be continued towards the Sea Suph, and then through it towards the wilderness, that is, through hell, which they will pass through in safety, towards a succession of temptations continuing one after another, until their preparation has been accomplished. For the meaning of ‘the Sea Suph’ as hell, see 8099, 8137, 8148, and of ‘the wilderness’ as a state for undergoing temptations, 8098.

sRef Ex@14 @16 S0′ 8182. ‘And you, lift up your rod’ means the power of Divine Truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘rod’ as power, dealt with in 4013, 4015, 4876, 4936, 6947, 7011, 7026; and from the representation of Moses, to whom it is said that he should lift up his rod, as Divine Truth, already dealt with often.

sRef Ex@14 @16 S0′ 8183. ‘Stretch out your hand over the sea’ means the exercising of power where the hell of falsity arising from evil is situated. This is clear from the meaning of ‘stretching out the hand’ as an exercising of power, dealt with in 7673; and from the meaning of ‘the sea’, in this case the Sea Suph, as the hell in which the falsities arising from evil of people who have belonged to the Church are present, dealt with in 8099, 8137, 8148. More about this hell will in the Lord’s Divine mercy be told at the ends of the final chapters of Exodus, where the hells as known from experience will be the subject.*
* This proposal was not fulfilled, but presumably the material mentioned here concerning the hells appeared in the work published a few years later, in 1758, whose English title is Heaven and Hell.

sRef Ex@14 @16 S0′ 8184. ‘Divide it’ means dispersing falsity from there. This is clear from the meaning of ‘dividing that sea’ as dispersing the falsities arising from evil that are present in that hell; for the falsities there are seen as waters, in keeping with what has been shown above in 8099, 8137, 8148. When the pillar of angels in which the Lord is present passes through that hell the falsities depart, and as a consequence the waters there, which are the falsities, are parted asunder. From this it is evident that ‘dividing the sea’ means dispersing the falsities belonging to the hell that is represented by ‘the Sea Suph’.

sRef Ex@14 @16 S0′ sRef Ps@74 @15 S1′ sRef Ps@74 @14 S1′ 8185. ‘And let the children of Israel come into the middle of the sea on dry ground’ means in order that those belonging to the spiritual Church may pass through in safety and without falsity flowing in. This is clear from the meaning of ‘coming into (or entering) the middle’ as passing through; from the representation of ‘the children of Israel’ as those belonging to the spiritual Church, dealt with often; and from the meaning of ‘on dry ground’ as in safety and without falsity flowing in. Falsities arising from evil are meant by ‘the waters’ of that sea, 8137, 8138, and therefore ‘dry ground’ means without falsity. ‘Dry’ and ‘drying up’ have a similar meaning in David,

You broke in pieces the heads of Leviathan, You split open fountain and river, You dried up rivers of strength. Ps. 74:14, 15.

‘Drying up rivers of strength’ stands for dispersing quite powerful falsities.

sRef Zech@10 @10 S2′ sRef Zech@10 @12 S2′ sRef Zech@10 @11 S2′ sRef Zech@10 @8 S2′ sRef Zech@10 @9 S2′ [2] In Zechariah,

I will gather them, for I will redeem them. I will bring them back from the land of Egypt, and gather them from Assyria. And I will bring them to the land of Gilead and Lebanon. He will go through the sea of distress; but he will strike the waves in the sea, and dry up all the depths of the River. And the pride of Asshur will be thrown down, and the rod of Egypt will depart. And I will render them strong in Jehovah. Zech. 10:8-end.

This refers to those who in spiritual matters trust in themselves and their own wisdom, also to the dispersing of falsities through temptations. ‘The land of Egypt’ stands for factual knowledge; ‘Assyria’ stands for reasonings based on that knowledge; ‘going through the sea of distress’ stands for temptations; ‘striking the waves in the sea, and drying up the depths of the River’ stands for dispersing falsities from there; and ‘the pride of Asshur will be thrown down, and the rod of Egypt will depart’ stands for trusting no longer in their own wisdom but in wisdom received from the Lord, which is meant by ‘I will render them strong in Jehovah’.

sRef Isa@44 @27 S3′ sRef Isa@44 @26 S3′ sRef Isa@44 @3 S3′ [3] Likewise in Isaiah,

He who says to Jerusalem, You will be dwelt in, and to the cities of Judah, You will be built, and I will raise up her waste places. He who says to the abyss, Be dry! and I will dry up your rivers. Isa. 44:26, 27.

‘Saying to the abyss, Be dry!’ and ‘drying up its rivers’ stand for dispersing evils and falsities. But when ‘waters’ means truths, ‘drying up’ means a state that is truthless or devoid of truth, as in Isaiah,

I will pour out waters upon the thirsty land, and streams upon the dry. Isa. 44:3.

‘Waters’ and ‘streams’ stand for truths, ‘the dry land’ for the place that is truthless.

sRef Jer@50 @37 S4′ sRef Jer@50 @38 S4′ sRef Jer@50 @35 S4′ [4] In Jeremiah,

O sword against the Chaldeans and against the inhabitants of Babel! O sword against its horses and against its chariots! A drought on its waters, in order that they may dry up! Jer. 50:35, 37, 38.

‘The Chaldeans’ stands for those who render truths profane, and ‘the inhabitants of Babel’ for those who render forms of good profane, 1182, 1283, 1295, 1304, 1306-1308, 1321, 1322, 1326. ‘Sword’ stands for truth fighting against falsity, or for falsity fighting against truth, and from this for vastation, 2799, 4499, 6353, 7102; ‘horses’ stands for the power of understanding, 2761, 2762, 3217, 5321, 6125, 6534; ‘chariots’ stands for doctrinal teachings, 5321, 8146, 8148; and ‘a drought on its waters, in order that they may dry up’ stands for truths with no life at all in them owing to falsification.

But when the expressions ‘dry’ or ‘drying up’ are used in the Word in connection with other things, such as trees, plants, harvest, or bones, those things take on a contrary meaning. Also, in relation to the sea actual land is called the dry land; and in that case ‘the dry land’ has reference to good, and ‘the sea’ to truth.

sRef Ex@14 @17 S0′ 8186. ‘And I, behold, I am hardening the hearts of the Egyptians’ means obstinate resistance by falsity arising from evil. This is clear from the meaning of ‘hardening the heart’ as obstinacy, dealt with in 7272, 7300, 7305, 7616; and from the representation of ‘the Egyptians’ as those steeped in falsities arising from evil, dealt with in 8132, 8135, 8148. When the Word says that Jehovah hardens the heart and also that He is responsible for something ill, the meaning in the internal sense, where the truth itself exists unclothed, is that people ruled by falsity and evil are themselves the ones to harden their hearts and to be responsible for the ill that happens to them, see 2447, 6071, 6991, 6997, 7533, 7632, 7877, 7926.

sRef Ex@14 @17 S0′ 8187. ‘And they will come after them’ means the attempt to do violence by flowing in with falsity arising from evil. This is clear from the meaning of ‘coming after them’ as flowing in with falsity arising from evil, also the attempt to bring under their control, thus to do violence. For ‘drawing near’ means influx, 8159, ‘travelling after them’ means a more immediate influx and communication, 8161, and ‘pursuing them’ means the attempt to bring under their control, 8136, 8152, 8154, so that ‘coming after them’ means the attempt to do violence by flowing in with falsity arising from evil.

sRef Ex@14 @17 S0′ 8188. ‘And I will be glorified in Pharaoh, and in all his army, and in his chariots, and in his horsemen’ means that they are about to see the accomplishment of the dispersing of falsity and reasonings by the Divine Good of the Lord’s Divine Human. This is clear from the meaning of ‘being glorified in Pharaoh and his army’ as the submerging into hell of those ruled by falsity arising from evil, and their engulfment by falsities as by waters, accomplished simply by the presence of the Lord’s Divine Human, dealt with above in 8137; from the representation of ‘Pharaoh’ as those steeped in falsities arising from evil; from the meaning of ‘his army’ as falsities; from the meaning of ‘his chariots’ as teachings that uphold falsity, and from the meaning of ‘his horsemen’ as false reasonings, dealt with above in 8146, 8148.

sRef Ex@14 @18 S0′ 8189. ‘And the Egyptians will know that I am Jehovah’ means in order that it may be known that the Lord alone is God, and apart from Him there is no other. This is clear from the explanations in 7401, 7444, 7544, 7598, 7636, where similar words occur.

sRef Ex@14 @18 S0′ 8190. ‘When I am glorified in Pharaoh, in his chariots, and in his horsemen’ means that they are about to see the accomplishment of the dispersing of falsity, and of teachings and reasonings that uphold falsity, by the Lord alone, as just above in 8188.

sRef Ex@14 @22 S0′ sRef Ex@14 @20 S0′ sRef Ex@14 @19 S0′ sRef Ex@14 @21 S0′ 8191. Verses 19-22 And the angel of God travelled on, marching before the camp of Israel; and he went behind them. And the pillar of cloud travelled from before them and stood behind them. And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was cloud and darkness [for the former], and it lit up the night [for the latter]. And the latter did not come near the former the whole night. And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and Jehovah caused the sea to go away by a strong east wind the whole night, and made the sea into dry ground; and the waters were divided. And the children of Israel came into the middle of the sea on dry ground; and the waters were a wall for them on their right and on their left.

‘And the angel of God travelled on’ means rearrangement by Divine Truth. ‘Marching before the camp of Israel’ means which involved the Church’s truths and forms of good. ‘And he went behind them’ means protection to prevent the inflow of the falsity of evil into the will. ‘And the pillar of cloud travelled from before them and stood behind them’ means the Lord’s presence protecting things of the will as it had previously protected those of the understanding. ‘And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel’ means that it came between the falsities of evil on the one side and the truths of good on the other. ‘And it was cloud and darkness [for the former]’ means that the falsity arising from evil on the one side was intensified. ‘And it lit up the night [for the latter]’ means that the truth springing from good on the other side was lightened. ‘And the latter did not come near the former’ means that as a result no communication took place. ‘The whole night’ means in the state of obscurity. ‘And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea’ means the exercising of power by God’s truth over hell. ‘And Jehovah caused the sea to go away by a strong east wind’ means the agent through which falsity was dispersed. ‘The whole night’ means in the state of obscurity. ‘And made the sea into dry ground’ means the dispersing of falsity. ‘And the waters were divided’ means separation from truths, and removal. ‘And the children of Israel came into the middle of the sea on dry ground’ means the entrance into hell by those who belonged to the spiritual Church and their passage through it in safety and without falsity flowing in. ‘And the waters were a wall for them on their right and on their left’ means that they were held back from falsities on every side.

sRef Ex@14 @19 S0′ 8192. ‘And the angel of God travelled on’ means rearrangement by Divine Truth. This is clear from the meaning here of ‘travelling on’ as rearrangement, the reason why ‘travelling on’ means rearrangement being that the pillar of cloud, which was a group of angels, which had previously gone ahead of the children of Israel, now took itself round between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel, thereby bringing darkness among the Egyptians and light among the children of Israel (since these conditions were arranged by the Lord, by means of the angel of God or the pillar travelling round and placing himself between the two camps, ‘travelling’ here means rearrangement); and from the meaning of ‘the angel of God’ as Divine Truth, which is likewise the meaning of ‘God’. For in the Word when truth is the subject the name ‘God’ is used, but when good is the subject the name ‘Jehovah’ appears, 2586, 2769, 2807, 2822, 3921, 4402, 7010, 7268, 7873.

[2] As regards ‘angels’, it should be recognized that in the Word they serve to mean the Lord, 1925, 3039, 4085, which is why the Lord Himself is called ‘the angel’, 6280, 6831. This being so, Divine Truth is meant by ‘angels’, for Divine Truth emanating from the Lord makes heaven. It therefore also makes the angels who constitute heaven, for they are angels in the measure that they receive Divine Truth coming from the Lord. This may also be recognized from the consideration that angels altogether refuse to entertain, indeed they loathe the idea of attributing to themselves any truth or goodness, since this is the Lord’s with them. That also is why the Lord is said to be the All-in-all of heaven, and why those in heaven are said to be ‘in the Lord’. By virtue of Divine Truth which they receive from the Lord angels are also called ‘gods’ in the Word, 4295, 7268; and the word for God in the original language is for this reason plural.

[3] In addition to all this it should be recognized that in the Word the singular ‘angel’ may be used when in fact very many are meant. That is so here, where the expression ‘the angel of God’ is used, meaning the pillar going before the children of Israel, which was composed of very many angels. The Word also refers to angels by name, such as Michael, Raphael,* and others. People unacquainted with the internal sense of the Word think that Michael or Raphael is one particular angel who is chief among those who are with him. But none of these names is used in the Word to mean one particular angel; instead some actual function performed by angels is meant, and so also the Lord’s Divine Nature in respect of that function.
* Raphael is not mentioned in OT or NT, but in the Apocrypha. Gabriel is probably intended.

sRef Ex@14 @19 S0′ 8193. ‘Marching before the camp of Israel’ means which involved the Church’s truths and forms of good. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the camp’ as truths and forms of good; for ‘the camp’ means the whole assembly of Israel, and ‘the assembly of Israel’ means all forms of good and truths in their entirety, 7830, 7843, and for this reason also ‘an encampment’ means an arrangement as determined by truths and forms of good, 8103(end), 8130, 8131, 8155. As for ‘Israel’, that the spiritual Church is meant, this has been shown quite often.

sRef Ex@14 @19 S0′ 8194. ‘And he went behind them’ means protection to prevent the inflow of the falsity of evil into the will. This is clear from the meaning of ‘going behind the children of Israel’ as protection to prevent them from being attacked by the Egyptians, in the internal sense to prevent the inflow of falsities arising from evil, which are meant by ‘the Egyptians’, 8132, 8135, 8148. The prevention of their flowing into the will is meant because in the Grand Man, or spiritual world, things of the will are located at the back or behind and those of the understanding before the face or in front.

[2] With regard to what flows into a person’s will and into his understanding, it should be recognized that the Lord takes the utmost care to prevent those in hell from flowing into a person’s will. For if they were to enter his will after he has been regenerated or become an embodiment of the Church he would be done for, since his own will is nothing but evil. This explains why a person belonging to the spiritual Church undergoes regeneration of the understanding part of his mind, and why the new will is formed in the understanding part, in complete isolation from the person’s hereditary will; regarding this subject, see 863, 875, 927, 1023, 1043, 1044, 2256, 4328, 4493, 5113. From all this one may now see why it is that ‘he went behind them’ means protection to prevent the inflow of the falsity of evil into the will.

sRef Ex@14 @19 S0′ 8195. ‘And the pillar of cloud travelled from before them and stood behind them’ means the Lord’s presence protecting things of the will as it had previously protected those of the understanding. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the pillar of cloud’ as the Lord’s presence, dealt with in 8110 (it was a group of angels in which the Lord was present); from the meaning of ‘from before them’ as the understanding part, and of ‘behind them’ as the will part, dealt with immediately above in 8194. The fact that protection is meant is self-evident.

sRef Ex@14 @20 S0′ 8196. ‘And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel’ means that it came between the falsities of evil on the one side and the forms of the good of truth on the other. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the camp’ as forms of good and truths in their entirety, dealt with just above in 8193, and so in the contrary sense as evils and falsities, likewise in their entirety. ‘The camp of the Egyptians’ is consequently falsities of evil, since falsities that arise from evil are meant by ‘the Egyptians’, 8132, 8135, 8148, and ‘the camp of Israel’ is forms of the good of truth, since truths which spring from good are meant by ‘Israel’, 7957. The fact that ‘coming between them’ means preventing the inflow of falsities arising from evil is self-evident.

sRef Ex@14 @20 S0′ 8197. ‘And it was cloud and darkness [for the former]’ means that the falsity arising from evil on the one side was intensified; ‘and it lit up the night [for the latter]’ means that the truth springing from good on the other side grew brighter. This is clear from the meaning of ‘cloud and darkness’ as the intensification of falsity arising from evil (‘cloud’ means falsity, see 1043, 1047, 8137, 8138, as also does ‘darkness’, 1839, 1860, 4418, 4531, 7688, 7711); and from the meaning of ‘lighting up the night’ as the brightening of truth springing from good. ‘A pillar of fire by night’ means a state of dimmed truth, moderated by enlightenment from good, 8108.

[2] With regard to the pillar, that it brought darkness to the Egyptians but light among the children of Israel, the situation is that the Lord’s presence, which is meant here by ‘the pillar’, is heavenly light itself. From this heaven derives its light, a light that is a thousand times brighter than light in the world at midday. Yet the same light turns into thick darkness among the evil, even though they may be in actual light; and it turns to even thicker darkness as the falsity arising from evil among them grows in intensity. The reason for this is that God’s truth coming from the Lord appears before angels’ eyes as light. But it cannot appear as light to those steeped in falsities arising from evil, only as thick darkness, since falsity is the opposite of truth and snuffs it out. This is why the pillar, which was the Lord’s presence, brought cloud and darkness to the Egyptians, ‘the Egyptians’ meaning those steeped in falsities arising from evil, and lit up the night among the children of Israel, ‘the children of Israel’ meaning those guided by truth springing from good. The Lord appears to each person in a way suited to the kind of person he is, see 1861(end), 6832.

sRef Ex@14 @20 S0′ 8198. ‘And the latter did not come near the former’ means that as a result no communication took place. This is clear from the meaning of ‘drawing near’ as influx and communication, dealt with in 8159.

sRef Ex@14 @20 S0′ 8199. ‘The whole night’ means in the state of obscurity. This is clear from the meaning of ‘night’ as a state of obscurity so far as the truth and good of faith are concerned, dealt with in 1712, 6000. Here ‘night’ is used to mean the obscurity immediately following temptations, for those who are delivered from them pass into obscurity first before moving on into clearness. The falsities and evils that were introduced by the hells still cling to them for quite some time and are dissipated only gradually.

sRef Ex@14 @21 S0′ sRef John@1 @3 S1′ 8200. ‘And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea’ means the exercising of power by God’s truth over hell. This is clear from the meaning of ‘stretching out the hand’ as an exercising of power, dealt with in 7673, 8183; from the representation of ‘Moses’ as God’s truth, dealt with often; and from the meaning of ‘the sea’, in this case the Sea Suph, as hell, dealt with in 8099, 8137, 8138.* The expression ‘the exercising of power by God’s truth’ is used because God’s total power is exercised through the truth that emanates from the Lord. This truth created all things, according to the following in John,

All things were made through the Word, and without Him nothing was made that was made. John 1:3.

‘The Word’ is the Lord in respect of Divine Truth. Through this Truth all things in heaven and in hell are arranged into order. It is the source of all order on earth too; and all miracles were accomplished through it.

[2] In short, Divine Truth holds all power within itself, so completely that it is power itself. There are some in the next life who possess truth in fuller measure than others. This gives them power which is so great that they can pass through hell without any risk to themselves. At the presence of these people those in hell flee this way and that. There are also some who use the truth from God to exercise power magically. These and the former will be spoken of at the ends of chapters, in which in the Lord’s Divine mercy the hells will be the subject.** People who contemplate the causes of things from the standpoint of external and worldly matters inevitably see the truth from God as something that exists merely on a thought-level and has no real existence beyond that. That truth however is the supreme essential entity from which all things in both worlds – the spiritual world and the natural world – derive their existence.
* In his rough draft Sw. has 8099, 8137, 8148. Possibly 8099, 8131, 8183 is intended.
** This proposal was not fulfilled, but presumably the material mentioned here concerning the hells appeared in the work published a few years later, in 1758, whose English title is Heaven and Hell.

sRef Ex@14 @21 S0′ 8201. ‘And Jehovah caused the sea to go away by a strong east wind’ means the agent through which falsity was dispersed. This is clear from the meaning of ‘causing to go away’ as dispersing; from the meaning of ‘the sea’ as falsity, ‘the sea’ here meaning its waters, which are falsities, see 8137, 8138; and from the meaning of ‘an east wind’ as the agent of destruction, dealt with in 7679, here of the destruction of falsity, thus of the dispersing of it.

sRef Ex@14 @21 S0′ 8202. ‘The whole night’ means in the state of obscurity, as above in 8199.

sRef Ex@14 @21 S0′ 8203. ‘And made the sea into dry ground’ means the dispersing of falsity. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the sea’ as falsity, as just above in 8201; and from the meaning of ‘making into dry ground’ as dispersing it. ‘Passing through on dry ground’, said in connection with the waters of the sea when they had been removed, means doing so in safety and without falsity flowing in, see above in 8185.

sRef Ex@14 @21 S0′ 8204. ‘And the waters were divided’ means separation from truths, and removal. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the waters being divided’ as the dispersing and parting asunder of falsity, dealt with above in 8184, thus separation from truths, and removal.

sRef Ex@14 @22 S0′ 8205. ‘And the children of Israel came into the middle of the sea on dry ground’ means the entrance into hell by those who belonged to the spiritual Church and their passage through it in safety and without falsity flowing in. This is clear from the explanation above in 8185, where similar words occur.

sRef Ex@14 @22 S0′ 8206. ‘And the waters were a wall for them on their right and on their left’ means that they were held back from falsities on every side. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the waters’ – the waters of that sea – as falsities arising from evil, dealt with in 8137, 8138; from the meaning of ‘being a wall for them’ as being held back from those falsities, dealt with below; and from the meaning of ‘on their right and on their left’ as on every side. The reason why ‘being a wall for them’ – when said of ‘the waters’, by which falsities are meant – denotes being held back from falsities is that the situation with a person is as follows: When he is maintained by the Lord in goodness and truth falsities and evils are removed. Having been removed they stand around him like a wall, for they cannot enter the area where goodness and truth are. The reason for this is that goodness and truth have the Lord present within them, and the Lord’s presence repels evil and falsity, on every side; for goodness and truth are the complete opposites of evil and falsity and therefore cannot exist together with them without one destroying the other. [2] Goodness accompanied by truth destroys, that is, removes evil accompanied by falsity, because goodness is from God and consequently possesses all power, whereas evil is from hell and therefore possesses no power at all. Goodness acts on internal levels, whereas evil acts on external ones. When the evils accompanied by falsities residing with a person are removed they stand around him, as stated, like a wall. They are constantly attempting to rush in on him, but they cannot do so because the Lord’s presence, residing in the goodness and truth, holds them back. These are the considerations meant by the waters being like a wall for them on the left and on the right. Regarding a person’s being held back from evil and falsity through being maintained by the Lord in goodness and truth, see 1581, 2406, 4564. Yet no one can be held back from evil and maintained in good unless he has received that ability through exercising charity in the world. A life of good, that is, a life led in accordance with the truths of faith, and therefore an affection for or a love of good, achieves this. The person who has a love of and affection for good as a result of the life he leads can be in a sphere of goodness and truth, but not one who through the life he leads has taken on the nature of evil.

sRef Ex@14 @23 S0′ sRef Ex@14 @24 S0′ sRef Ex@14 @25 S0′ 8207. Verses 23-25 And the Egyptians pursued, and came after them – all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen – into the middle of the sea. And so it was in the morning watch, that Jehovah looked out onto the camp of the Egyptians, from within the pillar of fire and cloud, and troubled the camp of the Egyptians. And He took off the wheels of his chariots and made them* drive heavily; and the Egyptians said, Let us flee before Israel, for Jehovah fights for them against the Egyptians.

‘And the Egyptians pursued’ means the attempt by falsity arising from evil to do violence. ‘And came after them’ means the attempt to flow in. ‘All Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen – into the middle of the sea’ means factual knowledge belonging to a perverted understanding, doctrinal teachings upholding falsity, and reasonings – that they filled hell. ‘And so it was in the morning watch’ means a state of thick darkness and perdition for those steeped in falsity arising from evil, and a state of enlightenment and salvation for those guided by truth springing from good. ‘That Jehovah looked out onto the camp of the Egyptians’ means Divine influx reaching out from Him in the direction of those who were attempting to do violence by means of falsities. ‘From within the pillar of fire and cloud’ means thus the presence of God’s goodness and truth there. ‘And troubled the camp of the Egyptians’ means that as a result all their reaching out with falsity arising from evil recoiled on them. ‘And He took off the wheels of his chariots’ means that the power to advance falsities was taken away. ‘And made them drive heavily’ means resistance and lack of power. ‘And the Egyptians said’ means their thought then. ‘Let us flee before Israel’ means separation from those governed by the good of truth and guided by the truth of good. ‘For Jehovah fights for them against the Egyptians’ means that the Lord alone endures the battle against falsities and evils.
* i.e. the wheels

sRef Ex@14 @23 S0′ 8208. ‘And the Egyptians pursued’ means the attempt by falsity arising from evil to do violence. This is clear from the meaning of ‘pursuing’, when done by the Egyptians, as the attempt to bring under their control, dealt with in 8136, 8152, 8154, thus to do violence; and from the representation of ‘the Egyptians’ as those steeped in falsities arising from evil, dealt with in 8132, 8135, 8146, 8148, and so also as falsities arising from evil.

sRef Ex@14 @23 S0′ 8209. ‘And came after them’ means the attempt to flow in. This is clear from the meaning of ‘coming after someone’, when done by those steeped in falsities arising from evil, as the attempt to do violence by flowing in with falsity arising from evil, dealt with in 8187. The reason why it is an attempt is that genii and spirits belonging to hell cannot inflict ill on the good, yet are nevertheless constantly attempting to do so. There is a sphere emanating from the hells, which may be called a sphere of endeavours; this is a sphere of doing ill. I have also been allowed sometimes to perceive this sphere. That attempt to flow in exists constantly, and is actualized the moment any opportunity presents itself. But that sphere is counteracted by a sphere of endeavours by heaven, which emanates from the Lord; this is a sphere of doing good, which has all power within it since it has a Divine origin.

[2] Nevertheless equilibrium is maintained between those diametrically opposed types of endeavour, to the end that a person may be in freedom and so have freedom to choose, and to the end that he may be able to be reformed; for all reformation takes place in freedom, and no reformation without it. Spiritually, attempting something is the same as willing it. While a person is being reformed he is kept in a state of equilibrium, that is, in freedom between willing good and willing evil. The closer he moves at this time towards willing good, the closer he moves to heaven and the further away from hell. His new will, acquired at this time from the Lord, also comes more and more to prevail over the will properly his own, which he acquired by heredity from his parents and then through his own actions in life. When therefore a person’s reformation has progressed so far that he wills good and has an affection for it, good removes evil, since the Lord is present within that good. For good has its origin in the Lord, and so is the Lord’s, indeed is the Lord. From all this one may see what the situation is so far as the things attempting to flow into him are concerned.

sRef Ex@14 @23 S0′ 8210. ‘All Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen – into the middle of the sea’ means factual knowledge belonging to a perverted understanding, doctrinal teachings upholding falsity, and reasonings – that they filled hell. This is clear from the meaning of ‘Pharaoh’s horses’ as factual knowledge belonging to a perverted understanding, from the meaning of ‘Pharaoh’s chariots’ as doctrinal teachings upholding falsity, and from the meaning of ‘Pharaoh’s horsemen’ as reasonings based on these, all dealt with above in 8146, 8148; and from the meaning of ‘into the middle of the sea’ as filling hell.

[2] The reason why these three that were constituents of Pharaoh’s army – horses, chariots, and horsemen – are now mentioned again here is that the final state in the vastation of those belonging to the Church who have championed faith separated from charity and led a life of evil is now at hand. This state is one of being cast into hell; and being cast into hell is being crowded around by falsities arising from evil. For when all the truth and goodness residing with the evil have been laid waste and those people have been abandoned to the evil and the falsity arising from it that have ruled their lives, the hells with which they have been in contact through the evils ruling their lives are opened. From there all the evils which they have made their own rapidly converge on them, and the falsities which well out of the evils constitute then the sphere surrounding them, a sphere which looks like a thick cloud, or like water. Once all this has taken place they are in hell, for now they have been shut off from all contact with heaven, and also have been separated from other hells. [3] The expression ‘being cast into hell’ is used to mean this. This is the reason why the horses, chariots, and horsemen are mentioned now, when they went into the middle of the sea; for as has been stated, ‘the Sea Suph’ means hell, and ‘horses, chariots, and horsemen’ all the falsities and everything constituting falsity arising from evil which were loosed onto those people, in order that the falsity arising from evil, by its very nature, might separate them from all other hells. These are the matters which are dealt with specifically in verses 24-28 that immediately follow.

sRef Ex@14 @24 S0′ 8211. ‘And so it was in the morning watch’ means a state of thick darkness and perdition for those steeped in falsity arising from evil, and a state of enlightenment and salvation for those guided by truth springing from good. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the morning watch’ as a state of enlightenment and salvation, and in the contrary sense as a state of thick darkness and perdition. The reason why ‘the morning watch’ has this meaning is that states of faith and love in the next life are like the times of day in the world. That is to say, they are like morning, midday, evening, and night; and these therefore also correspond to those states, 2788, 5672, 5862, 6110. The states also change in almost the same ways. Whenever change takes place morning, and in particular twilight, is an end and a beginning; for night comes to an end and day begins. In that state to which morning corresponds the good begin to be enlightened in matters of faith and to grow warmer in aspects of charity. The opposite also takes place, for then the evil begin to be overshadowed by falsities and to be chilled by evils. Consequently morning for the latter is a state of thick darkness and perdition, but for the former a state of enlightenment and salvation.

[2] These states in heaven are what give rise to the states of light and heat on earth, and also the states of thick darkness and cold, which come round in turn each year and each day. Whatever arises in the natural world has its origin and cause in those things that arise in the spiritual world; for to be sure the whole natural order is nothing other than a theatre representative of the Lord’s kingdom, 3483, 4939, 5173, 5962. And this is the reason for correspondences. Variations of light and shade on earth, also of heat and cold, are indeed attributable to the sun, that is to say, to its different heights in the sky each year and each day, and in different parts of the earth. Yet these causes, which are proximate ones and exist in the natural world, were created in accordance with those things that exist in the spiritual world. The latter are the prior efficient causes from which the former, their posterior causes, arise in the natural world. For nothing in a state of order can ever exist on a natural level if its cause and origin do not lead back to a spiritual level, that is, to the Divine operating through that level.

sRef Isa@17 @11 S3′ sRef Isa@17 @14 S3′ sRef Hos@10 @15 S3′ sRef Gen@19 @16 S3′ sRef Gen@19 @17 S3′ sRef Ps@143 @9 S3′ sRef Gen@19 @15 S3′ sRef Ezek@7 @7 S3′ sRef Ps@143 @8 S3′ sRef Isa@33 @2 S3′ sRef Ezek@7 @6 S3′ sRef Ezek@7 @5 S3′ [3] Since ‘the morning’ means the beginning of enlightenment and salvation in respect of the good, and the beginning of thick darkness and perdition in respect of the evil, it therefore says here that in the morning watch Jehovah looked out onto the camp of the Egyptians and troubled it, and then that He took off the wheels of the chariots, and overturned them into the middle of the sea, while on the other hand He saved the children of Israel. All this now makes plain what is meant in the spiritual sense by the following texts in the Word: In Isaiah,

In the day you will cause your plant to grow, and in the morning your seed to flourish. Isa. 17:11.

In the same prophet,

Around evening time, behold, terror! Before the morning, he is no more. Isa. 17:14.

In the same prophet,

O Jehovah, be their arm every morning, also our salvation in the time of distress. Isa. 33:2.

In Ezekiel,

Thus said the Lord Jehovih, An evil, a single evil; behold, it has come. An end has come, the end has come; the morning has come on you, O inhabitant of the land, a day of tumult is near. Ezek. 7:5-7.

In Hosea,

Thus He did to you, O Bethel,* on account of your great wickedness;** in the morning the king of Israel will surely be cut off. Hosea 10:15

In David,

Cause me to hear Your mercy in the morning; deliver me from my enemies, O Jehovah. Ps. 143:8, 9.

Also in Gen. 19:15 and following verses, stating that when dawn ascended the Lord saved Lot and rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah.

sRef Dan@8 @14 S4′ sRef Isa@21 @12 S4′ sRef Isa@21 @11 S4′ sRef Zeph@3 @6 S4′ sRef Zeph@3 @5 S4′ [4] Since ‘morning’ means a state of enlightenment and salvation of the good, and a state of thick darkness and perdition of the evil, ‘morning’ also means the time of the last judgement, when those governed by good are to be saved and those ruled by evil will perish. It consequently means the end of a former Church and the beginning of a new Church, which are meant by a last judgement in the Word, 900, 931, 1733, 1850, 2117-2133, 3353, 4057, 4535. This is the meaning of ‘morning’ in Daniel,

He said to me, Up to the evening [when it is becoming] morning two thousand three hundred times, and then the sanctuary will be made correct. Dan. 8:14.

And in Zephaniah,

Jehovah … in the morning, in the morning He will bring His judgement to light; He will not fail. I will cut off nations, and their towers*** will be devastated. Zeph. 3:5, 6.

Also in Isaiah,

One was calling to me from Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? The watchman said, Morning comes, and also the night. If you are inquiring, inquire, return, come. Isa. 21:11, 12.

In these places ‘morning’ stands for the Lord’s Coming, and for enlightenment and salvation then, and so has reference to a new Church. ‘Night’ stands for the state of mankind and the Church then, that they are steeped in utter falsities arising from evil.

sRef Ps@121 @6 S5′ sRef Ps@121 @7 S5′ sRef Ps@121 @5 S5′ sRef Ps@121 @3 S5′ sRef Ps@121 @4 S5′ sRef Isa@62 @6 S5′ sRef Jer@31 @6 S5′ [5] The term ‘the morning watch’ is used because the night was divided into watches, the last of the night and the first of the day being the morning watch. The watchmen were on top of the walls, looking to see whether an enemy was coming and declaring what they saw by shouting it out. In the internal representative sense they are used to mean the Lord, and His keeping watch to mean constant presence and protection, 7989, as in David,

Your watchman will not slumber; behold, the watchman of Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. Jehovah is your watchman; Jehovah is your shade on your right hand. By day the sun will not strike you, nor the moon in the night. Jehovah will guard you from all evil; He will guard your soul. Ps. 121:3-7.

‘Watchmen’ is used in addition to mean prophets and priests, consequently the Word, in Isaiah,

Upon your walls, O Jerusalem, I have placed watchmen; all day and all night they will not be silent, calling Jehovah to mind. Isa. 62:6.

And in Jeremiah,

It is a day [when] the watchmen will cry on Mount Ephraim, Arise in order that we may go up to Zion, to Jehovah our God. Jer. 31 :6.
* The Latin here possibly means Thus he [Shalmanezer] did to you, O Bethel or even Thus Bethel did to you.
** lit. on account of the wickedness of your wickedness
*** lit. angles or corners

sRef Ex@14 @24 S0′ 8212. ‘That Jehovah looked out onto the camp of the Egyptians’ means Divine influx reaching out from Him in the direction of those who were attempting to do violence by means of falsities. This is clear from the meaning of ‘looking out’, when it has reference to Jehovah, as influx reaching out from Him (for by the Lord’s looking out onto someone His flowing in is clearly meant, since He makes Himself present at that time and imparts a perception of what is good and true to those who are guided by truth springing from good that comes from Him, which is effected by means of influx; and this is why, when angels look at someone, they pour into him the affection that holds sway in their lives); and from the meaning of ‘the camp of the Egyptians’ as falsities arising from evil, dealt with in 8193, 8196. And since at that time those who were steeped in falsities arising from evil were pursuing the children of Israel the attempt to use force by means of falsities is also meant, 8208.

sRef Ex@14 @24 S0′ 8213. ‘From within the pillar of fire and cloud’ means [thus] the presence of God’s goodness and truth there. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the pillar of fire and cloud’ as the Lord’s presence, dealt with in 8110, consequently the presence of God’s goodness and truth, since where the Lord is, so is goodness and truth. For what specifically is meant by ‘the pillar of fire and cloud’, see 8106, 8106(end), 8108.

sRef Ex@14 @24 S0′ sRef Matt@7 @12 S0′ 8214. ‘And troubled the camp of the Egyptians’ means that as a result all their reaching out with falsity arising from evil recoiled on them. This is clear from the meaning of ‘troubling the camp of the Egyptians’ as the recoiling on them of the falsities arising from evil which they attempted to inflict on those governed by truth and goodness. The reason why such things are meant by these words is that the Lord’s presence among the evil produces that effect. For the evil who wish to do violence to the good by introducing falsity and evil on them expose themselves to retaliatory punishment, which involves the recoiling on themselves of the falsities and evils which they aim to inflict on others. This punishment, called retaliatory punishment, has its origin in the following law of order existing in heaven,

All things whatever you wish people to do to you, do also to them; this is the Law and the Prophets. Matt. 7:12.

Therefore those who are moved by good, or from the heart, to do good receive good from others; and also conversely, those who are moved by evil, or from the heart, to do evil receive evil from others. So it is that all good has its reward attached to it, and all evil its punishment, 696, 967, 1857, 6559. From all this it is now evident that ‘Jehovah troubled the camp of the Egyptians’ means that all their reaching out with falsity arising from evil recoiled on them, and that this was the reason for their being troubled. The Lord’s presence is what gives rise to this among the evil, see 7989.

sRef Ex@14 @25 S0′ 8215. ‘And He took off the wheels of his chariots’ means that the power to advance falsities was taken away. This is clear from the meaning of ‘taking off’ as taking away; from the meaning of ‘wheel’ as the power to go forward, dealt with below; and from the meaning of ‘Pharaoh’s chariots’ as doctrinal teachings that uphold falsity, dealt with in 8146, 8148, thus as falsities. What ‘wheel’ means in the genuine sense may be recognized from the meaning of ‘chariot’. There were two kinds of chariots* – those used to carry merchandise, and those used in battle. Chariots used for carrying merchandise served to mean doctrinal teachings that conveyed the truth, or in the contrary sense to mean those that conveyed falsity. Chariots used in battle likewise served to mean doctrinal teachings in either of those senses, but teachings involved in conflict. That is, they were used to mean actual truths or actual falsities lined up for conflict. From this one may see what ‘a chariot wheel’ is used to mean, namely the power to move forward, here to advance falsities and fight against truths. Since this power belongs to the understanding part of a person’s mind, ‘wheel’ also means the understanding so far as matters of doctrine are concerned.

[2] In the next life chariots are frequently seen, laden with various kinds of merchandise; and these chariots differ from one another in outward appearance and size. When they are seen they serve to mean truths in their entirety, or doctrinal teachings, which are so to speak receptacles of truth, while their ‘merchandise’ serves to mean knowledge or cognitions that have different kinds of use. These things are seen in heaven when religious teachings are the object of conversation among angels. For since angels’ conversation is incomprehensible to people who are below them, representatives are used to present it. To some it is presented, as has been stated, by means of chariots, which represent visually to them every single detail of the conversation; from that representation the contents of the conversation can be understood and seen in an instant. Some details are seen in the outward appearance of the chariot, some in its structure, some in its colour, some in its wheels, some in the horses pulling it, and others in the merchandise that the chariot is carrying. From these representatives springs the use of ‘chariots’ in the Word to mean doctrinal teachings.

sRef Isa@5 @28 S3′ [3] From all this one may in some measure be able to see that ‘chariot wheels’ means power that the understanding possesses; for just as a chariot is moved and sent forward by means of its wheels, so are the truths contained in doctrinal teachings sent into action by the power of understanding. This is also the meaning of ‘wheels’ in Isaiah,

Whose arrows are sharp, and all bows bent. His horses’ hoofs are considered as flint, His wheels as the whirlwind. Isa. 5:28.

This refers to one who lays truth waste, ‘arrows’ being falsities, and ‘bows’ false doctrine, 2686, 2709, while ‘the hoofs’ of the horses are the sensory knowledge belonging to perverted powers of understanding, 7729, ‘wheels’ powers to pervert and destroy truths, like a whirlwind.

sRef Ezek@1 @21 S4′ sRef Ezek@1 @20 S4′ sRef Ezek@1 @16 S4′ sRef Ezek@1 @15 S4′ sRef Ezek@1 @19 S4′ sRef Ezek@1 @18 S4′ sRef Ezek@1 @17 S4′ [4] In Ezekiel,

I saw the living creatures, and behold, one wheel was on the earth with [each of] the living creatures, beside its four faces. The appearance of the wheels and their works were like a kind of tarshish,** and the four had the same likeness. In addition the appearance of them, and their works, was like a wheel in the middle of a wheel. They went along on four sides in the direction they went; they did not turn aside as they went. Their rims were so high that they were awesome;*** in addition their rims were full of eyes round about all four of them. Thus when the living creatures went, the wheels went along with them. The spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. Ezek. 1:15-21; 10:9-14.

The Lord’s providence is meant by ‘the four living creatures’, which were cherubs, 308, and Divine intelligence, or foresight, by ‘the wheels’. This is why it says that the wheels went along together with the living creatures, that their rims were full of eyes, and also that the spirit of the living creatures, which was the truth of wisdom, was in them.

sRef 1Ki@7 @30 S5′ sRef 1Ki@7 @32 S5′ sRef 1Ki@7 @33 S5′ sRef 1Ki@7 @31 S5′ sRef Dan@7 @9 S5′ [5] In Daniel,

I saw, until thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days was seated His clothing was white as snow, the hair of His head like pure wool. His throne was flames of fire; His wheels were burning fire. Dan. 7:9.

‘The Ancient of Days’ here is the Lord in respect of Divine Goodness; ‘the thrones’ that were placed are falsities; ‘His clothing’ is God’s truth in its outward appearance; ‘the hair of His head’ is God’s goodness in its outward appearance; ‘His throne’ is heaven and the Church; ‘His wheels’ are forms of wisdom and intelligence, that is, God’s truths, and ‘burning fire’ the flames of love and charity. Under the ten lavers around Solomon’s temple there were also

Wheels of bronze. The workmanship of the wheels was like the workmanship of a chariot wheel; their axles,**** and their rims*****, and their tires, and their spokes were all of cast [bronze]. I Kings 7:30-33.

Those ‘lavers’ or stands served to mean the receptacles of truth by means of which a person is purified and regenerated. ‘The wheels’ served to mean the powers of understanding by means of which advances are made.
* chariot is used here in the original sense of a wheeled vehicle, which served as a cart, or as a carriage, or as a car in ancient warfare.
** Possibly beryl
*** lit. and they had height, and they had fear
**** lit. hands
***** lit. backs

sRef Ex@14 @25 S0′ 8216. ‘And made them drive heavily’ means resistance and lack of power. This is clear from the meaning of ‘wheels’ as the power to advance falsities, dealt with immediately above in 8215, so that ‘making them drive heavily’ means being hindered by resistance, and therefore means lack of power.

sRef Ex@14 @25 S0′ 8217. ‘And the Egyptians said’ means their thought [then], the thought of those steeped in falsities arising from evil. This is clear from the meaning of ‘saying’, when something bad is impending, as thinking, as in 7094, 7107, 7244, 7937; and from the meaning of ‘the Egyptians’ as those steeped in falsities arising from evil, dealt with in 8132, 8135, 8146, 8148.

sRef Ex@14 @25 S0′ 8218. ‘Let us flee before Israel’ means separation from those governed by the good of truth and guided by the truth of good. This is clear from the meaning of ‘fleeing’ as separation, dealt with in 4113, 4114, 4120; and from the representation of ‘Israel’ as those who belong to the spiritual Church, or what amounts to the same thing, those who are governed by the good of truth and guided by the truth of good, dealt with in 7957.

sRef Ex@14 @25 S0′ 8219. ‘For Jehovah fights for them against the Egyptians’ means that the Lord alone endures the battle against falsities and evils. This is clear from the explanation above in 8175, where similar words occur.

8220. Verses 26-28 And Jehovah said to Moses, Stretch out your hand over the sea, and let the waters return onto the Egyptians, onto his chariots, and onto his horsemen. And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, [and the sea returned,] as morning was breaking, to its normal strength*; and the Egyptians were fleeing to meet it, and Jehovah overturned** the Egyptians into the middle of the sea. And the waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen, even all Pharaoh’s army, coming after them into the sea; not so much as one of them remained.

‘And Jehovah said to Moses’ means influx. ‘Stretch out your hand over the sea’ means the exercising of power by God’s truth over hell. ‘And let the waters return onto the Egyptians’ means that the falsities [arising from evil] would flow back onto and surround those steeped in falsities arising from evil. ‘Onto his chariots, and onto his horsemen’ means the doctrinal teachings that uphold falsity, and the reasonings that belong to a perverted understanding. ‘And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea’ means, as above, the exercising of Divine power over hell. ‘And the sea returned, as morning was breaking, to its normal strength’ means that the falsities arising from evil flowed back onto them, at the presence of the Lord. ‘And the Egyptians were fleeing to meet it’ means that they plunged themselves into the falsities arising from evil. ‘And Jehovah overturned the Egyptians into the middle of the sea’ means that in so doing they cast themselves into the hell where the falsities arising from evil existed. ‘And the waters returned’ means that the falsities recoiled on them. ‘And covered the chariots and the horsemen, and all Pharaoh’s army’ means that their own falsities hid them. ‘Coming after them into the sea’ means that they took possession of them. ‘Not so much as one of them remained’ means every single one.
* lit. to the strength of its flow
** lit. shook out

sRef Ex@14 @26 S0′ 8221. ‘And Jehovah said to Moses’ means influx. This is clear from the meaning of ‘Jehovah said’ – when it has reference to the exercising of power through Divine Truth, represented by ‘Moses’ – as influx, as also in 7291, 7381.

sRef Ex@14 @26 S0′ 8222. ‘Stretch out your hand over the sea’ means the exercising of power by God’s truth over hell. This is clear from the explanation above in 8200, where similar words occur.

sRef Ex@14 @26 S0′ sRef Ex@21 @23 S1′ sRef Lev@24 @19 S1′ sRef Lev@24 @20 S1′ sRef Deut@19 @18 S1′ sRef Ex@21 @25 S1′ sRef Deut@19 @19 S1′ sRef Ex@21 @24 S1′ sRef Matt@7 @12 S1′ 8223. ‘And let the waters return onto the Egyptians’ means that the falsities arising from evil would flow back onto and surround those steeped in falsities arising from evil. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the waters’ as falsities, dealt with in 6346, 7307, 8137, 8138, so that ‘let the waters return’ means falsity flowing back or recoiling on them, at this point surrounding them too, since they were surrounded by the waters of the Sea Suph, which are the falsities arising from evil of those belonging to the Church who have championed faith separated from charity and led a life of evil; and from the meaning of ‘the Egyptians’ as those steeped in falsities arising from evil, dealt with very often. For what this implies when it is said that the falsities would flow back or recoil on those whose aim was to pour them out onto those governed by truth and good, who are represented by ‘the children of Israel’, see above in 8214. There it is shown that the evil which they aim in the direction of others recoils on themselves, and that this has its origin in the following law of God’s order, You are not to do to another anything except that which you wish others to do to you. Matt. 7:12. This law, which is unchanging and everlasting in the spiritual world, is the source of the laws of retaliation that were laid down in the representative Church, that is to say, the following laws in Moses,

If harm should come about you shall give soul for soul, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, blow for blow. Exod. 21:23-2,

In the same author,

If a man disfigures his neighbour, it shall be done to him as he has done – fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. As he has disfigured the person, so it shall be done to him. Lev. 24:19, 20.

In the same author,

If a lying witness replies with a lie against his brother, you shall do to him as he has thought to do to his brother. Deut. 19:18, 19.

From these quotations it is plainly evident that these laws have their origin in the universal law that is unchanging and perpetual in the spiritual world, that is to say, the law that you are not to do to others anything except that which you wish others to do to you. This shows clearly how to understand the idea that the falsities arising from evil which people aim to inflict on others flow back or recoil on themselves.

sRef Matt@5 @43 S2′ sRef Matt@5 @44 S2′ sRef Matt@5 @39 S2′ sRef Matt@5 @38 S2′ sRef Matt@5 @45 S2′ [2] But the situation with that law in the next life is in addition such that when some like or retaliatory action carried out is evil it is inflicted by the evil, and never by the good; that is, it comes from hell and never from heaven. For hell or the evil there have an unending desire to do evil to others; that is altogether the delight of their life. They perform evil therefore the moment they are allowed to; and they do not care whom they do it to. They do not care whether the person is bad or good, companion or foe. And since it accords with a law of order that the evil which people aim in the direction of others recoils on themselves, they rush in to do it when this law allows it. The evil in hell behave in this way, the good in heaven never do. The latter desire constantly to do good to others, for that is the delight of their life, and therefore the moment the opportunity exists they do good both to enemies and to friends. Nor indeed do they resist evil, for the laws of order defend and protect what is good and true. This is why the Lord says,

You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, Evil is not to be resisted. You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy. But I say to you, Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. Matt 5:38, 39, 43-45.

[3] It is a frequent occurrence in the next life for the evil to be severely punished when they wish to inflict evil on the good, and for the evil which they aim at others to recoil on themselves. Such an occurrence has the appearance of being an act of revenge on the part of the good. But it is not an act of revenge; nor are the good responsible for what happens but evil people who are allowed the opportunity by the law of order so to act. Indeed the good do not wish them any harm, but they cannot take away from them the misery of punishment because they are held intent on good, exactly like a judge when he sees a wrong-doer being punished or like a father when he sees his son being punished by his teacher. The evil who carry out punishment act from an inordinate desire to do ill, whereas the good act from a fondness for doing good. From all this one may see what should be understood by the Lord’s words in Matthew, quoted above, about loving one’s enemy, and about the law of retaliation, which the Lord did not set aside but opened out; that is to say, He explained that those governed by heavenly love should take no delight in any act of retaliation or revenge but in doing good. His words should also be taken to mean that the actual law of order which protects good achieves this of itself by means of those who are evil.

sRef Ex@14 @26 S0′ 8224. ‘Onto his chariots, and onto his horsemen’ means the doctrinal teachings that uphold falsity, and the reasonings that belong to a perverted understanding. This is clear from the meaning of ‘Pharaoh’s chariots’ as doctrinal teachings that uphold falsity, dealt with in 8146, 8148, 8215; and from the meaning of ‘horsemen’ as reasonings that belong to a perverted understanding, dealt with in 8146, 8148.

sRef Ex@14 @27 S0′ 8225. ‘And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea’ means the exercising of Divine power over hell, as above in 8200, 8222.

sRef Ex@14 @27 S0′ 8226. ‘And the sea returned, as morning was breaking, to its normal strength’ means that the falsities arising from evil flowed back onto them, at the presence of the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of ‘returning’ – when said of the falsities arising from evil, which are meant by ‘the waters of the Sea Suph’ – as flowing back or recoiling on them, dealt with just above in 8223; from the meaning of ‘the sea’, at this point the waters of the sea, as the falsities arising from evil that exist in hell, dealt with in 6346, 7307, 8137; from the meaning of ‘as morning was breaking’ as the Lord’s presence, dealt with below; and from the meaning of ‘to its normal strength’ as in accordance with the normal state and order existing in hell. For order exists in the hells no less than in the heavens; in the hells spirits live in association with one another according to different types of evil, just as angels do so according to different forms of good. But in the hells an association is like that of a band of robbers. The meaning of ‘as morning was breaking’ as the presence of the Lord may be seen from what has been shown above in 8211 regarding ‘morning’, which is that ‘morning’ is a state of thick darkness and perdition for the evil and a state of enlightenment and salvation for the good, states brought about simply by the presence of the Lord, 7989, 8137, 8138, 8188 – by the presence of His Divine Human, 8159.

sRef Jer@51 @20 S2′ sRef Jer@51 @21 S2′ sRef Jer@51 @24 S2′ sRef Jer@51 @19 S2′ [2] 2 Something similar to what is stated here in reference to the Egyptians is said of Babel in Jeremiah,

He is the One who formed all things, especially the rod of His inheritance; Jehovah Zebaoth is His name. You are to me a hammer, weapons of war, and through You I will scatter the nations, and through You I will destroy the kingdoms, and through You I will scatter the horse and its chariot, and through you I will scatter the chariot and him who rides in it. I will repay Babel and all the inhabitants of Chaldea for all their evil which they have done in Zion before your eyes. Jer. 51:19-21, 24.

‘Babel’ here means those who belonged to the Church and rendered good profane, and ‘Chaldea’ those who belonged to the Church and rendered truth so. Their understanding of things, and consequently their doctrinal teachings and reasonings, are meant in these verses also by ‘horse, chariot, and him who rides in it’, and being laid waste by their being ‘scattered’. The Lord in respect of His Divine Human, at whose presence they are scattered, is meant by the words ‘He is the One who formed all things, especially the rod of His inheritance; Jehovah Zebaoth is His name. You are to me a hammer, weapons of war; through You I will scatter the nations, and through You I will destroy the kingdoms’, ‘the nations’ meaning evils and ‘the kingdoms’ falsities. From all this too it is evident that the evils which they do to others flow back or recoil on themselves; for it says that they will be repaid their evil, and also in various other places that on the day of visitation vengeance will be taken and retribution exacted.

sRef Ex@14 @27 S0′ 8227. ‘And the Egyptians were fleeing to meet it’ means that they plunged themselves into the falsities arising from evil. This is clear from the meaning of ‘fleeing to meet the sea’ as plunging themselves into falsities arising from evil, which are meant by the waters of that sea, 8226. The situation is that a person who is ignorant of causes lying on more internal levels inevitably believes that the bad things which happen to the evil, such as their undergoing punishment, vastation, and damnation, and finally being cast into hell, are attributable to the Divine. That is exactly how it seems to him, since such things occur at the presence of the Divine, 8137, 8138, 8188. Even so, no such thing happening to them is attributable to the Divine, only to themselves. The Divine and His presence have one end alone in view, namely the protection and salvation of the good. When the Divine is present with them, protecting them from those who are evil, the evil feel all the more antagonistic towards them, and all the more antagonistic towards the Divine Himself; for they hate Him most of all. Those who hate good hate most of all the Divine. So they rush to the attack, and in the measure that they do so they subject themselves, in keeping with the law of order, to punishment, vastation, and damnation, and at length cast themselves into hell. From all this it becomes clear that the Divine, that is, the Lord, does only what is good and does nothing bad to anyone; rather, those ruled by evil subject themselves to such miseries. This is what is meant when it says that the Egyptians fled to meet the sea; that is, they plunged themselves into the falsities arising from evil.

[2] On this subject something further must be said. The belief also exists that bad things are attributable to the Divine because He allows them and does not take them away. And one who allows something and does not take it away when he has the power to do so appears to will it and so to be the cause of it. But the Divine allows it because He cannot prevent it or take it away. The Divine wills only what is good; if therefore He were to prevent or remove bad things, that is to say, the miseries of punishment, vastation, persecution, temptation, and the like, He would be willing something bad. For then the people who must suffer them could not have their faults corrected and evil would increase until it held sway over good. The situation is like that with a king who acquits the guilty. He is the cause of the ill done by them subsequently in his kingdom, and he is the cause of the resulting lawlessness of others, not to mention that the evil person becomes more deeply immersed in evil. Therefore although a good and righteous king has the power to cancel punishments, yet he cannot, for if he cancels them he does not do what is good but what is bad. It should be recognized that all forms of punishment as well as of temptation in the next life have good as their end in view.

sRef Ex@14 @27 S0′ 8228. ‘And Jehovah overturned the Egyptians into the middle of the sea’ means that in so doing they cast themselves into the hell where the falsities arising from evil existed. This is clear from the meaning of ‘overturning them into the sea’ as casting them into falsities arising from evil; for these falsities are meant by the waters of that sea, 6346, 7307, 8137, 8138. For more about the bad things which in the literal sense of the Word are attributed to Jehovah or the Lord – that the origin of them lies with the people themselves who are ruled by evil, and not at all with the Lord, and that this is how one should understand the Word in its internal sense – see 2447, 6071, 6991, 6997, 7533, 7632, 7643, 7679, 7710, 7877, 7926, 8227.

sRef Ex@14 @28 S0′ 8229. ‘And the waters returned’ means that the falsities recoiled on them. This is clear from the explanations above in 8223, 8226.

sRef Ex@14 @28 S0′ 8230. ‘And covered the chariots and the horsemen, and all Pharaoh’s army’ means that their own falsities hid them. This is clear from the meaning of ‘covering’ as overwhelming, thus hiding; and from the meaning of ‘Pharaoh’s chariots and horsemen’ as doctrinal teachings upholding falsity, and reasonings that fight against truths and forms of good, in general actual falsities arising from evil. For the meaning of ‘chariots’ as doctrinal teachings upholding falsity, and of ‘horsemen’ as reasonings belonging to a perverted understanding, see 8146, 8148. For their fighting against truths and forms of good, see 8215.

sRef Ex@14 @28 S0′ 8231. ‘Coming after them into the sea’ means that they took possession of them. This is clear from the meaning of ‘coming after them’ – when said of the waters of the sea, by which falsities arising from evil are meant – as taking possession of.

sRef Ex@14 @28 S0′ 8232. ‘Not so much as one of them remained’ means every single one. This is clear without explanation.

The subject in this verse has been the plunging or casting into hell of those who were steeped in falsities arising from evil. But few know what being plunged and cast into hell may be. They imagine that it is being cast down into some place where the devil and his crew are, and that these torment people there. But that is not the situation. When people there are cast into hell, it is nothing other than their being completely choked by utter falsities arising from the evil which ruled them when they were in the world. When they are completely choked by them there they are in hell. The actual evils and falsities in which those people are now immersed are what torment them. But the torment is not due to any grief they feel because they have done evil in the past but because – since doing evil is the delight of their life – they cannot do it in the present; for when they do evil there they suffer punishment and torment at the hands of those to whom they do it. What motivates them chiefly when they do evil to one another is a desire to exercise control, in order to place others in subjection to themselves, which, if others do not allow themselves to be placed in subjection, they accomplish by a thousand methods of punishment and torment. But control there, which they constantly strive to possess, passes by turns from one to another, which means that those who have punished and tormented others are then themselves punished and tormented by others. And this goes on until at length the fear of punishment serves to cool their ardour. From all this one may now see where hell originates and what hell is. Nor is hell fire anything other than the cravings of self-love, which inflame and torment, 6314, 7324, 7575.

8233. Verses 29-31 And the children of Israel went on dry ground into the middle of the sea; and the waters were a wall for them on their right and on their left. And Jehovah saved Israel on that day from the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. And Israel saw the great hand* which Jehovah displayed** among the Egyptians; and the people feared Jehovah, and they believed in Jehovah and in Moses His servant.

‘And the children of Israel went on dry ground into the middle of the sea’ means that those governed by the good of truth and guided by the truth of good passed through that hell in safety without suffering molestation. ‘And the waters were a wall for them on their right and on their left’ means that they were held back from falsities on every side. ‘And Jehovah saved Israel on that day from the hand of the Egyptians’ means that in this state the Lord protected those belonging to the spiritual Church from any violence on the part of falsities arising from evil. ‘And Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore’ means the sight of the damned dispersed this way and that. ‘And Israel saw the great hand which Jehovah displayed among the Egyptians’ means acknowledgement of the Lord’s almighty power. ‘And the people feared Jehovah’ means adoration. ‘And they believed’ means faith and trust. ‘In Jehovah and in Moses His servant’ means the Lord in respect of Divine Goodness, and in respect of Divine Truth going forth from Him and ministering.
* i.e. the great work
** lit. Jehovah did

sRef Ex@14 @29 S0′ 8234. ‘And the children of Israel went on dry ground into the middle of the sea’ means that those governed by the good of truth and guided by the truth of good passed through that hell in safety without suffering molestation. This is clear from the explanation above in 8185, where similar words occur. The expression ‘those governed by the good of truth and guided by the truth of good’ is used to mean the spiritual Church; for members of that Church are first governed by the good of truth, then later on are guided by the truth of good. At first they do good because truth lays down that it should be done; therefore they act out of obedience to it. But subsequently they do good out of affection for it, at which time truth is seen and also practiced by them from the standpoint of good. From this it is evident that before a member of the spiritual Church receives a new will from the Lord, that is, before he has been regenerated, he practices truth out of obedience to it. But after he has been regenerated he practices it out of affection for it, at which time truth comes for him to be good since it now resides in his will. For to act out of obedience is to act from the understanding, but to act out of affection is to act from the will. This also is the reason why those who practice truth out of obedience to it are members of the external Church, whereas those who practice it out of affection for it are members of the internal Church. From all this it is evident that those who belong to the spiritual Church are meant when the expression ‘those governed by the good of truth and guided by the truth of good’ is used.

sRef Ex@14 @29 S0′ 8235. ‘And the waters were a wall for them on their right and on their left’ means that they were held back from falsities on every side. This is clear from the explanation above in 8206, where similar words occur.

sRef Ex@14 @30 S0′ 8236. ‘And Jehovah saved Israel on that day from the hand of the Egyptians’ means that in this state the Lord protected those belonging to the spiritual Church from any violence on the part of falsities arising from evil. This is clear from the meaning of ‘saving’ as protecting; from the meaning of ‘on that day’ as in this state, ‘day’ meaning state, see 23, 487, 488, 493, 893, 2788, 3462, 3785, 4850; from the representation of ‘Israel’ as those who belong to the spiritual Church, dealt with often; and from the representation of ‘the Egyptians’ as those steeped in falsities arising from evil, also dealt with often; from all of which it is evident that ‘saving from their hand’ is protecting from the violence of those steeped in falsities arising from evil.

sRef Ex@14 @30 S0′ 8237. ‘And Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore’ means the sight of the damned dispersed this way and that. This is clear from the meaning of ‘seeing’ as the sight or catching sight of something; from the representation of ‘the Egyptians’ as those steeped in falsities arising from evil; from the meaning of ‘the dead’ as the damned, dealt with in 5407, 6119, 7494; and from the meaning of ‘the seashore’ as round about the outermost parts of hell. ‘The shores’ of something are plainly its outermost parts; and it has been shown previously that ‘the sea’ means hell. So it is that ‘seeing them dead on the seashore’ means the sight of the damned dispersed this way and that.

[2] Since the expression ‘the sight of the damned’ is used some explanation of what is implied by it is called for. Those in any one hell are not visible to the inhabitants of any other hell, not even to those in the nearest or immediately neighbouring hell, since they have been completely separated from one another. But they are visible to those in heaven, as often as the Lord pleases; for the Lord rules the hells too, by means of angels to whom the ability is given to see, from the place where they are, everything happening there. This is done to the end that in hell too order may exist, and also to the end that no one may do violence to another beyond the permitted limit. This function is entrusted to angels, and through it they exercise control over the hells. Sometimes good spirits as well are allowed to see into the hells and witness what is going on there; for it is quite in order for things on lower levels to be seen from a higher one, but not for those on a higher level to be seen from lower ones. Thus the hells and those who are there can be seen by those in heaven, but not vice versa. Consequently forms of evil can be seen from good, but not forms of good from evil, since good is higher and evil lower.

sRef Ex@14 @31 S0′ 8238. ‘And Israel saw the great hand which Jehovah displayed among the Egyptians’ means acknowledgement of the Lord’s almighty power. This is clear from the meaning of ‘seeing’ as understanding, acknowledging, and possessing faith, dealt with in 897, 2150, 2325, 2807, 3796, 3863, 3869, 4403-4421, 5400, 6805; from the meaning of ‘a hand’ that is ‘great’, ‘strong’, ‘powerful’, or ‘lofty’ – when speaking of Jehovah, that is, the Lord – as almighty power, dealt with in 878, 7188, 7189, 7518, 8050, 8069, 8153; and from the representation of ‘the Egyptians’ as those lost in damnation, at this point those in hell.

sRef Ex@14 @31 S0′ 8239. ‘And the people feared Jehovah’ means adoration. This is clear from the meaning of ‘fearing Jehovah’ as worship based either on love or on faith or on fear, dealt with in 2826, which is adoration.

sRef Ex@14 @31 S0′ 8240. ‘And they believed’ means faith and trust. This is clear from the meaning of ‘believing’ as possessing faith, and also trust since one who possesses faith also possesses trust. Trust is an attribute of love expressed through faith; consequently trust in Jehovah, that is, in the Lord, does not exist except with those in whom love is present, that is to say, love to the Lord and towards the neighbour; for faith does not reside with any others.

sRef Matt@20 @26 S0′ sRef Matt@20 @27 S0′ sRef Matt@20 @28 S0′ sRef Ex@14 @31 S0′ 8241. ‘In Jehovah and in Moses His servant’ means the Lord in respect of Divine Goodness, and in respect of Divine Truth going forth from Him and ministering. This is clear from the consideration that in the Word ‘Jehovah’ is used to mean the Lord, see 1343, 1736, 2921, 3023, 3035, 5663, 6281, 6303, 6945, 6956, and in particular the Lord in respect of Divine Goodness, 2586, 2769, 2807, 2822, 4402, 6905; from the representation of ‘Moses’ as Divine Truth going forth from Him, dealt with in 6752, 7010, 7014, 7089, 7382 (the expression ‘the Lord in respect of Divine Goodness and in respect of Divine Truth’ is used because Divine Goodness exists within the Lord and Divine Truth goes forth from the Lord, for the situation with Divine Goodness and Divine Truth is like that with the fire of the sun and the light radiating from it; the light is not within the sun but comes forth from the sun); and from the meaning of ‘servant’ as ministering. The word ‘servant’ is used to describe one who serves, that is, who ministers, see 7143. This is why the Lord in respect of His Divine Human when He was in the world is called ‘a servant’ in the Word, 3441; for during that time He ministered, as also He Himself says,

Whoever has the wish to become great among you must be your minister, and whoever has the wish to become first must be your servant, even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered to but to minister.

Matt. 20:26-28; Luke 22:26, 27; Mark 10:43-45.

8242. SPIRITS AND INHABITANTS OF THE PLANET JUPITER – continued

I have also been shown what the face of an inhabitant of the planet Jupiter looks like. Not that I have seen actual inhabitants, only spirits, whose faces are similar to the ones they had when they lived on their planet. But before I was shown what their faces look like one of their angels appeared behind a bright cloud. He gave permission, and then two faces were shown to me. They were like the faces of people belonging to our planet, white yet more beautiful, with sincerity and true humility radiating from them.

