132. "'That you allow the woman Jezebel.'" This symbolically means that they have among them people in the church who divorce faith from charity and make faith by itself saving.

That the woman Jezebel means faith divorced from charity is apparent from the depictions that follow next when they are explained in order according to their spiritual meaning and compared then with that faith. For the evil deeds of Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, were as follows:

She went and served Baal, and set up an altar for Baal in Samaria, and made a shrine (1 Kings 16:31-33).

She killed the prophets of Jehovah (1 Kings 18:4, 13).

She wanted to kill Elijah (1 Kings 19:1-2).

Through a subterfuge, by appointing two false witnesses, she stole the vineyard from Naboth and had him killed (1 Kings 21:6-7ff.).

Because of these evil deeds, Elijah predicted to her that dogs would eat her (1 Kings 21:23).

She was thrown down from the window where she stood painted up, and some of her blood was spattered on the wall and on the horses which trampled her (2 Kings 9:30, 32-34).

[2] Since all of the historical portions of the Word as well as the prophetic ones symbolically refer to the spiritual components of the church, so also do the foregoing events. That they symbolize a faith divorced from charity follows from their spiritual meaning and then from comparing the two. For to go and serve Baal and set up an altar for him and make a shrine means, symbolically, to serve lusts of every kind, or to say the same thing, the devil, by giving no thought to any evil lust or any sin, as people do who have no doctrine having to do with charity or life, but only one having to do with faith.

Killing the prophets means, symbolically, destroying doctrinal truths drawn from the Word.

Wanting to kill Elijah means, symbolically, wanting to do the same with the Word.

Stealing the vineyard from Naboth and killing him means, symbolically, doing the same with the church. For a vineyard means the church.

The dogs which ate Jezebel symbolize lusts.

Being thrown down from the window, the spattering of the blood on the wall, and the trampling by horses, symbolizes the death of these things, for each of these also has a symbolic meaning, the window symbolizing truth in a state of light, the blood symbolizing falsity, the wall symbolizing truth in outward expressions, and a horse symbolizing an understanding of the Word.

It may be concluded from this that when the two are compared, these depictions accord with a faith divorced from charity, as can be seen as well from subsequent descriptions in the book of Revelation where this faith is the subject.