8243. When spirits belonging to Jupiter were present with me the faces of members of our planet seemed to me to be smaller than usual. This was due to the fact that I was influenced by an idea coming from those spirits which they had regarding their own faces, that they were larger. For when they are living as people on their planet they believe that their faces will be larger after death, and round- shaped. And because this idea is firmly impressed on them it therefore also endures with them; and when they become spirits they appear to themselves to have a larger face. The reason why they believe their faces will be larger is that they say the face is not the body, since they speak and present their thoughts by means of it, and the mind is thereby made visible through it so to speak. Therefore they have the idea that the face is the outward form taken by the mind; and since they know that they will be wiser after their life in the world, they consequently believe that the outward form their mind takes, that is, their face, will become fuller.

8244. While they are in the world they also believe that after death they are going to feel a fire that will warm their face. The source of this belief is the wise among them, who know that fire in the spiritual world is love, that that fire is the fire of life, and that from this fire angels obtain their heat. In addition those among them who have led lives governed by heavenly love receive their wish; they feel their face being made warmer as if by a fire. At the same time the interiors of their mind are alight, not with heat but with love.

8245. For this reason they also wash and clean their face a lot, besides which they take care to protect it from the heat of the sun. They have a covering made of bluish bark or cork which they place around their head and thereby cover their face. But they pay little attention to their body.

8246. Speaking about the faces of people belonging to our planet they said that they were not beautiful. They were astonished that the faces of some were covered with warts and pimples, as well as being disfigured in other ways; they said that no such defects were ever seen among themselves. They did nevertheless like some faces, namely those which were cheerful and smiling, and those which jutted out slightly around the lips.

8247. The reason why they liked the cheerful and smiling faces was that almost everyone’s face on their planet looks like that. This is so because they do not worry at all about anything in the future, and they are not bothered about worldly things. For these are what bring sorrow and worry to people’s minds and therefore to their faces; and in the case of those who are not good, even if cheerfulness and smiles are on their faces these are only skin-deep, and are not present inwardly, within their fibres. The inhabitants of Jupiter are different from this. One reason why they liked the faces which jutted out around the lips is that when they speak they do so for the most part by means of the face, in particular by means of the area around the lips, and another reason is that they never dissemble, that is, speak differently from what they think. They do not therefore coerce their face but allow it freedom of expression. But people who since childhood have learned to dissemble are different. Their face is for that reason controlled from within to prevent anything of what they think from shining out from it. Outwardly it is not allowed freedom of expression, but is held ready to be given freedom of expression or to be controlled as craftiness dictates. An examination of the fibres round about the lips will establish the truth of the matter, for in that area there is a multiplicity of interwoven and interlocking groups of fibres. These have not been created merely for eating and uttering spoken words, but also for expressing ideas in the mind.

8248. I was also shown the way in which thoughts are conveyed through the face. Affections, the components of love, are revealed by means of facial expressions and alterations of them, and thoughts within those affections are revealed by means of variations of the outward forms that interior things assume. Beyond that it is impossible to describe them. Speech consisting of spoken words is also used by the inhabitants of Jupiter, but it is quieter than ours. The one type of speech is an aid to the other; and facial speech instills life into the speech consisting of spoken words.

8249. Angels have told me that the kind of speech used first of all on any planet was facial, and that it was expressed by two parts of the face, the lips and the eyes. This kind of speech came first because the face has been altogether made to portray the things a person thinks or wills, which also is why the face has been called a portrayer and indicator of the mind, and in addition because in most ancient or earliest times people were open and sincere, 8118; no one thought or wished to think anything other than what he wished to shine from his face. That being so, the affections in a person’s mind and the ideas in his thinking could also be conveyed vividly and completely; thus they also presented themselves to the eye as if in a visible form, very many simultaneously. This kind of speech therefore was as superior to speech consisting of spoken words as sight is to hearing, that is, as seeing a landscape, for example, to hearing a description of it. The angels added that this kind of speech matched the speech used by angels, with whom people in those earliest times were also in contact. They also said that it is angelic speech present with a person – the last and lowest natural form of it – when the face speaks – that is, when the mind speaks by means of the face; it is one person’s inward sight or thought present in another’s. But such speech is not present when the mouth utters spoken words. Regarding the use of speech like that by the most ancient people on our planet, see 607, 608, 1118, 1120, 7361. Anyone may also see that speech consisting of spoken words could not have existed with the most ancient people; for the words of spoken language were not infused directly into the tongue but had to be invented and applied to actual things, and this could be done only with the passage of time.

8250. As long as sincerity and uprightness existed with people, so also did that kind of speech remain in existence. But as soon as the mind began to think one thing and say another, which happened when a person loved self and not the neighbour, speech consisting of spoken words was used more and more. The face then remained still or else at the same time had expressions on it that were counterfeit. As a result the face’s inward form was altered, in that it shrank, hardened, and started to become virtually devoid of life; but its outward form, heated by the fire of self-love, began to appear full of life. But being devoid of life, what lies beneath and inwardly serves as a groundwork is not visible to men’s eyes, only to angels’ eyes since they see interior things. This is what the faces of people who think one thing and say another are like; for presence, hypocrisy, trickery, and deceit, which constitute prudence at the present day, produce such effects.

[2] But the situation is different in the next life; no one is allowed there to speak in one way and think in another. That lack of agreement is also clearly perceived there in every word, and in every tone of the voice. And when it is perceived the spirit in whom such lack of agreement exists is forcibly removed from association with others and punished. After that he is compelled by various means to speak as he thinks, and to think as he wills, until his mind is single and not divided. This is done in order that, if he is a good spirit, he may will what is good and may be moved by good to think and speak what is true, or, if he is evil, he may will what is evil and may be moved by evil to think and speak what is false. Till then the good spirit cannot be raised to heaven or the evil one cast into hell. This is done to the end that in hell there may be nothing except evil, and that falsity there may be the falsity of evil, and that in heaven there may be nothing except good, and that truth there may be the truth of good.

8251. ‘Spirits and inhabitants of the planet Jupiter’ is continued at the end of the next chapter.

8252. TEACHINGS ABOUT CHARITY

A member of the Church should pursue a religious life and he should pursue a charitable life; the two should go together. A religious life without a charitable life has no value at all, but together with a charitable life it has every value.

8253. The pursuit of a religious life involves thinking and speaking in godly ways, setting aside plenty of time for prayers and acting in a humble manner during them, going to church and listening to sermons there in a devout frame of mind, and attending several times each year the Sacrament of the [Lord’s] Supper and likewise all other services of worship instituted by the Church. But the pursuit of a charitable life involves feelings of goodwill towards the neighbour and doing good to him, acting in every task from a sense of what is just and fair and of what is good and true, and in a similar way in all that one is employed to do. In short, a charitable life consists in performing useful services.

8254. Worship of the Lord consists primarily in a charitable life, and not in a religious life without it. A religious life without the charitable life is no more than a selfish wish to look after oneself; there is no concern in it for one’s neighbour. But the pursuit of a religious life together with that of a charitable life is indeed a wish to look after oneself, yet out of concern for one’s neighbour. The pursuit of a religious life alone is motivated by love directed towards self, but the pursuit of both together is motivated by love directed towards the neighbour.

sRef Matt@7 @24 S0′ sRef Matt@7 @26 S0′ 8255. The truth that when a person does good he is worshipping the Lord is clear from the Lord’s words in Matthew,

Everyone who hears My words and does them I will liken to a wise man. But everyone hearing My words and not doing them will be likened to a foolish man. Matt. 7:24, 26.

sRef John@5 @29 S0′ sRef Matt@16 @27 S0′ 8256. Also a person’s character is determined by the kind of charitable life he leads, not by the kind of religious life he pursues apart from that life. A person’s charitable life therefore remains with him forever, but his religious life does so only insofar as it is in tune with his charitable life. The truth that a person’s charitable life remains with him forever is also clear from the Lord’s words in Matthew,

The Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father together with His angels, and at that time He will repay everyone according to his deeds. Matt. 16:27.

And in John,

… they will come forth – those who have done good deeds, into the resurrection of life, but those who have done evil ones into the resurrection of judgement. John 5:29.

The same truth is also clear from His words in Matthew 25:31-end.

8257. By the life through which the Lord is chiefly worshipped one should understand a life in keeping with His commandments contained in the Word, since a person can know through them what faith is and what charity is. This life is the Christian life, and it is called spiritual life. But a life in keeping with the laws of what is correct and honourable without that other life is civil and moral life. This life enables a person to be a citizen of the world, but the other enables him to be a citizen of heaven.

EXODUS 15

1 Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to Jehovah, and said – they said, I will sing to Jehovah, for He has highly exalted [Himself]; the horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea.

2 My strength and song is Jah, and He has become my salvation. This is my God, and I will establish a dwelling-place for Him; my father’s God, and I will exalt Him.

3 Jehovah is a man of war; Jehovah is His name.

4 Pharaoh’s chariots and his army He has thrown into the sea; and his choice tertiary commanders* have been drowned in the Sea Suph.

5 The depths have covered them; they went down into deep places like a stone.

6 Your right hand, O Jehovah, has been magnified in strength; with Your right hand, O Jehovah, You break the enemy in pieces.

7 And in the greatness of Your excellence You destroy those rising up against You; You send out Your wrath, it eats them up like stubble.

8 And with the wind of Your nostrils the waters were heaped up, the floods stood as a heap; the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea.

9 The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my soul will be filled with them. I will unsheathe my sword, my hand will drive them out.

10 You blew with Your wind, the sea covered them over; they sought a deep place like lead in the mighty waters.

11 Who is like You among the gods, O Jehovah? Who is like You, magnificent in holiness, to be venerated with praises, doing wonders?

12 You stretched out Your right hand, the earth swallowed them.

13 In Your mercy You have led this people [whom] You have redeemed; in Your strength You have brought them to the dwelling-place of Your holiness.

14 The peoples heard, they trembled; distress took hold of the inhabitants of Philistia.

15 Then the chiefs of Edom were dismayed; the powerful ones of Moab, terror took hold of them; all the inhabitants of Canaan melted away.

16 Alarm and dread fell on them; by the greatness of Your arm they are cut away** like a stone, till Your people pass over, O Jehovah, till this people pass over [whom] You have possessed.

17 You will bring them in, You will plant them on the mountain of Your inheritance, the place for You to dwell in [which] You have made, O Jehovah; the sanctuary, O Lord, [which] Your hands have prepared.

18 Jehovah will reign for ever and ever.***

19 For Pharaoh’s horse came with his chariot and his horsemen into the sea, and Jehovah brought the waters of the sea back over them; and the children of Israel went on dry ground through the middle of the sea.

20 And Miriam the prophetess, Aaron’s sister, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances.

21 And Miriam responded to them, Sing to Jehovah, for He has highly exalted [Himself]; the horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea.

22 And Moses caused Israel to travel on from the Sea Suph, and they went out to the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness and did not find water.

23 And they came to Marah, and they could not drink the waters for bitterness; for they were bitter. Therefore he called the name of it Marah.

24 And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?

25 And he cried to Jehovah; and Jehovah showed him [some] wood, and he threw it into the waters, and the waters became sweet. There He established for him a statute and a judgement, and there He tempted him.

26 And He said, If you obediently hear the voice of Jehovah your God, and do what is right in His eyes, and hearken to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will not put on you any sickness that I put on the Egyptians; for I, Jehovah, am your Healer.

27 And they came to Elim, and here there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees; and they encamped there beside the waters.
* lit. the choice of tertiary commanders. A tertiary commander was possibly an officer ranking third after Pharaoh, or possibly one in charge of a chariot in which there was also a driver and a warrior.
** The Hebrew means struck dumb or made silent. Another Hebrew word containing similar letters means to cut away.
*** lit. into the age and eternity

sRef Ex@15 @0 S0′ 8258. CONTENTS

In the internal sense this chapter praises the Lord because, having glorified His Human, He cast into hell the evil who were molesting the good in the next life and raised to heaven the good who suffered molestation. These are the things that the internal sense contains in this prophetic song.

sRef Ex@15 @0 S0′ 8259. After that song the internal sense deals with the second temptation undergone by those belonging to the spiritual Church, described by the grumbling of the people at Marah, where the waters were bitter; and finally it refers to the comfort they received, meant by the encampment at Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees.

sRef Ex@15 @1 S0′ sRef Ex@15 @2 S0′ 8260. THE INTERNAL SENSE

Verses 1, 2 Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to Jehovah, and said – they said, I will sing to Jehovah, for He has highly exalted [Himself]; the horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea. My strength and song is Jah, and He has become my salvation. This is my God, and I will establish a dwelling-place for Him; my father’s God, and I will exalt Him.

‘Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to Jehovah’ means that those belonging to the spiritual Church ascribed glory to the Lord because of their deliverance. ‘And said – they said’ means as a result of influx. ‘I will sing to Jehovah’ means that glory belongs to the Lord alone. ‘For He has highly exalted [Himself]’ means that He has displayed His Divinity within His Humanity. ‘The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea’ means in that as a result simply of His presence falsities arising from evil have been damned and cast into hell. ‘My strength’ means that the source of the whole of power is the Lord Himself. ‘And song is Jah’ means that the source of the whole of faith and of the glory resulting from it is Divine Truth which originates in Him. ‘And He has become my salvation’ means that from this comes salvation. ‘[This is my God,] and I will establish a dwelling-place for Him’ means that when He is within good, which originates in Himself, He will be as if in His heaven. ‘My father’s God’ means that there was no other Deity in the ancient Churches. ‘And I will exalt Him’ means that now also will Divine worship be offered to Him.

sRef Ex@15 @1 S0′ 8261. ‘Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to Jehovah’ means that those belonging to the spiritual Church ascribed glory to the Lord because of their deliverance. This is clear from the meaning of ‘singing a song’ as ascribing glory, dealt with below – ascribing it to the Lord, since ‘Jehovah’ is used in the Word to mean the Lord, 1343, 1736, 2921, 3023, 3035, 5041, 5663, 6280, 6281, 6905, 6945, 6956; and from the representation of ‘Moses and the children of Israel’ as those who belong to the spiritual Church. For Moses together with the people represents that Church – Moses its head, since he also represents Divine Truth, and the people or the children of Israel the Church itself. For the representation of ‘the children of Israel’ as those who belong to the spiritual Church, see 6426, 6637, 6862, 7035, 7062, 7198, 7201, 7215, 7223. The fact that they ascribed glory to the Lord because of their deliverance is evident from what was shown in the previous chapter. There it was shown that those belonging to the spiritual Church were saved solely through the Lord’s Coming into the world, and that until then they had been held back on the lower earth, where they were molested by spirits steeped in falsities arising from evil and were delivered by the Lord after He had made Divine the Human within Himself. For the salvation of those belonging to the spiritual Church solely through the Lord’s Coming into the world, see 2661, 2716, 2833, 2834, 6372; and for their being held back until then on the lower earth, and their deliverance by the Lord once He had made Divine the Human within Himself, 6854, 6914, 7035, 7091(end), 7828, 7932, 8018, 8054.

[2] The reason why ‘singing a song’ means ascribing glory, so that ‘a song’ means an ascription of glory, is that in the Ancient Church, and subsequently in the Jewish Church, songs were prophetic. Their theme was the Lord, in particular His coming into the world, His destruction of the devil’s crew, which was prowling around then more than at any other time, and His deliverance of faithful believers from attacks by them. And because the prophetic words of the songs contained such exploits in the internal sense, an ascription of glory to the Lord was therefore meant by them, that is, praise of Him from gladness of heart was meant. For gladness of heart is expressed primarily through singing, the gladness in singing being so to speak a spontaneous eruption into sound. So it is that in songs Jehovah, that is, the Lord, is called Mighty Man, Man of War, God of Hosts, Conqueror, Might, Fortress, Shield, and Salvation; and the devil’s crew, which was destroyed, is called the enemy, who was struck, swallowed up, drowned, and cast into hell.

[3] Even in former times those who had no conception of an internal sense thought that when in their external sense songs referred to things of a worldly nature – such as enemies, battles, victories, defeats, drownings – those things were the real meaning. But people who knew that all prophetic utterances embodied realities of a heavenly and Divine nature, and that these were represented within things of a worldly nature, also knew that those utterances were referring to the damnation of the faithless and the salvation of the faithful by the Lord when He came into the world. And in those times when these people who had knowledge of this contemplated it, and were consequently affected by it, they experienced an inner gladness, whereas the others’ gladness was purely outward. At the same time the angels too who resided with people ascribed glory to the Lord. Therefore those who sang and those who listened to songs experienced heavenly gladness as a result of the holy and blissful influence from heaven, gladness in which it seemed to them as though they were transported into heaven. Such was the effect the songs of the Church had among the ancients. Such also is the effect they have at the present day, for the affections of spiritual angels are especially stirred by songs which refer to the Lord, His kingdom, and His Church. The songs of the Church had that effect because, for one thing, they inspired gladness of heart, which then burst from within right out into the outermost fibres of the body, making them quiver with a glad and at the same time holy feeling, and, for another thing, because in the heavens glory is ascribed to the Lord by choirs, thus by very many harmonizing with one another. Hence also angelic speech is harmonic; it falls into rhythmic measures. Regarding choirs, see 2595, 2596, 3350, 5182, 8115; regarding angelic speech, that it falls into rhythmic measures, 1648, 1649, 7191(end). So it was that when the ancients who belonged to the Church ascribed glory to the Lord they did so through songs, psalms, and various kinds of musical instruments. For the ancients who belonged to the Church experienced a joy surpassing all other joys when they called to mind the Lord’s Coming and the salvation of the human race by Him.

sRef Isa@42 @11 S4′ sRef Isa@42 @6 S4′ sRef Isa@42 @8 S4′ sRef Isa@49 @9 S4′ sRef Isa@49 @8 S4′ sRef Isa@49 @13 S4′ sRef Isa@42 @7 S4′ sRef Isa@42 @6 S4′ sRef Isa@42 @12 S4′ sRef Isa@42 @13 S4′ sRef Isa@42 @10 S4′ sRef Isa@42 @7 S4′ [4] The fact that prophetic songs contained internally an ascription of glory to the Lord is clear from songs in the Word, as in Isaiah,

I Jehovah have called You in righteousness, and I will hold Your hand; I will guard You, and give You to be a covenant of the people,* a light of the nations, to open the blind eyes, to bring the bound out of the prison, out of the dungeon-house him who sits in darkness. Sing to Jehovah a new song, His praise, O end of the earth! Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voice. Let the inhabitants of the rock sing. Let them give glory to Jehovah. Jehovah will go forth as a Mighty Man, as a Man of Wars He will arouse zeal; He will prevail over His enemies. Isa. 42:6-9ff.

This refers, as is self-evident, to the Lord, to His future coming to deliver those in spiritual captivity. Therefore it says, ‘Sing to Jehovah a new song’ and ‘Let the inhabitants of the rock sing’. A similar example occurs in the same prophet,

I have given You as a covenant of the people – to restore the land; to share out the devastated inheritances; to say to the bound, Go out; to those who are in darkness, Reveal yourselves. They will feed along the ways, and on all slopes will their pastures be. Sing, O heavens! And be exultant, O earth! And resound, O mountains, with song! For Jehovah has comforted His people, and will have mercy on His afflicted. Isa. 49:8-10, 13ff.

This too refers to the Coming of the Lord and the deliverance of the bound.

sRef Ps@96 @3 S5′ sRef Ps@96 @12 S5′ sRef Ps@96 @1 S5′ sRef Ps@96 @2 S5′ sRef Ps@96 @6 S5′ sRef Ps@96 @5 S5′ sRef Ps@96 @4 S5′ sRef Ps@96 @13 S5′ sRef Ps@40 @3 S5′ sRef Ps@40 @2 S5′ sRef Ps@96 @8 S5′ sRef Ps@96 @11 S5′ sRef Ps@96 @9 S5′ sRef Ps@96 @7 S5′ sRef Ps@96 @10 S5′ [5] In David,

Sing to Jehovah a new song; bless His name; declare His glory among the nations. All the gods of the peoples are idols,** but Jehovah made the heavens. Glory and honour are before Him; strength and beauty are in His sanctuary. Give to Jehovah glory and strength; give to Jehovah the glory of His name. Say among the nations, Jehovah reigns; the world also is firmly established, and will not be moved. Jehovah comes He comes to judge the earth. Ps. 96:1-end.

In the same author,

Jehovah caused me to come up out of the pit of vastation, out of the muddy clay, and He set my feet upon a rock. And He put into my mouth a new song, praise to our God; many will see and be confident. Ps. 40:2, 3.

From these quotations too it is clear that ‘a song’ means an ascription of glory to the Lord because of deliverance. For songs included both gladness of heart and exaltation of the Lord – gladness of heart because of the Lord’s Coming and salvation then, and exaltation because of victory over spiritual enemies. Gladness of heart coupled with exaltation of the Lord is what is meant by an ascription of glory.

sRef Ps@18 @1 S6′ sRef Ps@33 @3 S6′ sRef Ps@69 @30 S6′ sRef Ps@33 @4 S6′ sRef Ps@18 @3 S6′ sRef Ps@33 @2 S6′ sRef Ps@18 @2 S6′ sRef Ps@33 @7 S6′ sRef Ps@69 @29 S6′ sRef Ps@33 @5 S6′ sRef Ps@33 @6 S6′ sRef Isa@24 @8 S6′ sRef Isa@24 @9 S6′ sRef Ps@28 @8 S6′ sRef Amos@8 @10 S6′ sRef Ps@28 @7 S6′ [6] The fact that gladness of heart was meant by ‘songs’ is evident in David,

Confess Jehovah with the harp, make melody to Him on a ten-stringed lyre. Sing to Him a new song, play skillfully with a loud note. For He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; He places the depths in storehouses. Ps. 33:2-7.

In Isaiah,

The joy of timbrels will cease, the noise of merry ones will cease, the joy of the harp will cease. They will not drink wine with singing. Isa. 24:8, 9.

And in Amos,

I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation. Amos 8:10.

The fact that exaltation of Jehovah, that is, the Lord, was effected by means of songs may be seen in David,

David the servant of Jehovah, who spoke to Jehovah the words of this song. [I will love You,] O Jehovah, my strength. Jehovah is my rock (petra), and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my rock (rupee) in which I trust, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my refuge. On Him who is to be praised, on Jehovah I will call; then I shall be saved from my enemies. Ps. 18:1-3.

In the same author,

Jehovah is my strength and my shield; therefore with song I will confess Him. Jehovah is their strength, and the saving strength of His anointed. Ps. 28:7, 8.

In the same author,

Your salvation, O God, will bring me on high. I will praise the name of God with a song and will magnify Him with confession. Ps. 69:29, 30.

sRef Rev@5 @10 S7′ sRef Rev@15 @4 S7′ sRef Rev@15 @1 S7′ sRef Rev@15 @3 S7′ sRef Rev@5 @9 S7′ [7] The fact that the Lord was the theme in their songs is also clear in John,

The twenty-four elders sang a new song, saying, You are worthy to take the book, and to open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood. Rev. 5:9, 10.

Also in the same author,

I saw seven angels, and those who were singing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are Your works, O Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of saints! Who would not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? Rev 15:1-4.

‘The song of Moses and of the Lamb’ is a song which in this chapter is called ‘the song of the Lamb’ because an ascription of glory to the Lord is the theme in it.
* The Latin means for the people but the Hebrew means of the people, which Sw. has in some other places where he quotes this verse.
** lit. vanities

sRef Ex@15 @1 S0′ 8262. ‘And said – they said’ means as a result of influx. This is clear from the meaning of ‘saying’, when it refers to the ascription of glory to the Lord through a song, as influx. With regard to ‘saying’, that it also means influx, see 5743, 6152, 6291, 7291, 7381, 8221.

sRef Ex@15 @1 S0′ 8263. ‘I will sing to Jehovah’ means that glory belongs to the Lord alone. This is clear from the meaning of ‘singing to Jehovah’ as ascribing glory to the Lord, dealt with just above in 8261, that is, as saying that glory belongs to Him. The reason why it belongs to Him alone is that in the Word ‘Jehovah’ means the Lord, 8261, so that He alone is God. Various places throughout the Word say that glory and honour must belong to God alone. Anyone unacquainted with the inner teachings of the Word may suppose that the Lord desires and loves glory in the way a person in the world does; and he may suppose this because glory is appropriate to Him above all others in the universe. But the Lord does not desire glory for His own sake, only for the sake of the person who ascribes it to Him. A person who ascribes glory to Him does so because he venerates Him as the One who is supreme and humbly regards himself as nothing in comparison. And since reverence and humility are both present when a person ascribes glory to the Lord, he is in a fit state to receive the inflow of goodness from the Lord, and so also of love towards Him. This is why the Lord desires a person to ascribe glory to Him, see 4347, 4593, 5957. Regarding the flow of goodness from the Lord, that it enters a humble heart, 3994, 7478.

sRef Ex@15 @1 S0′ 8264. ‘For He has highly exalted [Himself]’ means that He has displayed His Divinity within His Humanity. This is clear from the meaning of ‘exalting Himself’, when it refers to the Lord, as displaying His Divinity within His Humanity. The reason why ‘highly exalting Himself’ has this meaning is that what is Divine is Highest or Supreme, and when the Lord was in the world He made the Human within Himself Divine and in so doing ‘highly exalted [Himself]’. For the meaning of ‘high’ in the Word as Divine, see 8153. Here the words used are ‘has highly exalted’, by which displaying Divinity within Humanity is meant.

Such is their meaning because the theme of this song is the Lord and how, after making Divine His Human, He cast the evil into hell and raised the good to heaven, 8258, which He did simply by His presence, 7989; for casting the evil into hell and raising the good to heaven, simply by being present, is a Divine accomplishment.

sRef Ex@15 @1 S0′ 8265. ‘The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea’ means in that as a result simply of His presence falsities arising from evil have been damned and cast into hell. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the horse’ as falsities belonging to a perverted understanding, for ‘horse’ means the power of understanding, see 2761, 2762, 3217, 5321, and in the contrary sense a perverted understanding, which is no understanding at all, and therefore falsity is meant in that contrary sense by ‘horse’ and false factual knowledge by ‘Pharaoh’s horse’, 6125, 8146, 8148; from the meaning of ‘rider’ (or ‘horseman’) as reasonings based on that false knowledge, dealt with in 8146, 8148; and from the meaning of ‘throwing into the sea’ as damning and casting into hell. ‘The sea’, the Sea Suph at this point, is the hell where the falsities arising from evil are, the falsities of those belonging to the Church who have upheld separated faith and led a life of evil, see 8099, 8137, 8148, which is why they are called falsities arising from evil. The fact that those falsities were damned and cast into hell as a result simply of the Lord’s presence was shown in the previous chapter. The evil cannot at all bear or put up with God’s presence. His presence causes them pain, torments them, and so to speak snuffs the life out of them; they behave like those in the throes of death. The reason for this is that what is God’s has the totality of power within it; it destroys and wipes out that which is opposed to it, namely falsity and evil. This is why at God’s presence the life of those steeped in falsity and evil becomes burdensome and contains, in the measure that He is present, the feeling of hell within it. But in order that those steeped in falsities and evils may not be completely crushed and suffer torment they are shielded by their own falsities and evils, which act like mists. These are by nature such that they diminish, or divert, or smother the flow of what is Divine in the same way that earthly mists or clouds normally do to sunrays.

sRef Rev@6 @17 S2′ sRef Ex@15 @11 S2′ sRef Ex@15 @10 S2′ sRef Ex@15 @8 S2′ sRef Rev@6 @16 S2′ sRef Ex@15 @7 S2′ sRef Ex@15 @12 S2′ [2] These things are meant by the following words in John,

They will say to the mountains and rocks, Rush down on us and hide us from the face of Him who is seated on the throne and from the anger of the Lamb. For the great day of His anger has come; who therefore will be able to stand firm? Rev. 6:16, 17.

Evils and falsities are meant by ‘the mountains and rocks’ which they will address, saying that they should rush down on them and hide them. ‘The anger of the Lamb’ means torment, the appearance being that the Divine would cause the torment because of His anger, but the reality being that the falsities and evils themselves are responsible for it. The words contained in Isaiah 2:10, Hosea 10:8, and Luke 23:30 have a similar meaning. The fact that damnation takes place as a result simply of the Lord’s presence is also meant by these words that follow in the song,

You send out Your wrath, it eats them up like stubble. And with the wind of Your nostrils the waters were heaped up, the floods stood as a heap. You blew with Your wind, the sea covered them over; they sought a deep place. You stretched out Your right hand, the earth swallowed them. Verses 7, 8, 10, 12.

Words with a similar meaning occur in very many other places in the Word.

sRef Ex@15 @2 S0′ 8266. ‘My strength’ means that the source of the whole of power is the Lord Himself. This is clear from the meaning of ‘strength’ as power and force. And since it says ‘my strength’ and this has reference to Jehovah or the Lord, the meaning is that the source of the whole of power is the Lord Himself.

sRef Ex@15 @2 S0′ 8267. ‘And song is Jah’ means that the source of the whole of faith and of the glory resulting from it is Divine Truth which originates in Him. This is clear from the meaning of ‘song’, in reference to Jehovah, as an ascription of glory to the Lord, dealt with above in 8261. But when used in reference to man, as it is here, it means glory existing as a result of faith, and so faith from which glory results; for the whole of the glory which man has exists as a result of faith in the Lord, since faith which really is faith has its origin in the Lord, so that the Lord is within faith and consequently glory itself is also present. A further reason why man’s glory is a result of faith is that Divine Truth, the source and conveyor of faith, appears before angels’ eyes as light, and also as the brightness and radiance of light. This radiance, along with the magnificent scenes in heaven that are products of the light, is called the glory, which is accordingly nothing other than Divine Truth, and so nothing other than faith. This then explains why ‘song’, in reference to man, means glory resulting from faith.

sRef Ps@118 @5 S2′ sRef Ps@118 @14 S2′ sRef Ps@118 @17 S2′ sRef Ps@118 @19 S2′ sRef Ps@118 @13 S2′ sRef Ps@68 @4 S2′ [2] ‘Jah’ means Divine Truth that emanates from the Lord’s Divine Human. This is because Jah is derived from Jehovah, and the name Jah is used because it does not mean Being (Esse) but the Coming-into-Being arising from Being (Existere ex Esse); for Divine Truth is the Coming-into-Being (Existere), whereas Divine Good is Being (Esse), see 6880. This also is why the expression ‘song is Jah’ is used, for ‘song’ means faith that is a product of Divine Truth. ‘Jah’ again means Divine Truth in David,

Sing to God, praise His name; extol Him who rides on the clouds by His name Jah, and exult before Him. Ps. 68:4.

Praising and extolling God ‘by His name Jah’ is doing so through Divine Truth. Again in the same author,

In distress I called on Jah; Jah answered me in a broad place. Jehovah helped me. My strength and song is lain. I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of Jah. I will enter through the gates of righteousness, and confess Jah. Ps. 118:5, 13, 14, 17, 19.

Here ‘Jah’ is the Lord in respect of Divine Truth. Jah has the same meaning in the exclamation Hallelujah, at Ps. 105:45; 106:1, 48; 111:1; 112:1; 113:1, 9; 115:17, 18; 116:19.

sRef Ex@15 @2 S0′ 8268. ‘And He has become my salvation’ means that from this comes salvation. This is clear without explanation.

sRef Ex@15 @2 S0′ sRef John@14 @23 S0′ 8269. ‘[This is my God,] and I will establish a dwelling-place for Him’ means that when He is within good, which originates in Himself, He will be as if in His heaven. This is clear from the meaning of ‘a dwelling-place’, when it has reference to Jehovah or the Lord, as good. The reason why ‘the Lord’s dwelling-place’ means good is that all good has its origin in the Lord; thus good is the Lord’s, so completely that one may say it is the Lord. When the Lord dwells within it He dwells within His Divinity. Nor can He dwell anywhere else, according to the Lord’s words in John,

Jesus said, If anyone loves Me He keeps My word, and My Father loves him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. John 14:23.

Good that springs from God is what ‘loving the Lord and keeping His word’ describes here; for good comes from love. ‘With him’, it says, ‘They would make Their home’, which means within good residing with him. The expression ‘as in His heaven’ is used because heaven is called God’s dwelling-place; and it is called this because good, which originates in the Lord, exists there and constitutes heaven. The Lord is also within the individual person as in His heaven when He is within good there; for the heaven within a person is good, and through good a person is present with angels in heaven. From all this it is now evident that ‘I will establish a dwelling-place for Him’ means that when He is within good, which originates in Himself, He will be as if in His heaven.

sRef Ex@15 @2 S0′ 8270. ‘My father’s God’ means that there was no other Deity in the ancient Churches. This is clear from the meaning of ‘father’ as the Ancient Church, dealt with in 6050, 6075, 7649, 8055; therefore ‘father’s God’ is the Deity in the ancient Churches. For the fact that the Deity in those churches was the Lord, see 6846, 6876, 6884; and for the fact that they took ‘Jehovah’ to mean none other than the Lord, 1343, 5663.

sRef Ex@15 @2 S0′ 8271. ‘And I will exalt Him’ means that now also will Divine worship be offered to Him. This is clear from the meaning of ‘exalting’ – when it is said that a person will exalt Jehovah – as worship; for Divine worship consists in exalting the Lord in contrast to self, which one does according to one’s degree of self-abasement before the Lord. Self-abasement is the essential element in Divine worship. When that element is present in a person he is in the right state to receive from the Lord the truth of faith and the good of charity, and is consequently in the right state to offer Him worship. But if a person exalts himself before the Lord he shuts the interiors of his mind off from receiving goodness and truth from the Lord. For what is meant by self-exaltation when it says of the Lord that He exalts Himself, see above in 8264.

8272. Verses 3-5 Jehovah is a man of war; Jehovah is His name. Pharaoh’s chariots and his army He has thrown into the sea; and his choice tertiary commanders* have been drowned in the Sea Suph. The depths have covered them; they went down into deep places like a stone.

‘Jehovah is a man of war’ means that the Lord provides protection against all evils and falsities, which come from the hells. ‘Jehovah is His name’ means that He alone is the Source of all things. ‘Pharaoh’s chariots and his army He has thrown into the sea’ means the particular and the general falsities arising from evil of those belonging to the Church who led a life of evil in it, and the fact that at His presence those falsities have cast themselves into the hells. ‘And his choice tertiary commanders’ means all aspects together with specific details. ‘Have been drowned in the Sea Suph’ means that they have shut themselves up in falsities arising from evil. ‘The depths have covered them’ means that falsities resulting from evil desires have overwhelmed them. ‘They went down into deep places like a stone’ means that they sank down to lower levels as if on account of heaviness.
* lit. the choice of tertiary commanders. A tertiary commander was possibly an officer ranking third after Pharaoh, or possibly one in charge of a chariot in which there was also a driver and a warrior.

sRef Ex@15 @3 S0′ 8273. ‘Jehovah is a man of war’ means that the Lord provides protection against all evils and falsities, which come from the hells. This is clear from the meaning of ‘a man of war’ as one who fights against falsities and evils, that is, against the hells, and overcomes them, at this point one who provides a person protection against them. For as shown already, the Lord alone fights on behalf of a person and protects him when he is under attack from the hells; He does so constantly, especially in temptations, which are spiritual conflicts. The Lord is called ‘a man of war’, primarily because when He was in the world He fought alone, that is, all by Himself, against the hells, which at that time were for the most part open. They were attacking and attempting to bring under their control all without exception who were entering the next life. The reason why the devil’s crew, that is, the hells, were prowling around in that way then was that the Divine passing through heaven, which was the Divine Human before the Lord’s Coming, was not powerful enough to oppose the evils and falsities which had increased so enormously. Therefore the Divine was pleased to take upon Himself a Human Form and make it Divine. At the same time – through the conflicts to which He allowed Himself to be subjected – He cast the devil’s crew into the hells, shut them in there, and made them subject to the heavens; also at the same time He restored the heavens themselves to order. These conflicts are the primary reason for calling the Lord ‘a man of war’. And after them, when He had thereby conquered the hells and made Himself righteousness, He has been called such because with Divine power He provides people protection, doing so constantly, and especially in the conflicts brought by temptations.

sRef Isa@59 @14 S2′ sRef Isa@63 @1 S2′ sRef Isa@63 @2 S2′ sRef Isa@59 @16 S2′ sRef Isa@59 @17 S2′ sRef Isa@63 @3 S2′ sRef Isa@59 @15 S2′ sRef Isa@63 @5 S2′ sRef Isa@63 @4 S2′ [2] The truth that the Lord alone, all by Himself, fought against the hells and overcame them is presented in the following way in Isaiah,

Judgement is cast away backwards, and justice stands afar off, for truth has stumbled in the street, and uprightness cannot come in; while truth has been removed, and he who retreats from evil is insane. Jehovah saw, and it was evil in His eyes that there was no judgement. And He saw that there was no man (vir), and wondered that there was no intercessor therefore His own arm brought salvation to Him, and His righteousness lifted Him up. Consequently He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation upon His head. Isa. 59:14-17.

This describes conditions at that time in both worlds and declares that the Lord all by Himself, alone, re-established things that were in a state of collapse. The like is stated elsewhere in the same prophet,

Who is this who comes from Edom, with spattered clothes from Bozra, He that is glorious in His apparel, marching in the vast numbers of His strength? I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save. I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples not a man (vir) was with Me. Consequently their victory* has been sprinkled on My clothes. For the day of vengeance was in My heart, and the year of My redeemed had come. I had looked around, but there was no helper, and 7 wondered, but there was no one to uphold; therefore My own arm brought salvation to Me. Isa. 63:1-5.

These quotations make it clear that when in the world, the Lord fought alone against the hells and overcame them.

sRef Ps@24 @8 S3′ sRef Isa@42 @13 S3′ sRef Ps@24 @10 S3′ [3] So far as conflicts with and victories over the hells are concerned, the truth is that anyone who overcomes them once does so for evermore; for through victory he gains power over them, since in the same measure he consolidates within himself, and makes his own, the good of love and the truth of faith against which the hells afterwards do not dare to attempt anything. When He was in the world the Lord allowed Himself to endure conflicts brought by temptations from all the hells, and through those conflicts He made Divine the Human within Him and at the same time reduced the hells to a state of obedience for evermore, see 1663, 1668, 1690, 1692, 1737, 1813, 1820, 2776, 2786, 2795, 2803, 2814, 2816, 4287. So it is that the Lord alone has power over the hells for ever, and with Divine power fights on behalf of a person. This now explains why the Lord is called ‘a man of war’ and also ‘a mighty man’, as again in Isaiah,

Jehovah will go forth as a mighty man, as a man of wars He will arouse zeal; He will prevail over His enemies. Isa. 42:13.

And in David,

Who is this King of glory? Jehovah strong and a mighty man, Jehovah a mighty man of war. Who is this King of glory? Jehovah Zebaoth (Jehovah of Hosts or Armies). Ps. 24:8, 10.

[4] Wherever ‘war’ is mentioned in the Word, spiritual war against falsities and evils – or what amounts to the same thing, against the devil, that is, the hells – is meant in the internal sense, 1664, 2686. The wars or battles which the Lord fought against the hells are the subject in the internal sense both in the historical sections of the Word and in its prophetical parts; and no less the subject are the Lord’s wars or battles fought on behalf of man. With the Ancients, with whom the Lord’s Church existed, there also existed a Word, having both a historical section and a prophetical part, which is not extant at the present day. Its historical section was called The Book of the Wars of Jehovah and its prophetical part The Utterances. That Word is referred to in Moses, Num. 21:14, 27. The fact that the expression used in Num. 21:27 means prophetical utterances is evident from the meaning the expression is given at Num. 23:7, 18; 24:3, 15. The Wars of Jehovah in that Word meant the Lord’s battles against and His victories over the hells when He was in the world. They also meant the battles fought after that, and the everlasting victories won by Him, on behalf of man, the Church, and His kingdom. The hells desire constantly to puff themselves up, for they yearn only to dominate; but they are kept in check by the Lord alone. Their attempts to exert themselves are seen as bubbles boiling up or as a person arching his back. But every time they attempt such a thing a large number of them are cast further down.
* i.e. blood

sRef Ex@15 @3 S0′ 8274. ‘Jehovah is His name’ means that He alone is the Source of all things. This is clear from the meaning of Jehovah’s ‘name’ as all aspects of faith and love or all aspects of truth and good in their entirety through which the Lord is worshipped, dealt with in 2724, 3006, 6674, and in the highest sense as the Lord’s Divine Human, 2628, 6887, the Source of all those aspects. From this and also from the consideration that Jehovah is Being (Esse) itself, and so is the being within all things, it is evident that Jehovah is His name’ means that the Lord alone is the Source of all things.

sRef Ex@15 @4 S0′ 8275. ‘Pharaoh’s chariots and his army He has thrown into the sea’ means the particular and the general falsities arising from evil of those belonging to the Church who led a life of evil in it, and the fact that at His presence those falsities have cast themselves into the hells. This is clear from the meaning of ‘chariots’ as falsities, dealt with in 8146, 8148, 8215, at this point particular falsities since the word ‘army’, meaning general falsities, is also used (for the meaning of ‘army’ as falsities, see 3448, 8138, 8146, 8148); from the representation of ‘Pharaoh’ and of ‘the Egyptians’ as those belonging to the Church who uphold separated faith and lead a life of evil, and are therefore steeped in utter falsities arising from evil, dealt with in 7926, 8132, 8135, 8138, 8148; and from the meaning of ‘the sea’, the Sea Suph at this point, as the hell where those steeped in those falsities are, dealt with in 8099, 8137, 8148, so that ‘He has thrown into the sea’ means that He has cast into hell, in the internal sense that they have cast themselves into it simply at the presence of the Lord, see 8265. From all this it is evident that ‘Pharaoh’s chariots and his army He has thrown into the sea’ means that the particular and the general falsities arising from evil of those belonging to the Church who led a life of evil in it have cast themselves at the presence of the Lord into the hells.

sRef Ex@15 @4 S0′ 8276. ‘And his choice tertiary commanders’ means all aspects together with specific details. This is clear from the meaning of ‘tertiary commanders’ as general headings, under which come particular aspects arranged into order, dealt with in 8150, thus all aspects and specific details. For when the words ‘general headings’ are used, the particular aspects that come under them and are included within them are meant as well, and also the specific details coming under and included within particular aspects, since without them no general heading is anything at all. A heading is called general on account of them; for they all come under it. So it is that ‘tertiary commanders’ means all aspects together with specific details. The word ‘choice’ is used, and by it chief ones are meant, that is to say, chief falsities under which all the rest come.

sRef Ex@15 @4 S0′ 8277. ‘Have been drowned in the Sea Suph’ means that they have shut themselves up in falsities arising from evil. This is clear from the meaning of ‘being drowned’, here by the waters of the Sea Suph, as shutting themselves up in falsities arising from evil. For falsities are meant by ‘the waters’ of that sea, 8137, 8138, and being shut up in by ‘being drowned’, since those in the hells are shut in and surrounded by falsities in the way that those being drowned are by water. Regarding their plunging themselves into those falsities, or shutting themselves up in them, see 7926, 8227, 8228.

sRef Ezek@31 @4 S0′ sRef Ex@15 @5 S0′ sRef Ps@78 @15 S1′ sRef Deut@8 @7 S1′ sRef Ps@78 @16 S1′ 8278. ‘The depths have covered them’ means that falsities resulting from evil desires have overwhelmed them. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the depths’ as falsities which exist as a result of evil desires. In the Word ‘depths’ is used to mean waters and large amounts of waters in deep places, ‘waters’ in the good sense meaning truths and in the contrary sense falsities, 739, 790, 2702, 3058, 3424, 4976, 5668, and deep places’ meaning the hells. So it is that ‘depths’ means falsities resulting from evil desires, as well as meaning the hells. The fact that ‘depths’ is used in the Word to mean waters in deep places and to mean large amounts of waters is clear in Ezekiel,

The waters caused the cedar to grow, the depth made it high, so that it went with its rivers around the place of its planting, and he sent out his lines of water to all the trees of the field. Ezek. 31:4.

In David,

He split the rocks in the wilderness, and caused them to drink the great depths. He brought streams out of the rock and caused waters to descend as streams. Ps. 78:15, 16.

In Moses,

… a good land, a land of rivers of water, springs, and depths gushing out of valley and mountain. Deut. 8:7.

In these places ‘depths’ stands for waters in large amounts; and waters in large amounts or ‘depths’ stands for the truths of faith in abundance. ‘Causing them to drink great depths from the rock’ stands for the truths of faith never failing, for ‘rock’ is faith derived from the Lord, thus the Lord in respect of faith. ‘Depths gushing out of valley and mountain’ stands for the truths of faith coming out of love. This also explains why the blessings of Joseph included the blessings of the deep Lying beneath, Gen. 49:25; Deut. 33:13

sRef Isa@51 @9 S2′ sRef Ezek@26 @19 S2′ sRef Rev@9 @11 S2′ sRef Isa@51 @10 S2′ sRef Isa@63 @13 S2′ sRef Rev@9 @2 S2′ sRef Rev@11 @7 S2′ sRef Isa@63 @12 S2′ sRef Rev@9 @1 S2′ sRef Rev@17 @8 S2′ [2] The fact that ‘the depths’* means falsities resulting from evil desires as well as meaning the hells is clear in Isaiah,

Awake as in the days of antiquity, the generations of long ago. Do You not dry up the sea, the waters of the great deep, and make the deep places of the sea a road, in order that the redeemed may go across? Isa. 51:9-11.

In the same prophet,

… Jehovah who divided the waters before them, who led them through the depths; as a horse in the wilderness they did not stumble. Isa. 63:12-14.

In Ezekiel,

Thus said the Lord Jehovih, When I make you a city laid desolate, like the cities that are not inhabited, when I shall cause the deep to come up against you, and many waters have covered you … Ezek. 26:19.

In John,

I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to earth. To him was given the key of the pit of the abyss; and he opened the pit of the abyss. Rev. 9:1, 2, 11.

In the same author,

The beast that comes up from the abyss will make** war with them. Rev. 11:7.

Yet again in the same author,

The beast that you saw was, and is not, and will come up out of the abyss and go away to perdition. Rev. 17:8.

In these places ‘the depths’, ‘the deep’, or ‘the abyss’ stands for the hells, and so also for the falsities resulting from evil desires, since these desires exist in the hells and constitute them.

sRef Jonah@2 @5 S3′ sRef Ps@71 @20 S3′ sRef Ps@42 @7 S3′ [3] Since these things are meant by ‘the depths’, temptations are also meant by them, for temptations are brought about by falsities and evils which the hells have introduced. This further meaning occurs in Jonah,

The waters surrounded me, even to [my] soul, the deep closed around me. Jonah 2:5. In David,

Deep is calling to deep at the noise of Your waterspouts; all Your breakers and Your waves have passed over me. Ps. 42:7.

You who have shown me many severe troubles,*** turn back and revive me, and cause me to turn back and come up from the depths of the earth. Ps. 71:20.
* In the quotations that follow the same Latin word is rendered variously – the depths, the deep, or the abyss.
** Reading faciet (will make), which Sw. has in his rough draft and also in another place where he quotes this verse, for fecit (has made)
*** lit. many and evil distresses

sRef Ex@15 @5 S0′ 8279. ‘They sank down into deep places like a stone’ means that they fell down to lower levels as if on account of heaviness. This is clear from the meaning of ‘going down’ – down to lower levels as if on account of heaviness – as falling down; from the meaning of ‘deep places’ as lower levels where the hells are located, dealt with below; and from the meaning of ‘like a stone’ as, as if on account of heaviness. The words ‘like a stone’ are used because ‘a stone’ in the genuine sense means truth, dealt with in 643, 1298, 3720, 3769, 3771, 3773, 3789, 3798, 6426, and therefore in the contrary sense means falsity. Furthermore falsity arising from evil is by nature such that it falls downwards to lower levels like a heavy object in the world, whereas truth springing from good is by nature such that it rises upwards to higher levels like a light object in the world. This explains why the evil who have not yet undergone vastation in respect of the truths they know are in the region above hell; but as soon as they have undergone such vastation, that is, have been deprived of truths, it is as though they have had their wings cut off and they fall downwards like weights. And the worse the falsities arising from evil are, the further down they go.

sRef Micah@7 @19 S2′ sRef Jer@49 @30 S2′ sRef Ps@69 @15 S2′ sRef Jer@49 @8 S2′ sRef Ps@69 @1 S2′ sRef Ps@69 @2 S2′ sRef Ps@69 @14 S2′ [2] So it is that ‘deep places’ means the hells, just as ‘depths’ does; but ‘deep places’ means the hells in respect of evils, while ‘depths’ means the hells in respect of falsities arising from those evils, as in Jeremiah,

Flee! they have turned themselves away, they have taken themselves down to dwell in a deep place. Jer. 49:8, 30.

In David,

The waters have come even to [my] soul, I have sunk in the clay of a deep place, and there is no standing; I have come into the deep places of the waters, and a wave overwhelmed me. Snatch me out of the clay lest I sink; let me be snatched from those who hate me, and out of the deep places of the waters. Do not let the flow of waters rush over me, nor the deep place swallow me up, nor the pit close its mouth over me. Ps. 69:1, 2, 14, 15.

In Micah,

He will cast all their sins into a deep place in the sea. Micah 7:19.

The reason why ‘a deep place’ means hell in respect of evil is that it is the opposite of ‘a high place’, which means heaven and is used in reference to good, 8153. Evil also corresponds to a heavy object on earth that falls downwards on account of its weight, and so corresponds as well to the heaviness of a stone, when ‘a stone’ means falsity.

8280. Verses 6-10 Your right hand, O Jehovah, has been magnified in strength; with Your right hand, O Jehovah, You break the enemy in pieces. And in the greatness of Your excellence You destroy those rising up against You; You send out Your wrath, it eats them up like stubble. And with the wind of Your nostrils the waters were heaped up, the floods stood as a heap; the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea. The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my soul will be filled with them. I will unsheathe my sword, my hand will drive them out. You blew with Your wind, the sea covered them over; they sought a deep place like lead in the mighty waters. ‘Your right hand, O Jehovah, has been magnified in strength’ means that the Lord’s almighty power has been displayed. ‘With Your right hand, O Jehovah, You break the enemy in pieces’ means the effect almighty power has on evils and resulting falsities, whose power is eliminated. ‘And in the greatness of Your excellence You destroy those rising up against You’ means that things opposed to the Divine are cast aside by Him as worthless. ‘You send out Your wrath’ means the furious desires of the evil and their attempt to do violence. ‘It eats them up like stubble’ means consequent devastation and damnation, for which they themselves are responsible. ‘And with the wind of Your nostrils the waters were heaped up’ means falsities gathered together through heaven’s presence. ‘The floods stood as a heap’ means that those constantly attempting what was evil could not engage in any molestation whatever. ‘The depths were congealed in the heart of the sea’ means that utter falsities arising from evil belonging to the desires of self-love could not rise to the surface. ‘The enemy said’ means the thought of those ruled by evils and the falsities arising from them, before the Lord’s Coming. ‘I will pursue’ means molestation. ‘I will overtake’ means placing in subjection. ‘I will divide the spoil’ means servitude. ‘My soul will be filled’ means delight. ‘I will unsheathe the sword’ means unceasing conflict on the part of falsity arising from evil. ‘My hand will drive them out’ means that by its power heaven will be destroyed. ‘You blew with Your wind’ means the Lord’s presence with the angels. ‘The sea covered them over’ means that all the falsity they possessed hemmed them in. ‘They sought a deep place like lead’ means that evils drew them down to lower levels like heavy objects in the world. ‘In the mighty waters’ means surrounded by a vast quantity of falsities.

sRef Ex@15 @6 S0′ 8281. ‘Your right hand, O Jehovah, has been made large in strength’ means that the Lord’s almighty power has been displayed. This is clear from the meaning of ‘Jehovah’s right hand’ as almighty power, dealt with below; and from the meaning of ‘has been magnified with strength’ as has been displayed, for Divine power is displayed by the strength magnifying it. The reason why ‘Jehovah’s right hand’ means almighty power is that in the Word ‘hand’ means power, and so ‘right hand’ means exceedingly great power. Therefore when the expressions ‘hand’ or ‘right hand’ are used in reference to Jehovah, Divine power or almighty power is meant. For the meaning of the expressions ‘hand’ and ‘right hand’ as power, see 878, 4931-4937, 6292, 6947, 7188, 7189, 7518, and as almighty power, when they are used in reference to Jehovah, 3387, 7518, 7673, 8050, 8069, 8153.

sRef Ps@110 @5 S2′ sRef Matt@26 @64 S2′ sRef Luke@22 @69 S2′ sRef Ps@110 @1 S2′ sRef Ps@110 @4 S2′ [2] The fact that ‘Jehovah’s right hand’ means Divine power or almighty power is also clear from the following places in the Word: In Matthew,

Jesus said, Hereafter you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power, and coming on the clouds of heaven. Matt. 26:64; Mark 14:62.

In Luke,

Hereafter the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God. Luke 22:69.

Also in David,

Jehovah said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies as Your foot-stool. You are a priest for ever after the manner of Melchizedek. The Lord is at Your right hand; He struck kings in the day of [His] anger. Ps. 110:1, 4, 5; Matt. 22:43, 44.

Anyone who does not know that the expression ‘right hand’, when used in reference to Jehovah, means almighty power will gather no other idea from these the Lord’s words than that the Lord will sit on His Father’s right hand and have dominion in the way that one sitting on a king’s right hand on earth has. But the internal sense shows what one should understand in those places by ‘sitting at the right hand’, namely God’s almighty power. Hence also the expressions ‘sitting at the right hand of power’ and ‘at the right hand of the power of God’.

[3] The Lord is plainly the One who possesses that almighty power, for the words quoted above refer to the Lord, and ‘Lord’ in David is used to mean the Lord in respect of Divine Truth, as also is ‘Son of Man’ in the Gospels, since Divine Truth is that which possesses almighty power, received from Divine Good.

Divine Truth possesses almighty power, see 6948, 8200.

In general power belongs to truth derived from good, 3091, 3563, 4931, 6344, 6423.

‘Hand’ therefore has reference to truth, 3091, 4931.

‘The Son of Man’ is Divine Truth emanating from the Lord, 2159, 2803, 2813, 3704.

sRef Ps@80 @17 S4′ sRef Ps@80 @15 S4′ sRef Ps@89 @13 S4′ sRef Ps@20 @6 S4′ sRef Ps@80 @14 S4′ sRef Ps@118 @14 S4′ sRef Ps@118 @15 S4′ sRef Ps@118 @16 S4′ [4] Divine power or almighty power is meant by ‘right hand’ in the following places also: In David,

Now I know that Jehovah saves His anointed. Let Him answer* Him in heaven through the mighty acts of His saving right hand.** Ps. 20:6.

In the same author,

O Jehovah, look from heaven and see, and visit this vine and the twig which Your right hand has planted, upon the son [whom] You have made strong for Yourself. Ps. 80:14, 15

In the same author,

You have an arm with power; strong is Your hand, Your right hand will be lifted up. Ps. 89:13.

In the same author,

My strength and song is Jah; He has become my salvation. The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tents of the righteous; the right hand of Jehovah has done a mighty deed, the right hand of Jehovah has been exalted, the right hand of Jehovah has done a mighty deed. Ps. 118:14-16.

sRef Isa@62 @8 S5′ sRef Ps@44 @2 S5′ sRef Ps@44 @3 S5′ sRef Ps@80 @17 S5′ [5] In these places ‘the right hand of Jehovah’ stands for almighty power, and in the highest sense for the Lord in respect of Divine Truth. This may be seen more plainly elsewhere in David,

Let Your hand, O Jehovah, be for the man of Your right hand, for the son of man [whom] You have made strong for Yourself. Ps. 80:17.

‘The man of Jehovah’s right hand’ and ‘the son of man’ stand for the Lord in respect of Divine Truth. In the same author,

You drove out the nations with Your hand. They did not gain possession of the land by their own sword, and their arm did not save them, but Your right hand, and Your arm, and the light of Your face. Ps. 44:2, 3.

‘The light’ of Jehovah’s face is Divine Truth derived from Divine Good, so too is His ‘right hand’ and ‘arm’. And in Isaiah,

God*** has sworn by His right hand, and by His mighty arm.**** Isa. 62:8.

Here also ‘God’s right hand’ and ‘His mighty arm’ stand for the Lord in respect of Divine Truth, for Jehovah or the Lord swears by none except Himself, 2842, that is, only by Divine Truth, since He is that Truth because it emanates from Him.

[6] Here is the reason why various places in the Word call the Lord not only ‘the right hand of Jehovah’ and ‘the arm of Jehovah’ but also His ‘strength’ by which He breaks enemies in pieces, and His ‘hammer’ too, as in Jeremiah 51:19-21, and following verses. The Lord also came into the world, became Divine Truth there, and subsequently became Divine Good from which Divine Truth flowed, in order to shut all falsities and evils up in hell, gather together all forms of good and truths into heaven, and there arrange them into Divine order.

From all this it is now clear that ‘the right hand of Jehovah’ in the Word means almighty power, which the Divine possesses through Divine Truth. This is where the meaning of ‘right hand’ as exceedingly great power has its origin; for those in the Grand Man, which is heaven, who correlate with the shoulders, arms, and hands are those who are made powerful by truth springing from good, that is, by faith springing from love, 4931-4937, 7518.
* Reading respondeat (Let Him answer) for respondent (They answer)
** lit. through the powers of salvation of His right hand
*** Jehovah in the Hebrew
**** lit. the arm of His strength

sRef Ex@15 @6 S0′ 8282. ‘With Your right hand, O Jehovah, You break the enemy in pieces’ means the effect almighty power has on evils and resulting falsities, whose power is eliminated. This is clear from the meaning of ‘Jehovah’s right hand’ as the Lord’s almighty power, dealt with immediately above in 8281; from the meaning of ‘breaking in pieces’ as eliminating; and from the meaning of ‘the enemy’ as evils and falsities, since nothing else is meant in the spiritual sense of the Word by those who are enemies, foes, and haters. The reason why the terms enemies, foes, and haters are used, is not that the Lord is an enemy to them or hates them, but because they hate and are hostile towards the Divine. When however they undergo vastation which they themselves bring about, and cast themselves into damnation and into hell, it appears as though the Divine is responsible for what is happening to them. This appearance or illusion is as when someone sees the sun making a circuit each day around our planet and from this supposes that the sun is moving, when in fact the planet is doing so. Or it is as when someone receives a sentence from the king or judge and is punished because he has broken the law, and then supposes that the king or judge is responsible for what he suffers, when in fact he who has broken the law is himself responsible. Or that appearance is as when someone hurls himself into water or fire, or onto an outstretched sword, or an enemy troop, and then supposes that these are responsible for his destruction, when in fact he himself is. The same is so when those immersed in evil raise themselves up against the Divine, and cast themselves into the midst of His presence.

sRef Ex@15 @7 S0′ 8283. ‘And in the greatness of Your excellence You destroy those rising up against You’ means that things opposed to the Divine are cast aside by Him as worthless. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the greatness of excellence’ as the Divine in respect of His power over things that are opposed to Him; from the meaning of ‘destroying’ as casting aside as worthless; and from the meaning of ‘those rising up’ as those who are opposed, thus as things that are opposed.

sRef Ex@15 @7 S0′ 8284. ‘You send out Your wrath’ means the furious desires of the evil and their attempt to do violence. This is clear from the meaning of ‘wrath’, when attributed to Jehovah or the Lord, as the suppression and punishment of the attempts of those who, being opposed to the Divine, wish to do violence to those whom the Divine protects. This is seemingly anger and wrath on the side of the Divine, but in reality the anger and wrath reside with those opposed to Him, see 5798, 6071, 6997. Not only the anger and wrath but also every bad thing that happens is attributed to the Divine, when in reality those people themselves are responsible for it, 2447, 6071, 6991, 6997, 7533, 7632, 7643, 7679, 7710, 7877, 7926, 8223, 8227, 8228. A sphere of endeavours to do what is bad issues constantly from hell, but a sphere of endeavours to do what is good emanates constantly from heaven, 8209.

sRef Ex@15 @7 S0′ 8285. ‘It eats them up like stubble’ means consequent devastation and damnation, for which they themselves are responsible. This is clear from the meaning of ‘eating up’ as consuming, and in the spiritual sense as devastating and damning, the consumption of those immersed in evil being devastation and damnation. For then they are not influenced by any truth at all but are steeped in utter falsities arising from evil, as a consequence of which they no longer have any spiritual life. The expression ‘like stubble’ is used because complete vastation, that is devastation, is meant.

sRef Ex@15 @8 S0′ 8286. ‘And with the wind of Your nostrils the waters were heaped up’ means falsities gathered together through heaven’s presence. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the wind of Your nostrils’ as heaven, dealt with below; from the meaning of ‘being heaped up’ as being gathered into one; and from the meaning of ‘the waters’ as falsities, dealt with in 7307, 8137, 8138. Damnation and being cast into hell involves having all the falsities arising from evil gathered together, and then being hemmed in by them, see 8146, 8210, 8232; and this happens as a result simply of the Lord’s presence, 8265. The reason why ‘the wind of Jehovah’s, or the Lord’s, nostrils’ means heaven is that the expression is used to denote the breath of life, that is, God’s life; and since God’s life constitutes heaven’s life, heaven is meant by ‘the wind of Jehovah’s nostrils’. This also explains why the same word in the original language means both wind and spirit. sRef Job@33 @4 S2′ sRef Ps@33 @6 S2′ sRef Ps@104 @29 S2′ sRef Ps@104 @30 S2′ sRef Ezek@37 @3 S2′ sRef Ezek@37 @10 S2′ sRef Ezek@37 @9 S2′ sRef Rev@7 @1 S2′ [2] The fact that Jehovah’s wind or His breath means heaven’s life, and the life of a person in heaven, that is, of one who has been regenerated, is clear in David,

By the Word of Jehovah were the heavens made, and all their host by the spirit (wind) of His mouth. Ps. 33:6.

In the same author,

You gather up their spirit, they breathe their last and fall back into their dust. You send forth Your spirit (wind), they are created. Ps. 104:29, 30.

In Ezekiel,

Jehovah said to me, Will these bones live? Then He said, Prophesy over the spirit, prophesy, O son of man, and say to the wind, Thus said the Lord Jehovih, Come from the four winds, O spirit, and breathe into these killed, that they may live. And the spirit came into them, and they lived again. Ezek. 37:3, 9, 10.

In John,

I saw four angels standing over the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, in order that the wind should not blow onto the earth, nor onto the sea, nor onto any tree. Rev. 7:1.

Here ‘the wind’ stands for heaven’s life, which is God’s life, as also in Job,

The spirit of God has made me, and the breath of Shaddai* has given me life. Job 33:4.

sRef Lam@4 @20 S3′ sRef John@3 @8 S3′ sRef Gen@2 @7 S3′ sRef Job@27 @3 S3′ sRef Isa@2 @22 S3′ [3] Since ‘wind’ meant life the Lord also says, in His teaching about a person’s regeneration,

The spirit (or wind) blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or goes away to; so it is with everyone who has been born from the spirit. John 3:8.

And since life from God was meant by ‘Jehovah’s wind’ or ‘His breath’ it therefore says of Jehovah, when Adam’s new life is the subject, that

He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. Gen. 2:7.

The word ‘nostrils’ is used because a person breathes by means of them and by means of breathing has life, as in Isaiah,

Turn yourselves away from the person in whose nostrils there is breath.** Isa. 2:22.

In Jeremiah,

The Breath*** of our nostrils, the Anointed of Jehovah, was caught in their pits, of whom we had said, In his shadow we shall live among the nations. Lam. 4:20.

‘The Anointed of Jehovah’ stands for the Lord, ‘the Breath of our nostrils’ for life received from Him. In Job,

As long as my soul is in me, and God’s wind in my nose … Job 27:3.

sRef Ps@147 @17 S4′ sRef Ps@18 @8 S4′ sRef Ps@18 @15 S4′ sRef Ps@147 @18 S4′ sRef Isa@30 @33 S4′ sRef Isa@40 @24 S4′ [4] Since therefore ‘the wind of Jehovah’s nostrils’ means life which comes from the Lord, and so in the universal sense means heaven, and since through the Lord’s presence – or through the presence of heaven, where the Lord is – evils and falsities are cast into hell, 8265, so also is the accomplishment of this meant by ‘the wind of Jehovah’s nostrils’, as in David,

The channels of the sea were seen, the foundations of the world were revealed, because of Jehovah’s rebuke, at the blast of breath from His nostrils.**** Ps. 18:8, 15; 2 Sam. 22:16.*****

In Isaiah,

The breath of Jehovah like a stream****** of brimstone sets it alight. Isa. 30:33.

In the same prophet,

Indeed they are not planted, indeed they are not sown, indeed their trunk does not take root in the earth, and also He breathes onto them and they wither, so that the whirlwind may bear them away like stubble. Isa. 40:24.

And in David,

He sends His word and melts them; He causes His wind to blow, the waters flow. Ps. 147:17, 18

In addition this explains why ‘the nose’, when used in reference to Jehovah or the Lord, also means wrath, and so the punishment, vastation, and damnation suffered by those ruled by evils and falsities, as in Num. 25:4; Deut. 7:4; Judg. 2:14; Isa. 9:12; Jer. 4:8; Hosea 14:4; Ps. 6:1; 86:15; 103:8; 145:8; and very many other times elsewhere. It explains too why ‘breathing with the nostrils’ or ‘breathing out’ means being angry, Deut. 4:21; Isa. 12:1; Ps. 2:12; 6:1; 60:1; 79:5; 85:5.
* Usually translated the Almighty; but see 1992.
** lit. in whose nose there is spirit
*** lit. Spirit
**** lit. at the breath of the spirit of His nose
***** Here Sw. in fact quotes 2 Sam. 22:16, the Hebrew of which is almost the same as appears in Ps. 18:15.
****** The Latin means fire but the Hebrew means stream, which Sw. has in other places where he quotes this verse.

sRef Ex@15 @8 S0′ 8287. ‘The floods stood as a heap’ means that those constantly attempting what was evil could not engage in any molestation whatever. This is clear from the meaning of ‘standing as a heap’, when it refers to falsities arising from evil, as constantly attempting what is evil, for when floods stand as a heap they are overhanging and endeavouring to rush down, but are held back by a stronger force; and from the meaning of ‘the floods’, like ‘the waters’, as falsities arising from evil, 7307, 8137, 8138. But they are called ‘the floods’ on account of their attempt to flow in, that is, to molest.

sRef Ex@15 @8 S0′ 8288. ‘The depths were congealed in the heart of the sea’ means that utter falsities arising from evil belonging to the desires of self-love could not rise to the surface. This is clear from the meaning of ‘being congealed’, when those in the hells are the subject, as being unable to rise to the surface; from the meaning of ‘the depths’ as falsities resulting from evil desires, and as the hells, dealt with above in 8278, 8279; and from the meaning of ‘the heart of the sea’ as the evil of self-love and the falsities arising from that evil. ‘The heart’ in the genuine sense means celestial good, which is the good of love to the Lord, spoken of in 3635, 3883-3896, 7542, and in the contrary sense the evil of self-love. For this evil is the opposite of the good of love to the Lord, while the evil of the love of the world is the opposite of spiritual good, which is the good of love towards the neighbour. From all this it is evident that ‘the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea’ means that utter falsities arising from evil belonging to the desires of self-love could not rise to the surface. They are spoken of as being unable to rise to the surface because ‘the depths’ and ‘the heart of the sea’ mean the hells where falsities resulting from evil desires are, or where falsities arising from evil are. Consequently, since they are hemmed in by their own falsities arising from evil, they can no longer work their way out, because the Lord’s Divine presence stands in the way of the falsities there.

sRef Ex@15 @9 S0′ 8289. ‘The enemy said’ means the thought of those ruled by evils and the falsities arising from them, before the Lord’s Coming. This is clear from the meaning of ‘said’ as thought, as in 3395, 7244, 7937; and from the meaning of ‘the enemy’ as those ruled by evils and falsities, since no others are meant in the spiritual sense by ‘the enemy’, 8282. The reason why their thought before the Lord’s Coming is meant is that the hellish crew were prowling around at that time in almost complete freedom, molesting all who were there and trying to place them in subjection. Their thought at that time is described in the present verse by ‘I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my soul will be filled. I will unsheathe the sword, my hand will drive them out’. But when the Lord came into the world their boasting was changed to lamentation, described in the verse immediately following by ‘You blew with Your wind, the sea covered them over; they sought a deep place like lead in the mighty waters’. Regarding their change of state brought about by the Lord’s Coming, see 6854, 6914, 7091, 7828, 7932, 8018, 8054.

sRef Ex@15 @9 S0′ 8290. ‘I will pursue’ means molestation. This is clear from the meaning of ‘pursuing’, when said by those ruled by evil regarding those governed by good, as molesting and trying to place in subjection.

sRef Ex@15 @9 S0′ 8291. ‘I will overtake’ means placing in subjection. This is clear from the meaning of ‘overtaking’, when said by those ruled by evil regarding those governed by good, as placing in subjection.

sRef Ex@15 @9 S0′ 8292. ‘I will divide the spoil’ means servitude. This is clear from the meaning of ‘spoil’ as those who have been placed in subjection, so that ‘dividing the spoil’ means sharing out among themselves those reduced to being slaves, and so means servitude.

sRef Ex@15 @9 S0′ 8293. ‘My soul will be filled’ means delight. This is clear without explanation. The words ‘my soul will be filled’ are used because the chief delight of those in hell lies in doing harm to others, in some cases for no reason other than the delight gained in doing it, in other cases with a view to turning them into slaves, whom they then wish to treat cruelly. The fact that this kind of delight exists in the next life with people who lead a life of evil can be believed by scarcely anyone, including even those people themselves. For as long as they are in the world they are constrained by fears – of legal punishments, as well as of loss of position, wealth, reputation, and also life. These fears cause them at that time to refrain from evil deeds in their outward behaviour, as a result of which they imagine that they are not the kind of people they really are. But when they are released from having to think about possible loss of life, wealth, position, and reputation, as happens in the next life, and they are left to their own evil, the delight to do harm, which has lain hidden in the will and has emerged as often as they could remove those fears, reveals itself. That delight now constitutes their life, a life that is the life of hell.

sRef Lev@26 @33 S0′ sRef Ezek@12 @14 S0′ sRef Ezek@21 @5 S0′ sRef Ezek@21 @3 S0′ sRef Ezek@21 @4 S0′ sRef Ex@15 @9 S0′ sRef Josh@5 @13 S0′ 8294. ‘I will unsheathe the sword’ means unceasing conflict on the part of falsity arising from evil. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the sword’ as truth engaged in conflict against falsity and evil, and in the contrary sense as falsity engaged in conflict against truth and good, dealt with in 2799, 4499; and from the meaning of ‘unsheathing’, or baring it, as unceasing conflict until the enemy has been laid low. Unceasing conflict is likewise meant by an unsheathed or drawn sword in Moses, I will scatter you among the nations, and unsheathe a sword after you. Lev. 26:33.

In Ezekiel,

I will scatter to every wind all his troop; and I will unsheathe the sword after them. Ezek. 12:14.

In the same prophet,

Thus said Jehovah, Behold Me against you; I will draw my sword out of its sheath, and will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked. My sword will go out of its sheath against all flesh from south to north; so that all flesh may know that I Jehovah have drawn My sword out of its sheath, and it is not going to return any more. Ezek. 21:3-5.

Here ‘unsheathing’ or ‘drawing the sword’ stands for not ceasing to engage in conflict until enemies have been laid low, and so stands for unceasing conflict. Unceasing conflict against evils and falsities is also meant by the unsheathed sword of the Prince of the army of Jehovah whom Joshua saw when he entered the land of Canaan, Josh. 5:13. It was a sign to them that they were to fight the nations there and to destroy them. By ‘the nations’ in possession of the land of Canaan at that time are meant those who before the Lord’s Coming occupied the region of heaven which was subsequently given to members of the Lord’s spiritual kingdom, 6914, 8054.

sRef Ex@15 @9 S0′ 8295. ‘My hand will drive them out’ means that by its power heaven will be destroyed. This is clear from the meaning of ‘driving out’ as dislodging and so destroying; and from the meaning of ‘hand’ as power, dealt with in 878, 4931-4937, 6292, 6947, 7188, 7189, 7518. Heaven is meant because of the words ‘will drive them out’, that is, from heaven; for when the restraint placed on the evil is loosened they become so bold and arrogant as to think that they have the power to destroy heaven itself. For all who are in the hells are opposed to heaven because they are opposed to goodness and truth and consequently have a constant desire to destroy it, and so far as they are allowed, try to do so, 8273(end).

sRef Rev@12 @8 S2′ sRef Rev@12 @7 S2′ [2] Seeking to destroy heaven or to dislodge those who are there is not accomplished by a hostile incursion as on earth, for no incursion or conflict such as that takes place in the next life. Instead it is accomplished by the destruction of truth which belongs to faith and of good which belongs to love; for the truth of faith and the good of love constitute heaven. These are the things in which conflicts and wars in the next life consist. How terrible and horrid they are will in the Lord’s Divine mercy be told at the ends of the chapters where the hells will be the subject.* The war described in John should not be understood in any other kind of way,

War took place in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, while the dragon fought and his angels, but they did not prevail. Rev. 12:7, 8.
* This proposal was not fulfilled, but presumably the material mentioned here concerning the hells appeared in the work published a few years later, in 1758, whose English title is Heaven and Hell.

sRef Ex@15 @10 S0′ 8296. ‘You blew with Your wind’ means the Lord’s presence with the angels. This is clear from the explanation above in 8286.

sRef Ex@15 @10 S0′ 8297. ‘The sea covered them over’ means that all the falsity they possessed hemmed them in. This is clear from the meaning of ‘covering over’ as hemming in; and from the meaning of ‘the sea’, here the waters of the Sea Suph, as falsities arising from evils, which sea also means hell, dealt with in 8099, 8137, 8138, 8148. As regards their being hemmed in there by falsities arising from evil, [see] 8210, 8232.

sRef Ex@15 @10 S0′ 8298. ‘They sought a deep place like lead’ means that evils drew them down to lower levels like heavy objects in the world. This is clear from the meaning of ‘a deep place’ as lower levels and the hells in respect of evils, dealt with in 8279, so that ‘seeking a deep place’ is being drawn down by evils to those places. For their own evils cause the evil to fall, like heavy objects in the world, down towards the hells, see 8279. The expression ‘like lead’ is used because ‘lead’ means evil. But verse 5 above stated that ‘they went down into deep places of the sea like a stone’ because ‘a stone’ at that point means falsity. Both are heavy, both falsity and evil, and therefore they both fall downwards. Nevertheless evil is what creates heaviness in the spiritual sense and so is what falls as if by gravity. In itself falsity is not heavy; it is so only as a result of the evil that is present in it. For falsity by itself has no weight at all, but acquires it from evil, so that it falls downwards.

sRef Ezek@22 @18 S2′ sRef Jer@6 @28 S2′ sRef Jer@6 @29 S2′ sRef Jer@6 @30 S2′ [2] It should be recognized that all metals mean good or else truth, and in the contrary sense evil or else falsity. Being less noble than all other metals ‘lead’ means evil at the lowest level, such as evil belonging to the exterior natural, but in the good sense it means good at that same level; as in Jeremiah,

They are all arch-rebels,* disparagers, bronze and iron; they are all corrupters. The bellows have become hot, the lead has been consumed by the fire; he has thoroughly melted it in vain, for the evil have not been purged out.** [People] will call them rejected silver, because Jehovah has rejected them. Jer. 6:28-30.

And in Ezekiel,

Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to Me; they are all bronze, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of a furnace. They have become the dross of silver. Ezek. 22:18.
* lit. rebels of rebels
** lit. torn away

sRef Ex@15 @10 S0′ 8299. ‘In the mighty waters’ means surrounded by a vast quantity of falsities. This is clear from the meaning of ‘waters’ as falsities arising from evil, dealt with just above in 8297, so that ‘the mighty waters’ are falsities in a vast quantity. The fact that they were surrounded or hemmed in by them, see 8210, 8232.

sRef Ex@15 @11 S0′ sRef Ex@15 @13 S0′ sRef Ex@15 @12 S0′ 8300. Verses 11-13 Who is like You among the gods, O Jehovah? Who is like You, magnificent in holiness, to be venerated with praises, doing wonders? You stretched out Your right hand, the earth swallowed them. In Your mercy You have led this people [whom] you have redeemed; in Your strength You have brought them to the dwelling-place of Your holiness.

‘Who is like You among the gods, O Jehovah?’ means that every truth of good emanates from the Lord’s Divine Human. ‘Who is like You in holiness’ means that He is the Source of everything holy. ‘To be venerated with praises’ means that to Him alone belong glory and thanksgiving. ‘Doing wonders?’ means that He is the Source of all the means through which comes power. ‘You stretched out Your right hand’ means that the exercising of power over all things became apparent from this. ‘The earth swallowed them’ means that as a result simply of His presence damnation and hell befell them. ‘In Your mercy You have led this people’ means the Divine flowing in among those who have been refraining from evils and consequently receiving good. ‘You have redeemed’ means those whom He has delivered from hell. ‘In Your strength You have brought them to the dwelling-place of Your holiness’ means that the Lord’s Divine power has raised them to heaven, to the Divine there.

sRef Ex@15 @11 S0′ 8301. ‘Who is like You among the gods, O Jehovah’ means that every truth of good emanates from the Lord’s Divine Human. This is clear from the meaning of ‘gods’ as truths, dealt with in 4402, 7268, 7873, at this point truths springing from good since comparison with Jehovah is made when it says, Who is like You among the gods, O Jehovah? ‘Jehovah’ in the Word means the Lord, see 1343, 1736, 2921, 3023, 3035, 5041, 5663, 6280, 6281, 6303, 6905, 6945, 6956; but at this point ‘Jehovah’ is used to mean the Divine Human because the theme of the song is the salvation of those belonging to the spiritual Church, accomplished through the Lord’s Coming into the world, and by means of His Divine Human while He was in it, see 2661, 2716, 2833, 2834, 6372, 6854, 6914, 7035, 7091(end), 7828, 7932, 8018, 8054. The reason why the words used mean that every truth of good emanates from the Lord’s Divine Human is that truths can emanate from anyone at all, but the truths of good can do so only from the Lord, consequently from those who are governed by good received from the Lord. Truths divorced from good are also contemplated and declared by those who possess faith that is mere persuasion and still lead a life of evil, as well as by many others within the Church. But those truths are not the truths of good, and so they do not emanate from the Lord but from such people themselves.

[2] The fact that truths springing from good emanate from the Lord may be recognized from the consideration that the Lord is Good itself because He is Love itself. Truth emanates from that Love just as light does from the flames of the sun. This truth is also like the light in springtime and summer, which holds warmth within itself and causes all things on the planet to come alive so to speak. But truth that does not flow from good is like the light in wintertime when all things on the planet die off. The reason why ‘gods’ are the truths of good is that ‘gods’ is used in the good sense to mean angels, who are called ‘gods’ because they are substances or forms receiving truth that has good from the Lord within it.

sRef Ps@82 @6 S3′ sRef Ps@82 @1 S3′ sRef Ps@135 @5 S3′ sRef Ps@86 @8 S3′ sRef Ps@95 @3 S3′ sRef Ps@97 @9 S3′ sRef Ps@138 @1 S3′ [3] Angels, and therefore the truths of good which emanate from the Lord, are also meant by ‘gods’ in the following places: In David,

God places himself in the assembly of God in the midst of the gods will He judge. I said, You are gods and sons of the Most High, all of you. Ps. 82:1, 6.

Truths emanating from the Lord are what ‘gods’ is used to mean here. This is clear from the fact that the singular, ‘in the assembly of God’, is used first, and ‘in the midst of the gods’ afterwards. For ‘God’ is used in the Word where truth is referred to, see 2769, 2807, 2822, 3921, 4287, 4402, 7010; and in the highest sense ‘God’ is the Divine Truth emanating from the Lord, 7268. In the same author,

I will confess You with my whole heart; before the gods I will make melody to You. Ps. 138:1.

In the same author,

There is none like You among the gods O Lord. Ps. 86:8.

In the same author,

A great God is Jehovah, and a great King above all gods. Ps. 95:3.

In the same author,

You, O Jehovah, are [high] above all the earth; You are exceedingly exalted above all gods. Ps. 97:9.

In the same author,

I know that Jehovah is great, and our Lord is above all gods. Ps. 135:5.

So it is too that Jehovah is called Lord of lords and God of gods in Deut. 10:17; Josh. 22:22; Ps. 136:2.

[4] The reason why it is said so many times that Jehovah is above all gods and is God of gods is that at that time a large number of gods were worshipped. Nations were distinguished from one another according to the gods they worshipped, each nation believing that its god was the highest of all. As a result of this the idea of a large number of gods was rooted in everyone’s mind, though there was disagreement over which one of them was the greatest, as becomes quite clear from many places in the historical narratives of the Word. That idea was rooted in the minds of the Jews more than others, and this explains why it says so many times in the Word that Jehovah was greater than all gods and that He was King and God of gods. The fact that this idea of a large number of gods was rooted in the minds of the Jews more than other nations becomes quite clear from their frequent apostasy, when they turned to the worship of other gods, many instances of which are recorded in the historical books of the Word, such as Judg. 2:10, 13, 17, 19; 3:5-7; 8:27, 33; 10:6, 10, 13; 18:14, 17, 18, 20, 24, 31; I Sam. 7:3, 4; 8:8; I Kings 14:23, 24; 16:31-33; 18:20ff; 21:26; 22:53; 2 Kings 16:1, 10ff; 17:7, 15-17; 21:3-7, 21; 23:4, 5, 7, 8, 10-13; and elsewhere.

sRef Jer@2 @28 S5′ sRef Jer@2 @11 S5′ sRef Jer@2 @12 S5′ [5] The mind of that nation was so unsound that with their lips they declared belief in Jehovah alone, yet in their heart acknowledged other gods. This becomes perfectly clear from the consideration that they saw so many miracles in Egypt, and in addition so many after that – the division of the sea before them and the drowning of Pharaoh’s army, the pillar of cloud and fire constantly appearing, the manna raining down from heaven every day, and the actual presence of Jehovah with such great majesty and awe on Mount Sinai. And having seen such miracles they declared openly that Jehovah alone was God. Yet only weeks later, merely because Moses delayed [coming down from the mountain], they asked for molded gods which they could adore. And also after Aaron had made them those people attended them with divine worship through a feast, burnt offerings and sacrifices, and dancing. From this it becomes clear that the worship of many gods remained fixed in their hearts. The fact that this nation was like this, more than any other nation on the entire earth, is also clear in Jeremiah,

Has a nation changed its gods, and My people changed their glory for what does not profit? Be astonished, O heavens, over this, and shudder, be in great trepidation. According to the number of your cities have your gods been, O Judah. Jer. 2:11, 12, 28.

[6] The character of that nation is also such that they adore external things, and so idols, more than all other nations do; they have no desire whatever to know about internal things. For they are the most avaricious of all nations; and avarice, which with them is such that gold or silver is loved for its own sake and not for the sake of any useful purpose, is an extremely earthly desire. It drags the mind down completely to a physical level and submerges it in it; and it closes interior levels to such an extent that no faith or love whatever from heaven can enter them. This shows how greatly mistaken those people are who believe that that nation will be chosen again, or that the Lord’s Church will pass to them again after all others have been cast aside, when in fact you will convert stones to faith in the Lord before you convert them. This belief that the Church will pass to them is again due to many places in the prophetical parts of the Word which speak of their future return. But such people do not know that in those places Judah, Jacob, or Israel is not used to mean that nation, but those among whom the Church resides.

sRef John@16 @15 S0′ sRef Ex@15 @11 S0′ 8302. ‘Who is like You in holiness’ means that He is the Source of everything holy. This is clear from the meaning of ‘who is like You in holiness?’ as the fact that nobody is so holy; but the meaning in the internal sense is that He is the Source of everything holy since He is Holiness itself. By ‘that which is holy’ is meant the Divine Truth emanating from the Lord. This Truth is called holy, and is meant also by the Holy Spirit, of whom it is therefore said that He is ‘the Spirit of Truth’, John 14:16, 17; 15:26, 27; 16:13, has been sent by the Lord, John 15:26, 27, and will take from the Lord what He will declare, John 16:15. Since holiness is an attribute of Divine Truth which emanates from the Lord, angels – being recipients of that Truth – are therefore called ‘holy’, Matt. 2:31; Mark 8:38; Luke 9:26; so too are prophets, and in particular the Word, which is God’s truth itself. The Lord as well – by virtue of the Divine Truth, which He is since He is its Source – is called ‘the Holy One of Israel’, ‘the Holy One of Jacob’, and ‘the Holy One of God’.

sRef Ex@15 @11 S0′ 8303. ‘To be venerated with praises’ means that to Him alone belong glory and thanksgiving. This is clear from the meaning of ‘to be venerated with praises’, when said of Jehovah, as this, that He should be declared famous and should be worshipped, thus that to Him alone belong glory and thanksgiving.

sRef Ps@105 @1 S0′ sRef Ex@15 @11 S0′ sRef Ps@105 @3 S0′ sRef Ps@105 @4 S0′ sRef Matt@16 @18 S0′ sRef Ps@105 @2 S0′ sRef Ps@105 @5 S0′ sRef Matt@16 @19 S0′ 8304. ‘Doing wonders?’ means that He is the Source of all the means through which comes power. This is clear from the meaning of ‘wonders’, or miracles, as the means used by Divine power, dealt with in 6910. The reason why ‘wonders’ are the means used by Divine power is that by them the people were led to believe that Jehovah was the highest of Gods, indeed that there was no God besides Him, and therefore that He alone was to be worshipped. And those who received this truth were afterwards introduced to truths concerned with the worship of Him, which are the means of power. For all power in the spiritual sense resides in truths which come from the Divine, 3091, 6344, 6423, 6948, 8200. Power in the spiritual sense consists in putting to flight and casting away from oneself the hellish crew, which is done solely by means of truths. This then is why ‘doing wonders’ means that the Lord is the Source of all the means through which comes power. The means used by Divine power are meant by ‘wonders’ also in David,

Sing to Jehovah, make melody to Him; meditate on all His wonders. Glory in His holy name. Seek Jehovah and His strength; seek His face continually. Remember His wonders, His marvels, and the judgements of His mouth. Ps. 105:1-5.

The possession of all power by the truths of faith received from the Lord is evident from the Lord’s words to Peter,

I tell you, You are Peter, and on this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Matt. 16:18, 19.

‘Peter’ here represents faith, ‘rock’ in the Word is a sign of faith, and ‘key’ is used to mean power, see Preface to Genesis 22, and also 4738 (end), 6344 (end).

sRef Ex@15 @12 S0′ 8305. ‘You stretched out Your right hand’ means that the exercising of power over all things became apparent from this. This is clear from the meaning of ‘stretching out’ as that which is connected with the exercising of power, and – when said of Jehovah – as that which is connected with almighty power, dealt with in 7673; and from the meaning of ‘right hand’ as Divine power, dealt with above in 8281. The fact that it became apparent from this is meant, that is to say, the exercising of power over all things became so, is clear from the words immediately following – ‘the earth swallowed them’ – which mean that as a result simply of the Lord’s presence damnation or hell befell them.

sRef Num@16 @32 S0′ sRef Num@16 @30 S0′ sRef Ex@15 @12 S0′ sRef Num@16 @31 S0′ sRef Num@16 @33 S0′ 8306. ‘The earth swallowed them’ means that as a result simply of His presence damnation and hell befell them. This is clear from the meaning of ‘being swallowed by the earth’ as damnation and hell, for that swallowing means falling or being cast down into hell. Hell is also positioned deep down below, being furthest away from the Sun of heaven, that is, the Lord, who occupies the highest position there. The distances of positions away from Him are determined by the nature and amount of evils and of falsities arising from them; and this is why heaven is seen above and hell below. The place where those ruled by falsities arising from evil and consequently in a state of damnation are is also seen as a wilderness-land, which is called the land of damnation. Below this land are cast those sent down to hell, 7418, which happens as a result simply of the Lord’s presence, 8265. This now explains why ‘the earth swallowed them’ means damnation and hell, as is also evident in Moses,

Moses said to the assembly regarding Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, If Jehovah does something new,* and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them and everything that is theirs, so that they go down alive into hell, you will know that these men have provoked Jehovah. And the earth which was under them was split apart; and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them. And they went down, and all who were theirs, alive into hell. Num. 16:30-33.
* lit. will have created a creation

sRef Ex@15 @13 S0′ 8307. ‘In Your mercy You have led this people’ means the Divine flowing in among those who have been refraining from evils and consequently receiving good. This is clear from the meaning of ‘in mercy leading’ as receiving the Divine; and since people receive the Divine when they refrain from evils, the Divine flowing in among them is meant. As regards mercy shown by the Lord, the Lord’s mercy remains constantly with every individual person; for the Lord wishes to save all the people there are. But that mercy cannot flow into them until evils have been removed; for evils, and falsities arising from them, stand in the way and hinder it. As soon as evils are removed however, mercy flows in, that is, good flowing from the Lord out of His mercy; and that good is charity and faith. From this it becomes clear that the Lord’s mercy is universal, that is, is directed towards all people, and is also particular towards those who refrain from evils. [2] Refraining from evils is something a person can do by himself, but receiving good is not something he can do by himself. The reason why a person can refrain from evils by himself is that the Lord flows constantly into a person’s will with the endeavour to do so, thereby giving him the freedom to desist from evils and also to devote himself to good. The Lord also gives him the ability to understand truth, and if he does not understand, it is because he has no wish to. He has no wish to understand it because of the evil in his life; for falsity defends evil, whereas truth condemns it. So it is that a person cannot be endowed with spiritual good from the Lord, thus cannot be led by mercy, unless he desists from evils.

sRef Ex@15 @13 S0′ 8308. ‘You have redeemed’ means those whom He has delivered from hell. This is clear from the meaning of ‘redeeming’ as delivering from hell, dealt with in 7205, 7445.

sRef Ex@15 @13 S0′ 8309. ‘In Your strength You have brought them to the dwelling-place of Your holiness’ means that the Lord’s Divine power has raised them to heaven, to the Divine there. This is clear from the meaning of ‘leading in strength’, when used in reference to being raised into heaven by the Lord, as being raised by Divine power, ‘strength’ meaning power, as is self-evident; and from the meaning of ‘the dwelling-place of holiness’ as heaven, where the Divine is. For holiness is an attribute of the Divine Truth that emanates from the Lord, 8302, and this Divine Truth makes heaven.

sRef Ps@132 @5 S2′ sRef Ps@132 @6 S2′ sRef Ps@132 @4 S2′ sRef Deut@26 @15 S2′ sRef Isa@63 @15 S2′ sRef Ps@132 @7 S2′ [2] The truth that Jehovah’s or the Lord’s ‘dwelling-place’ is heaven, and also good, because good has heaven within it, is clear from the following places: In Moses,

Look from the dwelling-place of Your holiness, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel.* Deut 26:1-5

In Isaiah,

Look out from heaven, and see from the dwelling-place of [Your] holiness and of Your glory. Isa. 63:15.

In David,

Surely I will not give sleep to my eyes, until I find a place for Jehovah, the dwelling-places for the Mighty One of Jacob Behold, we heard of Him in Ephrathah; we found Him in the fields of the wood. We will enter His dwelling-places. Ps 132:4-7.

sRef Zech@2 @10 S3′ sRef Zech@2 @11 S3′ sRef Ezek@37 @27 S3′ sRef Ezek@37 @26 S3′ [3] The truth that Jehovah’s, that is, the Lord’s, ‘dwelling-place’ is within good may be seen in Zechariah,

Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Zion! Behold I am coming in order that I may dwell in Your midst. Many nations will cling to Jehovah on that day and will be My people; for I will dwell in you. Zech. 2:10, 11.

And in Ezekiel,

I will set My sanctuary in their midst forever, so will My dwelling-place be among them. Ezek. 37:26, 27.

‘Sanctuary’ is where Divine Truth having Divine Good within it resides.
* The Latin means bless the people of Israel but the Hebrew means bless Your people, Israel.

sRef Ex@15 @14 S0′ sRef Ex@15 @16 S0′ sRef Ex@15 @15 S0′ 8310. Verses 14-16 The peoples heard, they trembled; distress took hold of the inhabitants of Philistia. Then the chiefs of Edom were dismayed; the powerful ones of Moab, terror took hold of them; all the inhabitants of Canaan melted away. Alarm and dread fell on them; by the greatness of Your arm they are cut away, like a stone, till Your people pass over, O Jehovah, till this people pass over [whom] You have possessed.

‘The peoples heard’ means all everywhere who were ruled by falsity arising from evil. ‘They trembled’ means terror. ‘Distress took hold of the inhabitants of Philistia’ means despair of enlarging their dominion, on the part of those upholding faith separated from good. ‘Then the chiefs of Edom were dismayed’ means a like feeling on the part of those leading a life of evil arising from self-love. ‘The powerful ones of Moab’ means those leading a life of falsity resulting from that love. ‘Terror took hold of them’ means that they did not dare to attempt a single thing. ‘All the inhabitants of Canaan melted away’ means a like feeling on the part of those belonging to the Church who adulterated forms of good and who falsified truths. ‘Alarm and dread fell on them’ means that they were without any hope of dominion. ‘By the greatness of Your arm’ means as a result of almighty power. ‘They will be cut away like a stone’ means descent like a heavy object. ‘Till Your people pass over’ means that therefore without risk of molestation all capable of receiving the truth of good and the good of truth will be saved. ‘Till this people pass over’ means that in this way those belonging to the Church who are governed by truth and good will be saved. ‘You have possessed’ means who have thereby become the Lord’s.
* The Hebrew means struck dumb or made silent. Another Hebrew verb containing similar letters means to cut away.

sRef Ex@15 @14 S0′ 8311. ‘The peoples heard’ means all everywhere who were ruled by falsity arising from evil. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the peoples’ as those governed by truths springing from good, and in the contrary sense as those ruled by falsities arising from evil, dealt with in 1259, 1260, 3295, 3581, 4619. The expression ‘falsities arising from evil’ is used in order to distinguish such people from those who are subject to falsities and yet are governed by good. Those who are subject to falsities yet at the same time are governed by good include, within the Church, those who are subject to heretical ideas but lead a good life, and outside the Church all who are governed by good. Falsities with these people are not damning, unless they are the kind of falsities that are opposed to good and destructive of an actual life of good. Falsities however which are not opposed to good are, it is true, essentially falsities; but so far as goodness of life is concerned, when they are not opposed to it, they virtually shed the character of falsity. Their application to good causes them to do so; for such falsities can be applied to good or they can be applied to evil. If applied to good they become mild, but if applied to evil they become harsh; for falsities can be applied to good, just as much as truths can be to evil. All truths without exception are falsified when they are applied to evil. Take as an example the idea that faith alone saves. Essentially this is a falsity, in particular among evil people who rule out the good of charity because, they say, it contributes nothing whatever to salvation. But this falsity is mellowed among those who lead a life of good since they apply it to good, saying that faith alone saves, but that it is not faith unless it exists together with its fruit, consequently unless it exists where good does so. It is like this with all other falsities.

[2] The statements immediately following in these verses refer to all those who were steeped in falsities arising from evil, and in evil resulting from falsities, and who were cast into hell when the Lord came into the world. There are very many kinds of evil and therefore also of falsity; for every kind of evil has its own falsity attached to it. Falsity is a product of evil and exists as the outward form of it, in exactly the same way as a person’s understanding is the outward form of his will. For the will brings itself to light through the understanding, giving shape and form to itself there; it presents itself by means of mental pictures, those mental pictures by means of ideas, and these ideas by means of spoken words. These matters have been stated in order that people may know that very many kinds of evil and therefore of falsity exist. First they have been described by ‘the Egyptians’. Now, that is, in the verses at this point, they are described by ‘the inhabitants of Philistia’, ‘the chiefs of Edom’, ‘the powerful ones of Moab’, and ‘the inhabitants of Canaan’, of whom it says that dismay and terror seized them because of what they heard. That is, they heard that those who upheld faith separated from charity and led a life of evil, those meant by ‘the Egyptians’, had been cast into hell, and that they likewise were to be thrown into hell, in order that those governed by truth and good might pass over in safety and unharmed and be led through to heaven. This last event is meant by these words contained in verses 16 and 17 following,

Alarm and dread fell on them; by the greatness of Your arm they are cut away like a stone, till Your people pass over, O Jehovah, till this people pass over [whom] You have possessed. You will bring them in and plant them on the mountain of Your inheritance, the place for You to dwell.

sRef Ex@15 @14 S0′ 8312. ‘They trembled’ means terror. This is clear without explanation.

sRef Ex@15 @14 S0′ 8313. ‘Distress took hold of the inhabitants of Philistia’ means despair of enlarging their dominion, on the part of those upholding faith separated from good. This is clear from the meaning of ‘distress’ as despair, because they could not any longer enlarge their dominion, dealt with below; and from the meaning of ‘the inhabitants of Philistia’ as those who uphold faith alone separated from the good of charity, dealt with in 1197, 1198, 3412, 3413, 8093, 8096, 8099. They are distinguished from the Egyptians by the fact that they rule out the good deeds of charity, in the belief that a person is saved without them by faith. This main tenet in their doctrine gives birth to a large number of errors, such as these: Salvation is attributable to mercy, irrespective of the life the person has been leading; all his sins and evils are washed away through faith, enabling him to walk as someone who has been made righteous; his salvation can be accomplished in an instant, even through faith and truth attained at the final hour of his death; consequently it is not the affection belonging to heavenly love that makes heaven in a person. People subscribing to these errors are Philistines; and they are called ‘uncircumcised’ because of the evils of self-love and love of the world in which their life consists.

sRef Isa@13 @8 S2′ sRef Ps@48 @6 S2′ sRef Isa@13 @7 S2′ sRef Jer@22 @23 S2′ sRef Isa@13 @6 S2′ sRef Ps@48 @4 S2′ sRef Jer@50 @43 S2′ [2] The reason why ‘distress’ here means despair is that extreme distress should be understood, or pain like that suffered by women in labour. The word in the original language also means that kind of pain. Despair or the extremes of distress are actually described in the Word as ‘the pain of a woman in labour’, for example in David,

The kings assembled themselves. Terror seized them, pain as of a woman in labour. Ps 48:4, 6.

In Jeremiah,

O dweller in Lebanon, having a nest in the cedars, how much grace will you find when distresses come to you, pain as of a woman in labour? Jer. 22:23.

In the same prophet,

The king of Babel has heard the report about them, consequently his hands have become feeble; anguish has taken hold of him, pain as of a woman in labour. Jer. 50:43.

In Isaiah,

The day of Jehovah is near, like devastation from Shaddai. Therefore all hands are feeble, and every human heart melts, and they are terrified; pangs and distresses take hold of them, they are in labour, like a woman giving birth. Isa. 13:6-8.

sRef Jer@6 @23 S3′ sRef Jer@6 @24 S3′ sRef Jer@6 @22 S3′ [3] In Jeremiah,

behold, a people coming from the land of the north, and a mighty nation will be stirred up from the furthest parts of the earth. They lay hold on bow and spear; it is cruel and they do not have any pity. Their voice resounds like the sea, and they ride on horses, [every one] prepared as a man for battle against you, O daughter of Zion. We have heard the report about it, our hands have grown feeble. Anguish has laid hold on us, pain as of a woman in labour. Jer. 6:22-24.

This refers to truth being laid waste as experienced by those ruled by evil. ‘A people from the land of the north’ stands for those steeped in falsities arising from evil. ‘A mighty nation from the uttermost parts of the earth’ stands for those steeped in evils which are altogether opposed to good. ‘They lay hold on bow and spear’ stands for the fact that they draw on false teachings when they engage in conflict. ‘Their voice resounds like the sea’ stands for reasoning based on those teachings. ‘They ride on horses’ stands for arguments seemingly based on understanding. ‘Prepared as a man for battle’ stands for the desire to attack truth. ‘Daughter of Zion’ stands for the Church where good exists. ‘Anguish has laid hold’ stands for distress, because truths might undergo molestation. ‘Pain as of a woman in labour’ stands for despair, because good might suffer harm. From all this it is evident that ‘pain’ in this instance means despair on account of harm that might be done to good.

sRef Dan@12 @3 S4′ [4] The reason why ‘distress took hold of the inhabitants of Philistia’ means despair or lack of hope of enlarging their dominion is that the Philistines, that is, those who suppose that salvation comes as a result of faith alone without the good deeds of charity, in the next life strive unceasingly after dominion, fighting against others. They do not stop until they undergo vastation of their knowledge of cognitions or matters of faith. Every person in the next life retains the tenets of the faith he possessed during his lifetime; and no other people exchange them for truths except those who have done what is good in life, since good desires truth and welcomes it freely because it is of a similar nature. But those who have done what is bad in life do not exchange them. Those people are so to speak hard, and also they reject truths. Furthermore they live in obscurity, so that they cannot even see them. They see only whatever endorses the ideas they have adopted and nothing whatever that goes against them. Such people also imagine that they have more intelligence than everyone else; yet they know nothing except to use reasonings based on the ideas they have adopted. This is why they are people who attack charity very strongly, consequently are people who wish to dominate. For those who are governed by charity are humble, and wish – as though lowest in rank – to serve all. But those who are ruled by faith without charity are haughty, and wish – as though highest in rank – to be served by all. This also is why they consider heaven to consist in the glory of dominion, imagining – because they suppose that they have more intelligence than all others – that they will be archangels and that very many others will for that reason serve them, a supposition also in keeping with the words in Daniel,

Those who have intelligence will shine like the brightness of the expanse, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars for ever and ever.* Dan. 12:3.

But instead of brightness theirs is darkness.
* lit. into the age and eternity

sRef Ex@15 @15 S0′ 8314. ‘Then the chiefs of Edom were dismayed’ means a like feeling on the part of those leading a life of evil arising from self-love. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the chiefs’ as the leaders, thus each and every person, dealt with below; and from the representation of ‘Edom’ as those who, ruled by the evil of self-love, seize on falsities and cast aside truths, or as – in the sense abstracted from persons – the evil of self-love which embraces falsity and rejects truth, so that ‘Edom’ also represents those who lead a life of evil arising from that love, namely self-love. As regards the word ‘chiefs’, leaders are meant by it, or – in the sense abstracted from persons – leading features, and so each and every aspect. For when the word ‘chiefs’ is used, it implies each and every person under them, as when the word ‘king’ is used it implies all subjects of his kingdom; for the group takes its name from the most powerful person among them. When the term ‘chiefs’ or ‘commanders’ is mentioned in the Word general headings under which all else comes is meant, or leading features, as with ‘tertiary commanders’, 8150, 8276; and that term has reference to good, or in the contrary sense to evil. ‘Princes’ however likewise means general headings under which all else comes, or first and foremost features, 1482, 2089, 5044; but it has reference to truth.

[2] It should be recognized that in the Word there are terms that belong to the group of spiritual things and terms that belong to the group of celestial things; that is, there are terms serving to express such things as are matters of truth or faith, and terms serving to express such things as are matters of good or love. In addition there are terms that have reference to both. As soon as the person who is acquainted with these looks at or reads the Word, especially in its original language, he knows when such things as are matters of truth are the subject in the internal sense, and when such things as are matters of good are the subject. This is the situation with the meaning of ‘princes’ and ‘chiefs’. ‘Princes’ means first and foremost features and is used in reference to the truths of faith, or in the contrary sense to falsities of faith, whereas ‘chiefs’ means leading features and is used in reference to the good of love, or in the contrary sense to the evils of love.

sRef Zech@12 @6 S3′ sRef Zech@12 @5 S3′ sRef Zech@9 @7 S3′ [3] So it is that those who ruled in Edom were called ‘chiefs’, as is evident from Gen. 36:15-19, 21, 29, 30, 40-43. The reason why they were called ‘chiefs’ is that ‘Edom’ meant the good of celestial love, and in the contrary sense the evil of self-love. But among ‘the sons of Ishmael’, those who were set in authority over everyone else were not called ‘chiefs’ but ‘princes’, Gen. 25:16, because ‘Ishmael’ means those guided by truth, 3263, 3268, 4747. For the same reason the term ‘princes’ was used for those set in authority in Israel, Num. 7:2, 10, 18, 24, 30, 36, 42, 48, 54, since ‘Israel’ represented those governed by the truth and good of faith. But those set in authority in Judah were called ‘chiefs’ since Judah’ represented those governed by the good of love, as in Zechariah,

Let him be like a chief in Judah. Zech. 9:7.

And in the same prophet,

The chiefs of Judah will say in their heart, I will strengthen* for myself the inhabitants of Jerusalem in Jehovah Zebaoth, their God. On that day I will make the chiefs of Judah like a furnace of fire among pieces of wood. Zech. 12:5, 6.
* This differs from what appears in English versions of Scripture because Sw., following Sebastian Schmidt, reads the Hebrew as a verb, not as a noun.

sRef Ex@15 @15 S0′ 8315. ‘The powerful ones of Moab’ means those leading a life of falsity resulting from that love. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the powerful ones’ as ruling and predominant elements; and from the representation of ‘Moab’ as people who are governed by natural good yet easily allow themselves to be led into error, dealt with in 2468, thus who lead a life of falsity as a result. For people governed by natural good and not by good that springs from the truth of faith, thus who are not governed by spiritual good, allow themselves to be carried away into believing any falsities whatever, and so into living in accordance with them. They are carried away from truths to falsities, in particular by ones that accord with the kinds of love they have. These are the people that ‘Moab’ serves to mean. Those governed by natural and not by spiritual good cannot at all be led by any influx from heaven, see 3470, 3471, 3518, 4988, 4992, 5032, 6208, 7197, 8002. The word used in the original language to express ‘powerful ones’ refers to those strong in truth that is grounded in good, and in the contrary sense to those strong in falsity that is rooted in evil. The word is used in the latter sense in Ezekiel 31:11; 2 Kings 24:15.

sRef Ex@15 @15 S0′ 8316. ‘Terror took hold of them’ means that they did not dare to attempt a single thing. This is clear from the meaning of ‘being taken hold of by terror’ as not daring to attempt a single thing, for the blood of people in a state of terror goes cold, pours rapidly into their veins, and ceases to circulate; their sinews as a consequence go limp and their strength forsakes them, so that they do not dare to attempt a single thing.

sRef Ex@15 @15 S0′ 8317. ‘All the inhabitants of Canaan melted away’ means a like feeling on the part of those belonging to the Church who adulterated forms of good and who falsified truths. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the inhabitants of Canaan’ as those belonging to the Church, also as those in it who adulterated forms of good and falsified truths. The reason why ‘the inhabitants of Canaan’ means those belonging to the Church is that the Lord’s Church had existed in the land of Canaan since most ancient times, see 3686, 4447, 4454, 4516, 4517, 5136, 6516. The reason why it also means those who adulterated forms of good and falsified truths is that the nations in it which the children of Israel were to drive out represent evils as well as falsities of faith, see 8054. They have this representation because they were formerly part of the Church.

sRef Ex@15 @16 S0′ 8318. ‘Alarm and dread fell on them’ means that they were without any hope of dominion. This is clear from the meaning of ‘alarm and dread’ – when the phrase applies to those ruled by self-love and therefore by falsities and evils, who are meant by ‘the chiefs of Edom’ and ‘the powerful ones of Moab’ – as being without any hope of dominion. Those ruled by the evil of self-love have a constant desire to dominate, but when terror caused by a triumphant enemy strikes them the hope of being able to dominate forsakes them.

[2] It should be recognized that evils arise from a dual origin – self-love and love of the world. People ruled by evils arising from self-love love only themselves and despise everyone else except those who make common cause with them. And if they love these they do not really love them, only themselves, because they see themselves in them. Evils arising from this origin are the worst of all; for those people not only despise all others in contrast to themselves but also heap insults on them, hate them for the slightest reason, and long for their destruction. Vengeance and cruelty accordingly become the delight of their life. People ruled by the evil of self-love are in hell at a great depth determined by the nature and amount of that love.

[3] As for those ruled by evil arising from love of the world, they too regard the neighbour as being worthless. They value him only for his wealth, and so value his wealth but not the person himself. They have the desire to own everything belonging to their neighbour; and when this desire rules them they are devoid of any charity or pity. Robbing their neighbour of his goods is the delight of their life, especially of those who are disgustingly avaricious, that is to say, of those who love gold and silver for their own sakes, not for the sake of any useful purpose served by them. Those with whom the evil of this love reigns are also in hells, but in ones not so deep as the hells which those ruled by the evil of self-love are in. In addition to these two origins of evil there is also a third, which consists in doing evil as a result of false religious principles. But this kind of evil is calculated as evil when it exists with those ruled by self-love and love of the world, but not when it exists with those governed by love towards the neighbour and to their God, since good is their end in view and the end determines the nature of all else, see 8311.

sRef Ex@15 @16 S0′ 8319. ‘By the greatness of Your arm’ means as a result of almighty power. This is clear from the meaning of ‘arm’ as power, dealt with in 878, 4931-4937, and when used in connection with the Divine, as almighty power, 7205.

sRef Ex@15 @16 S0′ 8320. ‘They will be cut away like a stone’ means descent like a heavy object. This is clear from the explanations above in 8279, 8298.

sRef Ex@15 @16 S0′ 8321. ‘Till Your people pass over’ means that therefore without risk of molestation all capable of receiving the truth of good and the good of truth will be saved. This is clear from the meaning of ‘passing over’ as being saved without risk of molestation, for when those steeped in falsities arising from evil who have engaged in molestation have been cast into hell and moved away there are no longer any left to stand in the way by introducing falsities and evils and in so doing to prevent the reception of good and truth from the Lord. These are the things meant here by ‘passing over’; for as long as the evil had not been cast into hell scarcely anyone was able to pass over, that is, be saved. At that time the evil were constantly rousing evils and falsities among those entering the next life, and thereby drawing them away from goodness and truth. To the end therefore that people governed by goodness and truth might be delivered from those evil ones the Lord came into the world. While in the world He subdued all such as themselves by allowing Himself repeatedly to suffer temptations in which He was repeatedly victorious and after which by His presence He caused them to be cast into hell. There, obsessed with their evils and falsities, they were held in bonds for evermore.

[2] At this point ‘people’ is used to mean those who are capable of receiving the truth of good and the good of truth; for generally ‘people’ means those who are guided and governed by the truth and good of faith, 1259, 1260, 3295, 3581, 4619. At this point it means Israel, that is, those who belong to the spiritual Church, or what amounts to the same thing, those who are guided by the truth of good and governed by the good of truth 7957, 8234. The words ‘capable of receiving the truth of good and the good of truth’ are used because none have that ability except those who have led a charitable life; this life affords them that ability. How very greatly mistaken they are who believe that faith without charity can impart this quality! For faith without charity is hard and resistant, and repels all that flows in from the Lord, whereas charity together with faith is yielding and soft, and is receptive of what flows in from Him. So it is that charity imparts that ability, but not faith without charity. And since charity imparts that ability it is also what brings salvation, for those who are saved are not saved by charity beginning in themselves but by charity coming from the Lord, consequently by the ability to receive it.

sRef Ex@15 @16 S0′ 8322. ‘Till this people pass over’ means that in this way those belonging to the Church who are governed by truth and good will be saved. This is clear from the explanation immediately above.

sRef Isa@51 @11 S0′ sRef Isa@51 @10 S0′ sRef Ex@15 @16 S0′ 8323. ‘You have possessed’ means who have thereby become the Lord’s. This is clear from the meaning of ‘possessing’ as being His. Because the subject at this point is those governed by truth and good whom the Lord came into the world to save, it is they who are meant as being the Lord’s. Elsewhere they are called ‘the redeemed’, as in Isaiah,

Were You not that which dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, which made the deep places of the sea a road, In order that the redeemed might pass through? So let the redeemed of Jehovah return. Isa. 51:10, 11.

8324. Verses 17-19 You will bring them in, You will plant them on the mountain of Your inheritance, the place for You to dwell in [which] You have made, O Jehovah; the sanctuary, O Lord, [which] Your hands have prepared. Jehovah will reign for ever and ever.* For Pharaoh’s horse came with his chariot and his horsemen into the sea, and Jehovah brought the waters of the sea back over them; and the children of Israel went on dry ground through the middle of the sea.

‘You will bring them in’ means raising up. ‘And plant them’ means regeneration going on continuously. ‘On the mountain of Your inheritance’ means the heaven where the good of charity resides. ‘The place for You to dwell in’ means where the Lord is. ‘You have made, O Jehovah’ means that it is accomplished by the Lord alone. ‘The sanctuary, O Lord, [which] Your hands have prepared’ means the heaven where those guided by the truth of faith coming from the Lord are. ‘Jehovah will reign for ever and ever’ means that the Lord alone is Lord of heaven and earth. ‘For Pharaoh’s horse came with his chariot and his horsemen’ means all the falsities belonging to a perverted understanding that existed with those upholding separated faith and leading a life of evil. ‘Into the sea’ means damnation. ‘And Jehovah brought the waters of the sea back over them’ means that the falsities arising from evils which they aimed at the good recoiled on themselves, at the Lord’s presence among those governed by good. ‘And the children of Israel went on dry ground through the middle of the sea’ means that those governed by the good of truth and guided by the truth of good passed over in safety through the region of that hell.
* lit. into the age and eternity

sRef Ex@15 @17 S0′ 8325. ‘You will bring them in’ means raising up. This is clear from the meaning of ‘bringing in’, when used to denote taking to heaven, as raising up. The words ‘raising up’ are used because heaven beheld by outward sight that spirits possess is on high; and when beheld by inward sight such as angels possess heaven occupies an inward position. Everything inward in the next life manifests itself in a representative fashion as something above, and everything outward as something below; consequently heaven appears up above and hell down below, 2148, 3084, 4599, 5146. For states of truth and good, and in the contrary sense states of falsity and evil, are what positions high up and those deep down, in short, distances and places, represent in the next life, see 2625, 2837, 3356, 3387, 4321, 4882, 5605, 7381.

[2] The following experience alone enables one to infer how difficult it is for a natural man to apprehend spiritual things, consequently things that belong to heaven. Can anyone like him see that space and time do not exist in heaven, but states instead? Or to be more precise, that states of good or states of being (esse) exist there, presenting themselves as extents of space, and states of truth or states of coming-into-being (existere), presenting themselves as periods of time? Will not a merely natural man suppose that where time and space do not exist there is complete emptiness and nothingness? From this it is evident that if a natural man makes up his mind to believe nothing apart from what he can apprehend he lays himself open to grossly mistaken ideas. And as it is with space and time, so it is also with many other matters. For example, a natural man inevitably falls into a nonsensical way of thinking about God when with notions involving the passage of time he contemplates what God was doing before the creation of the world, that is, what He was engaged in from eternity up to then. Nor can he be extricated from that tangled knot until notions of time and space are banished. When angels contemplate that eternity they never do so with notions of time but with ideas of state.

[3] In the next life two statues appear, partly of flesh and partly of stone. They are stationed on the edge of the created universe, in front over to the left. They are said to swallow up those who contemplate what God was doing from eternity before He created the world. The swallowing up represents the consideration that since a person cannot contemplate anything without notions involving space and time he cannot extricate himself from the difficulty unaided. He does so only with the aid of God, either by ceasing to contemplate the matter or by banishing notions involving time.

sRef Ex@15 @17 S0′ 8326. ‘And plant them’ means regeneration going on continuously. This is clear from the meaning of ‘planting’ as regenerating, for regeneration is like the activity of planting. When a tree is planted it grows into branches, leaves, and fruit, then from seeds in the fruit it grows into new trees, and so on. A person’s regeneration is similar, which also explains why in the Word a person is compared to a tree, and one who has been regenerated to a garden or paradise. The truths of faith with that person are compared to the leaves, and forms of the good of charity to the fruit; the seeds from which new trees grow correspond to truths which spring from good, or what amounts to the same thing, to faith which springs from charity. The expression ‘regeneration going on continuously’ is used because a person’s regeneration has a beginning but never ceases; he is continually being made more perfect not only while he lives in the world but also in the next life for evermore. Yet he can never reach any kind of perfection that enables him to be compared with the Divine.

sRef Ex@15 @17 S0′ 8327. ‘On the mountain of Your inheritance’ means the heaven where the good of charity resides. This is clear from the meaning of ‘mountain of inheritance’ as heaven. For ‘mountain’ means the good of love, 795, 796, 2722, 4210, 6435, and ‘inheritance’ means another’s life, in this instance the Lord’s; thus the life of goodness and truth which is derived from the Lord is meant, since those who possess this life are heirs of the kingdom and are called sons, 2658, 2851, 3672, 7212. Since these things are meant by ‘the mountain of inheritance’, heaven is also meant; for heaven is heaven by virtue of the good of love and it is the inheritance belonging to those who are the Lord’s.

sRef Matt@7 @21 S0′ sRef Matt@5 @45 S0′ sRef Matt@6 @9 S0′ sRef Ex@15 @17 S0′ sRef Matt@5 @48 S0′ 8328. ‘The place for You to dwell in’ means where the Lord is. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the place’ as a state, dealt with just above in 8325, at this point a state of good originating in the Divine since it is used to mean heaven; and from the meaning of ‘Jehovah’s dwelling-place’ or ‘for You to dwell in’ as where the Lord is. For ‘dwelling in’ has reference to good, see 2712, 3613; ‘Jehovah’s dwelling-place’ means good and consequently heaven, 8269, 8309; and ‘Jehovah’ in the Word means the Lord, see above in 8261. The Lord refers many times to ‘the Father who is in the heavens’, and when He does so the Divine within heaven is meant, and so the good from which heaven exists. Considered by Himself the Divine is above the heavens; but the Divine within the heavens is the Good present within the Truth that emanates from the Divine. This is what ‘Father in the heavens’ is used to mean, in Matthew,

… so that you may be sons of the Father who is in the heavens…. so that you may be perfect, as your Father who is in the heavens is perfect. Matt. 5:44, 48; 6:1.

Our Father who is in the heavens, may Your name be kept holy. Matt. 6:9. … he who does the will of the Father who is in the heavens. Matt. 7:21.

And in addition, Matt. 10:32, 33; 16:17; 18:10, 14, 19.

[2] The Divine within the heavens is Good within Divine Truth which emanates from the Lord; but the Divine above the heavens is Divine Good itself. ‘The place for You to dwell in’ means heaven where Divine Truth emanating from the Lord resides; for this Truth composes heaven and is meant by ‘Father in the heavens’, and it exists there as the good which constitutes the life of those who are in heaven. Light may be shed on this, on how Divine Truth which emanates from the Lord becomes good in heaven, by comparison with the sun and the light radiating from it. Inwardly the sun is fire, but the radiation from the sun is light. This light holds within itself heat which causes gardens to grow and become paradise-like. The actual fire of the sun does not pass over to the planet, for it would scorch and burn everything up; rather, light in which heat is present flows from the fire of the sun. In the spiritual sense that light is Divine Truth, its heat is the good within Truth springing from Divine Good, and the paradise it produces is heaven.

sRef Ex@15 @17 S0′ 8329. ‘You have made, O Jehovah’ means that it is accomplished by the Lord alone. This is clear from the meaning of ‘making’, in reference to regeneration and to heaven, as being accomplished by the Lord alone; for everything constituting regeneration and everything constituting heaven is accomplished by the Lord.

sRef Ex@15 @17 S0′ 8330. ‘The sanctuary, O Lord, [which] Your hands have prepared’ means the heaven where those guided by the truth of faith coming from the Lord are. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the sanctuary’ as the heaven where the truth of faith resides, dealt with below; and from the meaning of ‘Your hands have prepared’ as that which comes from the Lord. The reason why the words ‘hands have prepared’ are used in connection with ‘the sanctuary’ is that ‘hands’ have reference to truth and mean power. For ‘hands’ and their reference to truth, see 3091, 8281; for their meaning as power, 878, 3387, 4931-4937, 5327, 5328, 6292, 6947, 7011, 7188, 7189, 7518, 7673, 8050, 8069, 8153, 8281; and for ‘the sanctuary’, that this in a similar way has reference to truth, 8302. But the words which come immediately before – ‘a place for You to dwell in’ and ‘You have made, O Jehovah’ – have reference to good because they apply to ‘mountain of inheritance’, which means the heaven in which the good of charity resides, 8327. There are expressions which when used in the Word have reference to good, and there are expressions which have reference to truth, see 8314.

[2] What is implied by the heaven in which the good of charity resides, meant by ‘mountain of inheritance’, and what is implied by the heaven in which the truth of faith resides, meant by ‘the sanctuary’, must be stated briefly. The heaven in which the good of charity resides is that which is inhabited by the more internal members of the Lord’s spiritual kingdom, and the heaven in which the truth of faith resides is that which is inhabited by the more external members of that kingdom. The internal members are those in whom charity itself resides and faith rooted in charity, whereas the external members are those in whom faith resides but not as yet charity. The latter are moved to do good by a sense of obedience, but the former by affection. These few details show what one should understand by the heaven in which the good of charity resides and the heaven in which the truth of faith resides.

sRef Ps@20 @1 S3′ sRef Ps@20 @2 S3′ [3] As regards ‘the sanctuary’, in the highest sense it means the truth of faith which comes from the Lord. From this it means in the representative sense the Lord’s spiritual kingdom, also the spiritual Church, and therefore a regenerated person who is an embodiment of the Church, and so means in the sense abstracted from these the truth of faith, thus faith itself. For what ‘sanctified’ or ‘holy’ means, see above in 8302. So it is then that the truth of faith which comes from the Lord is what causes heaven to be called ‘the sanctuary’, as in David,

May Jehovah answer you in the day of trouble. May He send you help from the sanctuary, and sustain you out of Zion. Ps. 20:1, 2.

Here ‘the sanctuary’ stands for the heaven where the truth of faith resides, ‘Zion’ for the heaven where the good of love resides.

sRef Ps@68 @35 S4′ sRef Ps@68 @24 S4′ [4] In the same author,

They have seen Your goings, O God, the goings of my God, my King, in the sanctuary. You are frightening, O God – out of [Your] sanctuaries, O God of Israel. Ps. 68:24, 35

‘The sanctuary’ stands for the heaven where the truth of faith resides. This is why the name ‘God’, not ‘Jehovah’, is used, and also ‘King’; for ‘God’ is used where truth is referred to, but ‘Jehovah’ where good is referred to, 2586, 2769, 2807, 2822, 3921 (end), 4402, 7010, 7268, and ‘king’ means truth, 1672, 1728, 2015, 2069, 3009, 4575, 4581, 4966, 5044, 5068, 6148.

sRef Ps@150 @1 S5′ [5] In the same author,

It will praise Jah, for He looked out from the height of His sanctuary. Jehovah looked from the heavens towards the earth to hear the groaning of him who was bound, to open to the sons of death. Ps. 102:18-20.

Here also ‘the sanctuary’ stands for heaven in respect of the truth of faith. In the same author,

Praise God in His sanctuary; praise Him in the expanse of His strength. Ps. 150:1.

‘Praising in the sanctuary’ stands for doing so from the truth of faith which comes from the Lord, ‘praising in the expanse of strength’ from the good of charity which comes from the Lord.

sRef Rev@19 @6 S0′ sRef Ex@15 @18 S0′ sRef Rev@11 @15 S0′ aRef Ps@99 @1 S0′ sRef Matt@28 @18 S0′ sRef Isa@52 @7 S0′ sRef Ps@146 @10 S0′ 8331. ‘Jehovah will reign for ever and ever’ means that the Lord alone is Lord of heaven and earth. This is clear from the consideration that of Jehovah, that is, the Lord, it can be said that ‘He will reign for ever and ever’. Of angels it can be said that they will indeed reign, but in the Lord’s strength, so that nevertheless it is the Lord alone reigning by means of them. Among the ancients belonging to the Church it was customary to use the saying ‘God reigns’ or else ‘God will reign forever’, by which they meant that all is well with the Church because goodness and truth coming from the Divine reside there. In general that saying meant that Jehovah is the only God; and to those who were well informed about the Lord’s Corning it meant that the Lord is the only Lord of heaven and earth. Since it was customary among the ancients in the Church to say ‘God will reign’, several Psalms in David have as their inscription Jehovah will reign’, as in Ps. 93:1; Ps. 97:1; Ps. 99:1. And in the same author,

Jehovah will reign for ever, your God, O Zion, to all generations.* Hallelu-Jah! Ps. 146:10.

In Isaiah.

How beautiful** on the mountains are the feet of Him who is bringing good tidings, saying to Zion, Your God will reign. Isa. 52:7.

This refers to the Lord. In John,

The kingdoms of the world have become those of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign for ever and ever.*** Rev. 11:15.

And in the same author,

I heard the voice of [a great multitude] saying, Alleluia! For the Lord God reigns. Rev. 19:6.

From these quotations it is also evident that the words of this saying were words of joy, which accounts for the exclamation Alleluia! and for the declaration ‘How beautiful, are the feet of Him who is bringing good tidings, saying Your God reigns’. The truth that the Lord is Lord of heaven and earth is clear in Matthew,

Jesus said to the disciples, All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Matt. 28:18.
* lit. into generation and generation
** lit. delightful
*** lit. into the ages of ages

sRef Ex@15 @19 S0′ 8332. ‘For Pharaoh’s horse came with his chariot and his horsemen’ means all the falsities belonging to a perverted understanding that existed with those upholding separated faith and leading a life of evil. This is clear from the meaning of ‘Pharaoh’s horse’, also ‘his chariot and his horsemen’, as all the falsities belonging to a perverted understanding, dealt with in 8146, 8148; and from the representation of ‘Pharaoh’ and ‘the Egyptians’ as those who uphold faith separated from charity and lead a life of evil, dealt with in 7926, 8148.

sRef Ex@15 @19 S0′ 8333. ‘Into the sea’ means damnation. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the Sea Suph’ as hell, dealt with in 8099, 8137, 8138. At this point damnation is meant since it says that they came into the sea, and after this that Jehovah brought the waters of the sea back over them, meaning that they fell down into hell. For the evil pass into damnation before descending into hell.

sRef Ex@15 @19 S0′ 8334. ‘And Jehovah brought the waters of the sea back over them’ means that the falsities arising from evils which they aimed at the good recoiled on themselves, at the Lord’s presence among those governed by good. This is clear from the meaning of ‘Jehovah brought the waters of the sea back over them’ as the fact that the falsities of evil which they aimed at the good recoiled on themselves.

Falsities arising from evils are gathered into one and poured into those ruled by evil, who are then surrounded by them, see 8146.

The falsities arising from evil which they aim at others recoil on themselves, in accordance with the law of order, 8214, 8223, 8226.

Being surrounded by the falsities of evil is being cast into hell, 8210, 8232.

This happens as a result simply of the Lord’s presence among the good, by which He protects them and endows them with heaven and the joy of heaven, 8137 (end), 8265.

sRef Ex@15 @19 S0′ 8335. ‘And the children of Israel went on dry ground through the middle of the sea’ means that those governed by the good of truth and guided by the truth of good passed over in safety through the region of that hell. This is clear from the explanations in 8099 and 8185.

8336. Verses 20, 21 And Miriam the prophetess, Aaron’s sister, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. And Miriam responded to them, Sing to Jehovah, for He has highly exalted [Himself]; the horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea.

‘And Miriam the prophetess, Aaron’s sister, took a timbrel in her hand’ means ascribing glory to the Lord from the good of faith. ‘And all the women went out after her’ means every good of truth. ‘With timbrels and with dances’ means praise from joy and gladness. ‘And Miriam responded to them’ means a reciprocation. ‘Sing to Jehovah’ means that glory belongs to the Lord alone. ‘For He has highly exalted [Himself]’ means that He has displayed His Divinity within His Humanity. ‘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.

sRef Ex@15 @20 S0′ 8337. ‘And Miriam the prophetess, Aaron’s sister, took a timbrel in her hand’ means ascribing glory to the Lord from the good of faith. This is clear from the representation of ‘Miriam’ as the good of faith, for ‘Moses’ represents the truth of faith that goes forth directly from the Lord, thus inward truth, whereas ‘Aaron’ represents the truth of faith that goes forth from the Lord in an indirect way, thus outward truth, 7009, 7089, 7382, so that ‘Miriam’ is the good of faith which goes forth in an indirect way from the Lord, for when ‘men’ represent truth, ‘their womenfolk’ represent good, 6014 (since Miriam along with the women represents external good she is in addition referred to as ‘Aaron’s sister’, though she is not called Moses’ sister, the relation between good and truth being like that of sister and brother, 3160. But it should be remembered that ‘women’ represent good and ‘men’ truth when the spiritual Church is the subject, whereas ‘women’ represent truth and ‘men’ good when the celestial Church is the subject, 4823); from the meaning of ‘the prophetess’ as one who teaches, dealt with in 2534, 7269, at this point one who joins in praising the Lord, or what amounts to the same thing, one who ascribes glory to Him from the good of faith, since she sang to Jehovah, as Moses and the men of Israel had done (for the meaning of ‘singing’ as ascribing glory, see 8261, 8263, 8267); and from the meaning of ‘taking a timbrel in one’s hand’ as ascribing glory from the good of faith, since ‘a timbrel’ has reference to spiritual good, or what amounts to the same thing, to the good of faith, 4138.

[2] In former times many types of musical instruments were used when God was worshipped, but with much discrimination. In general wind instruments were used to express affections for good, and stringed instruments affections for truth; and the origin of this was the correspondence of every sound to the affections. It is well known that some types of musical instruments are used to express one kind of natural affections and other types to express another kind, and that when a fitting melody is played they in actual fact stir the affections. Skilled musicians know all about this and also make proper use of it. The reason for it lies in the very nature of sound, and its accord with the affections. Mankind at first learned about it not from science and art but through the ear and its keen sense of hearing. From this it is plain that the ability does not have its origin in the natural world but in the spiritual world; it, springs from the correspondence of things in the natural world – which flow into it in accordance with true order – with realities in the spiritual world. Harmonious sound and various forms it takes correspond to states of joy and gladness in the spiritual world, and states of joy and gladness there spring from affections, which in that world are affections for what is good and true. From this one may now recognize that musical instruments correspond to delights and pleasures belonging to spiritual and celestial affections, and that some instruments correspond to celestial affections, others to spiritual ones; see what has been stated and shown about them previously in 418-420, 4138.

sRef Jer@31 @4 S3′ sRef Isa@24 @8 S3′ [3] As regards ‘a timbrel’ in particular, this corresponds to spiritual good, that is, to the good of truth. This is because a timbrel is neither a stringed nor a wind instrument but, being made of skin, is an instrument of one continuous string so to speak; and it is also because it has a heavier and deeper sound than that made by stringed instruments. This may also be recognized from the Word, in places in which ‘a timbrel’ is mentioned, as in Isaiah,

The joy of timbrels will cease, the noise of merry ones will cease, the joy of the harp will cease. Isa. 24:8.

‘The joy of timbrels’ stands for delights that belong to affections for the good of faith; ‘the joy of the harp’ stands for delight that belongs to an affection for the truth of faith. In Jeremiah,

Again I will build you, that you may be built, O virgin of Israel! Again you will adorn your timbrels,* and will go forth in the dance of the merrymakers. Jer. 31:4.

‘Adorning timbrels’ stands for ascribing glory to God from spiritual good, for it refers to the spiritual Church, meant by ‘the virgin of Israel’.

sRef Ps@68 @24 S4′ sRef Ps@81 @1 S4′ sRef Ps@81 @2 S4′ sRef Ps@149 @3 S4′ sRef Ps@149 @1 S4′ sRef Ezek@28 @13 S4′ sRef Ps@68 @25 S4′ [4] Similarly in Ezekiel,

You were in Eden, the garden of God. The workmanship of your timbrels and your pipes was within you; on the day you were created they were prepared. Ezek. 28:13.

This refers to Tyre, by which cognitions or knowledge of good and of truth are meant, ‘timbrels’ meaning affections for the former and ‘pipes’ feelings of joy in the latter. In David,

They have seen Your goings, O God, the goings of my God, my King, in the sanctuary. The singers went before, players [of stringed instruments] after, in the midst of the virgins playing timbrels. Ps. 68:24, 25.

In the same author,

Shout to the God of Jacob; raise a song, and sound the timbrel, the delightful harp with the lyre. Ps. 81:1, 2.

In the same author,

Sing to Jehovah a new song; let them praise His name in dancing, with timbrel and harp let them make melody to Him. Ps. 149:1, 3.

Here ‘praising with timbrel’ stands for ascribing glory from the feeling of delight that belongs to an affection for the good of faith, and ‘praising with harp’ for the pleasant feeling that belongs to an affection for the truth of faith.

sRef Ps@150 @3 S5′ sRef Ps@150 @5 S5′ sRef Ps@150 @4 S5′ [5] In the same author,

Praise God with timbrel and dance; praise Him with stringed instruments and organ praise Him with sounding cymbals**; praise Him with clanging cymbals.*** Ps. 150:3-5

‘Praising with timbrel and dance’ stands for doing so from the good and truth of faith; ‘on stringed instruments and organ’ stands for doing so from truths and consequently from good. Since all instruments corresponded to and were signs of the delights and pleasant feelings that belong to spiritual and celestial affections a large number of the Psalms of David have titles indicating how they were to be accompanied, such as On Neginoth, On the Nehiloth, On the Octave,**** Shiggaion, the Gittith Muthlabben, the Sheminith, Shoshannim, or Mahalath.
* The Latin here and in 153, 1069:2, 3081:4 means literally will adorn your timbrels, but the Hebrew is generally taken to mean adorn yourself with timbrels.
** lit. cymbals of sound
*** lit. cymbals of clangour
**** The Hebrew means On the Sheminith.

sRef Ex@15 @20 S0′ 8338. ‘And all the women went out after her’ means every good of truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the women’ as affections for good when ‘the men’ are affections for truth, dealt with immediately above in 8337.

sRef Jer@31 @13 S0′ sRef Jer@31 @12 S0′ sRef Jer@31 @4 S0′ sRef Ex@15 @20 S0′ sRef Lam@5 @15 S0′ sRef Ps@30 @11 S1′ sRef Ps@149 @3 S1′ 8339. ‘With timbrels and with dances’ means praise from joy and gladness. This is clear from the meaning of ‘timbrel’ as that which has regard to an affection for spiritual good, or to the good of truth, and means the delight or joy belonging to it, dealt with just above in 8337; and from the meaning of ‘dance’ as that which has regard to an affection for spiritual truth, and means the delightful feeling or gladness belonging to it, dealt with below. In ancient times not only musical instruments and singing served to bear witness to gladness of heart but also dancing. Joyful feelings in the heart or interior things erupted into various activities in the body, such as singing and also dancing. Since in ancient times the glad feelings excelling all others were spiritual ones, that is, feelings springing from affections belonging to spiritual kinds of love, which were affections for goodness and truth, people were allowed, when they engaged in singing and musical harmony, to dance as well and so in dancing also to bear witness to their joy. This explains why ‘dancing’ is mentioned in the Word, meaning the glad feelings that belong to affections for truth, or to faith grounded in good or charity, as in Jeremiah,

Again you will adorn your timbrels,* and will go forth in the dance of the merrymakers. Their life** will become like a watered garden, and they will not sorrow any more. Then will the virgin rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old together. Jer. 31:4, 12, 13.

In the same prophet,

The joy of our heart has ceased***, our dance has been turned into mourning. Lam. 5:15

In David,

You have turned for me my mourning into dancing. Ps. 30:11.

In the same author,

Let them praise His name in dancing, with timbrel and harp let them make melody to Him. Ps. 149:3; 150:4.

Also the gentiles played and danced when they worshipped their gods, as is clear in Exod. 32:6, 19.

sRef Zech@8 @19 S2′ sRef Isa@51 @11 S2′ sRef Jer@33 @11 S2′ sRef Ps@51 @8 S2′ sRef Isa@35 @10 S2′ sRef Isa@22 @13 S2′ sRef Isa@51 @3 S2′ [2] The words ‘joy and gladness’ are used because ‘joy’ in the Word has reference to good and ‘gladness’ to truth. This is why ‘joy’ and ‘gladness’ are mentioned many times in the Word both together, as in Isaiah,

Behold, joy and gladness consist in slaying oxen … Isa. 22:13.

In the same prophet,

They will obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing will flee away. Isa 35:10.

In the same prophet, Joy and gladness will be found in Zion, confession and the voice of song. Isa. 51:3, 11.

In Jeremiah,

The voice of joy and the voice of gladness, and the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. Jer. 33:11.

In Zechariah,

The fast of the tenth [month] will be to the house of Judah one of joy and gladness. Zech. 8:19.

In David,

You shall cause me to hear joy and gladness. Ps. 51:8.

In these places both are mentioned because ‘joy’ has reference to good and ‘gladness’ to truth; if this were not so the use of one word would have been sufficient. This holy way of speaking is used in the Word in order that the heavenly marriage, that is, the marriage of goodness and truth, might be present in every detail there, 683, 793, 801, 2173, 2516, 2712, 4138 (end), 5138, 5502, 7945.
* See footnote on page 138.
** lit. soul
*** Reading cessavit (has ceased), which Sw. has in his rough draft, for cessabit (will cease).

sRef Hos@14 @8 S0′ sRef Ex@15 @21 S0′ 8340. ‘And Miriam responded to them’ means a reciprocation. This is clear from the meaning of ‘responding’, when the subject is the ascription of glory to the Lord by means of a song, as a reciprocation. Among the ancients it was also customary in sacred worship to sing in choirs, in order – that is to say – that there would be one or any number of persons who could respond to the others, which represented a reciprocation and response, like that of the Church from heaven, and of heaven from the Lord. Such is the meaning in Hosea,

I will respond and sing to Him. Hosea 14:8.

And in Moses,

Then Israel sang this song, Rise up, O spring! Respond over it. Num. 21:17.

sRef Ex@15 @21 S0′ 8341. ‘Sing to Jehovah’ means that glory belongs to the Lord alone. This is clear from the explanation above in 8263, where the same words occur.

sRef Ex@15 @21 S0′ 8342. ‘For He has highly exalted [Himself]’ means that He has displayed His Divinity within His Humanity. This is clear from what has been stated above in 8264, where the same words occur.

sRef Ex@15 @21 S0′ 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.

8344. Verses 22-26 And Moses caused Israel to travel on from the Sea Suph, and they went out to the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness and did not find water. And they came to Marah, and they could not drink the waters for bitterness; for they were bitter. Therefore he called the name of it Marah. And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And he cried to Jehovah; and Jehovah showed him [some] wood, and he threw it into the waters, and the waters became sweet. There He established for him a statute and a judgement, and there He tempted him. And He said, If you obediently hear the voice of Jehovah your God, and do what is right in His eyes, and hearken to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will not put on you any sickness that I put on the Egyptians; for I, Jehovah am your Healer.

‘And Moses caused Israel to travel on from the Sea Suph’ means a further stage in accordance with the order made known by God’s truth, after they had passed through a region of hell. ‘And they went out to the wilderness of Shur’ means a state of temptation into which they were led after that. ‘And they went three days in the wilderness and did not find water’ means that truths were lacking, and at length were plainly so. ‘And they came to Marah’ means a state of temptation. ‘And they could not drink the waters for bitterness; for they were bitter’ means that truths seemed to them to be unpleasant, as being devoid of an affection for good. ‘Therefore he called the name of it Marah’ means the state and essential nature of that temptation. ‘And the people grumbled against Moses’ means grief caused by the bitterness of the temptation. ‘Saying, What shall we drink?’ means that they cannot tolerate truths because, as a result of their lack of affection [for good], they find them unpleasant. ‘And he cried to Jehovah’ means pleas made to the Lord as a result of the grief. ‘And Jehovah showed him [some] wood’ means that the Lord instilled good. ‘And he threw it into the waters’ means with which he suffused the truths. ‘And the waters became sweet’ means that as a result the truths were made pleasant. ‘There He established for him a statute and a judgement’ means the truth of order, such as was revealed at that time. ‘And there he tempted him’ means in respect of temptations in general. ‘And He said’ means instruction. ‘If you obediently hear the voice of Jehovah your God’ means faith in the Lord’s commandments. ‘And do what is right in His eyes’ means a life in keeping with them. ‘And hearken to His commandments’ means obedience and a life in keeping with forms of the good of faith, which are interior aspects of the Church. ‘And keep all His statutes’ means a life in keeping with the truths of faith, which are exterior aspects of the Church. ‘I will not put on you any sickness that I put on the Egyptians’ means that they are to be withheld from the evils present among those who uphold separated faith and lead a life of evil. ‘For I, Jehovah, am your Healer’ means that the Lord alone preserves them from evils.

sRef Ex@15 @22 S0′ 8345. ‘And Moses caused Israel to travel on from the Sea Suph’ means a further stage in accordance with the order as made known by God’s truth, after they had passed through a region of hell. This is clear from the meaning of ‘travelling on’ as a further stage and a continuation so far as life and the proper order of it are concerned, dealt with in 4375, 4554, 4585, 5996, 8181; from the representation of ‘Moses’ as God’s truth, dealt with in 7010, 7014, 7382, so that ‘Moses caused them to travel on’ means a further stage in accordance with the order made known by God’s truth; from the representation of ‘Israel’ as those belonging to the spiritual Church who had been held back on the lower earth until the Lord’s Coming, when they were delivered, dealt with in 6854, 6914, 7828, 7932, 8018, 8321; and from the meaning of ‘the Sea Suph’ as the hell where those belonging to the Church were who had upheld faith separated from charity and led a life of evil, dealt with in 8099, 8137, 8148. For the fact that when those represented by ‘Israel’ had been delivered they were led through the hell meant by ‘the Sea Suph’, see 8099.

sRef Ex@15 @22 S0′ 8346. ‘And they went out to the wilderness of Shur’ means a state of temptation into which they were led after that. This is clear from the meaning of ‘going our as being led into; and from the meaning of ‘the wilderness of Shur’ as a state of temptation, ‘wilderness’ being a state when temptations have to be undergone, see 6828, 8098, and ‘Shur’ the Church’s factual knowledge which has not yet acquired any life, 1928. Thus such things as will acquire life through temptations are meant; for spiritual life is acquired through temptations, which are spiritual conflicts or baffles against evils and falsities, and through triumphs in those battles. For the fact that those belonging to the spiritual Church underwent temptations after the Lord’s Coming into the world, and could not do so before that, see 8159.

sRef Ex@15 @22 S0′ 8347. ‘And they went three days in the wilderness and did not find water’ means that truths were lacking, and at length were plainly so. This is clear from the meaning of ‘three days’ as that which is complete, dealt with in 2788, 4495, 7715; from the meaning of ‘the wilderness’ as a state when temptations have to be undergone, dealt with immediately above in 8346; and from the meaning of ‘water’ as the truths of faith, dealt with in 2702, 3058, 3424, 4976, 5668, so that ‘not finding water’ means that truths were lacking. The fact that they were plainly lacking is meant by ‘going three days’; and the words ‘in the wilderness’ are used because there they were tempted, as follows next.

8348. ‘And they came to Marah’ means a state of temptation. This is clear from the fact that there they were tempted, as is also stated in verse 25 below by the words,

There He established for him a statute and a judgement, and there He tempted him.

8349. ‘And they could not drink the waters for bitterness; for they were bitter’ means that truths seemed to them to be unpleasant, as being devoid of an affection for good. This is clear from the meaning of ‘drinking the waters’ as the reception of truths, and using them as good directs, dealt with in 3069, 5709; from the meaning of ‘the waters’ as truths, dealt with just above in 8347; and from the meaning of ‘bitter’ as unpleasant, dealt with in 7854. From these meanings it is evident that ‘they could not drink the waters for bitterness; for they were bitter’ means that truths seemed to them to be unpleasant. The explanation for their seeming to be so, being devoid of an affection for good, is that any delight which truth holds is attributable to good. The reason why an affection for truth has its origin in good is that good loves truth, and truth loves good; the two go together as though joined in marriage. It is well known that everyone wishes to learn more about the things he loves and has as his end in view. One who loves good, that is, wishes in his heart to worship God and benefit his neighbour, loves to learn more about ways to do so, and therefore to learn truths. From all this it becomes clear that every affection for truth arises out of good

[2] There are, it is true, people who lead bad lives and yet wish to learn truths; but there is no affection for truth present with them, only a desire to subscribe to the teachings of the Church for the sake of their own aggrandizement, that is, their own reputation, position, and gain. A genuine affection for truth consists in wishing to know what the truth is for the sake of life in the world, and for the sake of eternal life. People with this desire enter temptation when the truths they possess begin to be lacking, and especially when the truths they know seem to be unpleasant. The origin of this temptation lies in the fact that the links with good have been broken. These links are broken the moment that a person moves in the direction of his proprium, for in so doing he slips into the evil of self-love or of love of the world. The moment he does so he begins to find truths unpleasant; but as soon as he emerges from that state the truths become pleasant. This is what is meant in the narrative that follows, describing how the bitter waters were cured by the wood that had been thrown into them; for good is meant by ‘wood’.

8350. ‘Therefore he called the name of it Marah’ means the state and essential nature of that temptation. This is clear from the consideration that the names which are given to matters dealt with in the Word each encapsulate the essential nature and the state of the matter to which they refer, 2643, 3422, 4298, 4442. At this point therefore ‘Marah’ means the essential nature and the state of the temptation dealt with in these verses, as well as [literally] meaning bitter.

sRef Ex@15 @24 S0′ 8351. ‘And the people grumbled against Moses’ means grief caused by the bitterness of the temptation. This is clear from the meaning of ‘grumbling’ as complaint, the kind made in temptations, thus grief caused by the bitterness of the temptation. The temptations which those belonging to the Lord’s spiritual Church underwent after they had been delivered from molestations, in addition to the temptations which members of that Church are destined to undergo, are described by the grumblings of the children of Israel in the wilderness. And since spiritual temptations are as a general rule protracted till a person is in despair, 1787, 2694, 5279, 5280, 7147, 7166, 8165, ‘grumbling’ means complaint because of grief felt in temptations, as in Exod. 16:2, 3; 17:3; Num. 14:27, 29, 36; 16:11. The words ‘against Moses’ are used because it was a grumbling against what was Divine; for ‘Moses’ represents Divine Truth, 6723, 6752, 6771, 6827, 7010, 7014, 7089, 7382.

[2] As regards the temptations which those belonging to the spiritual Church underwent, and the temptations which members of that Church are destined to undergo, it should be recognized that no faith, nor thus any charity, can ever be instilled into those who belong to the spiritual Church except by means of temptations. In temptations a person is involved in conflict against falsity and evil. These – falsity and evil – flow into the external man from the hells, while goodness and truth flow in from the Lord by way of the internal man; and so there arises from a conflict of the internal man with the external that which is called temptation. And in the measure that the external man is brought into a state of obedience to the internal, faith and charity are instilled; for the external or natural level of a person is a receptacle of truth and good from the internal. If the receptacle is not properly adjusted it does not receive anything flowing in from the more internal level but either repels, destroys, or stifles it, as a consequence of which there is no regeneration. So it is that temptation is necessary, in order that a person may undergo regeneration, which is effected through the instillation of faith and charity, and thereby through the formation of a new will and new understanding. This also explains why the term ‘militant’ is applied to the Lord’s Church. See what has been stated and shown already about these matters in 3928, 4249, 4341, 4572, 5356, 6574, 6611, 6657, 7090 (end), 7122, 8159, 8168, 8179, 8273.

sRef Ex@15 @24 S0′ 8352. ‘Saying, What shall we drink?’ means that they cannot tolerate truths because, as a result of their lack of affection [for good], they find them unpleasant. This is clear from the meaning of ‘drinking’ as being taught truths and receiving them, and also as having an affection for them and consequently making them one’s own, dealt with in 3069, 3168, 3772, 4017, 4018, but here as not being able to tolerate them because – as a result of the lack of affection for good, meant by ‘the waters were bitter’, according to the explanation above in 8349 – they are found to be unpleasant. This temptation consists in their complaining and their grief, because the truths which previously they have found pleasant, and which have thus constituted their spiritual life or the life of heaven for them, now seem unpleasant to them, so unpleasant that they can scarcely tolerate them.

[2] A merely natural person cannot believe that anything such as this could be a cause of grief. For he thinks, ‘What difference does it make to me whether truths are pleasant or unpleasant? If they are unpleasant, let them be cast aside.’ But a spiritual person has an entirely different feeling. Learning truths and being enlightened in the kinds of matters that belong to his soul and so to spiritual life is the delight of his life. Therefore when those truths are lacking, his spiritual life becomes a trial and burden to him; and this gives rise to grief and anguish. The reason is that the affection for good flows in unceasingly from the Lord by way of the internal man, arousing accordant things in the external man which have previously been the cause of delight belonging to an affection for truth; and when these things are under attack from the evils of self-love and love of the world, in which too the person has previously taken delight, a conflict of delights or affections results, which gives rise to anguish, and this in turn to grief and complaint.

[3] A brief statement needs to be made about the situation when temptation arises through lack of truth. Nourishment for spiritual life consists in goodness and truth, just as nourishment for natural life consists in food and drink. If good is lacking it is as if food is lacking; and when truth is lacking it is as if drink is lacking. The grief this causes is like the grief caused by hunger and thirst. This comparison arises from correspondence, for food corresponds to goodness, and drink to truth. This correspondence is also the reason why food and drink nourish the body better and more suitably if, during a dinner or a luncheon, the person has at the same time as he eats the pleasure of discussing with others the kinds of things he loves than if he sits at table alone without company. In the second situation the person’s vessels for receiving food are narrowed, but in the first the same vessels are opened. These things are brought about by the correspondence of spiritual food and natural food. The reason for saying the pleasure of discussing with others the kinds of things he loves is that all that pleasure is related to goodness and truth; for there does not exist anything in the world that is unrelated to them both. What the person loves is related to the good present with him, and that which informs about good and so links itself to that good, is related to truth.

sRef Ex@15 @25 S0′ 8353. ‘And he cried to Jehovah’ means pleas made to the Lord as a result of the grief. This is clear from the meaning of ‘crying’ as calling for help, dealt with in 6801, and also deep grief, 7782, so that pleas made as a result of grief are meant as well – ‘Jehovah’ in the Word being the Lord, see 8261.

sRef Ex@15 @25 S0′ 8354. ‘And Jehovah showed him [some] wood’ means that the Lord installed good. This is clear from the meaning of ‘showing’ – when done by ‘Jehovah’, that is, the Lord – as imparting perception, which because it takes place through influx means installing it; and from the meaning of ‘wood’ as good, dealt with in 643, 2784, 2812, 3720.

sRef Ex@15 @25 S0′ 8355. ‘And he threw it into the waters’ means with which he suffused the truths. This is clear from the meaning of ‘throwing [some] wood into the waters’, since ‘wood’ means good and ‘the waters’ truths, as suffusing the truths with good. For the meaning of ‘wood’ as good, see immediately above in 8354, and for that of ‘the waters’ as truths, 2702, 3058, 3424, 4976, 5668, 8349.

sRef Ex@15 @25 S0′ 8356. ‘And the waters became sweet’ means that as a result the truths were made pleasant. This is clear from the meaning of ‘sweet’ as pleasant, for ‘sweet’ in the spiritual sense means sweetness of life, which is the same thing as pleasantness; and from the meaning of ‘the waters’ as truths, dealt with immediately above in 8355. The situation here is that a person’s feeling of affection for truth comes from good. For goodness and truth have been joined together as if in marriage, and therefore one loves the other in the way that married partner loves married partner. This also explains why in the Word, when goodness and truth are joined together, they are likened to a marriage, and why the truths and forms of good born from that marriage are called sons and daughters. From this it becomes clear that the pleasantness belonging to the affection for truth traces its origin back solely to good. Experience too demonstrates this; for people who lead a good life, that is, who love God and their neighbour, also love the truths of faith. That being so, as long as good is flowing in and being received, truth appears pleasant. But as soon as good ceases to flow in, that is, as soon as evil begins to predominate and the inflow of good to be held back, truth is immediately sensed to be unpleasant; for truth and evil repel and loathe each other. From all this one may now see why the order was given to throw wood into the bitter waters, and also why the waters were made sweet by the wood that had been thrown into them. God would never have commanded such an action to be taken if those kinds of things had not been meant by it. For God could have rendered those waters sweet without the use of wood.

sRef Ex@15 @25 S0′ 8357. ‘There He established for him a statute and a judgement’ means the truth of order, such as was revealed at that time. This is clear from the meaning of ‘a statute’ as the Church’s outward truth; and from the meaning of ‘a judgement’ as the Church’s inward truth, so that ‘establishing for someone a statute and a judgement’ implies setting something in order in accordance with truths, and consequently implies revealing them. The reason why ‘a statute’ means the outward truth of order is that every outward practice of the Church was called ‘a statute’, and every inward truth of order was called ‘a judgement’.

sRef Ex@15 @25 S0′ 8358. ‘And there He tempted him’ means in respect of temptations in general. This is clear from the words coming before and after. Those coming before have dealt with the first temptation in the wilderness, those coming after deal with instruction about the way they must lead their lives to ensure that they do not go under in temptations.

sRef Ex@15 @26 S0′ 8359. ‘And He said’ means instruction. This is clear from the meaning of ‘saying’, when done by Jehovah, referring to the truth of order in respect of temptations, as instruction, as also in 6879, 6881, 6883, 6891, 7186, 7267, 7304, 7380, 7517, 8127.

sRef Ex@15 @26 S0′ 8360. ‘If you obediently hear the voice of Jehovah your God’ means faith in the Lord’s commandments. This is clear from the meaning of ‘hearing’ as discernment and faith, dealt with in 3921, 5017, 7216; and from the meaning of ‘the voice of Jehovah’ as declaration from the Word thus the commandment of the Lord, dealt with in 6971.

sRef Ex@15 @26 S0′ 8361. ‘And do what is right in His eyes’ means a life in keeping with them. This is clear from the meaning of ‘doing what is right’ as leading a life in keeping with what truth dictates; and from the meaning of ‘in Jehovah’s eyes’ as before the Lord, thus in keeping with His commandments, since the Lord is within His commandments when a person leads a life in keeping with them. Also a person who possesses faith in the Lord is said to be ‘in His eyes’. As regards ‘hearing the voice’, its proper meaning is obedience, 2542, 3869, 5017. But when the verb ‘doing’ is used as well, as it is here, ‘hearing’ in that case means faith and ‘doing’ means life, as may be recognized from the Lord’s words in Matthew,

Everyone who hears My words and does them I will liken to a wise man. But everyone hearing My words yet not doing them will be likened to a foolish man. Matt. 7:24, 26.

In Luke,

Everyone who comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like. Luke 6:47.

In the same gospel,

The seed which [fell] on the good earth – these are they who with a simple and good heart hear the Word, keep it, and bear fruit*’ with patience. Luke 8:15.

In the same gospel,

Jesus said, My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it. Luke 8:21.

In these places ‘hearing’ means having perception, understanding, and faith; and ‘doing’ means leading a life in keeping with them. But when ‘hearing’ is used by itself and not together with ‘doing’ it means faith in will and action, thus obedience. The reason why is that what a person hears passes into his inward power of sight which belongs to the understanding; there it is embraced by the will and completes a kind of circle that passes into action. This explains why the actual word ‘hear’, from the nature of the activity it describes, may mean obedience, as in the expression to hear or else hearken to someone, see 4652-4660.
* Following Sebastian Schmidt Sw. uses two words which literally mean do (or make) fruit.

sRef Ex@15 @26 S0′ 8362. ‘And hearken to His commandments’ means obedience and a life in keeping with forms of the good of faith, which are interior aspects of the Church. This is clear from the meaning of ‘hearkening’ as obedience and life; and from the meaning of ‘commandments’ as the inner truths of the Word, dealt with in 3382, thus truths of faith that are interior aspects of the Church. These truths are called forms of the good of faith because they are matters of the will.

sRef Ex@15 @26 S0′ 8363. ‘And keep all His statutes’ means a life in keeping with the truths of faith, which are exterior aspects of the Church. This is clear from the meaning of ‘keeping’ too as leading a life; and from the meaning of ‘statutes’ as the outward truths of the Word, dealt with in 3382, 8357, thus the truths of faith that are exterior aspects of the Church. Quite a number of places in the Word mention statutes and commandments, and when one is spoken of along with the other, ‘statute’ means an outward aspect of the Church and ‘commandment’ an inward aspect of it.

sRef Ex@15 @26 S0′ 8364. ‘I will not put on you any sickness that I put on the Egyptians’ means that they are to be withheld from the evils present among those who uphold separated faith and lead a life of evil. This is clear from the meaning of ‘sickness’ as evil, dealt with below; from the representation of ‘the Egyptians’ as those who uphold separated faith and lead a life of evil, dealt with in 7097, 7317, 7926, 8148; and from the meaning of ‘not putting on you’ – when used in association with ‘sickness’, which means evil – as withholding from evil. For Jehovah, that is, the Lord, does not take away evil but withholds a person from it and maintains him in good, 929, 1581, 2256, 2406, 4564, 8206. So it is that ‘not putting a sickness on them’ means that they are to be withheld from evils.

[2] The reason why ‘sickness’ means evil is that in the internal sense the kinds of things that attack spiritual life are meant. The sicknesses which attack it are evils, and they are called evil desires and cravings; and the components of spiritual life are faith and charity. That life is sick when falsity exists instead of the truth of faith and evil instead of the good of charity, because they lead to the death of that life, which is called spiritual death and is damnation, just as sicknesses lead to the death of natural life. This is why in the internal sense ‘sickness’ means evil, and ‘the sicknesses of the Egyptians’ means the evils which those upholding separated faith and leading a life of evil cast themselves into, and which they used to molest the upright. Those evils have been dealt with in what has gone before, where the plagues in Egypt were the subject.

sRef Deut@28 @35 S3′ sRef Deut@28 @34 S3′ sRef Deut@28 @65 S3′ sRef Deut@28 @15 S3′ sRef Deut@28 @20 S3′ sRef Deut@7 @11 S3′ sRef Deut@28 @60 S3′ sRef Deut@28 @61 S3′ sRef Deut@7 @15 S3′ sRef Deut@28 @27 S3′ sRef Deut@28 @28 S3′ sRef Deut@28 @21 S3′ sRef Deut@28 @22 S3′ [3] Evils are again meant by ‘sicknesses’ elsewhere in the Word, as in Moses,

If you keep the commandments and the statutes and the judgements which I am commanding you today, Jehovah will take away all sickness from you, and will not put on you any of the evil diseases of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them on [all] who hate you. Deut. 7:11, 15.

In the same author,

If you will not obey the voice of Jehovah your God, taking care to do all His commandments and His statutes, Jehovah will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke in all that you set your hand to do,* until you are destroyed, because of the wickedness of your deeds by which you have forsaken Me. Jehovah will make the pestilence cling to you, until He has consumed you from upon the land. Jehovah will strike you with consumption, and hot fever, and burning fever, and raging fever, and drought, and blight, and mildew, which will pursue you until you perish. Jehovah will strike you with the sores of Egypt, and with hemorrhoids, and the scab, and the itch, so that you cannot be healed. Jehovah will strike you with madness, and blindness, and stupefaction.** You will be made mad by what your eyes will see***. Jehovah will strike you with evil sores on the knees and on the thighs, from which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the top of your head. He will throw back onto you every disease of Egypt, also every sickness and every plague that is not written in the book of this Law. Jehovah will give you a trembling heart, failing**** of eyes, and distress of soul. Deut. 28:15, 20-22, 27, 28, 34, 35, 60, 61, 65.

All the sicknesses mentioned here mean spiritual sicknesses, which are evils destructive of the life of a will desiring what is good and falsities destructive of the life of an understanding seeing what is true, in short things destructive of spiritual life composed of faith and charity. Natural sicknesses also correspond to such things, for every sickness present among the human race has its origin in spiritual ones, because each exists as a result of sin, 5712, 5726. Each sickness furthermore corresponds to its own evil. The explanation for this is that everything composing a person’s life originates in the spiritual world. If therefore his spiritual life is sick, evil spreads from it into his natural life and becomes a sickness there. See what has been stated from experience in 5711-5727 about the correspondence of sicknesses with evils.

sRef Lev@26 @15 S4′ sRef Ex@23 @25 S4′ sRef Isa@1 @5 S4′ sRef Isa@1 @6 S4′ sRef Ps@38 @6 S4′ sRef Ps@38 @5 S4′ sRef Ps@38 @4 S4′ sRef Ps@38 @7 S4′ sRef Ezek@34 @4 S4′ sRef Lev@26 @16 S4′ sRef Ezek@34 @2 S4′ [4] The same things are meant by ‘sicknesses’ elsewhere, as in Moses,

You shall worship Jehovah your God, in order that He may bless your bread and your water; and I will take sickness out of your midst. Exod. 23:25.

In the same author,

If you despise My statutes, and if your soul abhors My judgements, so that you do not do all My commandments, while you make void My covenant, I will appoint terror over you, along with consumption, and burning fever, which will consume the eyes and torment the soul. Lev. 26:15, 16.

‘Consumption’ stands for the decrease of truth and the increase of falsity, ‘burning fever’ for the desire for evil. Further still, in Isaiah,

Why will you also defect?***** The whole head [departs] into sickness, and the whole heart is diseased. From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it, but wounds, and scars, and recent blows. They are not pressed out, nor bound up, nor softened with oil. Isa. 1:5, 6.

Here nobody can fail to see that ‘sickness’, ‘wounds’, ‘scars’, and ‘blows’ are used to mean sins. Similarly in Ezekiel,

Woe to the shepherds of Israel! The weak sheep you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, and the broken you have not bound up. Ezek. 34:2, 4.

In David,

My iniquities have gone over my head. My wounds have become putrid, they have rotted away because of my foolishness. For my intestines are full of burning, and there is no soundness in my flesh. Ps. 38:4-7.

sRef Isa@53 @5 S5′ sRef Isa@53 @4 S5′ sRef Isa@53 @3 S5′ [5] Since the disorders and evils of spiritual life are meant by ‘sicknesses’, the various kinds of disorders and evils of that life are meant by the various kinds of sicknesses. ‘Pestilence’ means the vastation or laying waste of goodness and truth, see 7102, 7505; and ‘leprosy’ means the profanation of truth, 6963. In general ‘sicknesses’ means sins, as may also be seen in Isaiah,

… a man of sorrows, and acquainted with sickness, on account of which as it were men hid their faces from Him. He was despised, so that we did not esteem Him. Nevertheless He has borne our sicknesses and carried our sorrows, and through His wounds healing has been given to us. Isa. 53:3-5.

This refers to the Lord.

sRef Matt@11 @5 S6′ sRef Matt@11 @4 S6′ sRef Matt@4 @23 S6′ [6] Since sicknesses represented the unrighteous ways and the evils of spiritual life the sicknesses which the Lord healed have as their meaning deliverance from the different kinds of evil and falsity that were molesting the Church and human race and that would have brought spiritual death. Divine miracles are distinguishable from other miracles by the fact that they involve and have regard to states of the Church and the heavenly kingdom; and this is why the Lord’s miracles were primarily healing of sicknesses. These miracles are meant by the Lord’s words addressed to the disciples sent by John,

Tell John the things which you hear and see: the blind see and the lame walk; lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead rise again and the poor hear the gospel. Matt. 11:4, 5.

This is why it says so many times that the Lord healed every sickness and every disease among the people, Matt. 4:23; 9:35; 14:14, 35, 36; Luke 4:40; 5:15; 6:17; 7:21; Mark 1:32-34; 3:10.
* lit. in every sending of your hand which you shall do
** lit. astonishment of heart
*** lit. by the sight of your eyes
**** lit. consumption
***** lit. Why will you add to a going back?

sRef Ps@41 @4 S0′ sRef Jer@17 @14 S0′ sRef Deut@32 @39 S0′ sRef Jer@30 @17 S0′ sRef Matt@9 @12 S0′ sRef Matt@9 @13 S0′ sRef Ps@41 @3 S0′ sRef Ex@15 @26 S0′ 8365. ‘For I, Jehovah, am your Healer’ means that the Lord alone preserves them from evils. This is clear from the meaning of ‘healing’ as curing of and also preserving from evils; for when evils are meant by ‘sicknesses’, curing people of them and preserving them from them is meant by ‘healing’, [here] and also many times in the Word, such as in Moses,

I kill and I make alive, I strike and I heal. Deut. 32:39.

In Jeremiah,

Heal me, O Jehovah, in order that I may be healed; save me, in order that I may be saved. Jer. 17:14.

In the same prophet,

I will restore health to you* and heal you of your blows. Jer. 30:17.

In David,

His whole bed you have turned in his sickness.** I said, O Jehovah, be merciful to me; heal my soul, for I have sinned against You. Ps. 41:3, 4.

The same may be seen in many other places besides these, such as Isa. 6:10; 53:5; 57:18, 19; Jer. 3:22; 17:14; Hosea 6:1; 7:1; 11:3; 14:4; Zech. 11:16; Ps. 30:2; and elsewhere. And since ‘healing’ had this meaning, the Lord also calls Himself ‘a physician’,

Those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Matt. 9:12, 13; Mark 2:17; Luke 5:31, 32.
* lit. I will cause health to come up to you
** i.e. His bed has been changed from the bed of sickness to the bed of health

sRef Ex@15 @27 S0′ 8366. Verse 27 And they came to Elim, and here there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees; and they encamped there beside the waters.

‘And they came to Elim’ means a state of enlightenment and affection, and so a state of comfort after temptation. ‘And here there were twelve springs of water’ means that in that state they had truths in full abundance. ‘And seventy palm trees’ means forms of the good of truth in like measure. ‘And they encamped there beside the waters’ means that after temptation the truths of faith were arranged into order by the good of love.

sRef Ex@15 @27 S0′ 8367. ‘And they came to Elim’ means a state of enlightenment and affection, and so a state of comfort after temptation. This is clear from the meaning of ‘Elim’; as with all the other places to which the children of Israel came, it embodies and has as its meaning the state and essential nature of the reality to which it refers, see 2643, 3422, 4298, 4442. In this instance a state after temptation is meant, which is a state of enlightenment and affection, and so of comfort. Every spiritual temptation is followed by enlightenment and affection, and so by feelings of pleasure and delight, pleasure as a result of enlightenment through truth, delight as a result of affection for good.

[2] For the fact that comfort follows temptations, see 4572, 5246, 5628, 6829; and the reason why is that through temptations truths and forms of good are instilled and linked together, as a result of which inwardly, as to his spirit, a person is brought into heaven and to heavenly communities among which he has not been before. Once a temptation is completed, contact with heaven, contact which previously was partially shut off, is opened up. Enlightenment and affection, and consequently pleasure and delight, result from this, because the angels with whom he is now in contact enter in by means of truth and by means of good. The enlightenment through truth and the pleasure this gives are meant by ‘twelve springs of water’, since truths are meant by ‘springs’; and an affection for truth arising from good and the delight this affords are meant by ‘seventy palm trees’, spoken of in what comes next.

sRef Ex@15 @27 S0′ 8368. ‘And here there were twelve springs of water’ means that in that state they had truths in full abundance. This is clear from the meaning of ‘twelve’ as all things in their entirety, dealt with in 2089, 2129 (end), 2130 (end), 3272, 3858, 3913, 7973, and so full abundance; and from the meaning of ‘springs’ as the truths of faith, dealt with in 2702, 3096, 3424, 4861. From these meanings it is evident that ‘twelve springs of water’ means truths in full abundance; and from them it follows that those words also mean enlightenment and resulting pleasure. For a person possessing truths in full abundance is also enlightened; and if a person who is enlightened desires truth out of affection for it, he is given pleasure by his enlightenment.

sRef Ex@15 @27 S0′ sRef Lev@23 @40 S1′ 8369. ‘And seventy palm trees’ means forms of the good of truth in like measure, that is to say, in full abundance. This is clear from the meaning of ‘seventy’ – like ‘twelve’ – as all things in their entirety, dealt with in 7973; and from the meaning of ‘palm trees’ as forms of good in the spiritual Church, which are forms of the good of truth. And since forms of good are meant by ‘palm trees’, an affection for good and the delight resulting from it are meant, for an affection for good is the source of all delight. Since ‘palm trees’ had this meaning they were also used in sacred festivities, such as the feast of tabernacles, in accordance with the following in Moses,

You shall take on the first day the fruit of a fine tree,* fronds of palm trees, the bough of a thick tree, and willows of the powerful stream; and you shall be glad before Jehovah your God seven days. Lev. 23:40.

‘The fruit of a fine tree’ means celestial good, ‘palm trees’ spiritual good
or the good of truth, ‘the bough of a thick tree’ truth in the form of factual
knowledge, and ‘willows of the powerful stream’ lowest truths belonging
to the natural. The four accordingly mean all forms of good and truths in
their proper order.

sRef John@12 @13 S2′ sRef John@12 @12 S2′ sRef Ps@92 @12 S2′ sRef Joel@1 @12 S2′ sRef Rev@7 @9 S2′ [2] The fact that ‘palm trees’ were signs of sacred festivity springing from good is also clear from the following in John,

A great crowd who had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees, and went to meet Him, and cried, Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel. John 12:12, 13.

And in the same author, in Revelation,

I saw, and behold a large crowd standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches in their hands. Rev. 7:9.

In Joel,

The vine has withered and the fig tree languishes, the pomegranate tree and also the palm; all joy has withered away from the sons of man. Joel 1:12.

In David,

The righteous will flourish like a palm tree; he will grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Ps. 92:12.

Here ‘a palm tree’ stands for good and ‘a cedar’ for truth.

sRef Ezek@41 @18 S3′ sRef Ezek@41 @25 S3′ sRef Ezek@41 @26 S3′ sRef Ezek@41 @20 S3′ sRef 1Ki@6 @29 S3′ sRef Ezek@41 @17 S3′ sRef 1Ki@6 @32 S3′ [3] Since ‘a palm tree’ means good it also means wisdom, for wisdom is the discernment of good. The palm trees which were carved along with the cherubs and flowers on the walls of the temple were signs meaning such wisdom. ‘The temple’ meant the Lord Himself, and in the representative sense it meant heaven, 2777, 3720; ‘the cherubs, palm trees, and flowers’ on the walls meant providence, wisdom, and intelligence that are the Lord’s, and so meant all things belonging to heaven. The fact that they were carved on the walls of the temple is clear in the first Book of Kings,

Solomon carved all the walls of the house all around with openings of carvings of cherubs,** and of palm trees, and with openings of flowers. And on the two doors of olive wood he carved carvings of cherubs and of palm trees, and openings of flowers, and overlaid them with gold, so that he spread gold over the cherubs and over the palm trees. 1 Kings 6:29, 32.

These ‘carvings’ represented the heavenly state; ‘the cherubs’ represented the Lord’s Providence, thus the truth that all things come from Him (for the meaning of ‘cherubs’ as providence, see 308); ‘the palm trees’ represented wisdom that is a discernment of good coming from the Lord; and ‘the flowers’ represented intelligence that is an understanding of truth coming from Him. ‘Gold’ with which the cherubs and palm trees were overlaid meant the good of love, which holds sway throughout heaven (for the meaning of ‘gold’ as the good of love, see 113, 1551, 1552, 5658). All this also explains why in the description in Ezekiel of the new temple, meaning the Lord’s heaven, it says that ‘cherubs and palm trees’ were on the walls everywhere, Ezek. 41:17, 18, 20, 25, 26.
* lit. a tree of honour
** i.e. carved figures of cherubs

sRef Ex@15 @27 S0′ 8370. ‘And they encamped there beside the waters’ means that after temptation the truths of faith were arranged into order by the good of love. This is clear from the meaning of ‘encamping’ as an arrangement of truth and good into order, dealt with in 8103 (end), 8130, 8131, 8155; and from the meaning of ‘the waters’ as the truths of faith, dealt with in 2702, 3058, 3424, 4976, 5668. The reason why ‘they encamped there beside the waters’ means that the truths of faith were arranged into order by means of the good of love is that ‘camp’ means truths and forms of good, 8193, 8196, and ‘encamping’ an arrangement of them, while ‘beside the waters’ means in keeping with truths that come from God. The expression ‘the good of love’ is used because every arrangement of truths into order is effected through the good of love; for truths arrange themselves under good and accord with it, making with good one body so to speak in the image of the person in whom they exist. The expression ‘in the image of the person in whom they exist’ is used because the image of a person’s spirit – which, being his internal man, is the person’s true self – is fashioned altogether according to the ordering and arrangement of truths by good residing with him. This is why when angels come to be present the sphere of the good of love ripples out from them and impinges on the affections of those who are present; and the truths of faith shine from their faces. In the spiritual world these kinds of things are apparent and clearly perceived. The arranging into order is said to take place after temptation because although forms of good and truths are instilled into a person through temptations they are not arranged into order until the temptations have finished. For a state of temptation is one of turmoil, whereas the state after temptation is peaceful; and when there is peace the arranging into order takes place. Therefore temptations are also followed by a feeling of pleasure as a result of enlightenment from truth and by a feeling of delight as a result of an affection for good, dealt with just above in 8367.

8371. SPIRITS AND INHABITANTS OF THE PLANET JUPITER – continued

To resume what spirits belonging to that planet have told me about various things characteristic of its inhabitants, let me turn to such matters as their manner of walking, their food, homes, and the like. So far as their manner of walking is concerned, they do not go erect as inhabitants of this and a large number of other planets do; nor do they go on all fours in the manner of animals. Rather, when they walk they help themselves along with the palms of their hands, and alternately half raise themselves to stand on their feet. Every third step they also turn their face looking to the side and behind them, and at the same time bend their body round slightly. They do this quickly, because among them it is improper for them to be looked at by others except in the face.

8372. When they walk in this manner they always keep their face frontwards and in so doing they look to the front, never downwards or to the ground. They call looking downwards damnable. It is what the most worthless among them do, and if they do not grow accustomed to looking forwards they are banished from society.

8373. When they sit however the upper part of their body appears erect, as with members of our planet; but they sit crossed-legged They take the greatest care not only when they walk but also when they sit to ensure that no one looks at them in the back, only in the face. They are also very willing to let their face be seen, because their mind is displayed by it. They never present a face different from the mind; they are incapable of doing so. Anyone present with them can also plainly tell from it what their feelings are towards him, they do not conceal them. Above all he can tell whether an appearance of friendliness is genuine or false.

8374. These things have been shown me by their spirits, and corroborated by their angels. Also therefore their spirits are not seen to be erect when they walk as others are but to be almost like swimmers in the water helping themselves along with their hands and by turns looking round.

8375. Those who live in the hot parts of their planet go naked, except for a garment round their hips. And they are not embarrassed by nakedness, since they are pure in mind, loving only their married partner and detesting adultery. They were utterly amazed that when spirits belonging to our planet saw them walking in their particular manner, and also naked, they should mock them and also have lewd thoughts, paying no attention whatever to their heavenly life, only to those kinds of details. They said it was a sign that these spirits were more interested in bodily and earthly things than heavenly ones, and that improper thoughts filled their minds. They were told that nakedness was neither shameful nor offensive to those who led pure lives in a state of innocence only to those whose lives were lewd and wanton.

8376. When inhabitants of that planet lie in bed they turn their face frontwards or looking into the room, and not backwards or to the wall. This was told me by their spirits, who said the reason for their lying like that is their belief that they thereby turn their face to the Lord, whereas if it were looking backwards they would be turning it away from Him. I myself had felt a similar urge several times while in bed but I had not known the reason for it before then.

8377. They like to take a long time over eating, not so much because of a delight in food but because of a delight in conversation then. When they sit at table they do not sit on chairs or benches, or on raised grassy banks, or on turf, but on the leaves of some tree. They did not wish to say which tree the leaves came from; but when I made guesses, naming quite a number, they at length said yes when I mentioned the leaves of a fig tree.

8378. They said furthermore that they did not prepare food with a view to taste but primarily with a view to its usefulness, adding that they found useful food flavoursome. A discussion took place among the spirits on this matter, during which it was stated that such an attitude to food is beneficial to a person, because then at heart he desires to have a healthy mind in a healthy body. But it is different with those for whom taste is all-important because of this attitude the body is sick or at least inwardly languishes and consequently the mind also. For the activity of the mind is dependent on the condition of recipient parts, which belong to the body, just as sight is dependent on the condition of the eye. The latter attitude gives rise to the insanity of supposing that all the delight of life, and – as people call it – the highest good, lies in luxury and physical pleasure. It also gives rise to stupidity in such things as are matters of thought and judgement, and astuteness in such as have to do with the body and the world. This makes a person similar to a mere animal, to which such people not inappropriately also liken themselves.

8379. I have also been shown their dwelling-places. They are low, made from wood; but on the inside they have a covering of whitish blue bark, and round about and above they are dotted as if with stars, resembling the sky. For they wish to make the inside of their houses look like the visible sky with the heavenly bodies in it. They do this because they believe that the places where angels live are in the sky. In addition they have tents, rounded at the top and elongated. These too on the inside are dotted with stars on a blue background. They enter them during the daytime so that the heat of the sun may not harm their faces; they take the greatest care of their face, for they do not think of it as part of the body. They take much care over shaping these tents of theirs and keeping them clean; they also eat in them.

8380. They have little concern for worldly things, for they live with one another in families seeking no more than their food and accommodation; they do not regard anything beyond these as necessary or therefore as useful. Their greatest concern lies in the upbringing of young children, for whom they have the tenderest love.

8381. When the spirits from Jupiter saw horses belonging to our planet those horses seemed to me to be smaller than usual, though in fact they were quite powerful and tall ones. This was due to the idea that spirits from that planet had about the horses there. They said that their horses were similar yet much larger, but that they are wild or live in forests and that when caught sight of they terrify people, although they are completely harmless. They added that their fear of them is innate or natural. This gave them an opportunity to think about the cause of that fear. In the spiritual world a horse represents an understanding formed from factual knowledge, 2761-2763, 6534; and since they fear to cultivate their understanding by means of knowledge, fear therefore enters them. The fact that they have no interest in the factual knowledge belonging to human learning will be seen further on.

8382. The spirits from Jupiter have on several occasions had emissaries or subordinates present with me in order to communicate with me, leaving them with me for quite lengthy periods. This enabled me to know the character of them and that they were entirely different from spirits belonging to our planet. While they were with me they were often molested by spirits belonging to our planet, but they were not bothered by this. They merely reported it to the community of spirits who had sent them; and when they reported it they departed a little from me.

8383. On one occasion also evil spirits belonging to our planet were allowed to play their evil tricks and molest the spirits belonging to Jupiter who were present with me. The latter tolerated them for a very great length of time, but eventually they had to admit that they could do so no longer and that they thought there were none worse than those evil spirits. For they perverted the power of imagination of the spirits from Jupiter, and also their power of thought to such an extent that it seemed to them as though they were in bondage and could not be released from it without God’s help. While I was reading something in the Word about our Saviour’s passion certain spirits from Europe introduced dreadful stumbling blocks, with the intention of misleading the spirits from Jupiter. When questions were asked about who they were exactly and what they had been in the world it was learned that some of them had been preachers, not unlike those who call themselves members of the Society of Jesus* or Jesuits, and that when in the world they could move the common people to tears by their preaching about the Lord’s passion. The spirits from Jupiter were told the reason for this, which was that in the world those preachers thought one way and spoke in another, and so held one thing in their heart and bore another on their lips. But now they are not allowed to speak in that false way; for when they become spirits they are compelled to speak altogether as they think. The spirits belonging to Jupiter were completely dumbfounded by the existence of such a dichotomy between a person’s interiors and his exteriors, that is to say, by a person’s saying things entirely different from his thinking, which for them was an impossibility.
* The Latin means the Society of the Lord. Elsewhere in his Writings Sw. uses the correct title the Society of Jesus.

8384. Spirits belonging to Jupiter are gentle in their approach and considerate in what they say; they think before they speak. They derive this disposition from their life in the world; for if in the world they do or say anything contrary to order, others use various ways to bring them to their senses, those who are recalcitrant being brought to them by means of chastisement.

8385. They saw that I thought I would like to make known on our planet such matters; but they did not wish me to do so because they are forbidden to divulge what their spirits tell them. They were amazed that such matters could be made known simply by means of written words, at which point I told them about printing on our planet, as well as about the Word and also about teachings formulated by the Church. I said that the Word and such teachings, available as a result of having appeared in print, are learned by that means.

8386. ‘Spirits and inhabitants of the planet Jupiter’ is continued at the end of the next chapter. *
* Volume Six of the Latin ends here.

8387. TEACHINGS ABOUT CHARITY

Those who wish to be saved must confess their sins and repent.

8388. Confessing one’s sins involves recognizing evils, seeing the ones present with oneself, acknowledging them, holding oneself guilty of them, and condemning oneself because of them. This, when done before God, is confessing one’s sins.

8389. Repenting, after confessing one’s sins in that way and pleading with a humble heart for forgiveness, involves renouncing them and leading a new life in keeping with the commandments of faith.

8390. Those who merely acknowledge that they are complete sinners, holding themselves guilty of every evil, yet do not examine themselves, that is, see their own evils, are making a confession. But it is not a confession made because they are penitent since their life afterwards remains the same as it was before.

8391. Those who lead the life of faith repent daily. They pay attention to the evils present with them, acknowledge them, are on their guard against them, and implore the Lord for help. For by himself a person is constantly falling, but the Lord is constantly putting him on his feet again. By himself he falls whenever his mind desires something evil, but the Lord puts him on his feet again whenever he resists evil and therefore does not carry it out. This is the condition of all who are governed by good. Those however who are ruled by evil are constantly falling, and they are also being raised constantly by the Lord. But He does this so that they will fall not into the most oppressive hell of all, to which if left to themselves all their efforts take them, only into a milder one.

8392. Repentance has value if carried out in a state of freedom, but no value if carried out in a state of compulsion. A state of compulsion is a state in which a person is sick, is depressed as a result of misfortune, or is about to die, in short any state of fear which takes away the use of sound reason. A bad person who promises during a state of compulsion to repent, and also does what is good then, lapses into his former life of evil once he comes into a state of freedom. It is different with a good person; for him such states are states of temptation in which he is victorious.

8393. Repentance present on the lips but not in one’s life is not repentance. Lip repentance does not cause sins to be forgiven; only repentance in life can lead to this. Being Mercy itself, the Lord is constantly forgiving a person’s sins; but sins cling to a person no matter how much he supposes them to have been forgiven. Nor are they removed from him except through a life in keeping with the commandments of faith. To the extent that his life is in keeping with them his sins are removed; and to the extent that his sins are removed they have been forgiven. For a person is withheld from evil by the Lord and maintained in good; for he can be withheld from evil in the next life to the extent that during his lifetime he was resisting evil, and he can be maintained in good then to the extent that during his lifetime he was doing good out of an affection for it. From all this one may see what the forgiveness of sins is and how it arises. Anyone who supposes that there is any other way in which sins are forgiven is much mistaken.

sRef Matt@12 @45 S0′ sRef Matt@12 @43 S0′ sRef Matt@12 @44 S0′ 8394. Having examined himself, acknowledged his sins, and repented a person must remain steadfast in good to life’s end. But if having done those things he falls back into his former life of evil and embraces it he profanes that good since he now links evil with it. As a consequence his latter state becomes, according to the Lord’s words, worse than his former,

When the unclean spirit goes out of a person he goes through dry places seeking rest, but does not find it. Then he says, I will return into my house from which I came out; and when he comes and finds it empty, swept, and decorated for him, he goes away and links to himself seven other spirits more evil than himself; and they enter and dwell there. And the latter [circumstances] of the person become worse than the first. Matt. 12:43-45.

EXODUS 16

1 And they travelled on from Elim, and all the assembly of the children of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their coming out* of the land of Egypt.

2 And all the assembly of the children of Israel grumbled against Moses and against Aaron in the wilderness.

3 And the children of Israel said to them, Would that we had died** by the hand of Jehovah in the land of Egypt, when we sat by a pot of flesh, eating bread to the full! For you have brought us out to this wilderness, to kill all this congregation with hunger.

4 And Jehovah said to Moses, behold, I am causing it to rain bread from heaven for you; and the people will go out and gather the thing of a day in its day,*** in order that I may test them [to see] whether they walk in My law or not.

5 And it shall be on the sixth day, that they are to prepare what they have brought in; and it shall be double to what they shall gather day by day.

6 And Moses and Aaron said to all the children of Israel, At evening you will know that Jehovah has brought you out of the land of Egypt.

7 And in the morning you will see the glory of Jehovah; He hears your grumblings against Jehovah, and what are we, that you grumble against us?

8 And Moses said, Jehovah is giving you flesh to eat in the evening, and in the morning bread to the full; Jehovah hears your grumblings which you make against Him. What are we? Your grumblings are not against us, but against Jehovah.

9 And Moses said to Aaron, Say to all the assembly of the children of Israel, Come near before Jehovah, for He has heard your grumblings.

10 And so it was, as Aaron was speaking to all the assembly of the children of Israel, that they looked back towards the wilderness, and behold, the glory of Jehovah was seen in the cloud.

11 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,

12 I have heard the grumblings of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, At evening**** you will eat flesh, and in the morning you will be filled with bread; and you will know that I am Jehovah your God.

13 And it happened in the evening, that the selav***** came up and covered the camp; and in the morning there was a deposit of dew around the camp.

14 And the deposit of dew went up, and behold, on the face of the wilderness a tiny round thing, tiny like hoar frost on the earth.

15 And the children of Israel saw it and said, a man to his brother, Man****** is it? because they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, It is the bread which Jehovah has given you to eat.

16 This is the thing******* which Jehovah has commanded: Gather from it, each according to the mouth of his eating, an omer a head, [according to] the number of your souls; take it, each for whoever is in his tent.

17 And the children of Israel did so, and gathered it, [each] collecting it for a large number or for a few.

18 And they measured it with an omer, and no large number had more than enough and no few had less; they gathered, each according to the mouth of his eating.

19 And Moses said to them, Let no one leave any of it******** until the morning

20 And they did not hear********* Moses, and some did leave part of it********** until the morning; and it bred worms and became putrid. And Moses was incensed with them.

21 And they gathered it morning by morning, each according to the mouth of his eating; and the sun grew hot, and it melted.

22 And so it was, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one; and all the princes of the assembly came and told Moses.

23 And he said to them, This is what Jehovah has spoken: [A day of] rest, a holy sabbath to Jehovah shall tomorrow be. Bake what you will bake, and boil what you will boil; and all that is left over put aside for yourselves to keep until the morning.

24 And they put it aside till the morning, as Moses commanded; and it did not become putrid, and there was no worm in it.

25 And Moses said, Eat it today, because today is a sabbath to Jehovah, today you will not find it in the field.

26 Six days you shall gather it; and on the seventh day, the sabbath, there will be none in it.

27 And so it was on the seventh day, that some of the people went out to gather, and did not find.

28 And Jehovah said to Moses, How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws?

29 See! Because Jehovah has given you the sabbath, therefore on the sixth day He gives you the bread of two days; rest, each of you in his place,*********** let no one go out of his place on the seventh day.

30 And the people rested on the seventh day.

31 And the house of Israel called its name Man;************ and it was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like that of a cake with honey.

32 And Moses said, This is the thing************* which Jehovah has commanded: Fill an omer with it to be kept for your generations, in order that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.

33 And Moses said to Aaron, Take a jar, and put an omerful of man[na] in it, and lay it up before Jehovah, to be kept for your generations.

34 As Jehovah commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the
Testimony, to be kept.

35 And the children of Israel ate the man[na] forty years, until they came
to an inhabited land; they ate the man[na] until they came to the border
of the land of Canaan.

36 And an omer is the tenth part of an ephah.
* lit. on the fifteenth day, to the second month, at their coming out
** lit. Who will give? We should have died
*** i.e. a day’s portion every day
**** lit. between the evenings
***** Sw. retains the Hebrew word, which he takes to mean some tend of bird of the sea; see 8452.
****** i.e. the Hebrew interrogative word What? from which the word manna is derived; see 8462.
******* or word
******** lit. Let not anyone make a residue from it
********* lit. hear towards
********** lit. and men (vir) made a residue out of it
*********** lit. each under himself
************ Sw. retains the Hebrew word, which he takes to mean some tend of bird of the sea; see 8452.
************* or word

sRef Ex@16 @0 S0′ 8395. CONTENTS

The previous chapter dealt with the second temptation of those belonging to the spiritual Church, which arose because truth was perceived to be unpleasant. The present chapter deals in the internal sense with the third temptation, which arises because good is lacking. The lack of bread and flesh, which the children of Israel grumbled about, means a lack of good. Comfort after temptation is meant and described by the manna they received, and by the selav, the manna being spiritual good. The Lord constantly conferred this good on them, and without any care and aid on their part, which is meant by their receiving the manna every day and by the breeding of worms in it if they gathered too much.

sRef Ex@16 @1 S0′ 8396. THE INTERNAL SENSE

Verse 1 And they travelled on from Elim, and all the assembly of the children of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai on the fifteenth day of the second month after their coming out* of the land of Egypt.

‘And they travelled on from Elim’ means a further stage. ‘And all the assembly of the children of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin’ means arriving at another state of temptation. ‘Which is between Elim and Sinai’ means a continuation and the essential nature. ‘On the fifteenth day of the second month’ means this state considered in relation … ‘After their coming out of the land of Egypt’ means, to their state when they were first delivered from molestations.
* lit. on the fifteenth day, to the second month, at their coming out

sRef Ex@16 @1 S0′ 8397. ‘And they travelled on from Elim’ means a further stage. This is clear from the meaning of ‘travelling on’ as a further stage and a continuation, dealt with in 4375, 4554, 4585, 5996, 8181, 8345; and from the meaning of ‘Elim’ as a state of comfort after temptation, dealt with in 8367. So it is that ‘they travelled on from Elim’ means a further stage in life so far as states involving temptations are concerned; for when those belonging to the spiritual Church undergo temptations they are led on from one temptation into another. This further stage is what ‘travelling on’ means here. The reason why ‘travelling on’ means a further stage in life is that extents of space, like periods of time, do not exist in the next life, but states instead, 2625, 2837, 3356, 3387, 4321, 4882, 5605, 7381. Consequently movements are not meant by ‘movements’, nor travellings on by ‘travellings on’, but changes of states and further stages.

sRef Ezek@30 @18 S0′ sRef Ezek@30 @16 S0′ sRef Ezek@30 @17 S0′ sRef Ex@16 @1 S0′ sRef Ezek@30 @15 S0′ 8398. ‘And all the assembly of the children of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin’ means arriving at another state of temptation. This is clear from the meaning of ‘coming’ as a point in the further stage that is meant in 8397 by ‘travelling on’; from the meaning of ‘the assembly of the children of Israel’ as those who belong to the spiritual Church, dealt with in 7843; from the meaning of ‘the wilderness’ as a state when temptations have to be undergone, dealt with in 8098; and from the meaning of ‘Sin’ as the essential nature of the state since names hold within them the entire nature of the state of whatever thing they refer to, as has been shown in various places above. As temptation is meant by the grumbling over the lack of bread and flesh, and as the comfort received after that is meant by the manna and selav, the meaning of ‘Sin’ is clear, namely good that is the product of truth. In the contrary sense therefore ‘Sin’, a city in Egypt from which the wilderness of Sin took its name, means evil that is a product of falsity. In Ezekiel,

I will pour out My wrath onto Sin, the strength of Egypt, and I will cut off the multitude of No; and I will send fire on Egypt. Sin will suffer great pain, and No will be breached, and Noph by enemies daily. The young men of Aven and Pi Beseth will fall by the sword, and those [cities] will go away into captivity. And in Tehaphnehes the day will be darkened, when I break the yokes of Egypt there. Ezek. 30:15-18.

[2] The subject here is those in possession of known facts, who use them to hatch falsities that give rise to evils. ‘Egypt’ here is factual knowledge, ‘Sin’ is evil that arises from falsity, and ‘No’ is falsity that gives rise to evil. Anyone may recognize, solely from the consideration that it is the Divine Word, that a deeper meaning lies here than that visible in the letter. Without the deeper meaning within it, it would contain scarcely any intelligible meaning, never mind a meaning with a holy content. From this it is plainly evident that the names appearing in it are descriptive of real things, and that these provide a general meaning that befits the Word which comes from Jehovah. Anyone who accepts that the Word is Divine cannot possibly deny this, so long as he is willing to think rationally or to draw conclusions with an understanding that has been somewhat enlightened.

sRef Ex@16 @1 S0′ 8399. ‘Which is between Elim and Sinai’ means a continuation and the essential nature. This is clear from the meaning of ‘Elim’ and from the meaning of ‘Sinai’, from which one may see what this location between the two means. Because of the springs and palm trees that were there ‘Elim’ means truth and good that belong to comfort after temptation – see the final verse of the previous chapter. And because of the Law which was declared from it ‘Sinai’ means good and the truth that flows from it. Consequently the continuation and the essential nature meant by ‘Sin’ is good that results from truth. Good that results from truth is the good done by a spiritual person prior to regeneration; for at that time he does it as a result of truth, that is, because truth demands it, and therefore he does it in a spirit of obedience. But good from which truth flows is done by a spiritual person after regeneration, for now he does it as a result of his affection for it. The former kind of good is meant by ‘Sin’, the latter by ‘Sinai’.

sRef Ex@16 @1 S0′ 8400. ‘On the fifteenth day of the second month’ means this state considered in relation … This is clear from the meaning of the number ‘fifteen’, from the meaning of ‘day’, and from the meaning of ‘month’. ‘Month’ means the end of the previous state and the beginning of the next, thus a new state, 3814; ‘day’ means a state in general, 23, 487, 488, 493, 893, 2788, 3462, 3785, 4850, 7680, and ‘the fifteenth’ means that which is new. For ‘fourteen days’ or two weeks mean a whole period or state from the beginning to the end of it, 728, 2044, 3845; ‘fifteen’ therefore means something new, in this instance newness of life, meant by the manna which they received from heaven, ‘manna’ being the good of truth, which is the life of a spiritual person. Fifteen is similar in meaning to eight, because the eighth day is the first day of a following week. For the meaning of ‘the eighth day’ as any beginning whatever, thus something new that is distinct and separate from what has gone before, see 2044, 2866; and for the fact that all numbers in the Word have spiritual realities as their meaning, 482, 487, 575, 647, 648, 755, 813, 1963, 1988, 2075, 2252, 3252, 4264, 4495, 4670, 5265, 6175.

sRef Ex@16 @1 S0′ 8401. ‘After their coming out of the land of Egypt’ means, to their state when they were first delivered from molestations. This is clear from the meaning of ‘coming our or ‘being brought out’ as being delivered, dealt with often; and from the meaning of ‘the land of Egypt’ as molestations by those immersed in evil and therefore steeped in falsities, dealt with in 7278.

8402. Verses 2, 3 And all the assembly of the children of Israel grumbled against Moses and against Aaron in the wilderness. And the children of Israel said to them, Would that we had *died* by the hand of Jehovah in the land of Egypt, when we sat by a pot of flesh, eating bread to the full! For you have brought us out to this wilderness, to kill all this congregation with hunger.

‘And all the assembly of the children of Israel grumbled’ means grief and therefore complaint on account of the severity of the temptation. ‘Against Moses and against Aaron’ means God’s truth. ‘In the wilderness’ means a state of temptation. ‘And the children of Israel said to them’ means the thoughts arising in a troubled state of mind. ‘Would that we had died by the hand of Jehovah in the land of Egypt’ means that it would have been preferable for them to have been forsaken by the Lord when they were in the state involving molestations. ‘When we sat by a pot of flesh’ means a life according to their own pleasure, and such as they craved for. ‘Eating bread to the full!’ means that in that situation they enjoyed the good of lower pleasures, as much as they wished to have. ‘For you have brought us out’ means after they were delivered. ‘To this wilderness’ means a state involving temptations. ‘To kill all this congregation with hunger’ means that they were perishing owing to the lack of delight and of good.
* lit. Who will give? We should have died

sRef Ex@16 @2 S0′ 8403. ‘And all the assembly of the children of Israel grumbled’ means grief and [therefore] complaint on account of the severity of the temptation. This is clear from the meaning of ‘grumbling’ as grief caused by the bitterness of the temptation, and complaint, dealt with in 8351, ‘the assembly of the children of Israel’ being those who belong to the spiritual Church, as above in 8398. The subject here is a third temptation, which arises because there is a lack of delight and good. This temptation follows the previous one in the series, which arose because there was a lack of truth.

[2] People uninformed about human regeneration suppose that a person can be regenerated without temptation, and some that he has been regenerated after he has undergone a single temptation. But let it be known that no one can be regenerated without temptation, and that he suffers very many temptations, following one after another. The reason for this is that regeneration takes place to the end that the life of the old man may die and a new, heavenly life may be instilled. From this one may recognize that conflict is altogether inevitable; for the life of the old man stands its ground and refuses to be snuffed out, and the life of the new man cannot enter except where the life of the old has been snuffed out. From this it is evident that fierce conflict takes place between mutually hostile sides, since each is fighting for its life.

[3] Anyone thinking with enlightened reason can see and perceive from all this that a person cannot be regenerated without conflict, that is, without spiritual temptation, and also that a person is not regenerated by undergoing a single temptation, only by undergoing very many of them. For there are numerous kinds of evil that have formed the delight of the former life, that is, have constituted the old life. All those evils cannot be subdued on one occasion and all together. They cling stubbornly to the person, for they become deeply rooted in his forebears going back many centuries and are for that reason innate in him. They have also been made stronger since early childhood by the evils of his own doing. All these evils are diametrically opposed to the heavenly good that is to be instilled and that must constitute the new life.

sRef Ex@16 @2 S0′ 8404. ‘Against Moses and against Aaron’ means God’s truth. This is clear from the representation of ‘Moses’ as God’s truth going forth directly from the Lord, thus inward truth, and from the representation of ‘Aaron’ as truth going forth from the Lord in an indirect way, thus outward truth, both dealt with in 7009, 7089, 7382.

sRef Ex@16 @2 S0′ 8405. ‘In the wilderness’ means a state of temptation. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the wilderness’ as a state when temptations have to be undergone, dealt with in 6828, 8098.

sRef Ex@16 @3 S0′ 8406. ‘And the children of Israel said to them’ means the thoughts arising in a troubled state of mind. This is clear from the meaning of ‘saying’, when it applies to the kinds of things that affect the mind, as thoughts, as also in 3395, 7094, 7244, 7937. The fact that it was a troubled state of mind in which they arose is self-evident, since they occurred in temptation.

sRef Ex@16 @3 S0′ 8407. ‘Would that we had died by the hand of Jehovah in the land of Egypt’ means that it would have been preferable for them to have been forsaken by the Lord when they were in the state involving molestations. This is clear from the meaning of ‘would that!’ as it would have been better or preferable; from the meaning of ‘to have died by the hand of Jehovah’ as to have been forsaken by the Lord, for ‘to have died’ in the spiritual sense means to be immersed in evils and the falsities arising from them, and therefore in damnation, 5407, 6119, 7494, and the expression ‘dying by the hand of Jehovah’ means being forsaken by the Lord, because those who are forsaken by Him, that is, who forsake Him, plunge into evils and falsities arising from them, and so into damnation (it has been shown many times before that ‘Jehovah’ in the Word is the Lord); and from the meaning of ‘the land of Egypt’ as the state involving molestations, dealt with above in 8401. For what had been happening to those belonging to the spiritual Church, who are represented by ‘the children of Israel’, before they were delivered by the Lord – that they had been molested by those steeped in falsities arising from evil, who are represented by ‘Pharaoh’ and ‘the Egyptians’ – see 6854, 6914, 7474, 7828, 7932, 8018, 8099, 8159, 8321.

sRef Ezek@11 @7 S0′ sRef Ezek@11 @2 S0′ sRef Ex@16 @3 S0′ sRef Ezek@11 @3 S0′ 8408. ‘When we sat by a pot of flesh’ means a life according to their own pleasure, and such as they craved for. This is clear from the meaning of ‘a pot’ as a container of good, and in the contrary sense a container of evil, dealt with below; and from the meaning of ‘flesh’ as the heavenly proprium, thus good, and in the contrary sense as the proprium that is man’s own, thus evil, also dealt with below.* And since ‘flesh’ means the proprium, ‘sitting by a pot of flesh’ means a life according to one’s own pleasure, and such as one craves for; for that is the life of the proprium. The reason why ‘a pot’ means a container of good, and in the contrary sense a container of evil, is that ‘the flesh’ cooked in it means good and in the contrary sense evil. And having these meanings ‘a pot’ also means the bodily level or the natural level of the human mind, since these are containers of good or of evil. This being so, it is used in a general sense to mean a person, and in an even more general sense to mean a people or a city; and when ‘a pot’ is used to mean these, ‘flesh’ means the good or the evil that is in them, as in Ezekiel,

… the men who think iniquity and give wicked counsel in this city, saying, [The time] is not near; [the city] itself is the pot, we are the flesh. Therefore thus said the Lord Jehovih, Your slain whom you have placed in the midst of it,** they are the flesh, but it is the pot. Ezek. 11:2, 3, 7.

Here ‘the pot’ stands for the city or the people there, and ‘the flesh’ for evil, since ‘the slain’, who are called ‘the flesh’, are those among whom goodness and truth have been wiped out, 4503.

sRef Ezek@24 @4 S2′ sRef Ezek@24 @3 S2′ sRef Ezek@24 @6 S2′ sRef Ezek@24 @5 S2′ [2] In the same prophet,

Tell a parable against the house of rebellion, and say to them, Thus said the Lord Jehovih, Put on the pot, put it on, and also pour [water into it gather] the pieces into it – every good piece, the thigh and the shoulder. Fill it with the choice of the bones. The Lord Jehovih said, Woe to the city of blood,*** to the pot whose scum is in it, and whose scum has not gone out of it! Ezek. 24:30.

Here ‘the pot’ stands for the city or the people there, among whom there exists the evil that results when good is profaned. The good or flesh there is ‘the thigh and the shoulder’; the evil is ‘the scum’ coming from it, and good when profaned is the scum remaining, which also accounts for the city’s being called ‘the city of blood’.

sRef Jer@1 @12 S3′ sRef Jer@1 @13 S3′ sRef Jer@1 @14 S3′ [3] In Jeremiah,

Jehovah said to Jeremiah, What do you see? I said, A puffed out pot do I see, its face towards the north. Then Jehovah said, From the north evil will be opened over all the inhabitants of the land. Jer. 1:11-14.

‘A puffed-out pot’ stands for a people whom falsities have taken possession of, and ‘the north’ for the sensory and bodily levels of the human mind, from which evil pours out. The subject here is the end of the Church, when what belongs to the external and therefore to sensory and bodily levels, together with falsity and evil, has dominion; for the Lord’s Church moves in a series of stages from what is internal to what is external, at which point it breathes its last.

sRef Zech@14 @21 S4′ sRef Zech@14 @20 S4′ [4] In Zechariah,

On that day there will be on the horses’ bells, Holiness to Jehovah. And the pots in the house of Jehovah will be as the bowls before the altar. And every pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be holiness to Jehovah Zebaoth; and all offering sacrifice will come, and take from them, and cook in them. Zech. 14:20, 21.

The subject here is the salvation of faithful believers, faithful believers being ‘the pots’, which they are called because they receive good from the Lord; and because they receive that good every ‘pot’ is said to be ‘holiness to Jehovah’. ‘The bells of the horses, with Holiness on them’ are truths in agreement with good. Since ‘pots’ are recipients and containers of good, they like all the other vessels for the altar were made of bronze, Exod. 38:3; for ‘bronze’ means the good of the natural, 425, 1551.

sRef 2Ki@4 @38 S5′ sRef 2Ki@4 @39 S5′ sRef 2Ki@4 @40 S5′ sRef 2Ki@4 @41 S5′ [5] In addition to this ‘the pot’ may mean religious teachings because these hold the Church’s good and truth within them. Such teachings are meant by ‘the pot’ in which at Elisha’s command a soup was boiled for the sons of the prophets, described as follows in the second Book of Kings,

Elisha came again to Gilgal, when there was a famine in the land. When the sons of the prophets were sitting before him he said to his servant, Put on a great pot, and boil a soup for the sons of the prophets. One of them went out into the field to gather herbs and found a wild vine, and gathered from it wild gourds, and cut them up into the pot of soup. While they were eating of the soup they cried out, There is death in the pot, O man of God! But he said that they should bring flour, which he threw into the pot, and said, Pour out for the people and let them eat. Then there was not anything bad in the pot. 2 Kings 4:38-41.

It should be recognized that all Divine miracles have to do with things connected with the Lord’s kingdom and the Church, 7337, 8364, and that ‘Elisha’ represents the Word of the Lord, 2762, and ‘prophets’ teachings derived from it, 2534, 7269. From this one may see what thing connected with the Church was represented by this miracle, which was that if the Church’s good has been falsified it is made good again by means of truth from the Word. ‘A famine’ is a lack of cognitions or knowledge of truth and good; ‘the pot’ is religious teachings; ‘soup’ is the good of the Jewish Church’s outward religious observances; ‘gourds from a wild vine’ is falsification; and ‘flour’ is truth from the Word, 2177, used to make good again that which has been falsified, meant by ‘death in the pot’. The reason why ‘pots’ means containers of good is that they were included among the utensils in which food was prepared, and ‘food’, every kind of it, means such things as nourish the soul, that is, affections for good and truth, 681, 1480, 3114, 4792, 5147, 5293, 5340, 5342, 5576, 5410, 5915.
* The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary describes proprium as A distinctive characteristic; the essential nature, selfhood. It is a Latin word meaning ‘one’s own (thing)’. Swedenborg uses it in the specialized sense of ‘what is of the self.’
** i.e. the city
*** lit. bloods

sRef Ex@16 @3 S0′ sRef Isa@49 @26 S1′ 8409. As regards ‘flesh’ and its meaning the proprium in both the genuine and contrary senses, in the highest sense it is the Lord’s Divine proprium, which is His Divine Human, and so is the good of His love towards the entire human race. From this in the sense that relates to man ‘flesh’ means a proprium made alive by the Lord’s Proprium; that is, it is the Lord’s Proprium present with the person, and so is the good of love to Him. Regarding the meaning of ‘flesh’ in this sense, see 3813, 7850. But in the contrary sense ‘flesh’ is the proprium that is man’s own, thus the evil of self-love, and consequently the desires of that love, which are cravings, 999, 3813. The proprium that is man’s own is nothing but evil, see 210, 215, 694, 874-876, 987, 1023, 1044, 1047, 3812 (end), 5660, 5786. The fact that ‘flesh’ means the proprium that is man’s own, thus evil of every kind, is in addition clear from the following places: In Isaiah,

I will feed your oppressors with their flesh, and they will be drunk with their blood as with new wine. Isa. 49:26.

‘Feeding with flesh’ stands for filling with their own evil.

sRef Jer@17 @5 S2′ sRef Isa@9 @20 S2′ sRef Isa@31 @3 S2′ [2] In Jeremiah,

Cursed is the man (vir) who trusts in man (homo), and makes flesh his arm, but his heart departs from Jehovah. Jer. 17:5.

‘Making flesh his arm’ stands for trusting in power that is one’s own; therefore eating the flesh of one’s arm stands for trusting in self, Isa. 9:20. In Isaiah,

Egypt is man (homo) and not God, and his horses are flesh and not spirit. Isa. 31:3.

‘Horses of Egypt’ stands for factual knowledge belonging to a perverted understanding, 6125; ‘flesh’ stands for what is dead, and ‘spirit’ for what is living. This is why the Egyptians* are called great in flesh, Ezek. 16:26. The expression ‘what is dead’ is applied to evil, since evil leads to spiritual death, and ‘what is living’ is applied to good, since good leads to spiritual life.

sRef John@6 @63 S3′ sRef John@1 @13 S3′ sRef Matt@16 @17 S3′ sRef Gen@6 @3 S3′ sRef John@1 @12 S3′ sRef John@3 @6 S3′ [3] This explains why ‘flesh’ and ‘spirit’ are set in contrast to each other in the Word, as in John,

That which has been born of flesh is flesh, and that which has been born from the spirit is spirit. John 3:6.

In the same gospel,

It is the Spirit who bestows life, the flesh does not profit anything. The words which I speak to you, they are spirit and they are life. John 6:63.

In the Book of Genesis,

Jehovah said, My spirit will not reprove man forever, in that he is flesh. Gen. 6:3.

‘Flesh’ here stands for the proprium that is man’s own. Similarly in Matthew,

Jesus said, Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this, but My Father who is in heaven. Matt. 16:17.

And in John,

As many as received Him, to them He gave power to be sons of God, to those believing in His name, who were born, not of blood,** nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man (vir), but of God. John 1:12, 13.

‘The will of the flesh’ stands for the proprium, the will part, ‘the will of man’ for the proprium, the understanding part; and ‘sons of God’ stands for those who have been regenerated. And those undergoing regeneration all receive life from the Lord’s Proprium, which is the Lord’s Flesh and body and is Divine Goodness itself.

sRef Num@11 @4 S4′ sRef Num@11 @33 S4′ sRef Num@11 @16 S4′ sRef Num@11 @34 S4′ sRef Num@11 @18 S4′ sRef Num@11 @6 S4′ sRef Num@11 @20 S4′ [4] Since ‘flesh’ in the contrary sense means the proprium that is man’s own, and so means evil, it also means craving, for the life of the flesh, which belongs properly to the body, consists of nothing else than the desires of the senses, the delights of the bodily appetites, and cravings. The fact that ‘flesh’ means craving is clear from the following verses in Moses,

The rabble who were in the midst of the people had a strong craving, and so the children of Israel wept repeatedly and said, Who will feed us with flesh? But now our soul is dry; there is nothing at all except the man[na] for our eyes [to look] at. And Jehovah said to Moses, You shall say to the people, Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, in order that you may eat flesh; for you have wept in the ears of Jehovah, saying, Who will feed us with flesh, for it was better for us in Egypt? Jehovah will give you flesh to eat – for a whole month,*** until it comes out of your nose and is loathsome to you. The flesh was still between their teeth, before it could be swallowed when Jehovah’s anger flared up against the people, and Jehovah struck the people with an extremely great plague. So he called the name of that place The Craves of Craving, because there they buried the people having the craving. Num. 11:4, 6, 16, 18, 20, 33, 34.

From all this one may now see what ‘sitting by a pot of flesh in the land of Egypt’ means, namely a life according to their own pleasure and such as they craved for, which is the life of the proprium.
* lit. the children (or sons) of Egypt
** lit. bloods
*** lit. month of days

sRef Ex@16 @3 S0′ 8410. ‘Eating bread to the full!’ means that in that situation they enjoyed the good of lower pleasures, as much as they wished to have. This is clear from the meaning of ‘eating’ as making one’s own, dealt with in 3168, 3513 (end), 3596, 4745, and also as enjoyment, 7849; from the meaning of ‘bread’ as the good of heavenly life, and in the contrary sense the good of natural life separated from heavenly, thus the good of lower pleasures (in the spiritual sense ‘bread’ means the chief thing that nourishes the soul and maintains its spiritual life, that chief thing being the good of dove, as heaven’s life demonstrates, which consists wholly of that good. But in the contrary sense ‘bread’ is used to mean the chief thing that nourishes those in hell and sustains their life, that chief thing being the evil of self-love and love of the world, as hell’s life demonstrates, which consists wholly in that evil. To those in hell that evil is good, for to them nothing is more delightful or sweeter; and it is this that is meant here by the good of lower pleasures); and from the meaning of ‘to the full’ as, as much as they wished to have, since the will is what is filled with good if people are good, or with evil if they are evil.

sRef Ex@16 @3 S0′ 8411. ‘For you have brought us out’ means after they were delivered. This is clear from the meaning of ‘bringing out’, in this instance out of the land of Egypt, as delivering, delivering from the state involving molestations.

sRef Ex@16 @3 S0′ 8412. ‘To this wilderness’ means a state involving temptations. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the wilderness’ as a state when temptations have to be undergone, dealt with in 8098.

sRef Ex@16 @3 S0′ 8413. ‘To kill all this congregation with hunger’ means that they were perishing owing to the lack of delight and of good. This is clear from the meaning of ‘killing’ as depriving of life, at this point life made up of delight and good, for a person’s life consists in these, dealt with in 3607, 6767; from the meaning of ‘congregation’ as those belonging to the spiritual Church, dealt with in 7843; and from the meaning of ‘hunger’ or ‘famine’ as a lack of good, dealt with in 5893, at this point the good of lower pleasures, meant by ‘bread’ in 8410. For when that which nourishes spiritual life, or the life of the spirit, is taken away, hunger or famine occurs.

[2] A brief statement showing the nature of all this needs to be made. When the good of charity, which is to constitute a spiritual life, is to be installed, the delight belonging to lower pleasures, which has constituted a natural life, is taken away. And when this delight is taken away the person enters into temptation. The person thinks that if he is deprived of the delight which belongs to those pleasures he is deprived of all life; for the life of his natural has consisted in that delight or good as he calls it. But he does not know that when this delight in which his life has consisted is taken away the Lord instills spiritual delight and good instead; and this good is what is meant by ‘the manna’. The previous kind of good or delight is meant by ‘flesh and bread in the land of Egypt’, and the deprivation of it by ‘hunger’.

[3] But it should be thoroughly understood that a person undergoing regeneration is not deprived of the delight belonging to bodily and mental pleasures, for after regeneration he has full enjoyment of such delight, fuller than he had before, but in inverse proportion. Before regeneration the delight that belongs to lower pleasures was the all of that life; but after regeneration the good of charity becomes the all of life, and when it does so the delight belonging to lower pleasures serves as a means, as something embodying spiritual good and the happiness and bliss that go with it. When therefore order is to be inverted, the previous delight belonging to lower pleasures fades away and ceases to be anything, and a new delight from a spiritual origin is instilled instead.

sRef Ex@16 @5 S0′ sRef Ex@16 @4 S0′ 8414. Verses 4, 5 And Jehovah said to Moses, Behold, I am causing it to rain bread from heaven for you; and the people will go out and gather the thing of a day in its day,* in order that I may test them [to sea] whether they walk in My law or not. And it shall be on the sixth day, that they are to prepare what they have brought in; and it shall be double to what they shall gather day by day.

‘And Jehovah said to Moses’ means comfort from the Lord. ‘Behold, I am causing it to rain bread from heaven for you’ means that heavenly good will flow in. ‘And the people will go our means the consequent life. ‘And gather the thing of a day in its day’ means continually, in proportion to need. ‘In order that I may test them’ means that from this it will be discovered … ‘Whether they walk in My law or not’ means, whether they can lead a life of truth and good. ‘And it shall be on the sixth day’ means at the end of each state. ‘That they are to prepare what they have brought in’ means setting in order forms of good that have been assimilated. ‘And it shall be double to what they shall gather day by day’ means that they are to be joined together.
* i.e. a day’s portion every day

sRef Ex@16 @4 S0′ 8415. ‘And Jehovah said to Moses’ means comfort from the Lord. This is clear from what follows these words; for the things Jehovah said have to do with comfort after temptation. Regarding comfort after temptations, see 8367, 8370.

sRef Ex@16 @4 S0′ 8416. ‘Behold, I am causing it to rain bread from heaven for you’ means that heavenly good will flow in. This is clear from the meaning of ‘raining’ as a blessing, dealt with in 2445, the reason why ‘raining’ means a blessing being that as rain comes down from heaven or the sky and causes the land to be productive, so Divine Goodness and Truth come down from heaven to a person and cause him to be blessed, from which it is evident that ‘raining’ in the proximate sense means flowing in (for all good from the Divine flows in); and from the meaning of ‘bread’ as heavenly good, dealt with below.

sRef Ex@16 @4 S0′ 8417. ‘And the people will go out’ means the consequent life. This is clear from the meaning of ‘going’ as living or life, dealt with in 1293, 3335, 4882, 5493, 5605; and ‘going out’ here, that is, going to collect the manna, has a similar meaning. Regarding the meaning of ‘going’ as life, see also 8420.

sRef Ex@16 @4 S0′ 8418. ‘And gather the thing of a day in its day’ means continually, in proportion to need. This is clear from the meaning of ‘gathering’ as receiving, for when ‘raining’ means flowing in – that is to say, good from the Divine flowing in – ‘gathering’ means receiving, because the one activity goes with the other; from the meaning of ‘the thing’ as the object to which it refers, in this instance the bread or manna from heaven; and from the meaning of ‘a day in its day’ as continually, in proportion to need. Continually is meant because they received the manna daily (for the meaning of ‘daily’ is continually, see 2838); and in proportion to need is meant because they were to gather as much each day as they were going to need and no more, which for each person was an omen

sRef Ex@16 @4 S0′ 8419. ‘In order that I may test them’ means that from this it will be discovered … This is clear from the meaning of ‘testing’ here as discovering, for the words here are followed by ‘whether they walk in My law or not’.

sRef Ex@16 @4 S0′ 8420. ‘Whether they walk in My law or not’ means, whether they can lead a life of truth and good. This is clear from the meaning of ‘walking’ as living, dealt with in 519, 1794; and from the meaning of ‘law’ as the Word, dealt with in 2606, 3382, 6752. And since the Word is meant, so is Divine Truth, 7463, and thus also teachings about what is good and true, so that ‘walking in the law of Jehovah’ means leading a life of truth and good as teachings about them demand. Everyone knows that ‘walking in the law’ means living as the law demands, for the expression is part of everyday language. From this it may be seen that [the activity] ‘walking’ means living, and also that the actual word ‘walking’, like so many other words, carries the very meaning it possesses in the spiritual sense. This is attributable solely to the influx of the spiritual world into ideas composing thought, and then into words; for without that influx would anyone ever talk of walking instead of living – of walking in the law, in the statutes, in the commandments, or in the fear of God? The same applies to ‘going’, that it means living, referred to just above in 8417, and also to travelling, advancing, and sojourning. The reason why these words mean living is that the spiritual world is not one of spatial dimensions but of states of life instead, 2625, 2684, 2837, 3356, 3387, 4321, 4882, 5605, 7381.

sRef Ex@16 @5 S0′ 8421. ‘And it shall be on the sixth day’ means at the end of each state. This is clear from the meaning of ‘day’ is state, dealt with in 23, 487, 488, 493, 2788, 3462, 3785, 4850, 7680; and from the meaning of ‘the sixth’ as the end of a state. The reason why ‘the sixth day’ means the end of a state is that ‘seven days’ or ‘a week’ means a whole period or complete state, 2044, 3845, 6508, and therefore the day before the seventh, which is ‘the sixth’, means the end of that state, while the day after, which is ‘the eighth’, means the beginning of the same state, 2044, 8400.

sRef Ex@16 @5 S0′ 8422. ‘That they are to prepare what they have brought in’ means setting in order forms of good that have been assimilated. This is clear from the meaning of ‘preparing’, when it refers to forms of good that have been assimilated, as setting in order; and from the meaning of ‘what they have brought in’ when this refers to ‘the manna’, by which good is meant – as forms of good that have been assimilated. The gathering of the manna every day means the reception of good, and the eating of it means assimilation; therefore ‘preparing what they have brought in’ means setting in order all the good that has been assimilated. That setting in order is carried out by the Lord at the end of every state, which is meant by ‘the sixth day’; and it is followed by a joining together, which is meant by ‘the seventh day’.

sRef Ex@16 @5 S0′ 8423. ‘And it shall be double to what they shall gather day by day’ means that they are to be joined together. This is clear from the meaning of ‘being double’ as being joined together, the reason why being joined together is meant by ‘double’ being that ‘two’ means conjunction, dealt with in 1686, 3519, 5194; from the meaning of ‘gathering’ as receiving, as above in 8418; and from the meaning of ‘day by day’, or every single day, as continually, as also above in 8418. The reason why ‘two’ means conjunction is that there are two realities to which everything that exists is related. Those two are goodness and truth, or what amounts to the same thing, love and faith since intrinsically good is love and truth is faith. Therefore also a person has two entities composing his life, namely will and understanding. A person’s will has been fashioned to receive goodness or love, and his understanding to receive truth or faith. When the two are joined together it is called a marriage. For the two joined together resemble married partners, loving each other, conceiving and giving birth; and their offspring are called the fruit. From all these considerations one may now see why ‘two’ or ‘double’ means conjunction, for unless those two realities have been joined together nothing is ever born or produced. Let it be said in addition that those considerations prove plainly that faith without love or charity cannot produce any fruit; rather, fruit must be the product of both joined together.

8424. Verses 6-8 And Moses and Aaron said to all the children of Israel, At evening you will know that Jehovah has brought you out of the land of Egypt. And in the morning you will see the glory of Jehovah; He hears your grumblings against Jehovah, and what are we, that you grumble against us? And Moses said, Jehovah is giving you flesh to eat in the evening, and in the morning bread to the full; Jehovah hears your grumblings which you make against Him. What are we? Your grumblings are not against us, but against Jehovah.

‘And Moses and Aaron said to all the children of Israel’ means instructions given by God’s truth. ‘At evening you will know that Jehovah has brought you out of the land of Egypt’ means that at the end of a former state comes the revelation that they have been delivered. ‘And in the morning you will see the glory of Jehovah’ means that at the beginning of a new state the arrival of the Lord is going to take place. ‘He hears your grumblings’ means that there will be an end to complaints. ‘Against Jehovah, and what are we, that you grumble against us?’ means that they were made against the Divine, not against those who represented Him. ‘And Moses said’ means instructions. ‘Jehovah is giving you flesh to eat in the evening’ means that at the end of a state good will become their own through delight. ‘And in the morning bread to the full’ means that at the beginning of a new state they will have as much good as they can receive. ‘Jehovah hears your grumblings’ means that thus there will be an end to complaints. ‘Which you make against Him’ means that they were against the Divine. ‘What are we? Your grumblings are not against us’ means that they were not against those who represented the Divine. ‘But against Jehovah’ means that from now on they should watch themselves.

sRef Ex@16 @6 S0′ 8425. ‘And Moses and Aaron said to all the children of Israel’ means instructions given by God’s truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘saying’, when it refers to the things Jehovah commanded those belonging to the spiritual Church, as instructions, dealt with also in 7769, 7793, 7825, 8041; from the representation of ‘Moses and Aaron’ as God’s truth, ‘Moses’ inward truth and ‘Aaron’ outward truth, dealt with in 7009, 7089, 7382; and from the representation of ‘the children of Israel’ as those who belong to the spiritual church, dealt with in 6426, 6637, 6862, 6868, 7035, 7062, 7198, 7201, 7215, 7223.

sRef Ex@16 @6 S0′ 8426. ‘At evening you will know that Jehovah has brought you out of the land of Egypt’ means that at the end of a former state comes the revelation that they have been delivered. This is clear from the meaning of ‘at evening’ as the end of a former state, dealt with below; from the meaning of ‘knowing’ as being revealed, for what Jehovah causes a person to know is called revelation; and from the meaning of ‘bringing out’ as delivering, as often before, at this point from the molestations that are meant by ‘the land of Egypt’, 7278.

[2] The reason why ‘at evening’ means the end of a former state is that changes of state in the next life resemble the times of day in the world, that is to say, morning, midday, evening, and night or twilight, then morning again. It should be recognized that in the spiritual world changes of state are forever taking place, which all who are there pass through, the purpose of it all being that they may continue unceasingly to be made more perfect. For without changes of states, that is, without variations constantly following one another in sequence, those who are there cannot be made more perfect. The changes of states which follow one another in sequence, resembling the times of day and seasons of the year, are never exactly the same when they come round again, but are varied. The beginning of each state corresponds to morning on earth, and also in the Word is meant several times by ‘morning’. The end of each state however corresponds to evening, and is also called ‘evening’ several times in the Word. When it is morning they are in a state of love; when it is midday they are in a state of light or truth; but when it is evening they are in a state that is dim so far as truths are concerned and rather cool so far as good is concerned, since it is a state in which the delight belonging to natural love rules them. This delight is what is meant by ‘the selav’ which the people received in the evening, and good is what is meant by ‘the manna’ which they received every morning.

[3] All this goes to show what ‘the evening’ means – the end of the state of whatever the subject may be; consequently it may mean the end of a state of the Church. But see what has been shown already about the meaning of ‘the evening’:

In the next life there are changes of state, just as in the world there are changes of times and seasons, 5672, 5962, 6110.

‘Evening’ is the end of a former Church, and ‘morning’ the beginning of a new one, 2323, 7844; therefore ‘evening, and ‘morning’ mean the Coming or arrival of the Lord, 7844.

In heaven there is evening and twilight before morning, but no night; night occurs in hell, 6110.

sRef Ex@16 @7 S0′ 8427. ‘And in the morning you will see the glory of Jehovah’ means that at the beginning of a new state the arrival of the Lord is going to take place. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the morning’ as the beginning of a new state, dealt with immediately above in 8426; and from the meaning of ‘the glory of Jehovah’ as the presence and the arrival of the Lord. The reason why ‘the glory’ means the presence and the arrival of the Lord is that in the highest sense ‘glory’ is the Divine Truth which emanates from the Lord; and Divine Truth appears before angels’ eyes as the light and splendour from the Sun, which is the Lord. For the meaning of ‘the glory’ as Divine Truth emanating from the Lord, see 5922, 8267; for its meaning intelligence and wisdom that belong to Divine Truth, 4809; and its consequently meaning the internal sense of the Word, since that sense is Divine Truth in glory, 5922.

sRef Ex@24 @18 S2′ sRef Ex@40 @35 S2′ sRef Ex@40 @34 S2′ sRef Ex@24 @17 S2′ sRef Ex@24 @16 S2′ sRef Ex@24 @15 S2′ [2] It says that in the morning they are going to see the glory of Jehovah because sunrise and its accompanying light (which in heaven brings light to angels’ eyes, to both their outward and their inward sight) consequently the presence and arrival of the Lord (who is the Sun of heaven) corresponds to morning time on earth and is meant here by ‘the morning’. The light from the sun then, which is Divine Truth emanating from the Lord, and for that reason is the Lord, is ‘the glory’. From this it is evident that ‘the glory’ means the presence and arrival of the Lord. The fact that these are meant by ‘the glory’ is also evident from a number of places in the Word, such as in Moses,

The cloud covered the mountain, and the glory of Jehovah dwelt over Mount Sinai. And the cloud covered it six days. The sight of the glory of Jehovah was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain, before the eyes of the children of Israel. Exod. 24:15-18.

Plainly, the presence of Jehovah, that is, of the Lord, appearing as a cloud and as fire on the mountain, is here called ‘the glory of Jehovah’.

In the same author,

The cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of Jehovah filled the tabernacle. Nor could Moses enter the tent of meeting, because the cloud dwelt over it, and the glory of Jehovah filled the tabernacle. Exod. 40:34, 35.

Here also the Lord’s presence, appearing as a cloud, is called ‘the glory’.

sRef Rev@21 @11 S3′ sRef Num@14 @10 S3′ sRef Rev@21 @10 S3′ sRef Rev@15 @8 S3′ sRef Lev@9 @23 S3′ sRef Lev@9 @24 S3′ sRef 1Ki@8 @10 S3′ sRef 1Ki@8 @11 S3′ sRef Rev@21 @23 S3′ [3] In the same author,

Moses and Aaron entered the tent of meeting; and they came out and blessed the people. At that time the glory of Jehovah appeared to the whole people. Lev. 9:23, 24.

In the same author,

The glory of Jehovah appeared in the tent of meeting before all the children of Israel. Num. 14:10-12.

Likewise in Num. 16:19, 42. In the first Book of Kings,

The cloud filled the house of Jehovah, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud; for the glory of Jehovah filled the house of Jehovah. 1 Kings 8:10, 11.

In John,

The temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from His power, so that no one was able to enter the temple. Rev. 15:8.

In the same book,

He showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. The city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shed light in it; the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. Rev. 21:10, 11, 23.

Here ‘the glory of God’ plainly stands for light from the Lord, which is Divine Truth emanating from Him, and so is the presence of the Lord since the Lord is present in Truth coming from Him.

sRef Ex@33 @19 S4′ sRef Matt@24 @3 S4′ sRef Matt@24 @30 S4′ sRef Ex@33 @18 S4′ sRef Ex@33 @20 S4′ sRef Ex@33 @22 S4′ sRef Ex@33 @23 S4′ sRef Ex@33 @21 S4′ [4] The fact that ‘the glory of Jehovah’ means His presence is clear yet again in Moses,

Moses said to Jehovah, Show me, I beg You, Your glory He said to him, I will cause all My goodness to pass by before you. And when My glory passes by, it will happen, that I will put you in a cleft of the rock and cover My hand over you until I have passed by. But when I take My hand away you will see My back parts, and My face will not be seen. Exod. 33:18-end.

Here also ‘Jehovah’s glory’ plainly stands for His presence. In Matthew,

The disciples said to Jesus, Tell us, what will be the sign of Your coming? Jesus said, Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear, and they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and glory. Matt. 24:3, 30.

The subject here is the final period of the former Church and the first of the new. ‘The Son of Man’ is God’s truth emanating from the Lord; ‘the clouds of heaven’ are the Word in the sense of the letter, and ‘power and glory’ are the internal sense, thus Divine Truth which will be visible then. ‘The Lord’s coming’ stands for the acceptance of God’s truth by those belonging to the new Church and the rejection of it by those belonging to the old Church, see 4060 (end).

sRef Isa@40 @5 S5′ sRef Isa@40 @3 S5′ sRef Num@14 @21 S5′ sRef John@12 @41 S5′ [5] The fact that the Lord in respect of Divine Truth is meant by ‘the glory’ is clear in Isaiah,

The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way of Jehovah. The glory of Jehovah will be revealed, and all flesh will see it together. Isa. 40:3, 5.

This refers to the Lord, who is ‘the glory’. In John,

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us; and we saw His glory. glory as of the Only Begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14

In the same gospel,

These things Isaiah said when he saw His glory and spoke of Him. John 12:41.

Here ‘glory’ stands for the Lord. Similarly in Moses,

I am the Living One, and the whole earth will be filled with the glory of Jehovah. Num. 14:21.

Here ‘the glory of Jehovah’ stands for the Coming or arrival of the Lord, and for enlightenment by Divine Truth emanating from Him.

sRef Luke@24 @26 S6′ sRef Mark@8 @38 S6′ sRef Isa@42 @8 S6′ [6] ‘Glory’ stands for the Lord’s Divinity in Isaiah,

I am Jehovah, that is My name; and My glory I will not give to another. Isa. 42:8.

In Mark,

… when the Son of Man comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels. Mark 8:38.

In Luke,

Ought [not] Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory? Luke 24:26.

Since ‘the glory of Jehovah’ means the Lord in respect of Divine Truth, ‘the glory’ also means the Divine Wisdom and Intelligence that belong to Divine Truth emanating from the Lord. Wisdom and intelligence from God are meant by the glory in Ezekiel 1:28; 8:4; 9:3; 10:4, 18, 19; 11:22, 23; and there it is represented by ‘a rainbow’ such as one sees in a cloud.

sRef Ex@16 @7 S0′ 8428. ‘He hears your grumblings’ means that there will be an end to complaints. This is clear from the meaning of ‘hearing’, when said of Jehovah, as having pity and bringing help, thus that there will be an end to complaints; and from the meaning of ‘grumblings’ as grief caused by the bitterness of temptation, and consequent complaints, dealt with in 8351.

sRef Ex@16 @7 S0′ 8429. ‘Against Jehovah, and what are we, that you grumble against us?’ means that they were made against the Divine, not against those who represented Him. This is clear from the consideration that ‘Jehovah’ is the Divine, at this point the Divine Truth, which Moses and Aaron represented; and from the meaning of ‘grumbling’ as complaint, as immediately above in 8428. And since it says that they grumbled against Jehovah, and not against Moses and Aaron, the meaning is that the complaints were made against Divine Truth, which Moses and Aaron represented, 8425, and not against those who represented it. This also explains why the next verse says, What are we? your grumblings are not against us. For a person who represents the Divine is nothing in comparison with Him. Furthermore those grumbling against a representative person, when he speaks on behalf of the Divine, are not grumbling against the person but against the Divine.

sRef Ex@16 @8 S0′ 8430. ‘And Moses said’ means instructions, as above in 8425.

sRef Ex@16 @8 S0′ 8431. Jehovah is giving you flesh to eat in the evening means that at the end of a state good will become their own through delight. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the evening’ as the end of a state, dealt with above in 8426; and from the meaning of ‘flesh’ as a proprium made alive, or a heavenly proprium which a person possesses from the Lord, thus the good of love, dealt with in 148, 149, 780, 3813, 7850, 8409 (beginning), though here the good of faith is meant since it was the flesh of a bird that flies, called ‘selav’. For ‘a bird that flies’ means that which is spiritual or belongs to faith, so that ‘its flesh’ means the good of faith, at this point the natural man’s good, which is delight. It should be recognized that ‘manna’ means the internal or spiritual man’s good, while ‘selav’ means the external or natural man’s good, which is called delight. That they have these meanings is made clear by the fact that the manna was given in the morning but the selav in the evening; and what was given in the morning means spiritual good, and what was given in the evening means natural good, or delight. For a morning state in the next life occurs when spiritual good, the internal man’s good, is in evidence and natural or the external man’s good is obscured, and an evening state occurs when natural good, the external man’s good, is in evidence and spiritual or the internal man’s good is obscured. These states also alternate with each other in this way, to the end that a person may be made more perfect, and especially to the end that good may become the person’s own, which is accomplished in an evening state through delight.

sRef Ex@16 @8 S0′ 8432. ‘And in the morning bread to the full’ means that at the beginning of a new state they will have as much good as they can receive. This is clear from the meaning of ‘bread’ as the good of love, dealt with in 2165, 2177, 3464, 3478, 3735, 3813, 4211, 4217, 4735, 4976, 5915, 8410, but at this point the good of truth, which is the spiritual Church’s good since ‘bread’ is used to mean the manna, dealt with below; from the meaning of ‘the morning’ as the beginning of a new state, as above in 8427; and from the meaning of ‘to the full’ as, as much as they might wish to have, dealt with above in 8410, at this point as much as they could receive, since good that flows in from the Lord is not imparted in the measure that people wish but in the measure that they can receive it. But they are allowed as much evil as they wish to have.

sRef Ex@16 @8 S0′ 8433. ‘Jehovah hears your grumblings’ means that thus there will be an end to complaints. This is clear from what has been stated above in 8428, where similar words occur.

sRef Ex@16 @8 S0′ 8434. ‘Which you make against Him’ means that they were against the Divine; and ‘What are we? Your grumblings are not against us’ means that they were not against those who represented the Divine. This too is clear from what has been stated above, in 8429, where similar words occur.

sRef Ex@16 @8 S0′ 8435. ‘But against Jehovah’ means that from now on they should watch themselves. This is clear from the fact that this reiterates the declaration that their grumblings are ‘against Jehovah’, that is, against the Divine. So it is that the words used here mean that from now on they should watch themselves, to avoid such complaints in temptations.

sRef Ex@16 @11 S0′ sRef Ex@16 @10 S0′ sRef Ex@16 @9 S0′ sRef Ex@16 @12 S0′ 8436. Verses 9-12 And Moses said to Aaron, Say to all the assembly of the children of Israel, Come near before Jehovah, for He has heard your grumblings. And so it was, as Aaron was speaking to all the assembly of the children of Israel, that they looked back towards the wilderness, and behold, the glory of Jehovah was seen in the cloud. And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying, I have heard the grumblings of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, At evening* you will eat flesh, and in the morning you will be filled with bread; and you will know that I am Jehovah your God.

‘And Moses said to Aaron’ means an influx of God’s truth that goes forth directly from the Lord, expressing itself through God’s truth that goes forth in an indirect way. ‘Say to all the assembly of the children of Israel’ means instruction. ‘Come near before Jehovah’ means a state in which that influx is accepted and applied. ‘For He has heard your grumblings’ means in order that He may bring help because of their grief in temptation. ‘And so it was, as Aaron was speaking to all the assembly of Israel’ means instruction received from the Divine through influx. ‘That they looked back towards the wilderness’ means recollecting the state of temptation in which they had been. ‘And behold, the glory of Jehovah was seen in the cloud’ means the Lord’s presence within truth adjusted to their discernment. ‘And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying’ means truth that goes forth from the Lord’s Divine and holds the Lord’s presence within it. ‘I have heard the grumblings of the children of Israel’ means that there will be an end to the complaints which the temptation gives rise to. ‘Speak to them, saying’ means instructions conveyed through influx. ‘At evening you will eat flesh’ means that at the end of a state good will become their own through delight. ‘And in the morning you will be filled with bread’ means that at the beginning of a new state they will have as much good as they can receive. ‘And you will know that I am Jehovah’ means in order that they may know that the Lord is the only God.
* lit. between the evenings

sRef Ex@16 @9 S0′ 8437. ‘And Moses said to Aaron’ means an influx of God’s truth that goes forth directly from the Lord, expressing itself through God’s truth that goes forth in an indirect way. This is clear from the meaning of ‘saying’ – when it refers to God’s truth which goes forth directly from the Lord (represented by ‘Moses’) expressing itself through God’s truth which goes forth in an indirect way (represented by ‘Aaron’) – as influx. For the additional meaning of ‘laying’ is flowing in, see 5743, 6152, 6291, 7291, 7381, 8221, 8262; and for the representation of ‘Moses’ as truth going forth directly from the Lord, and ‘Aaron’ as that doing so in an indirect way, 7009, 7010, 7089, 7382. What truth going forth directly from the Lord is, and what truth doing so in an indirect way is, see 7055, 7056, 7058.

sRef Ex@16 @9 S0′ 8438. ‘Say to all the assembly of the children of Israel’ means instruction. This is clear from the meaning of ‘saying’ – when done by God’s truth addressing members of the Church regarding things to be carried out by Divine command – as instruction, as also in 7186, 7267, 7304, 7380, 7517, 8127; and from the meaning of ‘the assembly of the children of Israel’ as those who belong to the spiritual church, dealt with in 7843.

sRef Ex@16 @9 S0′ 8439. ‘Come near before Jehovah’ means a state in which that influx is accepted and applied. This is clear from the meaning of ‘coming near before Jehovah’ as influx, dealt with in 8159, and therefore also acceptance, acceptance being the response to influx since the two answer to each other. To the extent that a person accepts influx from God he is said to come near before Him; nothing other than this is meant in the spiritual sense by ‘coming near before Jehovah’. What enables a person to draw near Him is faith and love; and since both faith and love come from Jehovah, that is, from the Lord, drawing near Him is also the acceptance of goodness and truth flowing in from Him. The reason why applying is also meant is that receiving it has no value unless it is applied, that is to say, put to a useful purpose. For what flows in from God passes first into perception, which belongs to a person’s understanding; from there it passes into his will, and after that into action, that is, into a good deed, which is the useful purpose, and in this reaches its goal. When this passage of goodness and truth from the Lord is complete, the goodness and truth become the person’s own, for now they flow all the way through to the final level of order, that is, of the natural order, which all Divine influx heads towards. The person who has the Divine flowing all the way through him may be called a road of heaven. From all this it may now be seen that ‘coming near before Jehovah’ means a state in which that influx is accepted and put to use, here a state in which the good meant by ‘manna’ and the delight meant by ‘selav’ are accepted.

sRef Ex@16 @9 S0′ 8440. ‘For He has heard your grumblings’ means in order that He may bring help because of their grief in temptation. This is clear from the meaning of ‘hearing’, when said of Jehovah, as having pity and bringing help, and therefore also as bringing to an end, dealt with above in 8428; and from the meaning of ‘grumblings’ as grief in temptation, and complaint, dealt with in 8351, 8428, 8433.

sRef Ex@16 @10 S0′ 8441. ‘And so it was, as Aaron was speaking to all the assembly of Israel’ means instruction received from the Divine through influx. This is clear from the meaning of ‘speaking’ – when done by the Divine through truth going forth in an indirect way from the Lord, which is represented by ‘Aaron’ – as instruction received through influx, for when the Divine flows into a person He enters the truth that the person has been taught (for the meaning of ‘speaking’ as influx, see 2951, 5481, 5797, 7270, 8128, and as instruction, 7226, 7241); and from the representation of ‘Aaron’ as truth going forth from the Lord in an indirect way, dealt with in 7009, 7382.

sRef Ex@16 @10 S0′ 8442. ‘That they looked back towards the wilderness’ means recollecting the state of temptation in which they had been. This is clear from the meaning of ‘looking back to something’ as thinking and reflecting, dealt with in 7341, and therefore also recollecting since one who thinks and reflects is recollecting; and from the meaning of ‘the wilderness’ as a state when temptations have to be undergone, dealt with in 6828, 8098.

sRef Ex@16 @10 S0′ 8443. ‘And behold, the glory of Jehovah was seen in the cloud’ means the Lord’s presence within truth adjusted to their discernment. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the glory of Jehovah’ as the presence and arrival of the Lord, dealt with above in 8427; and from the meaning of ‘the cloud’ as the literal sense of the Word, dealt with in the Preface to Genesis 18, and in 4391, 5922, 6343 (end), 6752, 8106, thus truth adjusted to people’s discernment, for the Word in the letter is that kind of truth. But ‘the glory that is in the cloud’ is Divine Truth, which is not adjusted in that way to people’s discernment, because it is above illusions and appearances of the senses; so it is also the internal sense of the Word, Preface to Genesis 18, and 5922, 8427. The reason why ‘the glory’ is the internal sense of the Word is that this sense deals with the Church and the Lord’s kingdom, and the highest sense with the Lord Himself, which sense also contains Divine Truth in its absolute form.

[2] There are many levels of God’s truth, not just one. The first level of God’s truth, and also the second, is that truth going forth directly from the Lord; it is above angels’ understanding. But the third level of God’s truth is that truth as it exists in the inmost or third heaven; its nature is such that man can grasp nothing whatever of it. The fourth level of God’s truth is as it exists in the middle or second heaven; this is not intelligible to man either. But the fifth level of God’s truth is that truth as it exists in the lowest or first heaven; this may to some small extent be perceived by man, but only if he is enlightened, though even then it is such that human language is incapable of expressing a large part of it. When it passes into ideas it generates the ability to perceive it and also to believe that it is indeed the truth. But the sixth level of God’s truth is as it exists with man; it is adjusted to his discernment, thus it is the sense of the letter of the Word. This sense or kind of truth is represented by ‘the cloud’ and inner truths by ‘the glory in the cloud’.

[3] This explains why Jehovah, that is, the Lord, appeared so many times to Moses and the children of Israel in a cloud, as at Exod. 24:15, 16; 40:34, 35; 1 Kings 8:10, 11; Matt. 24:30; and elsewhere. When the Lord is making His appearance He does so through Divine Truth; indeed what is appearing is Divine Truth. The meaning of ‘a cloud’ as truth adjusted to human discernment has its origin in representatives in the next life. There the speech of angels in the higher heavens manifests itself to those below as light and also as the brilliance of light; but the speech of angels belonging to a lower heaven manifests itself as a bright cloud, the shape of which varies, and the thick or thin texture of which is determined by the character of truths. From all this it becomes clear that ‘the glory of Jehovah was seen in the cloud’ means the Lord’s presence within truth adjusted to their discernment.

sRef Ex@16 @11 S0′ 8444. ‘And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying’ means truth that goes forth from the Lord’s Divine and holds the Lord’s presence within it. This is clear from the meaning of ‘speaking’ as influx and instruction, as above in 8441; and from the representation of ‘Moses’ as truth that goes forth from the Lord’s Divine, dealt with in 6752, 6771, 6827, 7010, 7014, 7089, 7382. The Lord’s presence within truth from the Divine is meant by Jehovah’s speaking to Moses from the cloud in which the glory of Jehovah was seen; for ‘the glory of Jehovah’ is the Lord’s presence within truth that goes forth from Him, 8427.

sRef Ex@16 @12 S0′ 8445. ‘I have heard the grumblings of the children of Israel’ means that there will be an end to the complaints which the temptation gives rise to, as above in 8428, 8433, where similar words occur.

sRef Ex@16 @12 S0′ 8446. ‘Speak to them, saying’ means instructions conveyed through influx. This is clear from the meaning of ‘speaking’ in the historical narratives of the Word as instructing, as in 8041, and of ‘saying’ as influx, 6291, 7291, 7381, 8221, 8262.

sRef Ex@16 @12 S0′ 8447. ‘At evening you will eat flesh’ means that at the end of a state good will become their own through delight – see above in 8431, where similar words occur.

sRef Ex@16 @12 S0′ 8448. ‘And in the morning you will be filled with bread’ means that at the beginning of a new state they will have as much good as they can receive, as also above, in 8432.

sRef Ex@16 @12 S0′ 8449. ‘And you will know that I am Jehovah’ means in order that they may know that the Lord is the only God. This is clear from what has been stated and shown already in 7401, 7444, 7544, 7598, 7636.

sRef Ex@16 @15 S0′ sRef Ex@16 @14 S0′ sRef Ex@16 @13 S0′ 8450. Verses 13-15 And it happened in the evening, that the selav* came up and covered the camp; and in the morning there was a deposit of dew around the camp. And the deposit of dew went up, and behold, on the face of the wilderness a tiny round thing, tiny like hoar frost on the earth. And the children of Israel saw it and said, a man to his brother, Man** is it? because they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, It is the bread which Jehovah has given you to eat.

‘And it happened in the evening’ means the end of a state. ‘That the selav came up’ means natural delight through which good was imparted. ‘And covered the camp’ means that it filled a person’s natural. ‘And in the morning’ means the beginning of a new state. ‘There was a deposit of dew around the camp’ means the truth of peace attaching itself. ‘And the deposit of dew went up’ means an introduction of truth. ‘And behold, on the face of the wilderness’ means a new will. ‘A tiny round thing’ means the good of truth in its initial form. ‘Tiny like hoar frost on the earth’ means truth in the form of good – uninterrupted and flowing. ‘And the children of Israel saw it’ means discernment. ‘And said, a man to his brother’ means bewilderment. ‘Man is it? because they did not know what it was’ means owing to its not being known. ‘And Moses said to them’ means instructions given through the truth from God. ‘It is the bread which Jehovah has given you to eat’ means that this is the good that will become their own and constitute their life, in the highest sense that this is the Lord within you.
* Sw. retains the Hebrew word, which he takes to mean some kind of bird of the sea; see 8452.
** i.e. the Hebrew interrogative word What? from which the word manna is derived; see 8462.

sRef Ex@16 @13 S0′ 8451. ‘And it happened in the evening’ means the end of a state. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the evening’ as the end of a state, dealt with above in 8426.

sRef Ex@16 @13 S0′ 8452. ‘That the selav came up’ means natural delight through which good was imparted. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the selav’ as natural delight. The reason why ‘the selav’ means natural delight is that it was a bird of the sea, and ‘a bird of the sea’ means the natural, while its ‘flesh’ which was desired means delight, dealt with above in 8431. And the reason why it means that good was imparted through it is that it was given in the evening. For when in the next life the state corresponding to evening arrives good spirits, and also angels, are taken back to the state of natural affections that moved them when they were in the world. Consequently they are taken back to the delights belonging to their natural man. This is done in order that good may thereby be imparted, that is, in order that they may thereby be made more perfect, 8426. All people are made more perfect by the implantation of faith and charity in their external or natural man. Unless they are implanted there no goodness or truth can flow in from the internal or spiritual man, that is, from the Lord by way of the internal man, because they are not accepted. And if that goodness and truth are not accepted the influx of them is halted and perishes, indeed the internal man is also closed. From this it is evident that the natural must be perfectly adjusted to act as a receiver; this is done through delights, for forms of good as they exist with the natural man are called delights, since they are feelings.

sRef Num@11 @34 S2′ sRef Num@11 @5 S2′ sRef Num@11 @33 S2′ sRef Num@11 @31 S2′ sRef Num@11 @32 S2′ sRef Num@11 @6 S2′ sRef Num@11 @31 S2′ [2] ‘The selav’ means natural delight because, as has been stated, it was a bird of the sea; for it is said in Num. 11:31 to have been cut off from the sea – A wind set out from Jehovah, and it cut off* the selav from the sea, and sent them down over the camp – and a bird of the sea and its flesh mean natural delight, and in the contrary sense the delight that goes with craving. The latter kind of delight is meant by ‘selav’ in the following verses in Moses,

The rabble who were in the midst of the people had a strong craving, and wished to have flesh. They said, Now our soul is dry; and there is nothing at all except the man[na] for our eyes [to look] at. A wind set out from Jehovah, and it cut off the selav from the sea, and sent them down over the camp. The people rose up that whole day, and the whole night, and the whole of the next day, and gathered the selav. Those who gathered least gathered ten homers, which they spread out for themselves all around the camp. The flesh was still between their teeth, before it could be swallowed, when Jehovah’s anger flared up against the people, and Jehovah struck the people with an extremely great plague. So he called the name of that place The Graves of Craving, because there they buried the people having the craving. Num. 11:4-6, 31-34.

Here ‘the selav’ stands for the delight that goes with craving. It is called the delight that goes with craving when the delight belonging to any bodily or worldly love becomes dominant and takes possession of the whole person, to such an extent that the good and truth of faith residing with him are annihilated. This is the kind of delight that is being described, for the people were struck by a great plague. But natural delight, meant in the present chapter by ‘the selav’ which was given to the people in the evening, is not the delight that goes with craving; it is the natural or external man’s delight complementing the spiritual or internal man’s good. This delight holds spiritual good within itself; but the delight that goes with craving, spoken of in Numbers 11, holds hellish evil within itself. Both are called delight, and also both are experienced as delight. But the difference between them could not be greater, for the one holds heaven within itself and the other holds hell. Also the one becomes heaven to the person when he sheds his external, and the other becomes hell to him.

[3] They are like two women who both seem to outward appearances to have lovely faces and to lead beautiful lives, but inwardly are completely different from each other That is to say, the one is chaste and wholesome, the other immoral and revolting, so that the spirit of the one is with angels, the spirit of the other with devils. But their true natures are not visible except when the external is rolled away and the internal is revealed. These things have been said in order that people may know what natural delight is that has good within it, meant by ‘the selav’ in the present chapter, and what natural delight is that has evil within it, meant by ‘the selav’ in Numbers 11.
* The Hebrew may be read in two different ways – cut off or brought up. English versions of Exodus prefer the second of these.

sRef Ex@16 @13 S0′ 8453. ‘And covered the camp’ means that it filled a person’s natural. This is clear from the meaning of ‘covering’ as filling; and from the meaning of ‘the camp’ as forms of good and truths, dealt with in 8193, 8196, at this point the natural, which is the container of them. For the natural contains forms of good and truths, and without them it is a natural with no life in it; nor do the goodness and truth of the external or natural man have any real existence without the natural. So it is that since ‘the camp’ means truths and forms of good it also means the natural in which they reside.

sRef Ex@16 @13 S0′ 8454. ‘And in the morning’ means the beginning of a new state. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the morning’ as the beginning of a new state, dealt with in 8427.

sRef Ex@16 @13 S0′ 8455. ‘There was a deposit of dew around the camp’ means the truth of peace attaching itself. This is clear from the meaning of ‘dew’ as the truth of peace, dealt with in 3579. The reason why ‘dew’ means the truth of peace is that it comes down in the morning from heaven or the sky and on grassland looks like a light shower of rain. But also it holds a certain sweetness or pleasantness, more so than a shower of rain does, and causes grass and crops in the field to rejoice. And ‘morning’ is a state of peace, 2780. For what peace is, see 2780, 3696, 4681, 5662, where it is said to be like the dawn on earth, which fills people’s minds with overall delight. And the truth of peace is like the light of dawn. This truth which is being called the truth of peace is the Divine Truth itself present in heaven and coming from the Lord; it influences all there without exception, and causes heaven to be heaven. Peace holds within itself trust in the Lord, the trust that He governs all things and provides all things, and that He leads towards an end that is good. When a person believes these things about Him he is at peace, since he fears nothing and no anxiety about things to come disturbs him. How far a person attains this state depends on how far he attains love to the Lord.

[2] Everything bad, especially trust in self, takes away the state of peace. People think that someone bad is at peace when he is calm and cheerful because everything is going right for him. But this is not peace, it is the calm and delight belonging to evil desires that merely simulates the state of peace. This delight, being the opposite of the delight belonging to peace, turns to undelight in the next life, for that is what lies hidden within it. In the next life outward things are rolled away one layer after another through to inmost things at the centre. Peace is at the centre of all delight, even of the undelight of a person governed by good. So far therefore as he casts off what is external the state of peace is revealed and he is filled with bliss, blessedness, and happiness, the source of which is the Lord Himself.

[3] Regarding the state of peace that exists in heaven one may say it is such that no words can describe it; nor can any idea of a worldly origin enable it to enter a person’s thought and perception, as long as he is in the world. It transcends all his awareness then. Calmness of mind, contentment, and cheerfulness because things are going right are nothing in comparison, for these affect only the outward parts of the mind. But peace affects the inmost parts of all; it affects the primary substances, and the beginnings of substances as they exist with a person, and from these it spreads and pours itself out into parts formed from those substances and beginnings of them. It brings a lovely feeling into them; it brings bliss and happiness to the parts where his ideas form, consequently to his ends in life, and so makes his mind into a heaven.

sRef Ex@16 @14 S0′ 8456. ‘And the deposit of dew went up’ means an introduction of truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘going up’ here as being dispersed and so not appearing to view; and from the meaning of ‘dew’ as the truth of peace, dealt with immediately above. The deposit of dew onto the manna means an introduction of truth, for the truth of peace is Divine Truth that goes forth from the Lord and is present in heaven. This being inmost, it introduces itself into the truth underneath it and gives it life, as dew usually enlivens grass or crops on which it settles in the morning. When the truth underneath is given life by it the truth of peace goes up; that is, it no longer seems to be there; only the truth that has received life from it is to be seen. This is how the truth of faith is born; for no truth contained in doctrine or in the Word becomes a truth residing with a person until it has received life from the Divine. It receives that life through the introduction of truth that goes forth from the Lord, called the truth of peace. This truth is not the truth of faith; rather it is the life or soul of the truth of faith. It organizes into a heavenly form everything within the truth which is called the truth of faith, and also after that the truths themselves in relation to each other. All this goes to show what happens when the introduction of truth by means of the truth of peace takes place in a person. It should in addition be recognized that the lower or more external levels of a person who is being regenerated receive life from higher or more internal levels in order, so that the truth of faith receives life from the truth of peace, and this from the Lord Himself. Life from the Lord is introduced into those who are being regenerated in consecutive stages coming down from Him, that is, down through the inmost part and so through interior levels into exterior. With those who have been regenerated therefore the way lies open right through to the Lord, but with those who have not been regenerated it is closed.

sRef Ex@16 @14 S0′ 8457. ‘And behold, on the face of the wilderness’ means a new will. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the wilderness’ here as a new will that comes through the introduction of truth. The new will received by a member of the spiritual Church is formed from good by means of truth; it manifests itself with him as conscience, a conscience consisting of truth, as is clear from what has been shown already about the regeneration of the spiritual man. Strictly speaking ‘a wilderness’ means that which is uncultivated and uninhabited, and in the spiritual sense means a place where there is no goodness or truth, thus also where there is no life, 1927, 2708, 3900. When therefore it says that the dew appeared on the face of the wilderness, with the manna underneath the dew, ‘the wilderness’ means a new will.

sRef Ex@16 @14 S0′ 8458. ‘A tiny round thing’ means the good of truth in its initial form. This is clear from the meaning of ‘tiny’ as a word having reference to truth; and from the meaning of ’round’ as a word having reference to good. Consequently ‘a tiny round thing’ has reference to the good of truth. The expression ‘good of truth’ describes good as it exists with a member of the spiritual Church; such good not only begins in truth, but also is in essence truth. One sees it as truth, but one feels it as good; that being so, as truth it forms the understanding part of the mind, and as good it forms the new will part. For a person’s understanding is distinguishable from the will in that the understanding presents things to itself in mental pictures, in order that it may see them as in light, whereas the will forms an affection for them, in order that it may simultaneously feel them as a delight, thus as good, doing so in conformity with the kind of picture that has been formed.

The use of ‘tiny’ to refer to truth and of ’round’ to refer to good may be traced back to the visual presentations of truth and good that are made in the next life. When any truth or good is presented visually, which is done in the next life in a way clearly perceptible to the eyes of spirits and angels, truth is presented in a definite quantity, thus as something large or something tiny, depending on the nature of the truth. Truth is in addition presented as something angular-shaped; it is also presented as something white. But good there is presented in an indefinite quantity, thus not as something large or something tiny. Good is also presented as something rounded, as a shape that is uninterrupted, and in respect of colour as something blue, yellow, or red. Good and truth assume these different appearances when they are presented visually because each is different as to its essential nature; when the nature of either is made visual, they express and represent themselves in a natural form such as has just been described. So it is that things which in the world resemble such forms mean either truth or good; for nothing exists in creation that is unrelated, so far as its essential nature is concerned, either to good or to truth.

sRef Dan@7 @9 S0′ sRef Matt@28 @3 S0′ sRef Ps@51 @7 S0′ sRef Rev@1 @13 S0′ sRef Matt@28 @2 S0′ sRef Mark@9 @3 S0′ sRef Ex@16 @14 S0′ sRef Lam@4 @7 S0′ sRef Rev@1 @14 S0′ 8459. ‘Tiny like hoar frost on the earth’ means truth in the form of good – uninterrupted and flowing. This is clear from the meaning of ‘tiny’ as a word having reference to truth, dealt with immediately above; and from the meaning of ‘like hoar frost’ as in the form of good. The good of truth, the good existing with a member of the spiritual Church, 8458, is compared to hoar frost because it forms more of a continuous sheet than snow. Consisting of tiny white flakes snow has reference to truth, while hoar frost, being the nearest thing to it, has reference to truth that has become good, which is the good of truth. The use of ‘snow’ to refer to truth is evident from the following places: In Mark,

When Jesus was transfigured His clothes became glistening, intensely white like snow. Mark 9:3.

In Matthew,

The angel* at the tomb – his appearance was like lightning, and his garment white as snow. Matt. 28:2, 3.

In John,

I saw in the midst of the seven lampstands one like the Son of Man. His head and hair were white, like white wool, like snow. Rev. 1:13, 14.

In Jeremiah, The Nazirites were brighter than snow, they were whiter than milk. Lam. 4:7.

In David,

You will purge me with hyssop and I shall become clean, You will wash me and I shall be made whiter than snow. Ps. 51:7.

In Daniel,

I saw, until thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days was seated. His clothing was white as snow, and the hair of His head like pure wool. Dan. 7:9.

In these places ‘snow’ has reference to truth because of its whiteness, with which clothes are compared because ‘clothes’ in the spiritual sense are truths, 4545, 4763, 5248, 5319, 5954, 6914, 6917, 6918. From all this it is evident what ‘hoar frost’ means, namely truth in the form of good. Truth in the form of good is said to be uninterrupted and flowing because truth is a form that holds good, and good is the life and so to speak soul within that form.
* Reading Angelus (The angel), which Sw. possibly has in his rough draft, for Angelis (To the angels)

sRef Ex@16 @15 S0′ 8460. ‘And the children of Israel saw it’ means discernment. This is clear from the meaning of ‘seeing’ as understanding and discerning, dealt with in 2150, 2325, 2807, 3764, 4403-4421, 4567, 4723, 5400.

sRef Ex@16 @15 S0′ 8461. ‘And said, a man to his brother’ means bewilderment. This is clear from the consideration that ‘saying’ includes what comes after it, at this point their bewilderment when they saw the manna, meant by ‘they said, Man is it? because they did not know what it was’; and from the meaning of ‘a man to his brother’, as mutually, dealt with in 4725.

sRef Ex@16 @15 S0′ 8462. ‘Man is it? because they did not know what it was’ means owing to its not being known, that is to say, bewilderment owing to this. This is clear from the fact that Man in the original language is the interrogative word What? and so serves to indicate that something is not known. The reason therefore why the bread given to the children of Israel in the wilderness was called manna is that this bread means the good of charity which the truth of faith gives birth to, and this good remains completely unknown to a person before regeneration; not even the existence of it is known. Before regeneration a person supposes that apart from the delights born of self-love and love of the world, which he calls good, no good can possibly exist which does not arise in that way or is not by nature such. If anyone were to speak at that time of interior good which nobody can come to learn about and consequently know of as long as the delights belonging to self-love and love of the world reign, and to say that this good is what governs good spirits and angels, people would be bewildered as by something completely unknown or impossible. But in actual fact that good is immensely superior to the delights belonging to self-love and love of the world. For people ruled by self-love and love of the world do not know what charity and faith are, or what doing good without thought of reward is, or that one who does it has heaven within himself; and they think that if they are deprived of the delights belonging to those kinds of love no joy or life is left, when in fact that is just when heavenly joy begins, see 8037. From all this one may now see why the word ‘man[na]’ was used on account of its meaning What is it?

sRef Ex@16 @15 S0′ 8463. ‘And Moses said to them’ means instructions given through the truth from God. This is clear from the meaning of ‘saying’ as instructing, as in 7769, 7793, 7825, 8041; and from the representation of ‘Moses’ as the truth belonging to the law from God, dealt with in 6771, 6827.

sRef John@6 @51 S0′ sRef John@6 @58 S0′ sRef Ex@16 @15 S0′ sRef Ex@16 @31 S0′ sRef Num@11 @8 S0′ sRef Ps@78 @24 S0′ sRef Num@11 @7 S0′ sRef Rev@2 @17 S0′ sRef John@6 @50 S0′ sRef John@6 @49 S0′ sRef Ps@78 @23 S0′ 8464. ‘It is the bread which Jehovah has given you to eat’ means that this is the good that will become their own and constitute their life, in the highest sense that this is the Lord within you. This is clear from the meaning of ‘bread’ as celestial and spiritual good, and in the highest sense as the Lord, dealt with in 276, 680, 2165, 2177, 3464, 3478, 3735, 3813, 4211, 4217, 4735, 4976, 5915, at this point spiritual good, that is, good as it exists with a member of the spiritual Church, which is the good of truth, dealt with just above in 8458. Since that bread was the manna it follows that this good is meant by ‘the manna’. This is also made plain by the description of it in verse 31 of the present chapter, which says ‘it was like coriander seed, white, and its taste was like that of a cake with honey’, as well as from the description of it in Numbers 11,

The man[na] was like coriander seed, and its appearance like the appearance of bdellium. They ground it in mills or beat it in mortars, and cooked it in a pan, and made cakes out of it; and its taste was like the taste of fresh oil.* Num. 11:7, 8.

From the details given here it is evident that ‘manna’ in the spiritual sense means the good of truth, that is, good as it exists with the spiritual Church. They also explain why it is called ‘the grain of the heavens’ in David,

He commanded the skies from above, and threw open the doors of the heavens. And He caused man[na] to rain down onto them, and gave them the grain of the heavens. Ps. 78:23, 24.

‘The grain’ is the good of truth, see 5295, 5410. ‘Manna’ again stands for the good of truth, which is given to those who undergo temptations and overcome in them, in John,

He who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white pebble. Rev. 2:17.

The fact that ‘manna’ in the highest sense is the Lord within us is clear from actual words used by the Lord in John,

Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that anyone eating of it may not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever. John 6:49-51, 58.

From these words it is clearly evident that ‘the manna’ in the highest sense means the Lord. The reason why is that ‘manna’ is the good of truth; but all good comes from the Lord, so that the Lord is within good and is Himself that good.

As regards that good, that this will become their own and constitute their life, this is meant by ‘eating’, 3168, 3513, 3596, 4745; for good which comes from the Lord brings the life of heaven to a person, and from then on nourishes and sustains it.
* lit. the taste of the juice of oil

sRef Ex@16 @17 S0′ sRef Ex@16 @16 S0′ sRef Ex@16 @18 S0′ 8465. Verses 16-18 This is the thing* which Jehovah has commanded: Gather from it, each according to the mouth of his eating, an omer a head, [according to] the number of [your] souls; take it, each for whoever is in his tent. And the children of Israel did so, and gathered it, [each] collecting it for a large number or for a few. And they measured it with an omer, and no large number had more than enough and no few had less; they gathered, each according to the mouth of his eating.

‘This is the thing which Jehovah has commanded’ means a command regarding it received from the Divine. ‘Gather from it, each according to the mouth of his eating’ means receiving and making it their own, each in accordance with his own ability. ‘An omer a head’ means the amount for each individual. ‘The number of your souls’ means the amount for all in a community. ‘Take it, each for whoever is in his tent’ means sharing with them, and therefore a common good. ‘And the children of Israel did so’ means putting into effect. ‘And gathered it, [each] collecting it for a large number or for a few’ means receiving according to the capacity of each community. ‘And they measured it with an omer’ means the capacity to receive good. ‘And no large number had more than enough and no few had less’ means that the proportion was right for each in particular and in general. ‘They gathered, each according to the mouth of his eating’ means receiving, each according to his own ability.
* or word

sRef Ex@16 @16 S0′ 8466. ‘This is the thing which Jehovah has commanded’ means a command regarding it received from the Divine. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the thing’ as the matter under consideration; and from the meaning of ‘commanding’, when done by Jehovah, as a command.

sRef Ex@16 @16 S0′ 8467. ‘Gather from it, each according to the mouth of his eating’ means receiving and making it their own, each in accordance with his own ability. This is clear from the meaning of ‘gathering’ – when said in regard to the good of truth, which is meant by ‘the manna’ – as receiving; and from the meaning of ‘each according to the mouth of his eating’ as making their own, each in accordance with his own ability. For when ‘according to the mouth of one’s eating’ refers to food it means in accordance with what is requisite and necessary to nourish [the body]; but when the expression refers to the good of truth it means in accordance with the ability to receive and make one’s own, since ‘eating’ in the spiritual sense means making a thing one’s own, 3168, 3513 (end), 3596, 4745.

sRef Ex@16 @16 S0′ sRef Hos@3 @2 S0′ 8468. ‘An omer a head’ means the amount for each individual. This is clear from the meaning of ‘an omer’ as the sufficient amount, dealt with below; and from the meaning of ‘a head’ as for each person. The reason why ‘an omer’ means the sufficient amount is that it was the tenth part of an ephah, as is evident from the final verse of the present chapter; and ‘ten’ means what is complete, 3107, so that ‘a tenth part’ means the sufficient amount, at this point for each individual, meant by ‘a head’. ‘An omer’ is mentioned in the present chapter alone; the term used elsewhere is ‘a homer’, which was a measure that held ten ephahs, and therefore meant what was complete, as in Hosea,

I acquired an adulterous woman for fifteen [shekels] of silver, and a homer of barley and half a homer of barley. Hosea 3:2.

Here ‘an adulterous woman’ is used to mean the house of Israel, in the spiritual sense the Church there. Her being acquired for the full price is meant by ‘fifteen [shekels] of silver’ and ‘a homer of barley’ – ‘fifteen [shekels] of silver’ having reference to truth and ‘a homer of barley’ to good.

sRef Ezek@45 @13 S2′ sRef Ezek@45 @14 S2′ sRef Ezek@45 @10 S2′ sRef Ezek@45 @11 S2′ [2] In Ezekiel,

You shall have just balances, and a just ephah, and a just bath. The ephah and the bath shall be of one measure, so that a tenth of a homer is offered for a bath, and a tenth of a homer for an ephah; your measure shall be after the homer. This is the offering which you shall offer: A sixth of an ephah from a homer of wheat, … from the barley. And the fixed portion of oil, the bath for oil, shall be a tenth of a bath from a cor, which is ten baths to the homer; for ten baths area homer. Ezek. 45:10, 11, 13, 14.

This refers to a new earth OF land and new temple, meaning the Lord’s spiritual kingdom. Anyone may see that there will be no homer, ephah, bath, or cor there, and no wheat, barley, or oil either. From this it is clear that these objects mean the kinds of things that belong to that spiritual kingdom, which things, it is evident, are spiritual realities, that is, they are connected with either the good of charity or the truth of faith. ‘Homer’ has reference to good because it is a measure of wheat or barley, and so does ‘ephah’; but ‘bath’ has reference to truth because it is a measure of wine. Yet being also a measure of oil, by which the good of love is meant, it says that a bath shall be the same part of a homer as an ephah is, which means in the spiritual sense that everything there will have a connection with good, and also that truth there will be good. It will also exist in full measure, for ‘a homer’ means what is complete.

sRef Isa@5 @10 S3′ sRef Lev@27 @16 S3′ sRef Isa@5 @9 S3′ [3] In Isaiah,

Many houses will be a ruination, large and beautiful ones, so that there is no inhabitant; for ten acres of vineyard will yield but one bath, and the sowing of a homer will yield an ephah. Isa. 5:9, 10.

Here ‘ten acres’ stands for complete and also for much, and so does ‘a homer’; but ‘a bath’ and ‘an ephah’ stand for little. For when ‘ten’ means much, ‘a tenth part’ means little. In Moses,

If a man sanctifies to Jehovah part of a field of his possession, your valuation shall be according to its sowing; the sowing of a homer of barley [shall be valued] at fifty shekels of silver. Lev. 27:16.

Here ‘the sowing of a homer’ and also ‘fifty shekels’ stand for the full or complete valuation. Since ‘a homer’ means what is complete, ten homers means at Num. 11:32 what is in excess and superfluous.

sRef Ex@16 @16 S0′ 8469. ‘The number of your souls’ means the amount for all in a community, that is to say, the amount of the good of truth meant by ‘the manna’. This is clear from the meaning of ‘according to the number of souls’ as the amount sufficient for all in a community. For when ‘an omer a head’ means the amount sufficient for each individual, ‘according to the number of souls’ means the amount for all in a community. The subject here is good as it exists with those who belong to the Lord’s spiritual kingdom, the good which is meant by ‘the manna’ and which will be given in an amount sufficient for each person and sufficient for a community. For each household among the children of Israel represented one community in heaven, 7836, 7891, 7996, 7997.

The situation with the communities in heaven is that heaven is made up of countless communities that are distinct and separate from one another. All in each community share a common good, which is distinct from the good of other communities. Also each member of a community possesses a particular kind of good, distinct from the good any other in the community possesses. The different kinds of good that members of a community possess, which are distinct and so various but nevertheless compatible, compose a form called a heavenly form. Heaven as a whole is made of such forms. They are called forms when they are thought of as combinations of good, but communities when they are thought of as combinations of persons. These things were represented by the divisions of the children of Israel into tribes, families, and households.

sRef Ex@16 @16 S0′ 8470. ‘Take it, each for whoever is in his tent’ means sharing with them, and therefore a common good. This is clear from the meaning of ‘tent’ as a community in respect of good. ‘Tent’ here is similar in meaning to house, for during their wanderings they lived in tents. The command that each should take for whoever was in his tent means sharing with them, and so also therefore a common good. Since all this has to do with the situation that comes about among communities in heaven, as stated immediately above in 8469, something further will be stated about it, in order that people may know what to understand by sharing with others in a community, and by a common good resulting from this – the things meant by the command that each should take for whoever was in his tent.

[2] Each member of a community in heaven shares his good with all in the community, and all there share theirs with each member. From this arises the good held in common by all, called a common good. This good links up with the common good in other communities, and from this arises an even more common good, and finally a most common. This kind of sharing goes on in heaven; and it makes them all a single whole. They are exactly like a person’s organs and members, which – though various and dissimilar – nevertheless present themselves as a single whole by communicating with one another in similar ways. Love alone, which is spiritual togetherness, makes possible the linking of those varieties of good. The overall power forming and arranging into order every single one is the Divine Good of Divine Love emanating from the Lord.

sRef Ex@16 @17 S0′ 8471. ‘And the children of Israel did so’ means putting into effect. This is clear without explanation.

sRef Ex@16 @17 S0′ 8472. ‘And gathered it, [each] collecting it for a large number or for a few’ means receiving according to the capacity of each community. This is clear from the meaning of ‘gathering’ as receiving, as above in 8467; and from the meaning of ‘[each] collecting for a large number or for a few’ as according to the capacity of each community. The nature of all this has to be deduced from the things that take place in communities in heaven. Manna is heavenly food, heavenly food is goodness and truth, and goodness and truth in heaven are the Lord since they come from Him. From all this it becomes clear that these stipulations regarding the manna describe the kinds of things that occur in the communities mentioned. They describe how Divine Good which emanates from the Lord is shared with all in heaven, with all in particular and in general, but everywhere according to the capacity to receive it, for there are those who can receive only little and there are those who can receive much. Those who can receive only little are on the borders of heaven, whereas those who can receive much are in the inner parts there. Each person’s capacity to receive is determined by the nature and amount of good he acquired in the world. Differences in that power are what are meant by ‘a large number’ and ‘a few’.

sRef Ex@16 @18 S0′ 8473. ‘And they measured it with an omer’ means the capacity to receive good. This is clear from the meaning of ‘an omer’ as the sufficient amount, dealt with above in 8468, and so capacity as well.

sRef Ex@16 @18 S0′ 8474. ‘And no large number had more than enough and no few had less’ means that the proportion was right for each in particular and in general. This is clear from the meaning of ‘not having more than enough’ and also ‘not having less’ as using the right amount; and from the meaning of ‘large number’ and ‘few’ as differences in capacity, dealt with above in 8472 (end), at this point according to each one’s capacity in particular and in general.

sRef Ex@16 @18 S0′ 8475. ‘They gathered, each according to the mouth of his eating’ means receiving, each according to his own ability. This is clear from what has been stated above in 8467, where the same words occur.

8476. Verses 19, 20 And Moses said to them, Let no one leave any of it* until the morning. And they did not hear** Moses, and some did leave part of it*** until the morning;, and it bred worms and became putrid. And Moses was incensed with them.

‘And Moses said to them’ means an admonition. ‘Let no one leave any of it until the morning’ means that they must not be anxious to acquire it of themselves. ‘And they did not hear Moses’ means lack of faith and consequently lack of obedience. ‘And some did leave part of it until the morning’ means the abuse of God’s goodness, in that they wished to obtain it of themselves. ‘And it bred worms’ means that it was consequently something foul. ‘And became putrid’ means consequently something hellish. ‘And Moses was incensed with them’ means that therefore they were averse to God’s truth.
* lit. Let not anyone make a residue from it
** lit. hear towards
*** lit. and men (vir) made a residue out of it

sRef Ex@16 @19 S0′ 8477. ‘And Moses said to them’ means an admonition. This is clear from the meaning of ‘saying’, which includes what comes after it, in this instance an admonition that they should not leave any of it till the morning, for ‘saying’ may also mean admonishing, see 7090, 8178

sRef Matt@6 @30 S0′ sRef Matt@6 @29 S0′ sRef Matt@6 @31 S0′ sRef Matt@6 @28 S0′ sRef Matt@6 @27 S0′ sRef Matt@6 @33 S0′ sRef Matt@6 @32 S0′ sRef Ex@16 @19 S0′ sRef Matt@6 @25 S0′ sRef Matt@6 @26 S0′ sRef Matt@6 @34 S0′ 8478. ‘Let no one leave any of it until the morning’ means that they must not be anxious to acquire it of themselves. This is clear from the fact that the manna was given every morning and that worms bred in what was left over, meaning that the Lord provides people’s requirements every day and that for this reason they ought not to be anxious to acquire them of themselves. The same thing is meant by daily bread in the Lord’s Prayer and also by the Lord’s words in Matthew,

Do not be anxious for your soul, what you are going to eat or what you are going to drink, nor for your body, what you are going to put on. Why be anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they do not toil, nor do they spin. Do not therefore be anxious, so that you say, What shall we eat? or What shall we drink? or What shall we wear? For all these things the gentiles seek. Does not your heavenly Father know that you have need of all these things? Seek first the kingdom of God* and its righteousness, then all these things will be added to you. Do not therefore be anxious about the morrow; for the morrow will take care of the things that belong to it. Matt. 6:25-end.

Similar words occur in Luke 12:11, 12, 22-31.

[2] The present verse and the one that follows refer in the internal sense to concern for the morrow, a concern which was not only forbidden but also condemned. The forbiddance of it is meant by their being told not to leave any of the manna till the morning, and the condemnation of it is meant by worms breeding in any they did leave and its becoming putrid. Anyone who does not view the matter from anywhere beyond the sense of the letter may think that all concern for the morrow is to be avoided, which being so, people should then await their requirements every day from heaven. But a person who views it from a position deeper than the literal meaning, that is, who views it from the internal sense, may recognize what concern for the morrow is used to mean – not concern to obtain food and clothing for oneself, and also resources for the future; for it is not contrary to order to make provision for oneself and one’s dependents. But people are concerned about the morrow when they are not content with their lot, do not trust in God but in themselves, and have solely worldly and earthly things in view, not heavenly ones. These people are ruled completely by anxiety over the future, and by the desire to possess all things and exercise control over all other people. That desire is kindled and grows greater and greater, till at length it is beyond all measure. They grieve if they do not realize the objects of their desires, and they are distressed at the loss of them. Nor can they find consolation, for in times of loss they are angry with the Divine. They reject Him together with all belief, and curse themselves. This is what those concerned for the morrow are like.

[3] Those who trust in the Divine are altogether different. Though concerned about the morrow, yet are they unconcerned, in that they are not anxious, let alone worried, when they give thought to the morrow. They remain even-tempered whether or not they realize desires, and they do not grieve over loss; they are content with their lot. If they become wealthy they do not become infatuated with wealth; if they are promoted to important positions they do not consider themselves worthier than others. If they become poor they are not made miserable either; if lowly in status they do not feel downcast. They know that for those who trust in the Divine all things are moving towards an everlasting state of happiness, and that no matter what happens at any time to them, it contributes to that state.

[4] It should be recognized that Divine providence is overall, that is, it is present within the smallest details of all, and that people in the stream of providence are being carried along constantly towards happier things, whatever appearance the means may present. Those in the stream of providence are people who trust in the Divine and ascribe everything to Him. But those not in the stream of providence are people who trust in themselves alone and attribute everything to themselves; theirs is a contrary outlook, for they take providence away from the Divine and claim it as their own. It should be recognized also that to the extent that anyone is in the stream of providence he is in a state of peace; and to the extent that anyone is in a state of peace by virtue of the good of faith, he is in Divine providence. These alone know and believe that the Lord’s Divine providence resides within every single thing, indeed within the smallest details of all, as has also been shown in 1919 (end), 4329, 5122 (end), 5894 (end), 6058, 6481-6486, 6490, 7004, 7007, as well as that Divine providence has what is eternal in view, 6491.

[5] Those with the contrary outlook are scarcely willing to allow any mention of providence. Instead they put every single thing down to prudence; and what they do not put down to prudence they put down to fortune or to chance. Some put it down to fate, which they do not ascribe to the Divine but to natural forces. They call those people simple who do not attribute all things to themselves or to natural forces. From all this one may again see what those people are like who are concerned for the morrow, and what those are like who are not concerned for the morrow.
* The Latin means the heavens but the Greek means God, which Sw. has in most other places where he quotes this verse.

8479. ‘And they did not hear Moses’ means lack of faith and consequently lack of obedience. This is clear from the meaning of ‘hearing’ as perceiving, possessing faith, and obeying, dealt with in 5017, 7216, 8361.

sRef Matt@6 @29 S0′ 8480. ‘And some did leave part of it until the morning’ means the abuse of God’s goodness, in that they wished to obtain it of themselves. This is clear from the meaning of ‘leaving it until the morning’ as being anxious to acquire good of themselves, dealt with above in 8478, which is therefore the abuse of God’s goodness. It is called an abuse when something of a like nature to outward appearances arises, yet springs from a contrary origin. Good arises from a contrary origin when it springs from man, not from the Lord. For the Lord is absolute Good and therefore the source of all good. Good that originates in Him has the Divine within it, and so is good right through to its inmost or prime being. But good that originates in man is not good, because in himself man is nothing but evil. Consequently good originating in him is primarily and in essence evil, though to outward appearance it may look like good. These things are like flowers portrayed in a picture compared to flowers that grow in the garden. The latter flowers are beautiful through to their inmost parts, for the more they open out the more beautiful they become. But flowers portrayed in a picture are beautiful merely in outward appearance; for inwardly they are nothing other than clay and a mass of particles of earth lying in disorder within it. This is also what the Lord teaches when He says,

Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of the lilies of the field. Matt. 6:29.

[2] So it is with good that originates in man and good that originates in the Lord. Man cannot know that those kinds of good are so greatly different from each other because he judges by external appearances. But angels have a clear perception of where man’s good originates and what it is therefore like. The angels with a person are present and so to speak dwelling in good originating in the Lord. They are unable to be present in good originating in man; they get as far away from it as they can, since inmostly it is evil. For good originating in the Lord has heaven within it; that good images the form of heaven, concealing in itself inmostly the Lord Himself. For in all good that comes from the Lord there is a likeness of Him and therefore a likeness of heaven. But in all good that comes from man there is a likeness of man; and since man in himself is nothing but evil it is a likeness of hell. This is how greatly different good originating in the Lord is from good originating in man.

Good originating in the Lord exists with those who love the Lord above all things and their neighbour as themselves; but good originating in man exists with those who love themselves above all things and despise their neighbour in comparison with themselves. The latter are also those who are concerned for the morrow because they trust in themselves, whereas the former are those who are unconcerned for the morrow because they trust in the Lord, a matter dealt with above in 8478. Those who trust in the Lord are constantly receiving good from Him; for whatever happens to them, whether it seems to be advantageous or not advantageous, is nevertheless good, for it serves as a means contributing to their eternal happiness. But those who trust in themselves are constantly bringing evil on themselves, for whatever happens to them, even if it seems to be advantageous and fortunate, is nevertheless bad, and consequently acts as a means contributing to their eternal unhappiness. These are the things that are meant when it says that they were to leave none of the manna till the morning, and that any they did leave bred worms and putrified.

sRef Deut@28 @39 S0′ sRef Mark@9 @44 S0′ sRef Mark@9 @46 S0′ sRef Mark@9 @48 S0′ sRef Isa@66 @24 S1′ sRef Isa@66 @23 S1′ sRef Isa@66 @22 S1′ 8481. ‘And it bred worms’ means that it was consequently something foul. This is clear from the meaning of ‘breeding worms’ as producing something foul; for worms are born from what is foul and putrid. Falsity arising from evil, present in good originating in the proprium or self, is compared to a worm because they are of a similar nature to each other; for falsity gnaws away and so torments. There are two entities constituting hell, just as there are two constituting heaven. The two constituting heaven are goodness and truth, and the two constituting hell are evil and falsity. Consequently the two in heaven are what make the happiness there, and the two in hell are what cause the torment there. The torment in hell caused by falsity is compared to a worm, and the torment caused by evil there is compared to fire. This is why it says in Isaiah,

As the new heavens and the new earth which I am about to make will stand before Me, so will your seed and your name stand. At length it will happen from month to month, and from sabbath to sabbath, that they will stand before Me. They will go forth from there and will see the dead bodies of the men transgressing against Me For their worm will not die, and their fire will not be quenched. And they will be loathsome to all flesh. Isa. 66:22-24.

Similar words were used by the Lord, in Mark,

Where their worm will not die, and the fire will not be quenched. Mark 9:44, 46, 48.

This refers to Gehenna or hell. The foulness of falsity is compared to a worm also in Moses,

You will plant and dress vineyards, but not drink wine nor gather [the fruit]; for the worm will eat it. Deut. 28:39.

‘Wine’ stands for truth springing from good, and in the contrary sense for falsity arising from evil, 6377.

8482. ‘And became putrid’ means consequently something hellish. This is clear from the meaning of ‘putrifying’ as something foul and hellish. ‘Putrifying’ here is used in reference to evil and ‘worm’ to falsity, for when good becomes evil it is as when flesh or when bread putrifies. The falsity arising from that evil is like the worms produced there by what is putrid.

8483. ‘[And] Moses was incensed with them’ means that [therefore] they were averse to God’s truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘being incensed’ or being angry – when said of Moses, who represents God’s truth – as aversion to it, dealt with in 5034, 5798. The appearance is that the Lord is averse or turns away, but in reality it is man who turns away, 5798. The Word many times attributes to Jehovah anger and wrath, even fury, against people, when in fact Jehovah radiates pure love and pure mercy, and no anger whatever, towards a person. That way of speaking about Him in the Word is due to appearances; for when people are opposed to the Divine and as a result shut off from themselves the flow of love and mercy, they plunge themselves into the misery of punishment and into hell. This seems like lack of pity and like vengeance on the part of the Divine because of the evil they have done; but in fact there is nothing of the sort present in the Divine, only in evil itself. But see what has been shown already about these matters in 1857, 2447, 6071, 6832, 6991, 6997, 7533, 7632, 7643, 7679, 7710, 7877, 7926, 8197, 8214, 8223, 8226-8228, 8282. From all this it is evident that ‘Moses was incensed with them’ means that they were averse to God’s truth.

8484. Verses 21-24 And they gathered it morning by morning, each according to the mouth of his eating; and the sun grew hot, and it melted. And so it was, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one; and all the princes of the assembly came and told Moses. And he said to them, This is what Jehovah has spoken: [A day of] rest, a holy sabbath to Jehovah shall tomorrow be. Bake what you will bake, and boil what you will boil; and all that is left over put aside for yourselves to keep until the morning. And they put it aside till the morning, as Moses commanded; and it did not become putrid, and there was no worm in it.

‘And they gathered it morning by morning’ means the reception of good from the Lord unceasingly. ‘Each according to the mouth of his eating’ means each according to his capacity to make it his own. ‘And the sun grew hot, and it melted’ means its disappearance gradually as craving increased. ‘And so it was, that on the sixth day’ means at the end of each state. ‘They gathered twice as much’ means the joining together resulting from the reception of good. ‘Two omers for each one’ means the power present then. ‘And all the princes of the assembly came and told Moses’ means reflection on the basis of primary truths. ‘And he said to them’ means instruction. ‘This is what Jehovah has spoken’ means influx from the Divine. ‘[A day of] rest’ means a state of peace when there is no temptation. ‘A holy sabbath to Jehovah shall tomorrow be’ means the joining together of goodness and truth into eternity. ‘Bake what you will bake’ means preparing good to be joined. ‘And boil what you will boil’ means preparing truth to be joined. ‘And all that is left over put aside for yourselves to keep until the morning’ means the enjoyment of all good and truth then as if from what was their own. ‘And they put it aside till the morning’ means the enjoyment to come. ‘As Moses commanded’ means in accordance with instruction received from God’s truth. ‘And it did not become putrid, and there was no worm in it’ means that there was nothing foul within it, because in that way they acted from the Divine in making it their own.

sRef Ex@16 @21 S0′ 8485. ‘And they gathered it morning by morning’ means the reception of good from the Lord unceasingly. This is clear from the meaning of ‘gathering’ – that is to say, the manna – as the reception of good, as above in 8467, 8472; and from the meaning of ‘morning by morning’, or every morning, as unceasingly. For ‘morning by morning’ implies every morrow, and ‘the morrow’ means what is eternal, 3998, thus also perpetually and unceasingly.

sRef Ex@16 @21 S0′ 8486. ‘Each according to the mouth of his eating’ means each according to his capacity to make it his own. This is clear from what has been stated above in 8467, where similar words occur.

sRef Ex@16 @21 S0′ 8487. ‘And the sun grew hot, and it melted’ means its disappearance gradually as craving increased. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the sun growing hot’ as craving that is increasing, dealt with below; and from the meaning of ‘melting’ as disappearing. The reason why ‘the sun grew hot’ means craving that was increasing is that ‘the sun’ in a good sense means heavenly love. It means this because the Lord is the Sun in the next life, the heat which comes from it being the good of love, and the light the truth of faith. (For more about that Sun – that it is the Lord and that heavenly love comes from it – see 1053, 1521, 1529-1531, 2120, 2441, 2495, 3636, 3643, 4060, 4321 (end), 4696, 5084, 5047, 5377, 7078, 7083, 7171, 7173, 7270.) Therefore ‘the sun’ in the contrary sense means self-love and love of the world, and the heat from the sun or its ‘growing hot’ in that sense means craving.

[2] The nature of the occurrence described here – that the good of truth, meant by ‘the manna’, disappeared gradually as craving increased, meant by its melting when the sun grew hot – must be explained briefly. The good of truth or spiritual good is indeed imparted to a member of the spiritual Church undergoing regeneration; but that good kills off every delight belonging to self-love and love of the world that has constituted his life previously, since they are contrary to each other. This being so, pure good of truth cannot remain for long with that person, but is modified by the Lord by means of the delights belonging to the two loves constituting his life previously. For if that good were not modified in this way it would hold no delight for him and so would be loathsome. This is what heavenly good is like initially with those undergoing regeneration. To the extent therefore that the delights of self-love and love of the world rise up, the good of heavenly love disappears, since, as has been stated, they are contrary to that good. So the reverse also occurs.

[3] This explains why in heaven there are changes of states, to which changes of times and seasons in the world correspond, 8426, and why such changes return those who are there to the delights that go with natural pleasures. For without such change of states the good of heavenly love would become so to speak dry and worthless. It is different when it is modified by natural delights, at once or in stages. This is why at first, when the children of Israel were given the man[na] every morning they were also given the selav in the evening; for ‘the selav’ means natural delight, and also the delight that goes with craving, 8452.

sRef Num@11 @4 S4′ sRef Num@11 @6 S4′ sRef Num@21 @5 S4′ sRef Deut@8 @3 S4′ [4] But it should be recognized that the cravings to which those in heaven return when their evening comes are not cravings that are contrary to heavenly good, but ones that are to some extent in accord with it. For there are the delights of conferring benefits rather lavishly and getting some glory out of doing so, delights however which hold goodwill and the desire to serve others. Then there are the delights of opulence in home decor and personal dress, and very many other delights like these. Such delights are not ones that destroy the good of heavenly love, though they do nevertheless eclipse it. But eventually – depending on the degree the person’s regeneration reaches – they become the lowest levels of heavenly good. At this point they are no longer spoken of as cravings but as delights. The fact that the good of heavenly love unless modified by such delights becomes so to speak dry, and after that is loathed as being so to speak worthless, is meant by the reaction of the children of Israel who, when they were no longer given the selav, called the manna dry food and worthless food. Their doing so is referred to in Moses as follows,

The rabble who were in the midst [of the people] had a strong craving, and so the children of Israel also wept repeatedly and said, Who will feed us with flesh? But now our soul is dry; there is nothing at all except the man[na] for our eyes [to look] at. Num. 11:4, 6.

In the same author,

The people spoke against God and against Moses, Why have you caused us to come up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread, nor water; now our soul loathes this most worthless bread. Num. 21:5.

And elsewhere in the same author,

Jehovah afflicted you, and caused you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor your fathers knew, in order that He might teach you that man does not live by bread only, but that man lives by every utterance of the mouth of Jehovah. Deut. 8:3.

[5] ‘Manna’ is similar in meaning to ‘unleavened bread’, which means good pure and free from falsities, 8058. That bread is for a similar reason called the bread of misery,* Deut. 16:3.

From all this one may now see how to understand the disappearance of the good of truth gradually as craving increased, meant by the melting of the man[na] when the sun grew hot.
* Here Sw. follows Sebastian Schmidt; in other places Sw. has the bread of affliction.

sRef Ex@16 @22 S0′ 8488. ‘And so it was, that on the sixth day’ means at the end of each state. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the sixth day’ as the end of each state, dealt with above in 8421.

sRef Ex@16 @22 S0′ 8489. ‘They gathered twice as much’ means the joining together resulting from the reception of good. This is clear from the meaning of ‘gathering from the manna’ as the reception of good, ‘gathering’ meaning reception, see 8467, 8472, and ‘manna’ the good of truth, 8464; and from the meaning of ‘twice as much’ as the joining together, dealt with in 8423.

sRef Ex@16 @22 S0′ 8490. ‘Two omers for each one’ means the capacity then. This is clear from the meaning of ‘an omer’ as the sufficient amount, and so capacity, dealt with in 8468, 8473, at this point the sufficient amount and the capacity for being joined together. For ‘the seventh day’ or the sabbath means the joining together of goodness and truth.

sRef Ex@16 @22 S0′ 8491. ‘And all the princes of the assembly came and told Moses’ means reflection on the basis of primary truths. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the princes of the assembly’ as primary truths, 1482, 2089, 5044; and from the meaning of ‘telling’ or ‘pointing out’ as reflection, dealt with in 2862, 5508.

sRef Ex@16 @23 S0′ 8492. ‘And he said to them’ means instruction. This is clear from the meaning of ‘saying’, which includes what comes after it, in this instance instruction – instruction about how the manna was to be collected on the day before the sabbath. For more about this further meaning of ‘saying’ as instruction, see 6879, 6881, 6883, 6891, 7186, 7267, 7304, 7380.

sRef Ex@16 @23 S0′ 8493. ‘This is what Jehovah has spoken’ means influx from the Divine. This is clear from the consideration that Jehovah or the Lord instructs by means of influx, and that this is expressed in the historical narratives of the Word by ‘saying’ and ‘speaking’. ‘Speaking’ means influx in other places as well, see 2951, 5481, 5797, 7270, 8128.

sRef Ex@16 @23 S0′ 8494. ‘[A day of] rest’ means a state of peace when there is no temptation. This is clear from the meaning of ‘rest’, such as belonged to sabbath days, as a representation of a state of peace in which the joining together of goodness and truth takes place. But the six days before this represented the conflict and labour, consequently the temptations, which come before a state of peace; for temptations are followed by a state of peace, in which goodness and truth are joined together. Regarding the fact that ‘the six days’ which come before the seventh or sabbath was a sign meaning conflict and labour, see 720, 737, 900; and regarding the fact that temptations are followed by serenity and peace, 3696, 4572, 5246, 6829, 8367, 8370 (end). As for ‘the sabbath’ and its meaning the joining together of goodness and truth, this will be seen in what follows immediately below.

sRef Ex@16 @23 S0′ sRef Ex@31 @14 S1′ 8495. ‘A holy sabbath to Jehovah shall tomorrow be’ means the joining together of goodness and truth into eternity. This is clear from the meaning of ‘sabbath’ as the joining together of goodness and truth, dealt with below; and from the meaning of ‘tomorrow’ as into eternity, dealt with in 3998. Anyone who does not know what the sabbath represented, and what it was consequently a sign of, also cannot know why it was held to be the holiest institution of all. It was held to be the holiest because in the highest sense it represented the union of the Divine and the Divine Human within the Lord, and in the relative sense the joining together of the Lord’s Divine Human and the human race. This is why the sabbath was the holiest. And since it represented those realities it also represented heaven in respect of the joining together of goodness and truth, that is, the joining together called the heavenly marriage. And since the joining together of goodness and truth is accomplished by the Lord alone and nothing at all of it by man, and since it is accomplished in a state of peace, people were most strictly forbidden to do any work on that day. The prohibition was so strict that the soul who did do any was to be cut off. This is stated in Moses as follows,

You shall keep the sabbath, for it is holy to you. He who profanes it must certainly die; for everyone who does work on that day, this soul shall be cut off from the midst of his people. Exod. 31:14.

This was why the one who merely gathered sticks on that day was stoned, Num. 15:32-36. It is also why the command regarding the sabbath is the third of the Ten Commandments, coming immediately after the two regarding holy worship of Jehovah, Exod. 20:8; Deut. 5:12. And it is why the sabbath is called ‘an eternal covenant’, Exod. 31:16; for ‘a covenant’ means a joining together, 665, 666, 1023, 1038, 1864, 1996, 2003, 2021, 6804.

sRef Num@15 @35 S2′ sRef Num@15 @36 S2′ sRef Num@15 @34 S2′ sRef Num@15 @32 S2′ sRef Num@15 @33 S2′ [2] From all this one may now see what is meant in the internal sense by the things said about the sabbath in the following places, as in Isaiah,

Blessed is the person keeping the sabbath so that he does not profane it. Thus said Jehovah to the eunuchs who keep My sabbaths and choose that in which I delight, and hold fast to My covenant, I will give those in My house and within My walls a place and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an eternal name which will not be cut off. Whoever keeps the sabbath so that he does not profane it, and those who hold fast to My covenant, I will bring them onto My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer. Isa. 56:2-7.

From these words it is evident that those who are joined to the Lord are meant by those who keep the sabbath holy. That they will be in heaven is meant by the promise that those in Jehovah’s house will be given a place and a name better than sons and daughters, an eternal name which will not be cut off, and that they will be brought onto the holy mountain.

[3] In the same prophet,

If you turn away your foot from the sabbath, so that you do not do your own will on My holy day. but call the sabbath, Delights holy to Jehovah, honourable, and honour it, so that you do not do your own ways, nor find your own desire or speak [your own] words, then you will take delight in Jehovah, and I will convey you into the high places of the earth, and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob. Isa. 58:13, 14.

What was represented by the requirement that they should not do any work on the sabbath day is clearly evident here, namely that they must not do anything that begins in themselves, only what begins in the Lord. For the angelic state in heaven is such that they do not will or do, they do not even think or utter, anything that begins in themselves or what is properly their own. This is what their being joined to the Lord consists in. Not doing anything that begins in themselves is meant when it says that they should not do their own will, nor do their own ways, nor find their own desire, nor speak [their own] words. This state existing with the angels is the heavenly state itself; and when they are in it they experience peace and rest. Also the Lord has rest, for when they have been joined to Him their labour ceases; they now abide in the Lord. These things are meant by the words ‘so shall you call the sabbath, Delights holy to Jehovah’ and that they will take delight in Jehovah. The Lord’s rest is meant where it says that after creating on six days ‘He rested on the seventh day’, Gen. 2:2.

sRef Isa@58 @14 S4′ sRef Isa@58 @13 S4′ sRef Isa@56 @4 S4′ sRef Isa@56 @3 S4′ sRef Isa@56 @2 S4′ sRef Isa@56 @5 S4′ sRef Isa@56 @6 S4′ sRef Isa@56 @7 S4′ [4] The same things are meant by the following words in Jeremiah,

If you most certainly hear Me, so that you do not bring a burden through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, and you keep the sabbath day holy, so that you do not do any work in it, then there will enter through the gates of this city kings and princes seated on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, the men (vir) of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And this city will be inhabited forever. Jer 17:24, 25

‘Work on the sabbath’ means everything that springs from the self. The state of people who are not led by self but by the Lord is what ‘there will enter through the gates of the city kings and princes seated on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses’ describes. ‘Kings’ means the truths of faith, ‘princes’ leading aspects of them, ‘seated on the throne of David’ the fact that they come from the Lord, and ‘chariots and horses’ religious teachings and intellectual concepts belonging to faith. It should be recognized that everything coming from a person’s self is bad, and everything coming from the Lord is good. The fact that everything, in the case of those who are led by the Lord, flows in, down to the smallest particle of life in both their understanding and their will, thus down to every single part of the faith and charity they possess, see what has been shown abundantly from experience in 2886-2888, 6053-6058, 6189-6215, 6307-6327, 6466-6495, 6598-6626, 6982, 6985, 6996, 7004, 7055, 7056, 7058, 7147, 7270.

sRef Ezek@20 @12 S5′ sRef Ex@35 @3 S5′ sRef Jer@17 @25 S5′ sRef Jer@17 @24 S5′ [5] As regards the sabbath and its being a representative of the joining together of the Lord and the human race, this is clear in Ezekiel,

I gave them My sabbaths, in order that they might be a sign between Me and them, to know that I am Jehovah who sanctifies them. Ezek. 20:12.

See too Exod. 31:13. Therefore also it was forbidden to kindle fire on the sabbath day, Exod. 35:3, because ‘fire’ meant all that composed life, and ‘kindling fire’ that which composed life beginning from self. From all that has been stated it is evident that the Lord is Lord of the sabbath, in accordance with His words in Matthew 12:1-9. It is evident too why a large number of healings by the Lord were performed on sabbath days, Matt. 12:10-14; Mark 3:1-6; Luke 6:6-12; 13:10-17; 14:1-6; John 5:9-18; 7:22, 23; 9:14, 16; for the sicknesses from which the Lord healed people involved spiritual sicknesses which exist as a result of evil, 7337, 8364.

sRef Ex@16 @23 S0′ sRef Ex@35 @3 S0′ 8496. ‘Bake what you will bake’ means preparing good to be joined; ‘and boil what you will boil’ means preparing truth to be joined. This is clear from the meaning of ‘baking’, since it was done by means of fire, as preparing good to be joined; and from the meaning of ‘boiling’, since it was done by means of water, as preparing truth to be joined – ‘water’ meaning the truth of faith, 2702, 3058, 3424, 4976, 5668, and ‘fire’ meaning the good of love, 934, 5215, 6314, 6832, 6834, 6849, 7324, 7852. The fact that preparing them to be joined is meant is self-evident, for what was being baked and boiled was being prepared for the following sabbath day, by which a joining together is meant, as shown immediately above. They were forbidden to kindle fire on the sabbath day, Exod. 35:3, so they could not bake or boil anything then. The word ‘bake’ is used in connection with bread and the minchah, which was made by means of fire, see Isa. 44:15, 19; 1 Sam. 28:24; Ezek. 46:20; Lev. 6:17; while ‘boil’ is used in connection with flesh, which was cooked in water, Exod. 29:31; Lev. 6:28; 1 Sam. 2:13, 15.

sRef Ex@16 @23 S0′ 8497. ‘And all that is left over put aside for yourselves to keep until the morning’ means the enjoyment of all goodness and truth then as if from what was their own. This is clear from the meaning of ‘putting aside what is left over till the morning’ as enjoyment on the sabbath day, the reason why the enjoyment of goodness and truth is meant being that they were to put aside what was left over from the things they baked and boiled and to eat it on that day (‘baking’ means the preparation of good, and ‘boiling’ the preparation of truth, as has been shown immediately above in 8496, and ‘eating’ means enjoying and making one’s own, 3168, 3513 (end), 3596, 3832, 4745, 7849); and from the meaning of ‘for yourselves to keep’ as, as if it – the enjoyment – was from what was their own. The reason why these things are meant by those words is that goodness and truth which flow in from the Lord are joined together and so to speak made the person’s own. This is what the joining of heaven, that is, of those in heaven, to the Lord is like. The words ‘as if from what was their own’ are used because the good of faith and charity can never be imparted to man or angel to be actually his own, for men and angels are merely recipients, or forms properly adjusted to receive life from the Lord, and so goodness and truth from Him. True life comes from no other source; and since life comes from the Lord it cannot be more than what seems to be a person’s own. Those who abide in the Lord however clearly perceive that life flows in, consequently that goodness and truth do so since these are contained in that life. The reason why life seems to be a person’s own is that in His Divine Love the Lord wishes to impart and join to a person all that is His, and so far as it can be done He does join it. What is then the person’s own, yet is imparted to him by the Lord, is called a heavenly self or proprium, see 731, 1937, 1947, 2882, 2883, 2891, 3812 (end), 5660.

sRef Ex@16 @24 S0′ 8498. ‘And they put it aside till the morning’ means the enjoyment to come. This is clear from the explanation immediately above in 8497.

sRef Ex@16 @24 S0′ 8499. ‘As Moses commanded’ means in accordance with the instruction [received from God’s truth]. This is clear from the meaning of ‘commanding’ as instruction; and from the representation of ‘Moses’ as God’s truth, dealt with often.

sRef Ex@16 @24 S0′ 8500. ‘And it did not become putrid, and there was no worm in it’ means that there was nothing foul within it, because in that way they acted from the Divine in making it their own. This is clear from the meaning of ‘putrifying’ as something foul and hellish, spoken of in reference to evil, dealt with above in 8482; and from the meaning of ‘worm’ too as something foul and hellish, but spoken of in reference to falsity, dealt with in 8481. The fact that such things are present in whatever is done from self, but heavenly and Divine qualities within whatever is done from the Lord, see 8478.

8501. Verses 25-27 And Moses said, Eat it today, because today is a sabbath to Jehovah; today you will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it; and on the seventh day, the sabbath, there will be none in it. And so it was on the seventh day, that some of the people went out to gather, and did not find.

‘And Moses said’ means instructions regarding this matter. ‘Eat it today’ means making it their own for ever. ‘Because today is a sabbath to Jehovah’ means because good has been joined to truth by the Lord. ‘Today you will not find it in the field’ means that then there will no longer be any acquiring of good through truth. ‘Six days you shall gather it’ means the acceptance of truth before it is joined to good. ‘And on the seventh day, the sabbath’ means that after this comes the joining together. ‘There will be none in it’ means that no longer will there be good acquired through truth. ‘And so it was on the seventh day’ means a state when good and truth have been joined together. ‘That some of the people went out to gather, and did not find’ means that they wished to acquire it, but none was given.

sRef Ex@16 @25 S0′ 8502. ‘And Moses said’ means instructions regarding this matter. This is clear from the meaning of ‘saying’, which includes what comes after it, in this instance instructing them about the man[na], that they will not find it on the sabbath day.

sRef Ex@16 @25 S0′ 8503. ‘Eat it today’ means making it their own for ever. This is clear from the meaning of ‘eating’ as making one’s own, dealt with in 3168, 3513 (end), 3596, 4745; and from the meaning of ‘today’ as for ever, dealt with in 2838, 3998, 4304, 6165, 6984.

sRef Ex@16 @25 S0′ 8504. ‘Because today is a sabbath to Jehovah’ means because good has been joined to truth by the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of ‘a sabbath’ as good and truth joined together, dealt with above in 8495; and from the meaning of ‘today’ as for ever, dealt with immediately above in 8503. The fact that ‘Jehovah’ in the Word means the Lord has been shown often before.

sRef Ex@16 @25 S0′ 8505. ‘Today you will not find it in the field’ means that [then] there will no longer be any acquiring of good through truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘not finding’, when it refers to good that is obtained through truth, as no longer acquiring; and from the meaning of ‘the field’ as a person, at this point a person’s mind in which good is implanted through truth. For a person is called a field because he receives the truths of faith, which are the seeds, and brings forth the fruit of the seeds, that is, forms of good.

[2] What this implies will be stated briefly. Before regeneration a person’s actions spring from truth; but through that truth good is acquired, for during this time truth becomes good with him when it becomes part of his will and so of his life. But after regeneration his actions spring from good, and through that good truths are gained. To put it more intelligibly, before regeneration a person’s actions spring from a spirit of obedience, but after regeneration from affection. The two states are the antithesis of each other; for in the former state truth is dominant, but in the latter good is dominant. Or, in the former state the person looks downwards or backwards, but in the latter upwards or forwards.

sRef Matt@24 @17 S3′ sRef Matt@24 @15 S3′ sRef Luke@17 @31 S3′ sRef Luke@17 @32 S3′ sRef Matt@24 @18 S3′ [3] When a person has reached the latter state, that is to say, when his actions spring from affection, he is no longer allowed to look back and do good from truth; for now the Lord is flowing into good, and leading him through that good If in this state he were to look back, that is, to do good from truth, his actions would spring from what is his own; for when a person’s actions spring from truth he is guided by self, but when they spring from good he is guided by the Lord. These things are what is meant by the Lord’s words in Matthew,

When you see the abomination of desolation, let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house; and let him who is in the field not return to take his clothes. Matt. 24:15-18.

And in Luke,

On that day, whoever will be on the housetop with his vessels in the house let him not come down to take them away; and whoever is in the field, let him likewise not return to the things behind him. Remember Lot’s wife. Luke 17:31, 32.

For more about what these words imply, see the explanations in 3652, 5895 (end), 5897, 7923, and below in 8506, 8510.

Such are the things meant in the internal sense by the words stating that
the man[na] will not be found in the field on the seventh day and that some of the people went out to gather it but did not find any.

sRef Ex@16 @26 S0′ 8506. ‘Six days you shall gather it’ means the acceptance of truth before it is joined to good. This is clear from the meaning of ‘six days’ as states of conflict and labour, dealt with above in 8494, at this point states when truth is gaining acceptance, or states when good is being acquired through truth, dealt with immediately above in 8505; for during this state there is labour and conflict. During it a person is pitched into temptations, which are conflicts with the evils and falsities residing with him; at this time the Lord fights for him and also alongside him. But this state is followed by a state in which good and truth are joined together, a state that is accordingly one of rest also for the Lord. This state is what rest on the seventh or sabbath day represented. The reason why it is rest for the Lord is that when good has been joined to truth, a person abides in the Lord and is led by the Lord without labour or conflict. This state is what is meant by the second state spoken of immediately above in 8505.

sRef Ex@16 @26 S0′ 8507. ‘And on the seventh day, the sabbath’ means that after this comes the joining together. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the seventh day’ or ‘the sabbath’ as the joining together of good and truth, dealt with above in 8496.

sRef Ex@16 @26 S0′ 8508. ‘There will be none in it’ means that no longer will there be good acquired through truth. This is clear from the explanation above in 8505.

sRef Ex@16 @27 S0′ 8509. ‘And so it was on the seventh day’ means a state when good and truth have been joined together. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the seventh day’, or the sabbath, as the joining together of good and truth, as above in 8507.

sRef Ex@16 @27 S0′ 8510. ‘That some of the people went out to gather, and did not find’ means that they wished to acquire it, but none was given. This is clear from the explanation above in 8505. The explanation there shows what actions springing from the truth of faith are and what those springing from the good of charity are. That is to say, it shows that a person whose actions spring from the truth of faith does not as yet have the order of heaven present in himself, whereas one whose actions spring from the good of charity does have it. For, according to order, when the Lord leads a person He does so through his will, consequently through good since this belongs properly to the will. In that case his understanding is subservient, and so is truth since this belongs properly to the understanding. When this state exists it is the sabbath, for then there is rest for the Lord; and the state comes into being once good has been joined to truth. That this state is the Lord’s rest may be recognized from the statement that after six days of creation and labour Jehovah or the Lord rested on the seventh day from all His work, Gen. 2:2. This state is heaven’s state, which explains why heaven itself is called the sabbath, and that in heaven the sabbath is perpetual. For the creation story in Genesis 1 serves to mean the new creation, which is regeneration, and the six days in the story serves to mean temptations and conflicts, see the explanations at Genesis 1 and 2.

8511. Verses 28-31 And Jehovah said to Moses, How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws? See! Because Jehovah has given you the sabbath, therefore on the sixth day He gives you the bread of two days; rest, each of you in his place,* let no one go out of his place on the seventh day. And the people rested on the seventh day. And the house of Israel called its name Man;** and it was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like that of a cake with honey.

‘And Jehovah said to Moses’ means that the appearance of the Divine had become obscured. ‘How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws?’ means because their actions were not in keeping with Divine order. ‘See!’ means that they should pay attention and stop to reflect. ‘Because Jehovah has given you the sabbath’ means the joining together of goodness and truth by the Lord. ‘Therefore on the sixth day He gives you the bread of two days’ means that for this reason right at the end of the former state He imparts so great an amount of good through truth that the joining together takes place after that. ‘Rest, each of you in his place’ means a state of peace. ‘Let no one go out of his place on the seventh day’ means that they must now remain in that state. ‘And the people rested on the seventh day’ means that the joining together of goodness and truth in a state of peace was now represented. ‘And the house of Israel called its name Man’ means its essential nature among them. ‘And it was like coriander seed, white’ means the truth within it, that it was pure. ‘And the taste of it was like that of a cake with honey’ means that the good was delightful, like that which began as truth but was made into good by means of delight.
* lit. each under himself
** i.e. The Hebrew interrogative word What? From which the word manna is derived; see 8462.

sRef Ex@16 @28 S0′ 8512. ‘And Jehovah said to Moses’ means that the appearance of the Divine had become obscured. This is clear from the meaning of ‘Jehovah said’, which includes what comes after it, namely the accusation that they were not keeping the commandments and laws, thus that for them the appearance of the Divine had become obscured. This happens when people do not live lives in keeping with God’s commandments; for when people’s lives are in keeping with them they are in keeping with Divine order, because God’s commandments are truths and forms of good that originate in order. And when people live lives in keeping with order they live and abide in the Lord, because the Lord is true order. From this it follows that anyone who does not live a life in keeping with the commandments and laws that belong to Divine order does not live and abide in the Lord, and the consequence for that person is that the Divine becomes obscured. By living a life in keeping with order one should here understand being led by the Lord through good. But by living a life not as yet in keeping with order one should understand being led through truth; and when a person is led through truth the Lord does not appear. Therefore also at this time the person walks in darkness, in which he does not see truths. It is different when a person is led through good; then he walks in the light, in which he does see truths. Regarding these matters, see what has been stated just above in 8505, 8506, 8510.

sRef Ex@16 @28 S0′ 8513. ‘How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws?’ means because their actions were not in keeping with Divine order. This is clear from the explanation immediately above in 8512. So that people may know what an action in keeping with Divine order is and what one not in keeping with it is, something further must be said. Everything done in keeping with Divine order is inwardly open all the way to the Lord, and so holds heaven within it; but everything not done in keeping with Divine order is inwardly closed, and so does not hold heaven within it.

[2] Divine order therefore is for the Lord to flow through the inner levels of a person into the outer ones, thus through the person’s will into his actions. This actually happens when a person is governed by good, that is, when an affection to do good for its own sake and not for any selfish reason governs him. When anyone does good for a selfish reason and not for its own sake his inner levels are closed, and he cannot be led by the Lord by means of heaven, only by self. The love determines whom he is led by, for everyone is led by his love. One who loves himself more than his neighbour is led by self; but one who loves good is led by good and consequently by the Lord, who is the Source of good.

[3] From all this one may see what the difference is between living a life in keeping with order and not living a life in keeping with it. How to live so that one’s life is in keeping with order is taught by the Word and by religious teachings drawn from the Word. The person who does not look beyond externals can never grasp such ideas. He does not know what the internal is; he scarcely knows of the existence of the internal, let alone that it can be opened up, and that when it has been opened it has heaven within it. The intelligentsia of the world especially are ignorant of it, and those of them who do subscribe to the existence of an internal nevertheless have no idea of what it is or only a foolish one. This explains why they have little real belief and also why they use their knowledge to confirm the notion that all things are due to natural forces.

sRef Ex@16 @29 S0′ 8514. ‘See!’ means that they should pay attention and stop to reflect. This is clear from the meaning of ‘seeing’ as understanding, dealt with in 2325, 3863, 4403-4421, 5114, therefore as perceiving, 2150, 3764, 4567, 4723, 5400, and also reflecting, 6836, 6839.

sRef Ex@16 @29 S0′ 8515. ‘Because Jehovah has given you the sabbath’ means the joining together of goodness and truth by the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the sabbath’ as the joining together of goodness and truth, dealt with in 8495. The truth that it is brought about by the Lord is meant by the words ‘Jehovah has given’, for in the Word ‘Jehovah’ is the Lord.

sRef Ex@16 @29 S0′ 8516. ‘Therefore on the sixth day He gives you the bread of two days’ means that for this reason right at the end of the former state He imparts so great an amount of truth through good that the joining together takes place after that. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the sixth day’ as the end of a former state, dealt with in 8421; from the meaning of the manna, to which ‘the bread’ refers here, as the good of truth, dealt with in 8462, 8464; and from the meaning of the sabbath, for which day also the manna on the sixth day was given, so that it was two days’ bread, as the joining together of goodness and truth, dealt with in 8495. It has been shown above that since ‘the sabbath’ means the joining together of goodness and truth, the fact that no man[na] was to be found on the seventh day means that when that joining together has taken place a person’s actions spring from good and no longer from truth, indeed that they must not any longer spring from truth, 8510.

[2] But as this appears rather baffling, let a few further words of explanation be added. Everyone ought to be led to Christian good, which is called charity, through the truth of faith; for the truth of faith must teach not only what charity is but also what it needs to be like. And unless a person learns this first from the teachings of his Church – for he cannot by any means know it instinctively – he cannot be prepared and so made fit to receive that good. For example, he needs to know from religious teachings that charity in no way involves doing good for selfish reasons, that is, for the sake of reward, nor thus meriting salvation through the works of charity. He also needs to know that all the good of charity originates in the Lord, and none whatever in self, besides very many other teachings telling him what charity is and needs to be like. From all this it becomes clear that a person cannot be led to Christian good except through the truths of faith. In addition a person needs to know that truths do not of themselves enter good but that good adopts truths and attaches them to itself; for the truths of faith in a person’s memory lie so to speak in a field that is spread out before his inward vision. Good from the Lord flows into that vision, and from the truths present there it selects and Joins to itself those that are compatible. The truths, which lie below, cannot flow into the good, which is above, since it is altogether contrary to order, as well as impossible, for what is lower to flow into what is higher, 5259.

[3] From all this one may now see how Christian good is born with a person when he is being regenerated, and therefore also what a person will be like when he has been regenerated, namely one whose actions spring from good, but not from truth. That is, he is one who is led by the Lord through good and no longer through truth, for now he is governed by charity, that is, by an affection for doing that good. All who are in heaven are led in such a manner, for it is in keeping with Divine order. Thus everything they think or do flows so to speak spontaneously and freely. It would be altogether different if truth were to shape their thought and action, for then they would cogitate over whether or not they should do a certain thing, and so would hesitate over details, and in so doing would obscure the light they have. Eventually they would act in accord with what they themselves loved, thus in accord with influences that pander to their own loves, which is to be led by self, not by the Lord. From all this it is again evident what it is to be forbidden to acquire good through truth any longer, meant by the people gathering manna on six days, and finding none on the seventh day, dealt with in 8505, 8506, 8510.

sRef Ex@16 @29 S0′ 8517. ‘Rest, each of you in his place’ means a state of peace. This is clear from the meaning of ‘resting’ as a state of peace, dealt with above in 8494. The requirement for them to rest on the sabbath day, when they were not to do any work, not even kindle a fire or prepare for themselves what they were going to eat, was representative of the state of peace in which the joining together of goodness and truth is accomplished by the Lord; for all joining together of goodness and truth is accomplished in that state. When a person is in a state of peace he is also led by the Lord through good. If at that time the person were to be his own guide, even though he were guided by truth, he would dispel the state of peace, and as a consequence there would be no joining together, see immediately above in 8516.

sRef Ex@16 @29 S0′ 8518. ‘Let no one go out of his place on the seventh day’ means that they must now remain in that state. This is clear from the explanation above in 8494, 8517.

sRef Ex@16 @30 S0′ 8519. ‘And the people rested on the seventh day’ means that the joining together of goodness and truth in a state of peace was now represented. This is clear from what has been stated above in 8494, 8517.

sRef Ex@16 @31 S0′ 8520. ‘And the house of Israel called its name Man’ means its essential nature among them. This is clear from the meaning of ‘name’ and ‘calling the name’ as the essential nature of a thing, dealt with in 144, 145, 1896, 2009, 2724, 3006, 3421, 6674. The fact that it was called Man because they did not know what it was, and that it means the good of truth, which is the good of those belonging to the spiritual Church, see 8462, 8464.

sRef Ex@16 @31 S0′ 8521. ‘And it was like coriander seed, white’ means the truth within it, that it was pure. This is clear from the meaning of ‘seed’ as the truth of faith, dealt with in 255, 1940, 2848, 3038, 3310, 3373. ‘Coriander seed’ is mentioned because it is white; for ‘white’ has reference to truth, and in addition truth is represented as being white, 3301, 3993, 4007, 5319. The good of truth, meant by ‘the manna’, is being described now, both the essential nature of the truth in that entity and the essential nature of the good in it. The essential nature of the truth is described by the statement that it was ‘like coriander seed, white’ and the essential nature of the good by the statement that ‘the taste of it was like that of a cake with honey’. The good of truth, which is good as it exists with those who belong to the Lord’s spiritual kingdom, is entirely different from good as it exists with those who belong to the Lord’s celestial kingdom.

[2] The good of truth existing with those who belong to the spiritual kingdom has been implanted in the understanding part of the mind; for in that part the Lord fashions the new will, which exists in a person when he has the will to act in accord with the truth he has absorbed from the teachings of his Church. And when he wills and does that truth it becomes good residing with him, which is called spiritual good, and also the good of truth. He indeed believes that this is positively the truth, because he has faith in what he has been taught. But he has no perception to see for himself whether it is the truth apart from that which he seems to himself to have as a consequence of having proved it for himself, partly from the sense of the letter of the Word and partly from the misconception that lend support to a preconceived notion. He fails however to consider that nothing, not even actual falsity, is incapable of receiving proof that makes it look like the truth, 4741, 5033, 6865, 7012, 7680, 7950. So it is that all people without exception, including Socinians and also the Jews themselves, believe that their doctrines are the truth.

All this shows the essential nature of the truth that is converted into good with very many members of the Church. None among them can see whether a teaching of their Church is true except those who have an affection for truth for the sake of useful services in life. Those who have this end in view are enlightened by the Lord constantly, not only while they live in the world but also afterwards. They alone are the ones who are able to receive truth, for the Lord leads them by means of good, and through that good He enables them to see truth and so believe it. All this demonstrates the origin and nature of good as it exists with those belonging to the Lord’s spiritual kingdom. But good as it exists with those belonging to the Lord’s celestial kingdom has been implanted not in the understanding part of the mind, but in the will part. Those with whom this good resides know from inward perception received from the Lord whether something is true. Regarding good as it exists with the one and as it exists with the other, and the difference between them, see 2046, 2088, 2227, 2669, 2715, 2718, 3235, 3240, 3241, 3246, 4138, 4493, 5113, 6500, 6865, 7233, 7977, 7992.

sRef Ex@16 @31 S0′ 8522. ‘And the taste of it was like that of a cake with honey’ means that the good was delightful, like that which began as truth but was made into good by means of delight. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the tastes as that which has reference to delight taken in what is good, since it corresponds to the delight of becoming wise,* dealt with in 3502, 4793; from the meaning of ‘a cake’ as spiritual good, dealt with in 7978; and from the meaning of ‘honey’ as natural delight, dealt with in 5620, 6857. From these meanings it follows that ‘the taste of it was like that of a cake with honey’ means good that was delightful because it was made out of truth by means of delight. Here spiritual good is being described – where it originates and how it comes into being, thus also the essential nature of it. That is to say, in its first beginnings this good is truth, but this is made good when it passes from the will, and so from affection, into action. For whatever a person wills out of affection for it is seen as good, and is therefore also called good. Yet this good can be brought into being only by means of the delights that belong to the natural man. The spiritual man is brought to that good by means of them; and once he has been brought to it he is able to have a feeling for it. This then is what is meant by ‘the taste of the manna was like that of a cake with honey’.
* The Latin noun translated the taste is sapor; and the verb translated here as becoming wise is sapere, the primary meaning of which is to taste.

sRef Ex@16 @33 S0′ sRef Ex@16 @32 S0′ sRef Ex@16 @34 S0′ 8523. Verses 32-34 And Moses said, This is the thing* which Jehovah has commanded: Fill an omer with it to be kept for your generations, in order that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt. And Moses said to Aaron, Take a jar, and put an omerful of man[na] in it, and lay it up before Jehovah, to be kept for your generations. As Jehovah commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept.

‘And Moses said, This is the thing which Jehovah has commanded’ means a command. ‘Fill an omer with it’ means the greatest capacity. ‘To be kept for your generations’ means which those belonging to the spiritual Church possess. ‘In order that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness’ means the good of truth when they were in the state involving temptations. ‘When I brought you out of the land of Egypt’ means after their deliverance from molestations. ‘And Moses said to Aaron’ means influx. ‘Take a jar’ means truth. ‘And put an omerful of man[na] in it’ means good within it, as much as it can hold. ‘And lay it up before Jehovah’ means that it may exist in the presence of the Divine. ‘To be kept for your generations’ means to be the measure for those belonging to that spiritual Church. ‘As Jehovah commanded Moses’ means in accordance with what was commanded. ‘So Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept’ means that it was in the presence of the Divine.
* or word

sRef Ex@16 @32 S0′ 8524. ‘And Moses said, This is the thing which Jehovah has commanded’ means a command. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the thing which Jehovah has commanded’ as a Divine command, as also above in 8466.

sRef Ex@16 @32 S0′ 8525. ‘Fill an omer with it’ means the greatest capacity. This is clear from the meaning of ‘an omer’ as the sufficient amount, and capacity, dealt with in 8468, 8473; and since ‘an omer’ is the sufficient amount, or the capacity one person has, it also means his greatest capacity.

sRef Ex@16 @32 S0′ 8526. ‘To be kept for your generations’ means which those belonging to the spiritual Church possess. This is clear from the meaning of ‘generations’ as aspects of faith and charity, dealt with in 613, 2020, 2584, 6239, so that in the more limited sense those who belong to the spiritual Church are meant. For they are the ones who are governed by faith and charity and the ones who are represented by the children of Israel, whose ‘generations’ are referred to here. ‘To be kept for them’ means to preserve the memory of it.

sRef Ex@16 @32 S0′ 8527. ‘In order that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness’ means the good of truth when they were in the state involving temptations. This is clear from the meaning of the manna, to which ‘the bread’ refers here, as the good of truth, dealt with in 8462, 8464; and from the meaning of ‘the wilderness’ as a state when temptations have to be undergone, dealt with in 8098.

sRef Ex@16 @32 S0′ 8528. ‘When I brought you out of the land of Egypt’ means after their deliverance from molestations. This is clear from the meaning of ‘bringing out’ as delivering; and from the meaning of ‘the land of Egypt’ as molestations, dealt with in 7278. The reason why ‘the land of Egypt’ means molestations is that ‘the Egyptians’ and ‘Pharaoh’ mean those who molested the upright in the next life, and who also engage in molestation at the present day, 7097, 7220, 7228, 7317, 8148.

sRef Ex@16 @33 S0′ 8529. ‘And Moses said to Aaron’ means influx. This is clear from the meaning of ‘saying’ – when the path is from inward Divine Truth, represented by ‘Moses’, to outward God’s truth, represented by ‘Aaron’ – as influx. For the path along which Divine influx passes lies through the truth that goes forth directly from the Lord, and on into the truth that goes forth in an indirect way. The fact that in the representative sense ‘Moses’ and ‘Aaron’ are those kinds of truth, see 7009, 7010, 7382.

sRef Ex@16 @33 S0′ 8530. ‘Take a jar’ means truth. This is clear from the meaning here of ‘a jar’ as truth. The reason why ‘a jar’ means truth is that it was a vessel to contain ‘the manna’, by which good is meant; and all truth is like a vessel for good. So it is also that truths are meant by ‘vessels’ generally, 3068, 3079, 3316, 3318, consequently by ‘vessels’ in particular, and here by ‘a jar’. Various things in the natural order may serve to elucidate the idea that truths are vessels for containing good. Light for example is a container of heat from the sun, and also by light is meant truth and by the heat within light is meant good; the relationship of truth to good is like these. Their relationship is also like that of clothing to the body, and of the body to the soul, as well as being like that of a blood vessel or of a fibre to the blood or to the animal spirit* enclosed within it. In addition it is like that of the lungs to the heart, and therefore of the breathing of the lungs to the beating of the heart. In short, the relationship is like that of any organic form which the body possesses to the life within that form. These comparisons make clear what truth without good is like, or what faith without charity is like. They show that it is like organic forms belonging to the body without any life; like the breathing of the lungs without the beating of the heart, or like the lungs without the heart; like a blood vessel or a fibre without blood or animal spirit; and also like the body without the soul. Consequently truth without good is like an inanimate object; or if evil is present instead of good it is like a corpse.
* See 4227:3

sRef Ex@16 @33 S0′ 8531. ‘And put an omerful of man[na] in it’ means good within it, as much as it can hold. This is clear from the meaning of ‘an omerful’ as, as much as it can hold; and from the meaning of ‘man[na]’ as spiritual good or the good of truth, dealt with in 8462, 8464.

sRef Ex@16 @33 S0′ 8532. ‘And lay it up before Jehovah’ means that it may exist in the presence of the Divine. This is clear without explanation.

sRef Ex@16 @33 S0′ 8533. ‘To be kept for your generations’ means to be the measure for those belonging to that spiritual Church. This is clear from the meaning of the omer of man[na] which was laid up ‘to be kept’, as the sufficient amount, dealt with in 8468, thus also the measure, that is to say, amount of good this Church had, ‘your generations’ being those who belong to the spiritual Church, see above in 8526. As regards the measure or degree of the good the Church possesses, it should be recognized that all good in the next life is clearly defined so far as the character and volume of it is concerned, and that it is clearly defined with every person while he lives in the world. What defines it is the character and amount of the particular person’s faith and charity in life. The character and volume of every person’s good is revealed in the next life before angels when the Lord allows such to be revealed; for they can be demonstrated in the light of heaven, but not in the light of the world. The same is so with good in general, that is to say, with the Church’s good. The volume and character of the good which each person or the Church possesses is represented in the Word by weights and measures; in the present instance the volume or amount of good in the spiritual Church, the Church represented by the children of Israel, is represented by the omer of manna that was laid up to be kept, before Jehovah.

sRef Ex@16 @34 S0′ 8534. ‘As Jehovah commanded Moses’ means in accordance with what was commanded. This is clear from the meaning of ‘commanding’, when done by Jehovah, as a command, as above in 8466, 8524.

sRef John@1 @1 S0′ sRef Ex@16 @34 S0′ sRef John@1 @14 S0′ 8535. ‘So Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept’ means that it was in the presence of the Divine. This is clear from the meaning of ‘laying up to be kept’ as to preserve the memory of it, as above in 8526 (end), 8533; and from the meaning of ‘before the Testimony’ as in the presence of the Divine. The fact that ‘the Testimony’ means the Divine is evident from what comes before, where Moses tells Aaron to lay it up before Jehovah, 8532, that is, before the Divine. The reason why ‘the Testimony’ means the Divine is that in the universal sense ‘the Testimony’ is used to mean the Word, and the Word is Divine truth, thus the Lord. That He is the Word is evident in John,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. John 1:1, 14

The fact that ‘the Testimony’ is the Lord in respect of Divine Truth is clear from the ark containing the law delivered from Sinai, which is called the Testimony. From it the tabernacle derived all the holiness it possessed, and the Testimony was God’s holiness itself. This is evident from the consideration that above it there was the Mercy Seat with the cherubim; immediately outside the veil there, there stood the tables of gold with the loaves and the lamps; Aaron performed the holiest act of worship there and also Jehovah afterwards spoke to Moses there, above the Mercy Seat between the two cherubs, thus from the Testimony. For these details, see Exod. 22:16, 21, 22; 40:20.

8536. Verses 35, 36 And the children of Israel ate the man[na] forty years, until they came to an inhabited land; they ate the man[na] until they came to the border of the land of Canaan. And an omer is the tenth part of an ephah.

‘And the children of Israel ate the marina] forty years’ means making the good of truth their own in the state involving all temptations. ‘Until they came to an inhabited land’ means before they reached heaven, where good resides everywhere. ‘They ate the man[na] until they came to the border of the land of Canaan’ means that they went on making good from truth their own, until they reached the region of heaven. ‘And an omer is the tenth part of an ephah’ means the amount of good then.

sRef Ex@16 @35 S0′ 8537. ‘And the children of Israel ate the man[na] forty years’ means making the good of truth their own in the state involving all temptations. This is clear from the representation of ‘the children of Israel’ as those who belong to the spiritual Church, dealt with in 6426, 6637, 6862, 6868, 7035, 7062, 7198; from the meaning of ‘eating’ as making one’s own, dealt with in 3168, 3513(end), 3596, 4745; from the meaning of ‘the man[na]’ as the good of truth, dealt with in 8464; and from the meaning of ‘forty years’ as states involving temptations, ‘years’ meaning states, see 482, 487, 488, 493, 893, and ‘forty’ meaning temptations, 730, 862, 2272, 2273, 8098.

sRef Ex@16 @35 S0′ 8538. ‘Until they came to an inhabited land’ means before they reached heaven, where good resides everywhere. This is clear from the meaning of ‘land’, at this point the land of Canaan, as the Lord’s kingdom, thus heaven, dealt with in 1607, 3038, 3481, 3686, 3705, 4240, 4447, 5136. Heaven is called ‘an inhabited land’ because of the good present there, for ‘inhabited’ means having life as a result of the existence of good, 2268, 2451, 2712, 3613, 8269, 8309.

sRef Ex@16 @35 S0′ 8539. ‘They ate the man[na] until they came to the border of the land of Canaan’ means that they went on making good from truth their own, until they reached the region of heaven. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the man[na]’ as the good of truth; from the meaning of ‘eating’ as making one’s own, as just above in 8537; and from the meaning of ‘the land of Canaan’ as heaven, as above in 8538, so that ‘the border of the land of Canaan’ is the entrance to heaven, or the region where heaven begins. From all these meanings it is evident that ‘they ate the man[na] until they came to the border of the land of Canaan’ means that they were making the good of truth their own until they reached the region of heaven.

[2] The nature of all this is evident from what has been stated already about the acquisition of good through truth. It has been stated that before regeneration all good is obtained by means of truth, but that after regeneration a person is led by the Lord by means of good; also that the former state is meant by the six days which come before the seventh, and that the latter state is meant by the seventh day or the sabbath. From this it is also evident that the former state was represented by the travels of the children of Israel in the wilderness for forty years, and that the latter state was represented by their being led into the land of Canaan. For the situation is this: A person is outside heaven all the time that his actions spring from truth and not from good. But then he enters heaven when they do spring from good; for they now spring from the Lord and are in keeping with the order of heaven. He does not attain this order, nor does he therefore enter heaven where order exists and which is order until he has been prepared, which happens when he is brought to good by means of truth. Regarding these two states, see what has been shown above in 7923, 8505, 8506, 8510, 8512, 8516.

sRef Ex@16 @36 S0′ 8540. ‘And an omer is the tenth part of an ephah’ means the amount of good then. This is clear from the meaning of ‘an omer’, in that it was the tenth part of an ephah, as the sufficient amount, for ‘ten’ means that which is complete, 3107, so that ‘the tenth part’ means the sufficient amount, 8468; and from the meaning of ‘an ephah’ as good. The reason why ‘an ephah’ means good is that the ephah and the homer were used to measure dry commodities that served as food, such as wheat, barley, or fine flour; and things that serve as food mean forms of good. And the bath and the hin were used to measure liquid commodities that served as drink; therefore these latter measures mean truths. The container takes its meaning from it contents.

sRef Ezek@45 @10 S2′ sRef Lev@19 @36 S2′ sRef Ezek@45 @11 S2′ [2] The fact that ‘an ephah’ was used as a measure is evident from the following places: In Moses,

You shall have a just ephah, and a just hin. Lev. 19:36.

In Ezekiel,

You shall have just balances, and a just ephah, and a just bath. Ezek. 45:10.

In the same prophet, The ephah and the bath shall be of one measure, for the ephah is a tenth of a homer. Ezek. 44:11.

A like use of it as a measure occurs in Amos 8:5.

sRef Zech@5 @11 S3′ sRef Zech@5 @9 S3′ sRef Zech@5 @10 S3′ sRef Zech@5 @8 S3′ sRef Zech@5 @6 S3′ sRef Zech@5 @5 S3′ sRef Zech@5 @7 S3′ [3] The meaning of ‘an ephah’ as good is evident from places where the minchah is referred to; the amount of flour or fine flour for it is measured by the ephah, for example at Lev. 5:11; Num. 5:15; 28:5; Ezek. 45:24; 26:7, 11. And ‘minchah’ too means good, 4581. That meaning is also evident from the following in Zechariah,

The angel talking to me said to me, Lift your eyes now; what is this going out? And I said, What is this? He said, This is an ephah going out. He said further, This is their eye in all the earth. And behold, a talent of lead was lifted up, and at the same time a woman* sitting in the middle of the ephah. Then he said, She is wickedness.** And he threw her down into the middle of the ephah, and threw a stone of lead*** over the mouth of it. And I raised my eyes and saw, and behold, two women going out, and the wind was in their wings. Each had two wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the ephah between earth and heaven. And I said to the angel talking to me, Where are they taking away the ephah? And he said to me, To build her a house in the land of Shinar; and she will be prepared and will remain there on her seat. Zech. 5:5-11.

[4] No one can ever know what all this means except from the internal sense. He will never know unless he knows from that sense what ‘an ephah’ means, and what ‘the woman in the middle of it’, ‘the stone of lead over the mouth of the ephah’, and also ‘Shiner’ mean. Once these particular meanings have been brought to the surface it is plain that the profanation existing in the Church at that time is meant. For ‘an ephah’ means good; ‘the woman’ means wickedness or evil, as it is explicitly stated there; and ‘a stone of lead’ means falsity arising from evil which shuts it away, ‘a stone’ being outward truth, and therefore in the contrary sense falsity, 643, 1298, 3720, 6426, and ‘lead’ evil, 8298. So it is that the woman in the middle of the ephah, over the mouth of which a stone of lead was placed, means evil shut up in good by falsity, which is the same thing as profanation. For profanation is evil joined to good, 6348. The two women lifting up the ephah between earth and heaven are Churches, 252, 253, by which the profanation was banished. ‘Shiner’, to which the woman in the ephah was taken away, is external worship that has profanity within it, 1183, 1292
* lit. this woman
** lit. evil (noun, not adjective)
*** i. e. a hard cover made of lead

8541. SPIRITS AND INHABITANTS OF THE PLANET JUPITER – continued

As regards their worship of God, the most important aspect of it is their acknowledgement of our Lord as the Supreme One who governs heaven and earth. They call Him the one and only Lord; and because they acknowledge and worship Him during their lifetime they therefore seek Him after death, and find Him. He is none other than our Lord. When asked whether they know that the one and only Lord is a Person they replied that they all know Him to be a Person, because He has been seen as a Person by many on their planet; that He informs them of the truth, and keeps them in being; and that He imparts eternal life to those who believe in Him. They went on to say that He has revealed to them how they ought to live and how they ought to believe, and that what He has revealed is passed down from parents to children. In that way teachings are spread to all the families and so to an entire clan descended from the same father. They said in addition that those teachings seem to them to have been inscribed on their minds, a conclusion they come to because they can perceive instantly and recognize automatically whether what others say about the life of heaven with a person is true or not.

8542. The greatest care is taken to prevent anyone from slipping into perverse ways of thinking about the one and only Lord. If they see that others are starting to think of Him wrongly they first of all warn them; after that they issue threats to check them, and finally they resort to punishments. They said they have noticed that if any such perversity creeps into a family, that family is removed from their midst, not by any death penalties administered by companions, but by being deprived of breath and therefore of life by spirits who have already threatened them with death. For on that planet spirits talk to people, chastizing them if they have done what is bad, and also if they have intended to do anything bad, 7801-7812. Consequently if they think in a bad way about the one and only Lord, they are threatened with death if they do not come to their senses. This is the manner in which worship of the Lord, who for them is the Supreme Divine One, is preserved.

8543. They do not know that their one and only Lord was born a person on our planet. They said they were not interested to know this, only that He is a Person and rules over all. When I said that on our planet He is called Christ Jesus, and that Christ means anointed or king and Jesus means Saviour, they said that they do not worship Him as a king because kingship smacks of what is worldly; but they do worship Him as their Saviour. And because the doubt was introduced by spirits from our planet as to whether their one and only Lord was the same Lord as ours, they removed that doubt by recollecting that they had seen Him in the Sun and recognized Him as the One whom they had seen on their planet regarding which see 7173. As regards our Lord’s being the Sun of heaven, see 1053, 3636, 3643, 4060, 4321 (end), 5097, 7078, 7083, 7171, 7173.

8544. When the spirits belonging to the planet Jupiter had remained with me for a number of weeks, a momentary doubt entered them as to whether their one and only Lord was the same Lord as ours. But this momentary doubt took only a moment to dispel. The source of the doubt was spirits belonging to our planet. And at that time, to my amazement, they were so filled with shame at entertaining even a momentary doubt that they told me not to publicize it on this planet, in order that they might not on that account be accused of any lack of belief, when in fact they now know better than others that He is the same Lord.

8545. There were spirits from the planet Jupiter present with me while I was reading Chapter 17 of John, about the Lord’s love and His glorification. When they heard the things written there, holiness took possession of them and they declared that everything there was Divine. Yet at that time spirits belonging to our planet who were unbelievers were constantly raising stumbling-blocks, saying that He had been born a child, lived as a person, looked like any person, was crucified, and so on. But the spirits belonging to the planet Jupiter paid no attention to any of this. They said that their devils whom they abhor are such, adding that nothing heavenly whatever is fixed in their minds, only what is earthly, which they called slag. They had discovered this to be so from the fact that when the spirits from our planet heard that there were people on theirs who went naked lewdness instantly took possession of their thoughts, and they gave no consideration whatever to their heavenly life, about which they also heard then, 8375.

8546. On one other occasion I talked to spirits belonging to the planet Jupiter about the Lord. I said that no one can do anything good from himself, only from the Lord, who is Goodness itself and therefore the fountain of all good. They replied in an unassuming way that they suppose they can do good from themselves; they do not know anything different. But when they were shown that all good comes solely from the Lord, they said that they had spoken in an ordinary way, whereas I had stated the matter in a heavenly manner, and that their angels think in the same manner, as they themselves do also to the extent that they become angels. They added that it is simpler to speak in that ordinary way. I was allowed to answer them that the Lord leaves those who lead simple and innocent lives to do so, provided that they know that no good at all comes from themselves, only from the Lord

8547. The spirits belonging to the planet Jupiter were deeply moved and most glad when they heard me say that the one and only Lord is alone Human and that all derive from Him that which enables them to be called human beings, but that they are human only to the extent that they are images of Him. That is, they are human to the extent that they love Him and love their neighbour, thus to the extent that they are governed by good; for the good of love and faith is an image of the Lord.

sRef John@3 @3 S0′ 8548. 17

TEACHINGS ABOUT CHARITY

Anyone who does not receive spiritual life, that is, who is not born anew from the Lord, cannot enter heaven, as the Lord teaches in John,

Truly, truly I say to you, Unless anyone is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. John 3:3.

8549. A person does not receive spiritual life by birth from his parents, only natural life. Spiritual life consists in loving God above all things and loving one’s neighbour as oneself, and doing so in accordance with the commandments of faith taught by the Lord in the Word. But natural life consists in loving self and the world more than the neighbour, indeed more than God Himself.

8550. Each individual is born into the evils of self-love and love of the world inherited from parents. Every evil which has become second nature through habitual surrender to it is transmitted to offspring, thus from one generation to the next by parents, grandparents, great grandparents, and so on going a long way back. The evil transmitted in this way becomes at length so great that the whole of a person’s own life is nothing but evil. This chain of transmitted evil is not broken or altered except by the life of faith and charity received from the Lord.

8551. A person constantly leans towards and slips into what he has inherited. As a consequence he reinforces that evil residing with him, and also adds many more evils to it.

8552. These evils are completely contrary to spiritual life; they destroy it. Therefore unless a person receives spiritual life from the Lord by being conceived anew, born anew, and brought up anew, that is, created anew, he is damned. For nothing except what is of hell occupies his will and consequently his thinking.

8553. Since people are like this the order of life with them is inverted; what ought to be the master is the servant, and what ought to be the servant is the master. If a person is to be saved that order of life with him must be reversed; and this is achieved by the Lord through regeneration.

ARCANA CAELESTIA

EXODUS 17

1 And all the assembly of the children of Israel travelled on from the wilderness of Sin, according to their travels, at the mouth of Jehovah, and encamped in Rephidim; and there was no water for the people to drink.

2 And the people wrangled with Moses, and said, Give us water and let us drink. And Moses said to them, Why do you wrangle with me? Why do you tempt Jehovah?

3 And the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses, and said, Why have you caused us to come up out of Egypt, to cause me, and my children, and my livestock to die of thirst?*

4 And Moses cried out to Jehovah, saying, What shall I do for this people? Yet a little and they stone me.**

5 And Jehovah said to Moses, Pass on before the people, and take with you some of the elders of Israel; and your rod with which you struck the river, take in your hand, and go.

6 Behold, I [will be] standing before you there on the rock in Horeb, and you are to strike the rock, and water will come out of it; and let the people drink. And Moses did so before the eyes of the elders of Israel.

7 And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the wrangling of the children of Israel, and because of their tempting Jehovah, saying, Is Jehovah in the midst of us or not?

8 And Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim.

9 And Moses said to Joshua, Choose men for us, and go out, fight against Amalek; tomorrow I stand on the top of the hill, with the rod of God in my hand.

10 And Joshua did as Moses said to him, by fighting against Amalek; and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.

11 And so it was, when Moses raised up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.

12 And the hands of Moses were heavy; and they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it; and Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side, and one on the other. And so it was, his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.

13 And Joshua decimated*** Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.

14 And Jehovah said to Moses, Write this [for] a memorial in the book, and put it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.

15 And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovah Nissi.

16 And he said, Because [Amalek’s] hand is against the throne of Jah, the war of Jehovah will be against Amalek from generation to generation.
* The change in this sentence from the plural us to the singular me occurs in the Hebrew.
** i.e. They are almost ready to stone me.
*** lit. weakened

sRef Ex@17 @0 S0′ 8554. CONTENTS

The previous chapter dealt in the internal sense with a third temptation – a stage when good was lacking. The present chapter deals in the internal sense with the stage that came after the people had been given that good – a fourth temptation, in which truth was lacking. This temptation is meant by the grumbling of the children of Israel because they had no water; so they were given the truth of faith by the Lord, which is meant by the water from the rock of Horeb.

sRef Ex@17 @0 S0′ 8555. After this the subject is the conflict of falsity arising from evil with the truth and good of faith. That conflict is represented by the battle which Amalek fought against Israel. The fact that those who have the truth and good of faith within them are winning when they look up to the Lord, and losing when they look down, is represented by the children of Israel, who were winning as long as Moses kept his hands raised up, but losing whenever he let them down.

sRef Ex@17 @1 S0′ sRef Ex@17 @3 S0′ sRef Ex@17 @2 S0′ 8556. THE INTERNAL SENSE

Verses 1-3 And all the assembly of the children of Israel travelled on from the wilderness of Sin, according to their travels, at the mouth of Jehovah, and encamped in Rephidim; and there was no water for the people to drink. And the people wrangled with Moses, and said, Give us water and let us drink. And Moses said to them, Why do you wrangle with me? Why do you tempt Jehovah? And the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses, and said, Why have you caused us to come up out of Egypt, to cause me, and my children, and my livestock to die of thirst?*

‘And all the assembly of the children of Israel travelled on’ means a further development of spiritual life. ‘From the wilderness of Sin’ means away from a state of temptation having to do with good. ‘According to their travels’ means according to the order of life for receiving the life of heaven. ‘At the mouth of Jehovah’ means in the Lord’s providence. ‘And encamped in Rephidim’ means arranging interior things for undergoing a temptation having to do with truth, the essential nature of that temptation being meant by ‘Rephidim’. ‘And there was no water for the people to drink’ means a lack of truth and consequently of refreshment.

‘And the people wrangled with Moses’ means bitter complaining against God’s truth. ‘And said, Give us water and let us drink’ means a burning desire for truth. ‘And Moses said to them’ means the reply, made through influx into thought. ‘Why do you wrangle with me?’ means that they should be more restrained in their complaining. ‘Why do you tempt Jehovah?’ means that their complaining is against the Divine, from whom they despair of receiving aid. ‘And the people thirsted there for water’ means an increase in the desire for truth. ‘And the people grumbled against Moses’ means a greater degree of grief. ‘Why have you caused us to come up out of Egypt’ means Why have we been delivered from molestations … ‘To cause me, and my children, and my livestock to die of thirst?’ means, in order for everything constituting spiritual life to perish, owing to the lack of truth?
* The change in this sentence from the plural us to the singular me occurs in the Hebrew.

sRef Ex@17 @1 S0′ 8557. ‘And all the assembly of the children of Israel travelled on’ means a further development of spiritual life. This is clear from the meaning of ‘travelling on’ as a further stage and continuation of life, dealt with in 4375, 4554, 4585, 5996, 8181, 8345, 8397, at this point a further stage or development of spiritual life, that is, an increase of it, which temptations are constantly bringing about. The reason why temptations bring about an increase of spiritual life is that the truths of faith are corroborated by means of them and joined to the good of charity. For the meaning of ‘the assembly of the children of Israel’ as those who belong to the spiritual Church, see 7830, 7843.

sRef Ex@17 @1 S0′ 8558. ‘From the wilderness of Sin’ means away from a state of temptation having to do with good. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the wilderness’ as a state when temptations have to be undergone, dealt with in 6828, 8098; and from the meaning of ‘Sin’ as the nature and state of a temptation having to do with good, dealt with in 8398.

sRef Ex@17 @1 S0′ 8559. ‘According to their travels’ means according to the order of life for receiving the life of heaven. This is clear from the meaning of ‘travels’ as further development of spiritual life, dealt with just above in 8557, thus the order of that life, 1293. The reason why it is for the purpose of receiving the life of heaven is that temptations, which the travels of the children of Israel in the wilderness depict, are the means by which the Lord imparts that life to a person. The life of heaven consists in being led by the Lord through good; and if a person is to attain that life, good must be implanted through truth, that is, charity through faith. As long as this is being done a person is on the road to heaven, but is not as yet in heaven. In order that the truths of faith may be corroborated and also linked to good, a person is pitched into temptations, for these serve as the means by which goodness and truth are joined together. When therefore a person is governed by good, that is, by an affection for doing good for its own sake, and so for his neighbour’s sake, he is raised into heaven, since the order of heaven governs him and he is being led by the Lord through good. All this makes clear what one should understand by the life of heaven.

sRef Ex@17 @1 S0′ 8560. ‘At the mouth of Jehovah’ means in the Lord’s providence. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the mouth of Jehovah’ as God’s truth in accordance with which they were led; for ‘the mouth of Jehovah’ here is taken to mean Divine utterance and being led in accordance with it, which is providence. God’s providence is different from any other kind of leading or guidance in that it constantly has in view what is eternal and is constantly leading to salvation. It does so through various states, sometimes joyful and at other times miserable; and though these are beyond the person’s comprehension they all nevertheless make a contribution towards his life into eternity. These things are meant by ‘travels at the mouth of Jehovah’, ‘Jehovah’ in the Word being the Lord, see 1343, 1736, 2004, 2005, 2018, 2025, 2156 2329, 2447, 2921, 3023, 3035, 5041, 5663, 6281, 6303, 6905.

sRef Ex@17 @1 S0′ 8561. ‘And encamped in Rephidim’ means arranging interior things for undergoing a temptation having to do with truth, the essential nature of that temptation being meant by ‘Rephidim’. This is clear from the meaning of ‘encamping’ as arranging truth and good for undergoing temptations, dealt with in 8130, 8131, 8155, at this point for undergoing a temptation having to do with truth, a temptation which is represented by their having no water, dealt with in the next paragraph. Interior things are said to be arranged because truth and good constitute a member of the Church interiorly. The reason why ‘Rephidim’ means the essential nature of that temptation is that place-names mean the essential nature of the state of whatever the subject may be, in this instance the state of a temptation that has to do with truth since that is the subject here.

sRef Ex@17 @1 S0′ 8562. ‘And there was no water for the people to drink’ means a lack of truth and consequently of refreshment. This is clear from the meaning of ‘water’ as the truth of faith, dealt with in 2702, 3058, 3424, 4976, 5668; and from the meaning of ‘drinking’ as receiving instruction in the truths of faith and accepting them, dealt with in 3069, 3772, 4017, 4018, at this point being refreshed, because just as water and drink refresh a person’s natural life, so truths and cognitions of truth refresh his spiritual life. For one whose life is spiritual desires to sustain that life with such things as are called heavenly food and drink, which are the forms of good and the truths of faith, even as one whose life is natural desires to sustain this with such things as constitute natural food and drink.

[2] The reason why the subject now is a temptation having to do with truth is that the subject immediately before was a temptation which had to do with good, after which temptation the people received the manna, by which good is meant. When the Lord imparts good to someone that person comes to have a desire for truth, and this desire is aroused according to the lack of it; for good craves truth continually. Every genuine affection for truth springs from good. The situation is as it is with food. Without drink food is unable to supply nourishment to natural life; furthermore food creates a craving for drink, in order that, when combined with it, it may serve its purpose. This then is the reason why a temptation having to do with truth comes immediately after a temptation having to do with good. Temptation attacks what a person loves and desires, 4274, 4299.

sRef Ex@17 @2 S0′ 8563. ‘And the people wrangled with Moses’ means bitter complaining against God’s truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘wrangling’ as bitter complaining, for one who wrangles in temptation complains bitterly; and from the representation of ‘Moses’ as God’s truth, dealt with in 6723, 6752, 6771, 6827, 7010, 7014, 7089, 7382.

sRef Ex@17 @2 S0′ 8564. ‘And said, Give us water and let us drink’ means a burning desire for truth. This is clear from what has been shown just above in 8562 about the meaning of ‘water’ and ‘drinking’.

sRef Ex@17 @2 S0′ 8565. ‘And Moses said to them’ means the reply, made through influx into thought. This is clear from the meaning of ‘saying’ – when what is said comes from God’s truth, which ‘Moses’ represents – as the reply. And since every reply from the Divine is made through influx, and indeed into thought, these things are therefore meant.

sRef Ex@17 @2 S0′ 8566. ‘Why do you wrangle with me?’ means that they should be more restrained in their complaining. This is clear from the meaning of ‘wrangling’ as bitter complaining, as above in 8563. It also implies that they should be more restrained, for it says that they are thereby tempting Jehovah.

sRef Ex@17 @2 S0′ 8567. ‘Why do you tempt Jehovah?’ means that their complaining is against the Divine, from whom they despair of receiving aid. This is clear from the meaning of ‘tempting Jehovah’ as complaining against the Divine. The reason why going so far as to despair of receiving aid from Him is meant is that such despair lies within what people say when they complain in temptations; for temptations consist in ever-recurring feelings of despair over salvation. Initially those feelings are slight, but in course of time they weigh heavily on a person, till finally he doubts, almost denies God’s presence or the possibility of aid from Him. In temptations the spiritual life is for the most part brought to this extremity, for in that way the natural life is snuffed out, since while a person is in the midst of despair the Lord keeps his inmost actively engaged in the fight against falsity. As a consequence also such despair is soon after that dispelled by the comfort which is then supplied by the Lord; for all spiritual temptation is followed by comfort and so to speak newness of life. Regarding the prolongation of temptations to the point of despair, see 1787, 2694, 5279, 5280, 7147, 7155, 7166, 8165; and regarding comfort after temptations, 3696, 4572, 5246, 6829, 8367, 8370 (end).

sRef Ex@17 @3 S0′ sRef Amos@8 @11 S1′ sRef Amos@8 @12 S1′ sRef Amos@8 @13 S1′ 8568. ‘And the people thirsted there for water’ means an increase in the desire for truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘thirsting’ as craving and desiring, and as having reference to truth just as ‘hungering’ has reference to good; and from the meaning of ‘water’ as the truth of faith, dealt with above in 8562. The fact that ‘thirsting’ is craving and desiring – desiring truth, meant by ‘water’ – is plainly evident from a large number of places in the Word, such as in Amos,

Behold, the days are going to come, in which I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but for hearing the words of Jehovah. And they will wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; and they will run to and fro to seek the Word of Jehovah, and will not find it. On that day the beautiful virgins and the young men will faint for thirst. Amos 8:11-13.

The desire to know the truth is described here by ‘thirsting’. The desire for truth is meant by ‘I will not send a thirst for water, but for hearing the words of Jehovah’ and by ‘they will run to and fro to seek the Word of Jehovah’. The lack of truth and a resulting deprivation of spiritual life is described by ‘on that day the beautiful virgins and the young men will faint for thirst’, ‘the beautiful virgins’ being those with affections for good, and ‘the young men’ those with affections for truth.

sRef Isa@55 @1 S2′ [2] In Isaiah,

Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy [and] eat! Come and buy wine and milk without money and without price. Isa. 55:1.

‘Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters’ plainly stands for one desiring the truths of faith. ‘Buying wine and milk without price’ stands for acquiring from the Lord, thus for nothing, the good and truth of faith. For the meaning of ‘the waters’ as the truth of faith, see above in 8562; for ‘wine’ as the good of faith, 6377; and also ‘milk’, 2184. Anyone may see that ‘going to the waters and buying wine and milk’ is not used to mean the acquisition of wine and milk, but the kinds of things that belong to heaven and the Church.

sRef John@4 @14 S3′ sRef Rev@21 @6 S3′ sRef John@4 @13 S3′ [3] The like occurs in John,

To him who thirsts I will give from the spring of the water of life for nothing. Rev. 21:6.

‘The spring of the water of life’ stands for the truth and good of faith. ‘The thirsting one’ stands for one desiring them from affection for them, as accords with the Lord’s words in John,

Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but he who drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up into eternal life. John 4:13, 14.

‘Water’ here plainly stands for the truth of faith obtained from the Word, and so from the Lord; and ‘not thirsting’ stands for his being never again in want of truth.

sRef John@6 @35 S4′ sRef John@7 @38 S4′ sRef John@7 @37 S4′ [4] Something similar appears elsewhere in John,

Jesus said, I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. John 6:35.

And in the same gospel,

Jesus cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, Out of his belly will flow rivers of living water. John 7:37, 38.

‘Thirsting stands for desiring truth, ‘drinking for receiving instruction, and ‘rivers of living water’ for Divine Truth that flows from the Lord alone.

sRef Isa@21 @14 S5′ sRef Isa@32 @6 S5′ [5] In Isaiah,

To the thirsty bring water, O inhabitants of the land of Tema; meet with his bread the fugitive. Isa. 21:14.

‘To the thirsty bring water’ stands for giving instruction in truths to one desiring them, and so refreshing the life of his soul. In the same prophet,

The fool will speak folly, and his heart will work iniquity, to practice hypocrisy, and to utter error against Jehovah; to empty the soul of the hungry one, and to cause the drink of the thirsting one to fail. Isa 32:6.

‘The hungry one’ stands for one desiring good, and ‘one thirsting for drink’ for one desiring truth.

sRef Isa@41 @18 S6′ sRef Isa@41 @17 S6′ [6] In the same prophet,

The poor and the needy are seeking water, but there is none; their tongue is parched with thirst. I will open streams on the sloping heights, and I will place springs in the midst of valleys; I will make the wilderness into a pool of water, and the dry land into wellsprings of water. Isa. 41:17, 18.

It is perfectly clear to anyone that ‘seeking water’ is seeking truth, that
‘being parched with thirst’ is being deprived of spiritual life owing to the
lack of truth, and that ‘streams, springs, a pool, and wellsprings of water’
are the truths of faith in which they are to receive instruction.

In the same prophet,

Say, Jehovah has redeemed His servant Jacob. At that time they will not thirst; in waste places He will lead them. He will make water flow for them from the rock; and He will cleave the rock so that water flows out. Isa. 48:20, 21.

‘They will not thirst’ stands for their having no lack of truths; here ‘water’
plainly stands for the truths of faith.

sRef Isa@48 @21 S7′ sRef Isa@48 @20 S7′ sRef Isa@49 @10 S7′ [7] In the same prophet,

They will not hunger, nor will they thirst, nor will heat or the sun strike them; for the One having mercy on them will lead them, so that also by the wellsprings of water He will lead them. Isa. 49:10.

‘They will not hunger’ stands for their having no lack of good, ‘they will
not thirst’ for their having no lack of truth. ‘Wellsprings of water’ stands
for cognitions of truth out of the Word.

sRef Isa@35 @6 S8′ sRef Deut@8 @15 S8′ sRef Isa@35 @4 S8′ sRef Isa@35 @7 S8′ [8] Something similar occurs in Moses,

Jehovah was leading you through a great and frightening wilderness, with
serpents, fiery snakes, and scorpions, and dry places where there was no water; and He brought water for you out of the rock of the crag. Deut. 8:15.

In Isaiah,

Behold, your God will come. At that time waters will break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the plain of the wilderness; and the dry place will become a pool and the thirsty ground wellsprings of water. Isa. 35:4, 6, 7.

‘Waters in the wilderness which will break forth’, ‘streams’, ‘a pool’, and
‘wellsprings of water’ plainly stand for the truths of faith and cognitions of those truths, which would be received from the Lord when He came into the world.

sRef Ps@63 @1 S9′ sRef Isa@50 @2 S9′ sRef Isa@5 @13 S9′ [9] In David,

O God, [You are] my God; in the morning I seek You. My soul thirsts for You; my flesh in a dry land longs for You, and I am weary without water. Ps. 63:1.

Here ‘thirsting’ has reference to truth, and ‘I am weary without water’ stands for the fact that there are no truths. ‘Thirst’ stands for a lack of truth and the resulting deprivation of spiritual life in Isaiah,

Therefore My people will go into exile because they have no knowledge, and their honourable men will be famished,* and their multitude parched with thirst. Isa. 5:13.

In the same prophet,

I make the rivers into a desert; their fish become putrid because there is no water, and they will die of thirst. Isa. 50:2.

sRef Ex@17 @2 S10′ sRef Ex@17 @1 S10′ sRef Ex@17 @3 S10′ sRef Ex@17 @6 S10′ [10] From all this one may now see what is meant in the present chapter by there was no water for the people to drink, verse 1; by their saying, Give us water and let us drink, verse 2; by the people thirsted there for water, verse 3; and by the declaration that water would come out of the rock, verse 6. All of this makes it clear that their grumbling because of the lack of water means temptation arising from a lack of truth. For when a person enters temptation because of a lack of truth he is gripped by an intense desire for it, and at the same time by despair of eternal salvation on account of this. These feelings are responsible for the grief at that time and for the complaining.
* lit. their glory will be men (homo) of famine

sRef Ex@17 @3 S0′ sRef Ex@17 @4 S0′ 8569. ‘And the people grumbled against Moses’ means a greater degree of grief. This is clear from the meaning of ‘grumbling’ as grief caused by the bitterness of the temptation, dealt with in 8351. The fact that a greater degree of grief is meant is evident from Moses’ words when he cried out to Jehovah, Yet a little, and they stone me, verse 4.

sRef Ex@17 @3 S0′ 8570. ‘Why have you caused us to come up out of Egypt’ means Why have we been delivered from molestations … This is clear from the meaning of ‘causing to come up’, or bringing out, as delivering; and from the meaning of ‘Egypt’ as molestations, dealt with in 7278. For ‘the Egyptians’ means those who molest members of the Church in the next life, 6854, 6914, 7474, 7828, 7932, 8018, 8099, 8159, 8321.

sRef Ex@17 @3 S0′ 8571. ‘To cause me, and my children, and my livestock to die of thirst?’ means, in order for everything constituting spiritual life to perish, owing to the lack of truth? This is clear from the meaning of ‘dying’ as perishing, at this point so far as spiritual life is concerned; from the meaning of ‘me, my children, and my livestock’ as everything constituting spiritual life, since ‘me’ – or a person (homo) belonging to the Church – means the good of charity and faith, ‘children’ or ‘sons’ interior truths of faith, and ‘livestock’ exterior truths leading to good, thus everything constituting spiritual life (spiritual life consists of the good of charity and faith, and of the truth of faith, internal and external; for the meaning of ‘person’ or ‘man’ (homo) as good, see 4287; ‘children’ or ‘sons’ as the truths of faith, 489, 491, 533, 2623, 2803, 2813, 3373, 3704; and ‘livestock’ as truths leading to good, 6016, 6045, 6049); and from the meaning of ‘thirst’ as the lack of truth, dealt with just above in 8568 (end).

8572. Verses 4-6 And Moses cried out to Jehovah, saying, What shall I do for this people? Yet a little and they stone me.* And Jehovah said to Moses, Pass on before the people, and take with you some of the elders of Israel; and your rod with which you struck the river, take in your hand, and go. Behold, I [will be] standing before you there on the rock in Horeb, and you are to strike the rock, and water will come out of it; and let the people drink. And Moses did so before the eyes of the elders of Israel.

‘And Moses cried out to Jehovah, saying’ means deep grief, and intercession ‘What shall I do for this people?’ means what should be done for those who make such bitter complaint because they are not in receipt of truth? ‘Yet a little and they stone me’ means that they are not far from doing violence to the truth from God. ‘And Jehovah said to Moses’ means aid. ‘Pass on before the people’ means that he is to lead and teach them. ‘And take with you some of the elders of Israel’ means with the help of leading truths. ‘And your rod with which you struck the river’ means the Divine power by means of which falsities were dispelled. ‘Take in your hand, and go’ means that furnished with that power, he is to carry out what has been commanded. ‘Behold, I [will be] standing before you there on the rock in Horeb’ means the Lord in respect of the truths of faith. ‘And you are to strike the rock’ means that they are to ask Him insistently. ‘And water will come out of it’ means that truths of faith will flow from Him. ‘And let the people drink’ means that those truths will refresh them and impart spiritual life. ‘And Moses did so before the eyes of the elders of Israel’ means the accomplishment by means of leading truths
* i.e. They are almost ready to stone me

sRef Luke@22 @27 S0′ sRef Luke@22 @26 S0′ sRef Luke@22 @30 S0′ sRef Luke@22 @28 S0′ sRef Luke@22 @29 S0′ sRef Luke@22 @24 S0′ sRef Luke@22 @25 S0′ sRef Ex@17 @4 S0′ sRef Mark@10 @35 S1′ sRef Mark@10 @36 S1′ sRef Mark@10 @37 S1′ 8573. ‘And Moses cried out to Jehovah, [saying]’ means deep grief, and intercession. This is clear from the meaning of ‘crying out’ – when it refers to the Divine aid which the people demanded in their misery and grief – as deep grief, as also previously in 7782, and intercession, as in 8179. Since ‘Moses cried out to Jehovah’ means intercession by Divine Truth, which ‘Moses’ represents, what intercession is and the nature of it must be stated briefly. People who do not know what intercession is can have no other conception of it than this, that the Lord constantly prays to the Father and intercedes for the sinner who pleads in a devout manner and promises to repent. Indeed the simple think that the Lord sits with the Father and speaks to Him about a sinner, asking the Father to give Him that sinner to be in His kingdom and possess eternal happiness. An idea such as this is what very many have about intercession referred to in the Word, where it says that the Lord will entreat the Father on their behalf. But who can fail to see that human ways of thinking were being used in what was said? For everyone at that time, like very many also at the present day, could think of a heavenly kingdom only as they think of an earthly kingdom. The latter serves them to gain an idea of the former. This is plainly evident from the Lord’s apostles themselves – from James and John, who asked to sit one on His right, the other on His left in His kingdom, Mark 10:35-37; and also from the rest of the apostles, among whom a quarrel arose over which of them was to be greatest in His kingdom, and to whom the Lord said that they would eat and drink at His table in His kingdom, and that they would sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel, Luke 22:24, 30, and therefore that they would reign with Him. The things He said, it is evident, were adapted to their way of thinking and so to their ability to grasp them; but in the interior sense those things had a different meaning, which could not be made known at that time. What twelve thrones with the apostles seated on them mean, see 2129, 6397.

[2] As regards the nature of intercession, all love holds intercession within it, and so does all mercy since mercy is the characteristic of love. Anyone who has love or who has mercy is interceding constantly, as the following examples demonstrate: The husband who loves his wife wishes her to be well-received and well-treated by others. He does not express his wish in actual words, but it is constantly in his thinking, so that he is silently requesting it and interceding for her. Parents do the same thing for their children whom they love. It is likewise what a person governed by charity does for his neighbour, and what one moved by friendship does for a friend. These examples show that intercession is present unceasingly in all love. The same is true of the Lord’s intercession for the human race, especially for those with whom the goodness and truth of faith are present; for towards them Divine – that is, infinite – love is shown, and Divine – that is, infinite – mercy. Not that the Lord prays to the Father for them and intercedes in that way; for then He would be acting in an entirely human manner. Rather He is constantly excusing and constantly forgiving, because He is constantly showing mercy; this the Lord Himself is doing since the Lord and the Father are one, John 14:8-12.

[3] An arcanum that lies even more deeply concealed within the word ‘intercession’ must also be mentioned. Divine Truth which emanates from the Lord intercedes constantly in such a way because it emanates from Divine Love. While the Lord was in the world He was Divine Truth; but now that He has been glorified, which was accomplished when He rose again, He is Divine Good, 7499. Divine Good is what is meant in the Word in the internal sense by ‘the Father’, and Divine Truth by ‘the Son’, 2803, 3704, 7499. And since Divine Truth, which emanates from Divine Good, holds constant intercession within it, the Son is said to entreat the Father and to intercede for a person. People were able to grasp the latter notion of the Son, but the former idea of Divine Truth only with difficulty.

sRef Ex@17 @4 S0′ 8574. ‘What shall I do for this people?’ means what should be done for those who make such bitter complaint because they are not in receipt of truth? This is clear from the meaning of ‘what shall I do for this people?’ as words embodying such matters; for ‘the wrangling of the people with Moses’ means bitter complaining, 8563, 8566, and ‘no water for them to drink’ means a lack of truth, 8562, 8568.

sRef Ex@17 @4 S0′ 8575. ‘Yet a little, and they stone me’ means that they are not far from doing violence to the truth from God. This is clear from the meaning of ‘yet a little’ as not far from; and from the meaning of ‘stoning’ as punishing for the violation of truth that relates to worship, dealt with in 7456, though here it is used in the contrary sense and so means doing violence to the truth from God, which ‘Moses’ represents. The fact that ‘Moses’ represents the truth from God has been shown rather often.

sRef Ex@17 @5 S0′ 8576. ‘And Jehovah said to Moses’ means aid. This is clear from the meaning of ‘saying’, which includes what comes after it, in this instance that truths, the lack of which they complained about so bitterly, were supplied, those truths being meant by ‘the water out of Horeb’. Thus ‘saying’ here implies aid.

sRef Ex@17 @5 S0′ 8577. ‘Pass on before the people’ means that he is to lead and teach them. This is clear from the meaning of ‘passing on before’ as leading, and so teaching as well since one who teaches is in a spiritual manner leading; and from the representation of the children of Israel, to whom ‘the people’ refers here, as those who belong to the spiritual Church, dealt with rather often.

sRef Ex@17 @5 S0′ 8578. ‘And take with you some of the elders oh Israel’ means with the help of leading truths. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the elders of Israel’ as the leading characteristics of wisdom and intelligence that accord with good and with truth, dealt with in 6524, 6525, 6890, 7912, thus leading truths since these belong to intelligence and wisdom.

sRef Ex@17 @5 S0′ 8579. ‘And your rod with which you struck the river’ means the Divine power by means of which falsities were dispelled. This is clear from the meaning of ‘rod’ as power, dealt with in 4013, 4015, 4876, 4936, 6947, 7011, 7026, at this point Divine power because ‘Moles’, whose rod it was, represents the Lord in respect of Divine Truth; and from the meaning of ‘the river’, in this instance the river of Egypt, as falsity, dealt with in 6693. The words ‘with which you struck the river’ are used in order to mean the dispelling of falsity; for the Divine power by which truth is supplied is also the means by which falsities are dispelled. The truth which is supplied is meant by ‘the water from the rock in Horeb’.

sRef Ex@17 @5 S0′ 8580. ‘Take in your hand, and go’ means that furnished with that power, he is to carry out what has been commanded. This is clear from the meaning of ‘taking in his hand’ – taking his rod in it – as being furnished with that power. The fact that ‘go’ means carrying out what has been commanded is clear without explanation.

sRef Ex@17 @6 S0′ sRef Deut@32 @4 S1′ sRef Deut@32 @3 S1′ sRef Deut@32 @37 S1′ sRef Deut@32 @15 S1′ sRef Deut@32 @13 S1′ sRef Deut@32 @31 S1′ sRef Deut@32 @18 S1′ sRef Deut@32 @30 S1′ 8581. ‘behold, I [will be] standing before you there on the rock in Horeb’ means the Lord in respect of the truths of faith. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the rock’ as faith, in this instance faith received from the Lord, or the Lord in respect of faith, for Jehovah – that is, the Lord – says ‘Behold, I [will be] standing on the rock’; and from the meaning of ‘Horeb’ as God’s law. Consequently the words used here mean the Lord in respect of the truths of faith, which come from His law or the Word. The fact that ‘the rock’ means the Lord in respect of faith, and on man’s side the faith he receives from the Lord, is clear from very many places in the Word, as in Moses,

Ascribe* greatness to our God, the Rock, whose work is perfect. He caused him to ride on** the heights of the land, and fed him with the produce of the fields; He caused him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock. But when Jeshurun became fat he kicked; he forsook God who made Him, and despised the Rock of his salvation. You have been unmindful of*** the Rock who begot you, and have forgotten the God who formed you. Their Rock sold them, and Jehovah shut them up. For their rock is not like our Rock. When it is said, Where are their gods, the rock in which they trusted? … Deut. 32:3, 4, 13, 15, 18, 30, 31, 37.

From these verses it is evident that Jehovah, that is, the Lord, is the One who is called ‘the Rock’. The fact that ‘the Rock’ is Jehovah or the Lord in respect of faith is made plain by every detail there in the internal sense.

sRef Dan@2 @35 S2′ sRef Dan@2 @44 S2′ sRef Dan@2 @45 S2′ sRef Dan@2 @34 S2′ [2] In Daniel,

You were watching, until a stone was cut out, not by means of hands; and it struck the statue on its feet, which were iron and clay, and smashed them to pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold together were smashed to pieces, and became like chaff from the summer threshing-floors; so that the wind carried them away, and no place was found for them. But the stone that struck the statue became a great rock and filled the whole earth. The God of heaven will cause a kingdom to arise that will never be destroyed, and also His kingdom will not be left to other people; it will crush and consume all those kingdoms, but will itself stand for ever. Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the rock, not by means of hands, and it smashed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold… Dan. 2:34, 35, 44, 45.

The subject here is the Lord and His kingdom, ‘a stone’ being used to mean faith, and ‘a rock’ the Lord in respect of faith. The fact that these things are meant by ‘a stone’ and ‘a rock’ is evident to anyone who gives thought to the matter. ‘A stone’ also means in the Word the truth that composes faith, see 643, 1298, 3720, 3769, 3771, 3773, 3789, 3798, 6426; therefore also the Lord in respect of Divine Truth is called ‘the stone of Israel’, 6426. The reason why ‘a rock’ means the Lord in respect of the truth of faith is that ‘a rock’ is also used to mean a fortress that withstands falsities. The actual fortress is the truth of faith, for this is what the battle against both falsities and evils is waged from.

sRef Matt@16 @19 S3′ sRef Matt@16 @18 S3′ [3] All this also makes it clear that in the following words in Matthew which the Lord addressed to Peter ‘rock’ is used to mean the Lord in respect of faith, and also faith received from the Lord,

I tell you, You Are Peter, and on this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Matt. 16:18, 19.

As regards ‘rock’ here, that it means the Lord in respect of faith, and faith received from the Lord, and that ‘Peter’ represents that faith, see Preface to Genesis 22, and also 3750, 4738, 6000, 6073 (end), 6344 (end). It is also evident to anyone who thinks properly that the power to open heaven and close hell for the good, and to open hell and close heaven for the wicked, is the Lord’s alone, and that the reason why such power accompanies faith is that faith comes from the Lord, and so likewise is the Lord’s; that is, the Lord Himself is within faith. All power in the next life too comes through the truth of faith springing from good, 4931, 6344, 6423, 8200, 8304. One who thinks properly may also conclude that the Lord’s Church has not been built on some person, thus not on Peter, but on the Lord Himself, that is, on faith in Him.

[4] From all this one can see what kind of errors they are, and how great, which those people slip into who adhere strictly to the sense of the letter of the Word. One can see why leaders of the Church are all too ready to seize on the idea that such power was given to Peter and consequently to those who call themselves his successors, for that idea lends support to what is in their heart. One can see how difficult it is for them to let themselves be convinced that this passage has any other meaning, for each wishes to gain supreme power. All this also shows how vital it is to know what ‘rock’, ‘the keys’, ‘the gates of hell’, and very many other things mean in the internal sense.

sRef Ps@61 @2 S5′ sRef Isa@17 @10 S5′ sRef Isa@16 @1 S5′ sRef Jer@51 @26 S5′ sRef Jer@51 @25 S5′ sRef Ps@40 @2 S5′ sRef Isa@51 @1 S5′ sRef Ps@81 @16 S5′ sRef Jer@48 @28 S5′ sRef Isa@42 @11 S5′ sRef Isa@31 @9 S5′ sRef Isa@31 @8 S5′ [5] The fact that Jehovah is called ‘the Rock’, and that when He is called this the Lord in respect of faith is meant, many other places in the Word also go to prove, such as the following, which will be quoted without further explanation. In Isaiah,

Send the lamb of the ruler of the land from the Rock towards the wilderness, to the mountain [of the daughter] of Zion. Isa. 16:1.

In the same prophet,

You have forgotten [the God] of your salvation, and have not called to mind the Rock of your refuge. Isa. 17:10.

In the same prophet,

Asshur will fall by the sword, not of man (vir). Also his rock will pass away by reason of terror. Isa. 31:8, 9.

In the same prophet,

Let the inhabitants of the Rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains. Isa 42:11.

In the same prophet,

Pay attention to Me, you who are pursuing righteousness, who are seeking Jehovah. Look to the Rock from which you were hewn. Isa. 51:1.

In Jeremiah,

Leave the cities and dwell in the Rock, O inhabitants of Moab. Jer. 48:28.

In the same prophet,

I am against you, O destroying mountain, destroying the whole earth. And I will stretch out My hand against you, and roll you down from the rocks, and make you into a mountain of burning. Nor will they take from you a stone for a corner, or a stone for foundations. Jer. 51:25, 26.

This refers to Babel. In David,

He caused me to come up out of the pit of devastation, out of the muddy clay, and He set my feet upon a rock. Ps. 40:2.

In the same author,

From the end of the earth I cry to You, when my heart fails; You lead me to the Rock high up from me. Ps. 61:2.

In the same author,

I fed them with the fat of wheat, and with honey out of the rock I satisfied them. Ps. 81:16.

sRef Judg@6 @20 S6′ sRef Judg@6 @21 S6′ sRef Judg@13 @20 S6′ sRef Judg@13 @19 S6′ [6] Since ‘a rock’ meant the Lord in respect of faith, and faith received from the Lord, also the wondrous things spoken of in the Book of Judges took place on a rock,

The Angel of Jehovah told Gideon to take the flesh and unleavened bread and peace them on the rock, and pour out the broth. And fire went up from the rock and consumed the flesh and unleavened bread. Judg. 6:20, 21.

And elsewhere in the same book,

Manoah, Samson’s father, took the kid of the she-goats and offered it on the rock. Then the Angel acted in a wondrous manner and ascended in the flame. Judg. 13:19, 20.

What meaning these things had becomes clear if what ‘Gideon’ and what ‘Manoah, Samson’s father’ represented is discovered from the internal sense, also what was meant by ‘the flesh and unleavened bread’ and ‘the broth’, ‘the kid of the she-goats’ as well, and ‘the fire’. For every single one of these was representative and had a spiritual meaning.

sRef Isa@48 @21 S7′ sRef Isa@48 @20 S7′ [7] Knowing that ‘the Rock’ means faith may lead also to an understanding of the reference to Moses’ being pieced in the cleft of the rock when he was to see Jehovah, Exod. 33:20-23; for ‘the cleft of the rock’ means obscurity of faith. It is well known in the Churches that the rock in Horeb from which the water came out means the Lord; but now it has been shown that it means the Lord in respect of faith, and also that it means faith received from the Lord. A meaning similar to that which ‘the rock in Horeb’ possesses is also meant in the following words in Isaiah,

Say, Jehovah has redeemed His servant Jacob. At that time they will not thirst; in waste places He will lead them. He will make water flow for them from the rock, when He cleaves the rock so that water flows out. Isa. 48:20, 21.

The reason why the people were given the water from no other rock than the one in Horeb is that ‘Horeb’ means God’s law; and the reason why God’s law is meant by ‘Horeb’ is that the law was proclaimed from there. And faith which is received from the Lord is acquired from God’s law, that is, from the Word; for through the Word the Lord teaches what faith is and also imparts faith.
* The Latin means literally I will give but the Hebrew means Give.
** Reading equitare (to ride on) for evigilare (to arouse)
*** lit. You have given to forgetfulness

sRef Num@20 @10 S0′ sRef Num@20 @11 S0′ sRef Ex@17 @6 S0′ sRef Num@20 @12 S0′ 8582. ‘And you are to strike the rock’ means that they are to ask Him – the Lord – insistently. This is clear from the meaning of ‘striking’ as asking insistently, but in humility of heart. That ‘striking the rock’ means asking insistently, in humility of heart, may be recognized from the incident in which, because Moses struck the rock in hardness of heart, that is, he demanded water, it was declared to him that he would not lead the people into the land of Canaan, as he himself records in the Book of Numbers,

Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock; and he said to them, Hear now, you rebels; must we bring water for you out of this rock? And Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod. Nonetheless much water came out. Then Jehovah said to Moses and Aaron, Because you did not believe in Me and honour Me as holy in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you will not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them. Num. 20:10-12.

sRef Ex@17 @6 S0′ 8583. ‘And water will come out of it’ means that truths of faith will flow from Him. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the rock’, from which the water will come out, as the Lord in respect of faith, dealt with just above in 8581; and from the meaning of ‘water’ as the truths of faith, dealt with in 2702, 3058, 3424, 4976, 5668, 8568.

sRef Ex@17 @6 S0′ 8584. ‘And let the people drink’ means that those truths will refresh them and impart spiritual life. This is clear from the meaning of ‘drinking’ as receiving instruction in the truths of faith, thus imparting and refreshing spiritual life, dealt with above in 8562.

sRef Ex@17 @6 S0′ 8585. And Moses did so before the eyes of the elders of Israel’ means the accomplishment by means of leading truths. This is clear from the meaning of ‘Moses did so’ as the accomplishment; and from the meaning of ‘the elders of Israel’ as leading truths, dealt with above in 8578. The reason why previously it said that Moses was to take with him some of the elders of Israel, and now that he did so before the eyes of the elders of Israel, is that faith is imparted through truths, and in fact through leading ones since they shed light that allows clear perception of the truths flowing from them, called secondary truths.

sRef Ex@17 @7 S0′ 8586. Verse 7 And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the wrangling of the children of Israel, and because of their tempting Jehovah, saying, Is Jehovah in the midst of us or not?

‘And he called the name of the place Massah’ means the essential nature of the state of the temptation. ‘And Meribah’ means the essential nature of the complaining. ‘Because of the wrangling of the children of Israel’ means complaining on account of the bitterness of the temptation, so severe that they were close to giving in. ‘And because of their tempting Jehovah’ means that the complaining is against the Divine, from whom they despair of receiving aid. ‘Saying, Is Jehovah in the midst of us?’ means that they were near to believing that the Lord does not bring aid to His own.

sRef Ex@17 @7 S0′ 8587. ‘And he called the name of the place Massah’ means the essential nature of the state of the temptation. This is clear from the meaning of ‘name’ and ‘calling the name’ as the essential nature, dealt with in 144, 145, 1754, 1896, 2009, 2628, 2724, 3006, 3421, 6674, 6887; and from the meaning of ‘the place’ as the state, dealt with in 2625, 2837, 3356, 3387, 4321, 4882, 5605, 7381. The reason why the essential nature of the state of the temptation is meant is that the temptation is the subject. The essential nature of its state is meant by ‘Massah’; also Massah in the original language means temptation. The essential nature of it will be stated in what follows next.

sRef Ex@17 @7 S0′ sRef Ps@81 @7 S1′ 8588. ‘And Meribah’ means the essential nature of the complaining. This is clear from the consideration that in the original language Meribah means contention or wrangling, and ‘wrangling’ means complaining, 8563, 8566; and since also names mean the essential nature of something, 8587, ‘Meribah’ here means the essential nature of the complaining. As regards the specific temptation here and the essential nature of it, it should be recognized that those people are being described here who in temptations almost give in; that is to say, they complain against heaven, also against the Divine Himself, and at length almost cease to believe in God’s providence. These things are meant in the internal sense by what has gone before and also by what follows in the present verse; they are the essential nature of the state of the temptation, meant by ‘Massah’, and the essential nature of the complaining in the temptation, meant by ‘Meribah’. The fact that the latter is meant here by ‘Meribah’ is evident in David,

You called on Me in distress, and I rescued you; I answered you in the hiding place. I tested you by the waters of Meribah. Ps. 81:7.

[2] But the internal historical sense, in which the religious condition of the Israelite nation is the subject, describes the nature of their attitude towards Jehovah. It was such that when they asked Him for aid they refused to plead for it, and instead demanded it. The reason for this was that when they saw miracles their acknowledgement of Jehovah as the Supreme Deity did not exist in their heart, only on their lips. The fact that there was no acknowledgement of Him in their heart is perfectly clear from the Egyptian calf which they made for themselves and worshipped, saying that these were their gods, and also from their frequent apostasy, regarding which see 8301. These are the matters that the internal historical sense describes here; but the internal spiritual sense describes the essential nature of the temptation when those undergoing it are brought to the final phase before their deliverance.

sRef Deut@33 @8 S3′ sRef Deut@33 @9 S3′ sRef Deut@6 @16 S3′ sRef Ps@95 @11 S3′ sRef Deut@4 @16 S3′ sRef Ps@95 @10 S3′ sRef Ps@95 @9 S3′ sRef Ps@95 @8 S3′ [3] The fact that the character of the Israelite nation and their religious condition are described by their contending with Moses at Massah and Meribah is also clear in David,

Do not harden your heart as in Meribah, as in the day of Massah, in the wilderness, where your fathers tempted Me; they tempted Me, and saw My work. For forty years I loathed [that] generation, and said, They are a people who err in their heart and have not known My ways, to whom I swore in My anger, They shall not enter My rest. Ps. 95:8-11.

In Moses,

You shall not tempt Jehovah your God, as you tempted [Him] in Massah. Deut. 6:16.

In the same author,

Furthermore in Taberah and in Massah and in Kibroth Hattaavah, you were rebels against Jehovah from the day I knew you. Deut. 9:22, 24.

In the same author,

Of Levi he said, Your Thummim and your Urim shall be for the Holy Man (Vir) whom you tempted in Massah; you contended with Him at the waters of Meribah. Deut. 33:8, 9

‘The Holy Man’ here stands for the Lord, whom they tempted, and whom
Moses and Aaron ‘did not honour as holy’.

sRef Num@20 @13 S4′ sRef Num@20 @24 S4′ sRef Num@20 @12 S4′ [4] In the internal historical sense, in which the religious condition of the
Israelite nation is the subject, Moses and Aaron do not represent God’s
truth, but the religious condition of that nation, whose leaders and heads they were, 7041. Since that religious condition was such as has been mentioned above, it was declared to the two that they would not lead the people into the land of Canaan. This is stated in the Book of Numbers as follows,

Jehovah said to Moses and Aaron, Because you did not believe in Me and honour Me as holy in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you will not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them. These are the waters of Meribah, because the children of Israel contended with Jehovah. Num. 20:12, 13; 27:14.

And in the same book,

Aaron will be gathered to his people, and will not enter the land which I have given to the children of Israel, because you rebelled against My word* at the waters of Meribah. Num. 20:24.

The like is said of Moses at Deut. 32:49-51.

[5] Among that nation representative worship of God was nevertheless established because representative worship could have been established among any nation that thought the outward things of worship were holy and venerated them in a virtually idolatrous manner. For a representative has no regard to the person who represents, only to the reality represented, 1361; and that nation was by disposition such, more than any other nation, that outward things devoid of anything internal were altogether venerated by them as being holy and Divine. They were such that they revered their fathers – Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and later on Moses and David – as demi-gods. In addition they venerated as being holy and Divine, and worshipped, every piece of stone or wood dedicated to their worship of God, such as the Ark, the tables there, the lampstand, the altar, Aaron’s vestments, the Urim and Thummim, and later on the temple. By means of outward things such as these at that time communication of the angels of heaven with mankind was in the Lord’s providence made possible; for the Church, or a representative of the Church, must exist somewhere, in order that heaven may be in communication with the human race. And since that nation more than any other could make Divine worship consist in outward things, and so could act as a representative of the Church, that nation was the one to be adopted.

[6] The communication with angels in heaven by means of representatives was effected at that time in the following way. People’s outward worship was conveyed to angelic spirits who are simple and give no thought to inward values, though they are themselves nevertheless good inwardly. Such spirits are those who in the Grand Man correspond to the skin. They pay no attention at all to what is in a person inwardly, only to what is visible outwardly; and if this is seen by them to be holy they think that what is inward is so too. The more internal angels of heaven saw in these spirits the realities that were being represented, consequently the corresponding heavenly and Divine values; for they could reside with these spirits and see those values, but not with men, except through those spirits. Angels dwell with men in their inward values; but when no inward values are there, they dwell in the interiors of simple spirits; for the wisdom of angels extends only to spiritual and celestial values, which are the inward realities of representatives. From this brief explanation one may recognize how communication with heaven through such a people could be made possible. But see what has been shown already on this matter:

Among the Jews the holiness of their worship was carried up outside themselves into heaven in a miraculous fashion, 4307. The descendants of Jacob were able to represent what was holy, irrespective of what they were really like, provided that the religious observances which had been commanded were carried out precisely, 3147, 3479, 3480, 3881 (end), 4208, 4281, 4288, 4289, 4293, 4307, 4444, 4500, 4680, 4825, 4844, 4847, 4899, 4912, 6304, 6306, 7048, 7051, 8301 (end).
* lit. mouth

sRef Ex@17 @7 S0′ 8589. ‘Because of the wrangling of the children of Israel’ means complaining on account of the bitterness of the temptation, so severe that they were close to giving in. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the wrangling’ as bitter complaining, dealt with in 8563. The fact that their being close to giving in is meant is clear from the nature of their wrangling; that is to say, it was such that they were on the verge of stoning Moses, they were tempting Jehovah, and they were saying, Is Jehovah in the midst of us?

sRef Ex@17 @7 S0′ 8590. ‘And because of their tempting Jehovah’ means that the complaining is against the Divine, from whom they despair of receiving aid. This is clear from what has been stated above in 8567, where the same words occur.

sRef Ex@17 @7 S0′ 8591. ‘Saying, Is Jehovah in the midst of us?’ means that they were near to believing that the Lord does not bring aid to His own. This is clear without explanation.

sRef Ex@17 @8 S0′ sRef Ex@17 @9 S0′ 8592. Verses 8, 9 And Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim. And Moses said to Joshua, Choose men for us, and go out, fight against Amalek; tomorrow I stand on the top of the hill, with the rod of God in my hand.

‘And Amalek came’ means falsity arising from interior evil. ‘And fought with Israel in Rephidim’ means that they attacked them when they were enduring bitter temptation. ‘And Moses said to Joshua’ means a Divine influx into truth that engages in conflict. ‘Choose men for us’ means that he should draw truths up in formation for battle. ‘And go out, fight against Amalek’ means against falsities arising from interior evil. ‘Tomorrow I stand on the top of the hill’ means the joining of God’s truth to the good of charity, and influx from there. ‘With the rod of God in my hand’ means that this will be a source of power.

sRef Ex@17 @8 S0′ 8593. ‘And Amalek came’ means falsity arising from interior evil. This is clear from the representation of ‘Amalek’ as falsity arising from interior evil, dealt with below. Who exactly are steeped in falsity arising from interior evil, and what they are like, must be stated first. Interior evil is that which resides with a person, hidden inwardly. It is concealed in his will and consequently in his thinking, not a trace of it being apparent outwardly, in his actions, speech, or face. People ruled by this kind of evil strive by every method and skill to hide it away, to conceal it under an outward show of being honourable and righteous, and an outward show of love of the neighbour. Nevertheless their only thought is how to inflict harm, and so far as possible to use others to inflict it, taking care to prevent anyone from seeing that they are the instigators. They also disguise actual evil so that it does not look like evil. The greatest delight of their life is to contemplate such things and secretly try to carry them out. This is called interior evil. Those ruled by this evil are called evil genii and in the next life they have been completely separated from those who are ruled by exterior evil and are called spirits. The former – the evil genii – have their hell behind a person, that is, behind his back, where they live in various caverns. But the evil spirits have their hell in front of a person, and also to the sides. The genii belong in the Grand Man to the province of the cerebellum, and also to that part of the spinal cord which sends out the fibres and nerves that control involuntary actions.

sRef Num@14 @45 S2′ sRef Num@14 @43 S2′ [2] One may say further of the falsity arising from this interior evil that it is not like the falsity arising from evil that the evil spirits possess, because it is in itself evil. Those ruled by this evil do not attack the truths of faith but forms of the good of faith. They act through corrupt affections; through these they pervert good thoughts, doing so in a way almost inconceivable. Because they are like this their hells are completely separated from the hells of evil spirits, so completely that they have scarcely any contact with them; and they are separated in order that they may also be separated from members of the spiritual Church. For if they were to flow in from their hells, the member of that Church would be destroyed because they would act very secretly on his conscience and would pervert it, which they would do by inflating his corrupt affections. Those hellish genii never attack a person openly, or when he can offer strong resistance, but when it is seen that the person is slipping and may therefore give in. At this point they are suddenly at hand, and give him a shove so that he falls completely. This is also represented by Amalek’s coming up to attack Israel now, as well as at a later time when the children of Israel set themselves against Jehovah and were afraid of the nations in the land of Canaan,

Then also Amalek came down with the Canaanite from the mountain, and struck down the children of Israel as far as Hormah. Num. 14:43, 45.

sRef 1Sam@15 @11 S3′ sRef 1Sam@15 @14 S3′ sRef 1Sam@15 @2 S3′ sRef 1Sam@15 @13 S3′ sRef 1Sam@15 @12 S3′ sRef 1Sam@15 @5 S3′ sRef 1Sam@15 @6 S3′ sRef 1Sam@15 @3 S3′ sRef 1Sam@15 @4 S3′ sRef 1Sam@15 @9 S3′ sRef 1Sam@15 @10 S3′ sRef 1Sam@15 @7 S3′ sRef 1Sam@15 @8 S3′ sRef Deut@25 @18 S3′ sRef 1Sam@15 @23 S3′ sRef 1Sam@15 @24 S3′ sRef 1Sam@15 @25 S3′ sRef Deut@25 @19 S3′ sRef 1Sam@15 @26 S3′ sRef 1Sam@15 @17 S3′ sRef Deut@25 @17 S3′ sRef 1Sam@15 @15 S3′ sRef 1Sam@15 @16 S3′ sRef 1Sam@15 @18 S3′ sRef 1Sam@15 @21 S3′ sRef 1Sam@15 @22 S3′ sRef 1Sam@15 @19 S3′ sRef 1Sam@15 @20 S3′ sRef 1Sam@15 @1 S3′ sRef Ex@17 @16 S3′ [3] From all this one may recognize what those people are like who are represented by Amalek, and the reason for the judgement pronounced over him by Jehovah that war will be waged against them forever and that the memory of them will be wiped out from under heaven, in accordance with the following words in the final verse of the present chapter,

Because the hand of the evil ones is against the throne of Jah, the war of Jehovah will be against Amalek from generation to generation.

And in Deuteronomy,

Remember what Amalek did to you on the way when you came out of Egypt, that he met you on the way, and cut off at your rear all the weak, when you were tired and weary; he did not fear God. When Jehovah your God has given you rest, you shall wipe out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget. Deut. 25:17-19.

Also in the first book of Samuel,

Jehovah declared to Saul through Samuel, I have resolved to punish* what Amalek did to Israel, how he set [himself] against him on the way when he came up from Egypt. Therefore go and strike Amalek, and utterly destroy all that he has; do not spare him, but kill man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass. But Saul spared Agag the king, and the best of the flock and the oxen, and of the fatlings,** and the rams, and all that was good. Therefore it was declared to Saul that because of this he would no longer be king over Israel. 1 Sam. 15:2, 3, 9, 23.

The declaration that the memory of Amalek should be wiped out and that everything there should be utterly destroyed meant that evil genii should have no contact whatever with those belonging to the spiritual Church; for they are in contact with those who are not governed by truths but from an evil affection uphold falsities.

sRef 1Sam@15 @33 S4′ sRef 1Sam@15 @32 S4′ [4] Who can fail to see that except for some more deeply hidden reason Jehovah would never have said that war was to be waged forever against Amalek, that the memory of him was to be wiped out from under heaven, and that everything there was to be utterly destroyed, though all this was not in fact carried out? That more deeply hidden reason why these things were said and done is embodied in Samuel’s words to Agag the king of the Amalekites, whom Saul had spared,

Agag the king of Amalek went to Samuel delicately.*** But Samuel said, As your sword has bereaved women, so shall your mother become the most bereaved of women. And Samuel cut him in pieces before Jehovah. 1 Sam. 15:32, 33.

‘Going delicately’ means the outwardly charming ways that such people have in the presence of others. ‘Your sword has bereaved women’ means that their falsity does violence to good affections; ‘your mother shall become the most bereaved of women’ means that evil affection which originates in the will, not in the understanding, will hold sway among them; ‘and Samuel cut him in pieces before Jehovah’ means that they were separated from those ruled by falsity arising from evil that originated in the understanding, that is, genii were separated from spirits, as stated above. For the meaning of ‘women’ as affections, see 568, 6014, 8337; and for ‘sword’ as falsity engaged in conflict and laying waste, 2799, 4499, 7102.
* lit. visit
** lit. of the second sort
*** lit. In delights

sRef Ex@17 @8 S0′ 8594. ‘And fought with Israel in Rephidim’ means that they attacked them when they were enduring bitter temptation. This is clear from the meaning of ‘fighting’ as attacking by means of falsities arising from interior evil; and from the meaning of ‘Rephidim’ as the essential nature of the temptation having to do with truth, dealt with in 8561. How to understand these things is clear from what has been stated immediately above in 8593, where it is shown that in the next life those represented by ‘Amalek’ attack those undergoing temptation when they are slipping and near to giving in.

sRef Ex@17 @9 S0′ 8595. ‘And Moses said to Joshua’ means a Divine influx into truth that engages in conflict. This is clear from the meaning here of ‘saying’ as influx, since it passes into truth that engages in conflict, represented by ‘Joshua’, the reason why this influx is Divine being that ‘Moses’ represents Divine Truth, that is, truth which goes forth directly from the Lord (this truth, since it is wholly Divine, is what flows into any truth of faith whatever and causes it to be a truth); and from the representation of ‘Joshua’ as truth that engages in conflict. ‘Joshua’ clearly represents truth that engages in conflict because he was commanded to fight against Amalek, that is, against falsities arising from interior evil. This is what the truth made militant through an influx of Divine Truth has to fight against. God’s truth itself which goes forth directly from the Lord does not engage in conflict but is peaceable, being peace itself, since it goes forth from the Divine Goodness of the Lord’s Divine Love. But to become militant it flows in among such angels as have a burning zeal for what is true and good, and when roused by that zeal they go into battle. This is the origin of the truth engaging in conflict that is represented by ‘Joshua’.

sRef Josh@5 @13 S2′ sRef Josh@5 @14 S2′ sRef Josh@5 @15 S2′ [2] Because such truth was represented by ‘Joshua’ he also became the leader of the children of Israel after Moses, led them into the land of Canaan, and fought the nations there. This also explains why, when he came into the land of Canaan, there appeared to him the Angel of Jehovah with his sword drawn in his hand, who called himself Commander of Jehovah’s army, Josh. 5:13-15. ‘His sword drawn in his hand’ means God’s truth that engages in conflict, in its power.

‘The sword’ means truth engaging in conflict, see 2799, 4499; as unceasing conflict against falsities and evils, 8294.

‘Hand’ means power, 878, 4931-4937, 7518, 8050, 8153.

And by ‘the nations’ in the land of Canaan are meant the falsities and evils that must be fought against, 8054.

sRef Ex@17 @9 S0′ 8596. ‘Choose men for us’ means that he should draw truths up in formation for battle. This is clear from the meaning of ‘men’ as truths, dealt with in 265, 749, 1007, 3134. Drawing those truths up for battle is meant by Joshua’s having to choose the men, for when ‘Joshua’ represents God’s truth that engages in conflict, ‘the men’ whom he chooses and links to himself mean truths that have been drawn up for battle.

sRef Ex@17 @9 S0′ 8597. ‘And go out, fight against Amalek’ means against falsities arising from interior evil. This is clear from the representation of ‘Amalek’ as falsities arising from interior evil, dealt with above in 8593.

sRef Ex@17 @9 S0′ 8598. ‘Tomorrow I stand on the top of the hill’ means the joining of God’s truth to the good of charity, and influx from there. This is clear from the representation of ‘Moses’, who was going to stand on the top of the hill, as God’s truth, dealt with often; from the meaning of ‘standing’ as being joined to and flowing in (the reason why ‘standing’ here means being joined to is that he would at that time be on the top of the hill, and ‘hill’ means the good of charity; and the reason why flowing in is meant as well is that he looked down from there on the battle and also controlled the course of it, which is meant by the description that when he raised up his hand Israel prevailed, and when he let down his hand Amalek prevailed); and from the meaning of ‘the hill’ as the good of charity, dealt with in 6435.

[2] A brief statement is needed to indicate what that joining together really is and what an influx of the good of charity into truth that engages in conflict is. God’s truth becomes that which engages in conflict when it is joined to those who are truly zealous, as stated above. Those who are zealous engage in conflict; yet they do so not because they are moved by any feeling of enmity or hostility, but rather by charity. Zeal is different from anger in that zeal holds the good of charity within it, and therefore when zeal goes into battle it merely removes those ruled by falsity and evil to prevent them from harming those governed by goodness and truth. Anger however not only removes them but also pursues them in a spirit of hatred and vengeance. For zeal, because of the charity within it, desires the welfare even of those ruled by evil and falsity, and also works towards it provided that they cannot do any harm to those who are good. But anger, because of the hatred and vengeance within it, wishes harm to all with whom it engages in conflict, whether they are good or evil. From all this one may see what is meant by an influx of the good of charity into truth that engages in conflict. As regards zeal, that it holds good within it, while anger holds evil, see 4164, 4444.

sRef Ex@17 @9 S0′ 8599. ‘With the rod of God in my hand’ means that this will be a source of power. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the rod of God’ as Divine power, dealt with in 4013, 4015, 4876, 4936, 7026; and from the meaning of ‘hand’ also as power, 8595 (end). The reason why he says that the rod of God would be in his hand is that ‘the rod’ means outward power and ‘hand’ inward power, or ‘the rod’ means natural power and ‘hand’ spiritual power, 6947, 7011. The expression a source of power is used because truth engaged in conflict has power within it, derived from good; for all the power that truth possesses is derived from the good within it. The reason for this is that the Divine is within good, and through good He is within truth; but He is not within truth devoid of good. For the fact that all the power truth possesses is derived from good, see 3563, 4931; and the fact that all the power good possesses is derived from the Divine is self-evident.

sRef Ex@17 @13 S0′ sRef Ex@17 @10 S0′ sRef Ex@17 @12 S0′ sRef Ex@17 @11 S0′ 8600. Verses 10-13 And Joshua did as Moses said to him, by fighting against Amalek; and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. And so it was, when Moses raised up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. And the hands of Moses were heavy; and they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it; and Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side, and one on the other. And so it was, his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua decimated* Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.

‘And Joshua did as Moses said to him’ means that the truth which engages in conflict acted as directed by Divine Truth. ‘By fighting against Amalek’ means against falsity arising from interior evil. ‘And Moses, Aaron, and Hur’ means levels of Divine Truth that follow one another in order. ‘Went up to the top of the hill’ means in the good of charity. ‘And so it was, when Moses raised up his hand’ means whenever the faith of those belonging to the spiritual Church looked towards the Lord. ‘Israel prevailed’ means that the truth engaged in conflict would then be winning. ‘And when he let down his hand’ means whenever their faith looked downwards or away from the Lord towards self and the world. ‘Amalek prevailed’ means that the falsity would then be winning. ‘And the hands of Moses were heavy’ means that the power to look upwards to the Lord was failing. ‘And they took a stone’ means the lowest level of God’s truth. ‘And put it under him, and he sat on it’ means correspondence with the highest level of truth. ‘And Aaron and Hur’ means the levels of truth next in order. ‘Supported his hands’ means support supplied to the power of the truth engaged in conflict. ‘One on one side, and one on the other’ means in every direction. ‘And so it was, his hands were steady’ means the might which the power possessed then. ‘Until the going down of the sun’ means when that state was coming to an end. ‘And Joshua decimated Amalek and his people’ means lessening the power of those steeped in falsity arising from interior evil. ‘With the edge of the sword’ means by means of truth engaged in conflict.
* lit. weakened

sRef Ex@17 @10 S0′ 8601. ‘And Joshua did as Moses said to him’ means that the truth which engages in conflict acted as directed by Divine Truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘doing’ as putting into effect; from the representation of ‘Joshua’ as truth that engages in conflict, dealt with just above in 8595; and from the meaning of ‘as Moses said to him’ as, as directed by Divine Truth, since ‘Moses’ represents Divine Truth, and ‘said’ means being directed by it.

sRef Ex@17 @10 S0′ 8602. ‘By fighting against Amalek’ means against falsities arising from interior evil. This is clear from the representation of ‘Amalek’ as falsity arising from interior evil, dealt with above in 8593.

sRef Ex@17 @10 S0′ 8603. ‘And Moses, Aaron, and Hur’ means levels of Divine Truth that follow one another in order. This is clear from the representation of ‘Moses’ as Divine Truth that goes forth directly from the Lord, dealt with in 7010; from the representation of ‘Aaron’ as Divine Truth that goes forth from the Lord in an indirect way, dealt with in 7009; and from the representation of ‘Hur’ as Divine Truth that goes forth again in an indirect way, but through the latter. Thus there are levels of truth that follow one another in order.

[2] What is meant by levels of truth that follow one another in order must be stated briefly. All things without exception in the entire natural world spring in order from others on a more internal level; they derive from them and follow in order after them. But the interior things do not connect with the exterior by gradually merging into them; rather, they are distinct and separate, and are joined through extensions from themselves like fibres, which act as channels of communication. Some idea of the nature of things which derive from others and therefore follow in order from them may be conveyed by considering fruits such as lemons, apples, and the like. Their most external parts are their surrounding skins, their interiors are the surrounded flesh or pulp, and their yet more interior parts are the seeds; and the seeds have casings around the outside, then on the actual seeds membranes, under which lies an inner pulp containing the initial form, the soul so to speak, from which again spring new trees and fruit.

[3] All these things follow one another in order; but they are distinct and separate, yet at the same time are joined together. The communication of interiors with exteriors is effected in a wondrous fashion through fibre-like passageways. When those interiors and exteriors are first formed they are very closely connected; but in the course of time they are separated. For before the initial form, the inmost part within the seed, can expand into forms like its parents it must be opened in stages following one another in order. When it is opened and starts to grow, the pulpy parts surrounding it adapt themselves, serving first as its ‘soil’, and after that as its fertilizing sap. After this phase, which is its time in the womb, it is born; at that point it is left to the soil of the earth, in which it is sown as a seed.

[4] All this enables one to form some idea of the nature of things that derive from and follow one another in order. As is the nature of them in the vegetable kingdom, so it is also in the animal kingdom, yet in a far more perfect way. In the animal kingdom there are exterior things, interior, and inmost, which in like manner follow one another in order, are distinct and separate from one another, and yet at the same time are joined together. But they are different in that forms in the animal kingdom have been created to receive life. Consequently just as forms receiving life follow one another in order, so do the resulting kinds of vitality. For the forms or substances receiving life are the subjects*, and the things which result from changes and modifications of those forms are the forces, which should be called vitalities because they are life-forces. From all this one may now see what is meant by levels of Divine Truth that follow one another in order. For everything constituting life has connection with truth, and the perfection it possesses with good, or in the contrary sense with falsity, and its imperfection with evil. Their transitions in order from one to the next are also called degrees.
* Subject is used here to mean something which really exists yet depends for its existence on something prior to itself.

8603a ‘Went up to the top of the hill’ means in the good of charity. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the hill’ as charity, dealt with in 6435, the good of it being meant by ‘the top of the hill’.

sRef Ex@17 @11 S0′ 8604. ‘And so it was, when Moses raised up his hand’ means whenever the faith of those belonging to the spiritual Church looked towards the Lord. This is clear from the representation of ‘Moses’ as God’s truth, dealt with often; and from the meaning of ‘raising up one’s hand’ as spiritual power directed upwards, and so towards the Lord. For the meaning of ‘hand’ as spiritual power, see 6947, 7011; and being spiritual power it is faith, since all power in the spiritual world, that is, against falsities and evils, is the power of truth received from good, or of faith received from charity, 3563, 4931.

[2] What looking towards the Lord is, and what looking towards the world and self is, thus what looking above self and below self is, may be seen in
7814-7821:

Looking above self is looking towards one’s neighbour, country, Church, heaven, and so towards the Lord, 7814, 7815, 7817.
Looking below self is looking towards the world and self, 7817.
Looking above self and below self means having something as one’s end in view and loving it above all else, 7818.
The human being is distinguished from beasts by the fact that he can look above self or below self; when he looks above self he is a human being, but when he looks below self he is a beast, 7821.
Looking above self is being raised by the Lord to a higher level, 7816.

The Lord flows in with every person through the Truth emanating from Himself. Through it He brings life to the person, for the light which comes from the Lord is Divine Truth, and is life, John 1:4.

[3] This Divine Truth coming from the Lord flows into the good residing with the person, and by means of it He draws the person to Himself. For life which comes from the Lord is attractive or draws others to itself because it springs from love, and all love holds a power of attraction because of its desire to be joined to another so that they may be one. When therefore a person is governed by good, and from good is guided by truth, he is drawn by the Lord to Himself and joined to Him. This is what looking upwards to the Lord is used to mean. The person who is not governed by good, and thus is not guided by truth from good, is also drawn by the Lord, but he cannot be raised up, because evils and resulting falsities are averse to Him. This is what looking downwards, or towards self and the world, is used to mean.

sRef John@12 @32 S4′ [4] The truth that the Lord draws a person to Himself is His own teaching in John,

I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to Myself. John 12:31.

From all this one may now see how to understand the explanation that whenever faith looked towards the Lord the truth engaged in conflict would be winning, and whenever faith looked downwards, away from the Lord towards self and the world, falsity would be winning, which is the meaning of the statement that when Moses raised up his hand Israel prevailed, and when he let down his hand Amalek prevailed.

sRef Ex@17 @11 S0′ 8605. ‘Israel prevailed’ means that the truth engaged in conflict would then be winning. This is clear from the meaning of ‘prevailing’ as winning; and from the representation of ‘Israel’ as those who belong to the spiritual Church, at this point those who are armed with truths and battle against falsities arising from interior evil, 8596.

sRef Ex@17 @11 S0′ 8606. ‘And when he let down his hand’ means whenever their faith looked downwards or away from the Lord towards self and the world. This is clear from the explanation just above in 8604. The reason why faith that looks to the Lord is a winner is that in these circumstances the Lord does the fighting; for the Lord constitutes faith because it is received from Him. But the reason why faith which looks away from the Lord towards self and the world is a loser is that then the person does the fighting all alone.

sRef Ex@17 @11 S0′ 8607. ‘Amalek prevailed’ means that the falsity would then be winning. This is clear from the meaning of ‘prevailing’ as winning; and from the representation of ‘Amalek’ as falsity arising from interior evil, dealt with in 8593. Israel’s winning at one time, Amalek’s at another, represented the experience of those who belong to the spiritual Church. They cannot have a faith which looks constantly to the Lord, only a faith which by turns looks to self and the world. For the light among members of that Church is dim, as a consequence of which their faith is impaired. For the fact that they are like this, see 2708, 2715, 2718, 2831, 2935, 2937, 3833, 6289, 6500, 6639, 6865, 6945, 7233. This explains why Amalek was not annihilated by Joshua, or subsequently by the judges, or by the kings in the land of Canaan, even though it had been commanded that he should be wiped out, 8593.

sRef Ex@17 @12 S0′ 8608. ‘And the hands of Moses were heavy’ means that the power to look upwards to the Lord was failing. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the hands’ as the powers of faith, dealt with above in 8604; and from the meaning of their being ‘heavy’ – or that the strength to raise his hands was draining away – as the fact that the power to look upwards to the Lord was failing. For ‘raising one’s hands’ means faith that is looking upwards to the Lord, 8604, and ‘letting down one’s hand’ means faith that is looking downwards, away from the Lord, 8606.

sRef Ex@17 @12 S0′ 8609. ‘And they took a stone’ means the lowest level of God’s truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘a stone’ as truth, 643, 1298, 3720, 3769, 3771, 3789, 3798, 6426, in this instance the lowest level of truth since it was put underneath him and he sat on it. An ordinary stone furthermore means a lower level of truth, while a precious stone means a higher or more internal level of truth. What the lowest level of truth is becomes clear from what has been stated above in 8603 about the levels of truth that follow one another in order; that is to say, there are interior truths and exterior truths, the lowest of which are meant by the lowest level of truth.

sRef Ex@17 @12 S0′ 8610. ‘And put it under him, and he sat on it’ means correspondence with the highest level of truth. This becomes clear from the consideration that the stone supported Moses and ‘Moses’ represents the highest level of truth, which is God’s truth that goes forth directly from the Lord. When the lowest level of truth corresponds with this highest level of truth it supports it, for they act as one. Interior truths are joined to exterior, and finally to the lowest through the correspondence [of each level with the one above it]. Highest truth then has might within the lowest, because it resides in it and acts through it. But if there is no such correspondence they are disjoined, and consequently highest truth has no might within lowest. What correspondence is may be seen from the extensive presentation, at the ends of a number of chapters, of the correspondence of all aspects of the human being with the Grand Man.

sRef Ex@17 @12 S0′ 8611. ‘And Aaron and Hur’ means the levels of truth next in order. This is clear from the representation of ‘Aaron and Hur’ as the lower levels of truth next in order to the highest level, which is represented by ‘Moses’, dealt with above in 8603.

sRef Ex@17 @12 S0′ 8612. ‘Supported his hands’ means support supplied to the power of truth engaged in conflict. This is clear from the meaning of ‘hands’ as power, dealt with in 878, 4931-4937, 7518, 8050, 8153, at this point the power of truth engaged in conflict, represented by ‘Joshua’, 8595. The reason why support supplied to truth engaged in conflict is meant by Aaron and Hur’s supporting Moses’ hands is that when Moses’ hands were raised up Joshua prevailed.

sRef Ex@17 @12 S0′ 8613. ‘One on one side, and one on the other’ means in every direction. This is clear from the consideration that ‘one on this side, and one on that’ means on the right and on the left, and in the spiritual sense on the right and on the left means in every direction. For right or left is not limited to some specific direction but extends to all directions; for in whichever direction he turns they remain constant. This is especially so in the spiritual world, where the nature of spatial directions is altogether different from in the world. In the spiritual world what is on the right appears on the right at every turning or movement around; and the like applies to things on the left, see 4321, 4882.

sRef Ex@17 @12 S0′ 8614. ‘And so it was, his hands were steady’ means the might which the power possessed then. This is clear from the meaning of ‘hands’ as power, dealt with above in 8612, so that the might which the power possessed is meant by the description that his hands were made steady by the support supplied to them.

sRef Ex@17 @12 S0′ 8615. ‘Until the going down of the sun’ means when that state was coming to an end, that is to say, the state of conflict with falsity arising from interior evil. This is clear from the consideration that the times of day from sunrise to sunset, and again to sunrise, mean the changes of state which those who are in the next life undergo. The end of that state is meant by the time when the sun is going down. So it is that ‘until the going down of the sun’ means when that state was coming to an end. For the meaning of the times of day from sunrise to sunset as states and changes of them, see 5672, 5962, 6110, 8426.

[2] Anyone who ponders over them can see that the matters recorded in these verses contain arcana which are not visible in the letter, such as that Moses was going to stand on the hill, having the rod in his hand; that Joshua was winning whenever Moses raised up his hands, and Amalek was winning whenever Moses let down his hands; that they put a stone under him, which he sat on, and Aaron and Hur supported his hands; and that this continued until the sun was going down. Unless every single one of these matters had corresponded to things in heaven they could not have contributed in any way at all to the battle against Amalek. Correspondences have absolute force, so great that what is done on earth in accordance with correspondences has force in heaven; for correspondences have their origin in the Divine.

[3] When people are governed by the good of love and faith, such correspondence exists with them. The Divine composes everything residing with them, for the Divine is the source of the good of love and the good of faith. All the miracles referred to in the Word were accomplished through correspondences. The Word has been written in such a way that all the details there, even the smallest, correspond to things in heaven. Consequently the Word has Divine force; it links together heaven and earth. For when the Word is read on earth the angels in heaven are stirred by the holiness contained in the internal sense. This happens because of the correspondences that all the details possess there.

sRef Ex@17 @13 S0′ 8616. ‘And Joshua decimated Amalek and his people’ means lessening the power of those steeped in falsity arising from interior evil. This is clear from the meaning of ‘decimating’ as lessening the power; and from the representation of ‘Amalek and his people’ as those steeped in falsity arising from interior evil, dealt with above in 8593.

sRef Ex@17 @13 S0′ 8617. ‘With the edge of the sword’ means by means of truth engaged in conflict. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the sword’ as truth engaged in conflict, dealt with in 2799, 8294.

8618. Verses 14-16 And Jehovah said to Moses, Write this [for] a memorial in the book, and put it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovah Nissi. And he said, Because [Amalek’s] hand is against the throne of Jah, the war of Jehovah will be against Amalek from generation to generation.

‘And Jehovah said to Moses’ means instruction. ‘Write this [for] a memorial in the book’ means for everlasting remembrance. ‘And put it in the ears of Joshua’ means with a view to obedience on the part of truth engaged in conflict with that falsity. ‘That I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven’ means that that falsity is to be completely removed, so that it may no longer engage in conflict. ‘And Moses built an altar’ means for the holiness of worship and of remembrance. ‘And called the name of it Jehovah Nissi’ means constant warfare and the Lord’s protection against those steeped in falsity arising from interior evil. ‘And he said, Because [Amalek’s] hand is against the throne of Jah’ means because they wish to do violence to the Lord’s spiritual kingdom. ‘The war of Jehovah will be against Amalek from generation to generation’ means that by the Lord’s Divine power they have been subjugated and cast into hell, out of which they can never rise up.

8619. ‘And Jehovah said to Moses’ means instruction. This is clear from the meaning of ‘saying’, which includes what comes after it; and since this consists of instructions telling Moses what he had to do, instruction is what is meant by ‘saying’.

sRef Dan@7 @10 S0′ sRef Dan@12 @1 S0′ sRef Rev@20 @14 S1′ sRef Rev@20 @13 S1′ sRef Rev@20 @15 S1′ sRef Rev@20 @12 S1′ sRef Ps@69 @28 S1′ sRef Ps@69 @27 S1′ sRef Isa@30 @8 S1′ sRef Rev@3 @5 S1′ sRef Rev@21 @27 S1′ 8620. ‘Write this [for] a memorial in the book’ means for everlasting remembrance. This is clear from the meaning of ‘a memorial’ as that which should serve to remind or bring to remembrance, dealt with in 8066, 8067; and from the meaning of ‘writing in the book’ as to serve as an everlasting reminder. This is the meaning of ‘writing in a book in Isaiah,

Come, write on a tablet among them, and express it in a book,* so that it may be for time to come, forever even to eternity.** Isa. 30:8.

Since remembrance is meant by ‘writing in a book’, true believers are therefore said to have been ‘written in the book of life’; for salvation is meant by God’s remembering, and damnation by His not remembering or His forgetting. ‘The book of life’ is referred to in Daniel as follows,

The Ancient of Days [was seated], the judgement sat down, and the books were opened. Dan. 7:9, 10.

In the same prophet,

At that time Your people will be rescued, every one who is found written in the book. Dan. 12:1.

In David,

Add*** iniquity onto their iniquity, and do not let them reach Your righteousness. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living,**** and not be written with the righteous. Ps. 69:27, 28.

In John,

He who conquers will be clad in white garments; I will not blot his name out of the book of life. Rev. 3:5.

In the same book,

None will enter the new Jerusalem except those who have been written in the Lamb’s book of life. Rev. 21:26, 27.

In the same book,

I saw that the books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged by the things written in the books, according to their works. They were judged, all of them according to their works. And if anyone was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire. Rev. 20:12-15.

See in addition Rev. 13:8; 17:8.

sRef Ps@139 @16 S2′ sRef Rev@5 @9 S2′ sRef Rev@5 @5 S2′ sRef Rev@5 @8 S2′ sRef Rev@5 @7 S2′ sRef Rev@5 @6 S2′ sRef Rev@5 @2 S2′ sRef Rev@5 @4 S2′ sRef Rev@5 @3 S2′ sRef Rev@5 @1 S2′ [2] Anyone who does not know from the internal sense what ‘the book of life’ is, and also what is meant by ‘the books’ whose contents are to be used to judge the dead, can have no other idea than this – that such books exist in heaven, and that they contain written down in them everyone’s deeds, the memory of which is thus preserved. However, by the books mentioned in the places quoted above one should not understand books but the remembrance of all the deeds they had performed. For each person takes with him into the next life the memory of all his deeds, that is, the book of his life, 2474. But judging someone according to his deeds can be done by no one except the Lord alone. For all deeds emanate from final causes,***** which lie inwardly and deeply hidden; and it is according to those causes that a person is judged. These are known to no one except the Lord, which is why judgement belongs to Him alone. This is also what the following words in John are used to mean,

I saw on the right hand****** of Him sitting on the throne a book written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. After that I saw a strong angel crying out with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book and to loose its seals? One of the elders said to me, Behold, the Lion which is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has prevailed to open the book and to loose its seals. And He took the book, and they sang a new song, You are worthy to take the book, and to open its seals. Rev. 5:1-9

From all this it becomes clear that ‘a book written’ is used to mean the presence of someone’s deeds. The book referred to in David has a similar
meaning,

In Your book they all were written, the days that were assigned. Ps. 139:16.
* lit. on a book (i.e.. on a scroll)
** lit. into a future day, into perpetuity even into eternity
*** lit. Give
**** lit. lives
***** i.e. ends in view
****** i.e. a scroll roll Lying on the open palm of the hand

8621. ‘And put it in the ears of Joshua’ means with a view to obedience on the part of truth engaged in conflict with that falsity. This is clear from the meaning of ‘putting in the ears’ as with a view to obedience (for the meaning of ‘ear’ as obedience, see 2542, 3869, 4652-4660); and from the representation of ‘Joshua’ as truth engaged in conflict with falsity arising from interior evil, dealt with in 8595.

8622. ‘That I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven’ means that that falsity is to be completely removed, so that it may no longer engage in conflict. This is clear from the meaning of ‘blotting out the memory’ as removing, dealt with below; and from the representation of ‘Amalek’ as those who are steeped in falsity arising from interior evil, dealt with in 8593.

[2] The reason why ‘blotting out the memory of Amalek’ means removing the falsity that arises from interior evil is that it can be removed, but cannot be blotted out, since it is the falsity residing with hellish genii who live forever, 8593. These genii are however removed by the Lord so that they do not flow into those who belong to the spiritual Church, the reason for this being that they do not flow, as hellish spirits do, into thoughts belonging to the understanding, nor thus into ideas belonging to faith, but into affections belonging to the will, consequently into feelings belonging to charity. And they do this so secretively that not a trace of what comes from them is ever apparent. If therefore they were to flow into a member of the spiritual Church he could not possibly be saved, because they would pervert and utterly warp his affections for what is true and good. This is why those hellish genii are removed so that they do not have any contact with those who belong to the Lord’s spiritual kingdom.

[3] Furthermore it should be recognized that a member of the spiritual Church has a new will implanted in the understanding part of his mind, 895, 927, 1023, 1043, 1044, 2256, 4328, 4493, 5113. This will would be completely destroyed by those genii if they were allowed to flow in. They would also enter into and open up again the hereditary evils of the old will, even though they have been closed off. Regarding the closing off of them, see 986, 1667, 2308. Those hellish genii are removed in this way to prevent them from flowing in. Their falsity, which is falsity arising from interior evil, is evil – evil whose nature is such that it cannot flow into the understanding part of the mind, only into the will part. This being so, and because the new will of a member of the spiritual Church has been planted in the understanding part, as stated above, they have consequently been removed from flowing into it. To this end the Lord also controls things in such a way that the entire power of understanding in these genii is laid waste.

[4] After death people become genii like these if they have had doing harm to their neighbour constantly in mind, allowing such ideas to delight their thinking, and have also inflicted harm, but secretively and through others, taking the utmost care to prevent anyone from knowing that they had initiated it. In other respects they were to outward appearances unassuming, polite, and seemingly friendly; they were also seemingly Christian in speech, and in life too. They were however hypocrites, and inwardly were treacherous tigers.

sRef Josh@22 @20 S0′ sRef Josh@22 @21 S0′ sRef Josh@22 @18 S0′ sRef Josh@22 @19 S0′ sRef Josh@22 @22 S0′ sRef Josh@22 @25 S0′ sRef Josh@22 @26 S0′ sRef Josh@22 @23 S0′ sRef Josh@22 @24 S0′ sRef Josh@22 @13 S0′ sRef Josh@22 @14 S0′ sRef Ex@17 @15 S0′ sRef Josh@22 @12 S0′ sRef Josh@22 @15 S0′ sRef Josh@22 @17 S0′ sRef Josh@22 @10 S0′ sRef Josh@22 @11 S0′ sRef Josh@22 @16 S0′ sRef Josh@22 @33 S0′ sRef Josh@22 @32 S0′ sRef Josh@22 @34 S0′ sRef Josh@22 @31 S0′ sRef Josh@22 @28 S0′ sRef Josh@22 @29 S0′ sRef Josh@22 @30 S0′ sRef Josh@22 @27 S0′ 8623. ‘And Moses built an altar’ means for the holiness of worship and of remembrance. This is clear from the meaning of ‘an altar’ as the chief representative of the Lord, dealt with in 2777, 2811, 4489, and consequently the holiness of worship, 4541. The reason why it is also for remembrance is that in ancient times heaps were erected to serve as a witness and memorial that something was to stand firm and be remembered; and later on altars were erected too, 4192. Moses’ altar was built for the remembrance of something, which was that because Amalek’s hand was against the throne of Jah the war of Jehovah would be against him from generation to generation. The fact that altars too were erected to serve as a witness and memorial is clear from the altar which the Reubenites, Gadites, and half tribe of Manasseh built by the Jordan. They told the children of Israel who wished to go to war against them that they had built it to be a witness to the fact that they were to worship Jehovah, not with burnt offerings and sacrifices on that altar but on the altar before the tabernacle.* Therefore they called the former,

A witness between us and you that Jehovah is God. Josh. 22:10-34.
* lit. the dwelling-place

sRef Ex@17 @15 S0′ 8624. ‘And called the name of it Jehovah Nissi’ means constant warfare and the Lord’s protection against those steeped in falsity arising from interior evil. This is clear from the fact that the ancients in the Church gave names to indicate the essential nature and the state of whatever matter was under consideration then, and that also they included those things in the names themselves, 340, 1946, 3422, 4298. The nature and state of the matter under consideration here is that the war of Jehovah will be against Amalek from generation to generation, in the internal sense that war will be waged unceasingly against those steeped in falsity arising from interior evil. This is also meant by ‘Jehovah Nissi’. In the original language Jehovah Nissi means Jehovah is my Banner or Standard, and ‘standard’ or ‘banner’ in the Word means a call to assemble for war. And because the words ‘the war of Jehovah’ are used, protection given by Him is also meant.

sRef Jer@4 @5 S2′ sRef Isa@49 @22 S2′ sRef Isa@13 @2 S2′ sRef Jer@4 @6 S2′ sRef Isa@5 @26 S2′ sRef Isa@18 @3 S2′ [2] That ‘banner’ or ‘standard ‘ means a call to assemble for war is clear from the consideration that whenever the people were called to assemble, whether they were going to make journeys, celebrate feasts, or go to war, they sounded the trumpet and at the same time also lifted up a standard or banner on the mountains. For their sounding the trumpet, see Num. 10:1-11; and the fact that they lifted up a standard or banner is evident from the following places: In Jeremiah,

Declare in Judah and cause to be heard in Jerusalem, and say, sounding the trumpet in the land, Proclaim, blow loudly,* and say, Gather together, and let us go into the fortified cities Raise a banner towards Zion; assemble, do not stop Jer. 4:5, 6.

In Isaiah,

O all inhabitants of the world and dwellers on earth, when the banner is lifted up, look; and when the trumpet is sounded, hear. Isa. 18:3

In the same prophet,

He has lifted up a banner to the nations from afar, and whistled to him from the furthest end of the earth; and behold, he will come swiftly, with speed. Isa. 5:26.

In the same prophet,

On a tall mountain lift up the banner, raise your voice to them, wave your hand, that they may come to the gate of the princes. Isa. 13:2.

In the same prophet,

Thus said the Lord Jehovih, behold, I will lift up My hand towards the nations, and lift up My banner towards the peoples, that they may bring your sons in their bosom and carry your daughters on their shoulder. Isa 49:22.

From all these places it is evident that ‘a banner’ means an assembling together.

sRef Isa@59 @19 S3′ sRef Isa@59 @20 S3′ sRef Isa@11 @10 S3′ [3] The fact that ‘a banner’ or ‘a standard’, when used in reference to the Lord, also means protection is clear in Isaiah,

They will fear the name of Jehovah from the setting, and His glory from the rising of the sun, because He will come like a narrow stream. The spirit of Jehovah will raise a banner against him; then the Redeemer will come to Zion. Isa 59:19, 20.

In the same prophet,

It will happen on that day, that the nations will seek the root of Jesse, who is standing as a banner of the peoples; and His rest will be glory. Isa. 11:10.

sRef Num@21 @8 S4′ sRef Num@21 @9 S4′ sRef John@3 @15 S4′ sRef John@3 @14 S4′ [4] Since a standard, for which the original language uses the same word as that used for a banner, meant an assembling together, and when spoken of in reference to the Lord also meant protection, it was explicitly commanded that the bronze serpent should be set on a standard. This is recorded in Moses as follows,

Jehovah said to Moses, Make a serpent and set it on a standard; and it will happen, that everyone who has been bitten, when he has looked at it, will live. And Moses made a serpent of bronze and set it on a standard. So it happened, if a serpent had bitten a man, when he looked at the serpent of bronze, that he was restored to life again. Num. 21:8, 9.

‘The bronze serpent’ represented the Lord, see John 3:14, 15. The fact that it also meant protection is self-evident; for the healing effected by looking at the serpent on the standard meant healing from evils arising from falsity, effected by looking to faith in the Lord. For the Lord says in John, in the above mentioned verses,

As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but have eternal life.
* lit fill up

sRef Ex@17 @16 S0′ 8625. ‘And he said, Because [Amalek’s] hand is against the throne of Jah’ means because they wish to do violence to the Lord’s spiritual kingdom. This is clear from the meaning of ‘hand against someone’ as doing violence; and from the meaning of ‘the throne of Jah’ as the Lord’s spiritual kingdom. The reason why ‘the throne of Jah’ means the Lord’s spiritual kingdom is that ‘the throne’ has reference to the Lord’s kingship, and the Lord’s spiritual kingdom corresponds to His kingship. There are two offices attributed to the Lord, which are those of priest and king. The celestial kingdom corresponds to His priesthood, and the spiritual kingdom to His kingship; for the Lord is called priest by virtue of His Divine Goodness, and He is called king by virtue of His Divine Truth. The name Christ holds the latter – Divine Truth – within it, and the name Jesus holds Divine Good, see 1728, 2015, 3004, 3009, 6148. ‘The throne’ has reference to the Lord’s kingship, and therefore to His spiritual kingdom; and the same applies to ‘Jah’. For what ‘the throne’ is, see 5313; and for what ‘Jah’ is, 8267.

As regards the specific thing meant here, that those represented by ‘Amalek’ – namely hellish genii steeped in falsity arising from interior evil – wish to do violence to the Lord’s spiritual kingdom, this has been explained above in 8593, 8622. Those who were steeped in the falsity of this evil could not be kept away from those belonging to the spiritual Church, before the Lord came into the world and made Divine the Human within Him. When He did so they were shut up in hell, from where they cannot ever rise up; and also contact with that Church, effected through influx, was completely taken away. For in respect of the truth of faith a member of the spiritual Church is in obscurity; and he accepts it as the truth because the Church has said it is, not because he perceives it to be the truth. This truth as it resides with them becomes good and consequently composes their conscience. If wicked genii were to flow into that obscurity they would in a thousand ways destroy such conscience; for they go to work not on the truths of faith there but on the actual affections. Wherever they detect any degree of affection for good they instantly pervert it; they do this so secretively that it cannot at all be noticed. They attack the person’s fundamental ends in view. In short, their wickedness defies description, though it may be compared to a deadly and imperceptible poison that penetrates right into the marrow of the bones. In the Lord’s Divine mercy more will be said from experience about these genii at the ends of chapters.*
* This proposal was not fulfilled, but presumably the material mentioned here concerning the hells appeared in the work published a few years later, in 1758, whose English title is Heaven and Hell.

sRef Ex@17 @16 S0′ 8626. ‘The war of Jehovah will be against Amalek from generation to generation’ means that by the Lord’s Divine power they have been subjugated and cast into hell, out of which they can never rise up. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the war of Jehovah’ as being cast into hell; and from the meaning of ‘from generation to generation’ as everlastingly, so that they can never rise up out of it. This is done to them by the Lord’s Divine power, see immediately above in 8625 (end). The reason why ‘the war of Jehovah’ means being cast into hell is that the war of Jehovah is everlasting victory. Hellish genii are completely incapable of waging war and fighting against Jehovah, that is, the Lord. But it seems to them that they fight; indeed it also seems to them sometimes that they are victorious, when they subdue those immersed in evil. Nevertheless they have no power whatever against the Divine; the smallest amount of Divine power is enough, every time it is called on, to tame instantly the entire devil’s crew, even if it consisted of millions. However He allows them the opportunity to act, just so far as their activity may serve a useful purpose and the Lord can turn their evil into good, a subject which in the Lord’s Divine mercy will be dealt with elsewhere.* All this goes some way to prove that ‘the war of Jehovah will be against Amalek from generation to generation’ means being subjugated by the Lord’s Divine power and cast into hell, from where they can never rise up.
* This proposal was not fulfilled, but presumably the material mentioned here concerning the hells appeared in the work published a few years later, in 1758, whose English title is Heaven and Hell.

8627. INHABITANTS AND SPIRITS OF THE PLANET JUPITER – continued

The inhabitants of the planet Jupiter believe that wisdom consists in good and right thinking about things that go on in life. Such wisdom is acquired by them from their parents, right from when they are young children; it is passed on to succeeding generations, and grows in the process. As for organized knowledge such as exists on our planet, they know nothing whatever of it, and have no wish to know. They call it shade and compare it to clouds that come in front of the sun. They have gained this idea of such knowledge from some belonging to our planet who have boasted in their presence that they were wise because of that knowledge.

8628. The spirits from our planet who boasted in this way were ones who supposed that wisdom consisted in those things that belong merely to the memory, such as languages, matters of history known to the literary world, mere facts known from experiments, technical terms, especially philosophical ones, and other things like these. They did not use them as the means to attaining wisdom, since they supposed that those things themselves constituted wisdom. Because these spirits have not used organized knowledge as the means to develop true rationality in themselves, they have little perception in the next life. Their whole outlook is confined to and conditioned by the use of terms, which in that life are like dust particles and like dense clouds in front of the eye of understanding; and those who have been made conceited by their learning in such knowledge have even less perception, while those who have used it to discredit matters of faith have completely destroyed their power of understanding. Like owls they see in thick darkness, viewing falsity as truth and evil as good.

[2] As a result of mixing with such as these, the spirits belonging to Jupiter came to the conclusion that organized knowledge led to dimness and blindness. But I told them that on our planet such knowledge serves as the means by which the eye of the understanding can be opened, the eye which sees in the light of heaven and informs the mind about the things that belong to spiritual life. But because self-love and love of the world reign, and consequently such things as belong to life on a merely natural level and on the level of the senses, organized knowledge serves to make people insane, that is to say, they use it to endorse their preference for nature as against the Divine, and the world as against heaven.

[3] I went on to tell them that organized knowledge is in itself spiritual wealth, and that those who possess it are like people in possession of worldly wealth, which in a similar way can serve them as the means by which to perform useful services to themselves, their neighbour, and their country, or else as the means by which to do ill to them. Such knowledge is also like clothes, which can have their use and serve to adorn, or else can serve human pride such as exists with those who wish to be admired solely for what they wear. The spirits belonging to Jupiter understood all this clearly. But they were astonished that people when they were still on earth should have had a greater liking for such things as lead to wisdom than for wisdom itself, and that those people do not see that to immerse their minds in those things and not rise above them is to incur dimness and blindness.

8629. A certain spirit rising up from the lower earth came to me and said that he had heard the things I had spoken to the other spirits, but that he had understood scarcely anything of what had been said about spiritual life and light. I asked him whether he wished to learn about those things; he said he had not come with the intention of doing so, from which I concluded that he did not wish to. He was extremely stupid. Angels told me that when he lived as a person in the world he had been one of those quite famous for their learning. He was a cold person, which I became clearly aware of from his breath. This was an indication that he saw things in merely natural and not at all in spiritual light, thus that knowledge served not to open but to close the way to the light of heaven for him.

8630. Since the inhabitants of the planet Jupiter acquire intelligence in a different way than the inhabitants of our planet, and are in addition of
different disposition by virtue of their life, they cannot stay together with them. If any from our planet come near they either flee from them or drive them away. Spheres exist, which must be called spiritual spheres, which constantly emanate from, indeed well out of each community. Those spheres flow from the activity of members’ affections and resulting thoughts, and so are emanations of the actual life within them. Regarding spheres, see 1048, 1053, 1316, 1504, 1505, 1507, 1508, 1510-1519, 2401, 4464, 5179, 6206, 6598-6613, 7454, 8063.

[2] Associations in the next life are determined in every instance by such spheres. Those that agree with one another are fused together in the measure that they agree, and those that disagree are driven apart to the extent that they disagree. Each province in the Grand Man, to which some member or organ in the human body corresponds, has its own sphere, distinct and separate from the sphere of another province. So it is that those who belong to the same province are linked together, and those who belong to different ones are separated. Spirits and angels who come from the planet Jupiter correlate in the Grand Man with THE ABILITY TO FORM MENTAL IMAGES, and so with the state of activity taking place in the interior parts. But spirits belonging to our planet correlate with various functions performed by the exterior parts of the body, into which the ability to form mental images cannot enter, since those spirits wish to be in control. Hence the antagonism between the spheres.

8631. How clearly the spirits from Jupiter perceive spiritual realities has been demonstrated to me by their representation of the way in which the Lord, whom they call their one and only Lord, turns wicked affections into good ones. They represented the mind or understanding as a beautiful form and imparted to it the activity of an outward form just right for an inner affection. Then they showed the way in which the Lord bends something wicked there into something good. Words cannot describe the way in which they did this; it was done so skillfully that the angels applauded them. Some learned persons from our planet were present at the time; they were those who had saturated their minds with technical terms, and had engaged in many arguments about form, substance, the material and the non-material, and similar terms, but had not applied them to any useful purpose. These spirits could not begin to comprehend that representation.

8632. I talked to spirits belonging to that planet about the Lord, saying that He does ill to no one, still less punishes anyone. Being some of the more simple, those spirits were at first unwilling to accept this, believing that the Lord was the author of punishments. But I told them that their angels present with a person on their planet do not chastise or even speak harshly, and that they do no more than allow spirits that administer punishment, who are also present, to chastise. And since those angels do not chastise, much less does the Lord, who is Goodness itself and the Ruler of the angels, do so. Having heard what I told them those spirits acknowledged and declared affirmatively with a clear voice that the Lord punishes no one, does ill to no one, and does not even speak harshly to anyone. Regarding the angels and regarding the spirits who administer punishment among the inhabitants of Jupiter, see 7802-7805, 7810.

8633. Other aspects of the life of those on that planet which their spirits have told me about are these: Even as they have no interest in factual knowledge, so they have none in objects or works of art. Also, they do not have feast days,* but every morning at sunrise and every evening at sunset they offer holy worship in their tents to the one and only Lord and also make melody to Him.
* i.e. Sundays and other holy days

8634. ‘Inhabitants and spirits of the planet Jupiter’ is continued at the end of the next chapter.

8635. 18

TEACHINGS ABOUT CHARITY

No one can be regenerated unless he knows the things that compose the new life, that is, spiritual life; for it is that life to which regeneration leads a person. The things that compose the new or spiritual life are the truths he ought to believe and the good deeds he ought to perform. Those truths are matters of faith, the good deeds are aspects of charity.

8636. No one is equipped to know about these all by himself, for a person apprehends only the things that present themselves to his senses. From his senses he has acquired an illumination, called natural light, in which he sees only the things that belong to the world and to self. He does not see those belonging to heaven or to God; these he must learn about from revelation.

8637. He must learn from it, for example, that the Lord, who from eternity is God, came into the world to save the human race; that He has all power in heaven and on earth; that the whole of faith and the whole of charity, thus all truth and goodness, come from Him; that there is a heaven, and a hell; that a person is going to live forever, in heaven if his actions have been good, in hell if they have been bad.

8638. These and many more are the matters of faith which a person who is to be regenerated ought to know. For one who knows them is able to think about them, then intend them, and go on at length to do them, and so possess the new life.

8639. A person, for example, who does not know that the Lord is the Saviour of the human race cannot possess faith in Him, worship Him, love Him, or thus do good for His sake. A person who does not know that all good comes from Him is incapable of thinking that his righteousness and his salvation come from Him, let alone of desiring that they should do so, and so is incapable of living from Him. A person who does not know that there is a hell and a heaven, or that there is a life lasting forever, is not even capable of thinking about the life of heaven or of applying himself to receive it. The same is so with all other matters of faith.

8640. All this goes to show what the life of a regenerate person is like, that it is a life of faith, and also that it cannot be imparted to a person until he has entered a state in which he can acknowledge the truths of faith, and to the extent that he acknowledges them can intend them.

EXODUS 18

1 And Jethro, the priest of Midian, the father-in-law of Moses, heard all that God had done for Moses and for Israel His people, that Jehovah had brought Israel out of Egypt.

2 And Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, took Zipporah, the wife of Moses, after he had sent her away,*

3 And her two sons, of whom the name of one was Gershom (for he said, I have been a sojourner in a foreign land),

4 And the name of the other was Eliezer (Because the God of my father was my help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh).

5 And Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, and his sons and his wife came to Moses in the wilderness, where he was encamped at the mountain of God.

6 And he said to Moses, I your father-in-law Jethro come to you, and your wife, and her two sons with her.

7 And Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, and bowed down, and kissed him; and they asked, a man his companion, as regards peace;** and they came into the tent.

8 And Moses told his father-in-law all that Jehovah had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, all the distress that had come upon them on the way, and how Jehovah had rescued them.

9 And Jethro rejoiced over all the good which Jehovah had done for Israel, who had rescued him from the hand of the Egyptians.

10 And Jethro said, Blessed be Jehovah, who has rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of Pharaoh, who has rescued His people from under the hand of the Egyptians.

11 Now I know that Jehovah is greater than all gods, for this reason, that they behaved proudly over them.

12 And Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God; and Aaron and all the elders of Israel came to eat bread with the father-in-law of Moses before God.

13 And so it was, on the morrow, that Moses sat to judge the people; and the people stood before Moses from morning until evening.

14 And the father-in-law of Moses saw all that he was doing for the people, and he said, What is this thing that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone, and all the people are standing before you from morning until evening?

15 And Moses said to his father-in-law, Because the people come to me to inquire of God.

16 When they have a matter they come to me, and I judge between a man and his neighbour;*** and I make known the judgements of God and His laws.

17 And the father-in-law of Moses said to him, The thing that you do is not good.

18 You will surely wither away, both you and this people who are with you, for the task**** is too heavy for you; you are not able to do it yourself alone.

19 Now hear my voice; I will counsel you, and God will be with you. Be for the people with God, and you are to bring matters to God*****.

20 And you are to teach them the statutes and the laws, and make known to them the way in which they must go, and the work they must do.

21 And you are to see****** out of all the people men of vigour fearing God, men of truth hating gain; and you are to appoint them******* rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.

22 And let them judge the people at all times. And it shall be, every great matter let them bring to you, and every small matter let them judge themselves; and roll down [the burden] from upon yourself, and let them bear [it] with you.

23 If you do this thing and God has commanded you, you will be able to stand fast; and also all this people will come upon their place in peace.

24 And Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law, and did all that he said.

25 And Moses chose men of vigour from all Israel, and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.

26 And they will judge the people at all times; a difficult matter they will bring to Moses, and every small matter they will judge themselves.

27 And Moses sent his father-in-law away; and he went his way to his own land.
* lit. after the seedings away of her
** i.e. they asked each other about their welfare
*** lit. companion or fellow
**** lit. word or matter
***** i.e. Represent the people before God, and bring their difficulties to Him.
****** i.e. select
******* The Latin here means appoint from them but in 8696 and 8712 it means appoint them. The Hebrew means appoint over them.

sRef Ex@18 @0 S0′ 8641.. CONTENTS

The internal sense in this chapter deals with levels of truth that follow one another in order from the first to the last, arranged into order by good from God. The first level of truth is represented by Moses; the levels of truth that follow on from it in order are represented by the rulers of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens; and the good from God by which they are arranged into order is represented by Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses.

sRef Ex@18 @5 S0′ sRef Ex@18 @2 S0′ sRef Ex@18 @1 S0′ sRef Ex@18 @3 S0′ sRef Ex@18 @4 S0′ 8642. THE INTERNAL SENSE

Verses 1-5 And Jethro, the priest of Midian, the father-in-law of Moses, heard all that God had done for Moses and for Israel His people, that Jehovah had brought Israel out of Egypt. And Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, took Zipporah, the wife of Moses, after he had sent her away,* and her two sons, of whom the name of one was Gershom (for he said, I have been a sojourner in a foreign land), and the name of the other was Eliezer (Because the God of my father was my help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh). And Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, and his sons and his wife came to Moses in the wilderness, where he was encamped at the mountain of God.

‘And Jethro, the priest of Midian’ means Divine Good. ‘The father-in-law of Moses’ means the source of the good that was joined to God’s truth. ‘Heard all that God had done for Moses and for Israel His people’ means a perception of the things which had been done for those who belonged to the Lord’s spiritual kingdom. ‘That Jehovah had brought Israel out of Egypt’ means that they had been delivered by the Lord from molestations. ‘And Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, took Zipporah, the wife of Moses’ means the good from God which had been joined to God’s truth. ‘After he had sent her away’ means a separation existing up to now in respect of the state of those belonging to the spiritual Church. ‘And her two sons’ means forms of the good of truth. ‘Of whom the name of one was Gershom (for he said, I have been a sojourner in a foreign land)’ means the essential nature of the good of truth of those outside the Church. ‘And the name of the other was Eliezer’ means the essential nature of the good of truth of those within the Church. ‘Because the God of my father was my help’ means the Lord’s mercy and presence in the Church. ‘And delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh’ means deliverance from the falsity of those who engaged in molestation. ‘And Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses’ means Divine Good. ‘And his sons’ means forms of the good of truth. ‘And his wife’ means the good joined to God’s truth. ‘Came to Moses in the wilderness’ means a joining together in the state before regeneration when temptations take place. ‘Where he was encamped at the mountain of God’ means near to the good of truth.
* lit. after the seedings away of her

sRef Ex@18 @1 S0′ 8643. ‘And Jethro, the priest of Midian’ means Divine Good. This is clear from the representation of ‘Jethro, the priest of Midian’ as the good of the Church which is guided by the truth that goes with simple good, dealt with in 7015, but at this point Divine Good, because ‘Moses’, whose father-in-law he was, represented Divine Truth; for when the son-in-law represents truth, the father-in-law represents good, that is, a higher level of good since he is his wife’s father. The reason why Divine Good is represented at this point by ‘Jethro’ is that the subject in this chapter is the arranging of truths into order with a member of the spiritual Church, which is done by Divine Good working through Divine Truth. For whenever arrangement into order takes place it is done by good working through truth.

[2] Truths are arranged into order in this way with a member of the spiritual Church when his actions begin to be governed no longer by truth but by good. This state is his second state, which arises after he has undergone temptations. When truth governs his actions he undergoes temptation, to the end that the truths with him may become firmly accepted. Once they have been firmly accepted they are arranged into order by the Lord; and once they have been arranged into order the person enters the second state, in which the truths are in his will and in his actions. As a result of this they become part of his life, and are called forms of good. This arranging of truths into order is the subject below.

sRef Ex@18 @1 S0′ 8644. ‘The father-in-law of Moses’ means the source of the good that was joined to God’s truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the father-in-law’ as the good from which sprang the good that was joined to truth, dealt with in 6827; and from the representation of ‘Moses’ as God’s truth, dealt with in 6752, 6771, 7010, 7014, 7382. The reason why ‘the father-in-law’ means the good from which sprang the good that was joined to truth is that the wife means good when the man means truth, 2517, 4510, 4823. Since the subject in what follows below is the joining together of Divine Good and Divine Truth, to the end that the arranging of truths into order may as a result take place with the member of the Church, it should be recognized that there is a difference between Divine Good and Divine Truth, in that Divine Good exists within the Lord, but that Divine Truth emanates from the Lord. They are like the fire of the sun and the light radiating from it. Fire exists within the sun but the light radiates from the sun; light holds no fire, only heat.

[2] Furthermore in the next life the Lord is the Sun, and He is the Light too. The Sun there, that is, He Himself, is Divine fire, which is the Divine Good of Divine Love. That Sun is the source of Divine light, which is Divine Truth emanating from Divine Good. This Divine Truth also holds within it Divine Good, though not such as it is in the Sun; it is modified for its reception in heaven. Unless it had been modified for reception, heaven could not have come into existence; for no angel can bear the flame coming from Divine Love. An angel would be consumed by it instantly, just as anyone would be the instant that the flame of the sun in the world breathed on him.

[3] But the way in which the Divine Good of the Lord’s Divine Love is modified for reception cannot be known by anyone, not even by angels in heaven, because it is a modification of the Infinite for the finite. The Infinite is such that it lies far beyond all the power of understanding which the finite possesses, so far beyond that when that power of understanding tries to fix its attention on the Infinite it falls away like someone sinking into the depths of the sea and perishes. Regarding the Lord, that He is the Sun in heaven, that the Sun there is the Divine Good of His Divine Love, and that the Light from it is Divine Truth, the source of intelligence, see 1053, 1521-1533, 1619-1632, 2776, 3094, 3138, 3190, 3195, 3222, 3223, 3225, 3339, 3341, 3636, 3643, 3993, 4180, 4302, 4408, 4409, 4415, 4523, 4533, 4696, 7083, 7171, 7174, 7270, 8197.

sRef Ex@18 @1 S0′ 8645. ‘Heard all that God had done for Moses and for Israel His people’ means a perception of the things which had been done for those who belonged to the Lord’s spiritual kingdom. This is clear from the meaning of ‘hearing’, hearing all that God had done, as perception, dealt with in 5017, 8361; from the meaning of ‘all that God had done’ as the things which had been done by the Divine; and from the representation of Israel, to whom ‘Moses’ and ‘the people’ for whom those things had been done refer here, as those who belong to the Lord’s spiritual kingdom, dealt with in 6426, 6637, 6862, 6868, 7035, 7062, 7198, 7201, 7215, 7223. ‘Moses’ together with ‘the people’ represents that kingdom, ‘Moses’ as the head and ‘the people’ as the things subordinate to the head. Thus also ‘Moses’ represents the Lord in respect of Divine Truth, for the spiritual kingdom arises from this.

sRef Ex@18 @1 S0′ 8646. ‘That Jehovah had brought Israel out of Egypt’ means that they had been delivered by the Lord from molestations. This is clear from the meaning of ‘bringing out’ as delivering; from the representation of ‘Israel’ as those belonging to the spiritual kingdom, as immediately above in 8645; and from the meaning of ‘Egypt’ as molestations by falsities, dealt with in 7278. The reason why ‘Egypt’ means molestations is that ‘the Egyptians’ and ‘Pharaoh’ mean those who in the next life used falsities to molest those who belonged to the spiritual Church, 7097, 7107, 7110, 7126, 7142, 7220, 7228, 7317, 8148.

sRef Ex@18 @2 S0′ 8647. ‘And Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, took Zipporah, the wife of Moses’ means the good from God which had been joined to God’s truth. This is clear from the representation of Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses’ as Divine Good, the source of the good joined to truth, in this instance God’s truth, which ‘Moses’ represents, dealt with above in 8643, 8644; from the representation of ‘Zipporah, the wife of Moses’ as the good from God. Marriages represent goodness and truth joined together. In the celestial Church the husband represents good and the wife the truth coming from it; but in the spiritual Church the man represents truth and the wife good. Here ‘the wife of Moses’ represents good because the spiritual kingdom is dealt with, see 2517, 4510, 4823, 7022.

sRef Ex@18 @2 S0′ 8648. ‘After he had sent her away’ means a separation existing up to now in respect of the state of those belonging to the spiritual Church. This is clear from the meaning of ‘sending away’ as a separation. The reason why this is in respect of the state of those belonging to the spiritual Church is that in the first state of those who belong to the spiritual Church good is not apparent, only truth. The nature of all this may be seen from what has been shown previously about the two states of those belonging to the spiritual Church, that is to say, where it has been shown that in the first state actions spring from truth, not from good, but that in the second they do spring from good. In the first state, when actions spring from truth, not from good, good is seemingly absent; it is like a wife who has been sent away. But in the second state, when actions spring from good, good is present, and is like a wife joined to her husband (vir). These are the things that are meant in the internal sense by ‘sending her away’.

[2] It should in addition be recognized that this is in respect of those who belong to the spiritual Church; for truth coming from the Lord is always joined to its own good. But in the first state, which exists before regeneration, good is not received, only truth, even though both flow in from the Lord by way of heaven. But in the second state, which exists after regeneration, good joined to truth is received. What is brought about by man is said to be something done by the Lord, for the reason that He appears to be the one bringing it about. The situation is the same with very many other things said of the Lord, such as when He is said to do ill, punish, and cast into hell; these things are said to be done by the Lord, because He appears to be the one who brings them about, when in fact everything bad that happens to a person is of human origin. Things like these said of the Lord in the Word are very many, but they are made clear to one who searches the Scriptures with an affection for truth and for the sake of leading a good life; for he is enlightened by the Lord.

sRef Ex@18 @3 S0′ 8649. ‘And her two sons’ means forms of the good of truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘sons’ as truths, dealt with in 489, 491, 533, 1147, 2159, 2623, 3704, 4257, at this point forms of the good of truth since they are called his wife’s sons here, as is evident from the original language,* and similarly in verse 6 below, and therefore – since ‘wife’ means good joined to truth, 8647 – ‘sons’ here are forms of the good of truth. Forms of the good of truth are truths which have become part of the will and consequently of life; and they constitute the new will that exists with a member of the spiritual Church.
* Sw. says this because it is not evident in the Latin whether his or her is meant.

sRef Ex@18 @3 S0′ 8650. ‘Of whom the name of one was Gershom (for he said, I have been a sojourner in a foreign land)’ means the essential nature of the good of truth of those outside the Church. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the name’ and ‘calling the name’ as the essential nature, dealt with in 144, 145, 1754, 1896, 2009, 2724, 3006, 3421, 6674. That essential nature is described by the words uttered by Moses then, which were, I have been a sojourner in a foreign land. The reason why these words mean the good of truth of those outside the Church is that ‘a sojourner” means those who were born outside the Church, yet were receiving instruction in things of the Church; and ‘a foreign land’ means a place where the Church does not exist. For the meaning of ‘a sojourner’ as those who were born outside the Church and were receiving instruction in things of the Church, see 1463, 4444, 7908, 8007, 8013. The reason why ‘a foreign land’ is where the genuine Church does not exist is that ‘land’ or ‘earth’ means the Church, 662, 1067, 1262, 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118 (end), 2928, 3355, 4447, 4535, 5577, and ‘foreign’ a place where what is genuine does not exist; for the Lord’s Church is spread throughout all lands, and so exists also among gentiles, 2049, 2284, 2589-2604. Furthermore when Gershom was born Moses was outside his own Church, among those with whom the good of simple truth existed, who are meant by ‘the Midianites’, see 6793-6796.

sRef Ex@18 @4 S0′ 8651. ‘And the name of the other was Eliezer’ means the essential nature of the good of truth of those within the Church. This is clear from the meaning of ‘name’ and ‘calling the name’ as the essential nature, as above in 8650. The reason why the essential nature of the good of truth is meant is that the two sons mean forms of the good of truth, 8649. The meaning here – that the essential nature of this form of the good of truth is that of those within the Church – is evident from the words spoken by Moses regarding this son when he was born, which were, Because the God of my father was my help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh. It is also evident from the fact that the essential nature of the good of truth meant by the name of the first son – Gershom – is that of those outside the Church, 8650.

sRef Ex@18 @4 S0′ 8652. ‘Because the God of my father was my help’ means the Lord’s mercy and presence in the Church. This is clear from the meaning of ‘father’ as the Church in respect of good, 5581, and as the Ancient Church, 6050, 6075, 6846, ‘the God of my father’ being the God of the Ancient Church, who was the Lord, 6846, 6876, 6884; and from the meaning of ‘help’, when it has reference to the Lord, as mercy, since help that comes from Him is due to His mercy and also to His presence. For where mercy is received, there He is present. His presence is primarily in the Church, because that is where the Word is and the Lord’s presence comes through the Word.

sRef Ex@18 @4 S0′ 8653. ‘And delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh’ means deliverance from the falsity of those who engaged in molestation. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the sword’ as truth engaged in conflict, and in the contrary sense as falsity engaged in conflict and laying waste, dealt with in 2799, 4499, 6353, 7102, 8294; and from the representation of ‘Pharaoh’ as those who use falsities to molest the upright in the next life, 7107, 7110, 7126, 7142, 7220, 7228, 7317.

sRef Ex@18 @5 S0′ 8654. ‘And Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses’ means Divine Good. This is clear from the representation of ‘Jethro’ and ‘Moses’ as Divine Good and Divine Truth, and from the meaning of ‘father-in-law’, all dealt with above in 8643, 8644.

sRef Ex@18 @5 S0′ 8655. ‘And his sons’ means forms of the good of truth, as above in 8649.

sRef Ex@18 @5 S0′ 8656. ‘And his wife’ means the good joined to God’s truth. This is clear from the representation of ‘the wife of Moses’ as the good from God which had been joined to God’s truth, also dealt with above, in 8647.

sRef Ex@18 @5 S0′ 8657. ‘Came to Moses in the wilderness’ means a joining together in the state before regeneration when temptations take place. This is clear from the meaning of ‘coming to Moses’ as a joining together, that is to say, of Divine Good, represented by ‘Jethro’, and Divine Truth, represented by ‘Moses’; and from the meaning of ‘the wilderness’ as a state when temptations have to be undergone, dealt with in 6828, 8098, thus the state before regeneration. There are two states which those who are being regenerated and becoming a spiritual Church pass into, during the first of which they undergo temptations, see above in 8643. The former state is described by the state of the children of Israel when in the wilderness, and the latter state by their state when in the land of Canaan under Joshua.