Table of Subjects ¹

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1. The Lord's advent.

2. The successive vastation of the church.

3. The church totally devastated, and its rejection.

4. The rejection of the Lord by the church.

5. Temptations of the Lord in general.

6. Temptation even to despair.

7. The combats of the Lord with the hells.

8. Victory over them, or their subjugation.

9. The passion of the cross.

10. The glorification of the Human of the Lord, or its union with the Divine.

11. A new church in place of the former.

12. A new church together with a new heaven.

13. The state of humiliation before the Father.

14. ²

15. A last judgment by the Lord.

16. Celebration and worship of the Lord.

17. Redemption and salvation by the Lord.

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Editor's Introduction: In this work, Emanuel Swedenborg outlined the internal meaning of all the Prophetical Books, from Isaiah to Malachi, and the Psalms, and then the first 16 chapters of Genesis. It provides a survey of the inner meaning of a substantial portion of the Old Testament, in one place.

This work was written by Swedenborg in Latin, in 1761. It was translated from Latin into English by Rev. J. E. Schreck, and this translation was published by the Swedenborg Foundation, in New York, in 1900. This modified version of Schreck's 1900 translation does not update the text; instead just modifying numbering and formatting for clarity of use online.

Each chapter of each book of the Prophets has one corresponding numbered section in Swedenborg's explanation of its inner meaning, or internal sense. Swedenborg listed the verses that relate to each outlined point. We have added hyperlinks to the verse references, shown to the left of each outlined point. The Psalms and initial chapters of Genesis are treated in a similar fashion.

This work was not published by Swedenborg, but it is consistent with other more detailed treatments made in his published works. For example, Swedenborg refers to this work in Doctrine of the Lord 37.

Readers may also find these comparisons useful:

- No. 124 of this work, explaining Ezekiel 1, with The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture 97,

- Nos. 161, 162, explaining Ezekiel 38, and 39, with Apocalypse Revealed 859,

- No. 236, explaining Zechariah 4, with Apocalypse Revealed 43, and

- Nos. 244-246 of this work, explaining Zechariah 12, 13, 14, with Apocalypse Revealed 707.

In the manuscript, at the beginning, Swedenborg wrote out a list of works that he intended to write and publish. While it's clearly related to the project of outlining the internal meaning of the Prophets, Psalms, and historical parts of the Word, it seems to be an independent list. We reproduce Rev. Schreck's translation of that list here:

"To Be Published:

1. Concerning the Lord.

2. Concerning the Sacred Scripture or concerning the Word of the Lord.

3. All things of religion and of the worship of God in one complex in the Decalogue.

4. Concerning Faith.

5. Angelic wisdom concerning the Divine Providence.

6. Angelic wisdom concerning the Divine omnipotence and omniscience, and concerning infinity and eternity.

7. Angelic wisdom concerning life.

8. Angelic wisdom concerning the Divine love and Divine wisdom."

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707. 16:16 And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew Armageddon. This symbolizes a state of combat, of falsities against truths, and, arising from a love of dominion and preeminence, a mind to destroy the New Church.

To gather together to the place, in this case for battle, means, symbolically, to incite people to use falsities to fight against truths. It is a state of combat, because a place symbolizes the state of something. It springs from a mind to destroy the New Church, because the combat meant is between the former church and a new one, and the intent of the combat is to destroy. What Armageddon symbolizes we will say below.

We were told previously that the dragon went off to make war with the rest of the woman's offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ (Revelation 12:17). Also that it was granted the beast from the sea to make war with the saints (Revelation 13:7). Then in this chapter we are told that spirits of demons coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, went away to the kings of the earth to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty (Revelation 16:13-14). And here now the subject is the battle itself, whose outcome is not described, but only its state, which is symbolized by Armageddon.

[2] Armageddon symbolizes in heaven a love of acclaim, dominion and preeminence, and in Hebrew, too, Aram or Arom symbolizes loftiness, and Megiddo in ancient Hebrew a love in consequence of loftiness, as is apparent from its meaning in Arabic. ¹ Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddo has the same symbolic meaning in Zechariah 12:11. The subject of that chapter is also the Lord's advent, the end of the Jewish Church then and the beginning of a new one to be established by the Lord, and a conflict, too, between those churches. That is why we find so many times in that chapter the phrase "in that day," and that day symbolizes the Lord's advent, as in no. 704 above. For this to be seen, I will quote the passages:

...in that day that I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all peoples... In that day... I will strike every horse with stupor, and its rider with madness... In that day I will make the leaders of Judah like a fiery furnace in the woodpile... In that day the Lord will protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that there may be a force among them... ...in that day... I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. (Zechariah 12:3-4, 6, 8-9)

And finally:

In that day there shall be... mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning at Hadad-Rimmon in the valley of Megiddo. (Zechariah 12:11)

And in the following chapter:

In that day a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem... It shall be in that day that the prophets will be ashamed... and... not put on a robe of coarse hair, so as to deceive. (Zechariah 13:1, 4)

[3] That day symbolizes the Lord's advent and the end of the former church and the beginning of a new one, as said above. But what the valley of Megiddo in that chapter symbolizes cannot be seen unless the series of symbolic meanings there and in the two following chapters in that prophetic book are revealed by disclosure of the spiritual sense; and because this series of meanings has been revealed to me, I will say what it is, but in brief summation. In the spiritual sense Zechariah 12 describes the following:

The Lord will form a new church (verse 1).

The former church will have no doctrine then left in it, and therefore the people will run from it (verses 2, 3).

There will no longer be any understanding of truth, except in people who hold to the Word and will belong to the new church (verse 4).

They will learn the goodness of doctrine from the Lord (verse 5).

By means of the Word's truths the Lord will destroy all falsities then, lest the doctrine of the new church teach anything other than truth (verses 6, 7).

The church will have then a doctrine regarding the Lord (verse 8). He will destroy everyone and everything that stands in opposition to that doctrine (verse 9), and a new church will exist then from the Lord (verse 10).

Each and every part of the church will be in a state of mourning then (verses 10 to 14).

[4] These are the contents of Chapter 12 in the spiritual sense. The contents of the next chapter, Zechariah 13, are as follows:

For the new church there will be a Word, and it will lie open to them (verse 1).

Falsities in their doctrine and worship will be entirely destroyed (verses 2, 3).

The former prophetic or doctrinal teaching will cease, and there will no longer be any falsities in their doctrine (verses 4, 5).

People in the former church will kill the Lord, with the intention of dispersing those who believe in Him (verses 6, 7).

Those of the devastated church will perish, while those of the new church will be purified and taught by the Lord (verses 8, 9).

[5] These are the contents of chapter 13 in the spiritual sense. The contents of chapter 14 are as follows:

The combats of the Lord against evil people and their dispersion (verses 1 to 5).

The absence of any truth then other than Divine truth from the Lord (verses 6, 7).

Divine truth will emanate from the Lord (verses 8, 9).

Truth in the new church will increase, and there will be in it no falsity that accompanies evil (verses 10, 11).

People who fight against those truths will surrender themselves to falsities of every kind (verse 12).

The destruction then of every facet of the church (verses 13 to 15).

People will then turn to worship of the Lord, even from nations that are external and merely natural (verses 16 to 19).

And their intelligence then, springing from the goodness of charity that produces their worship (verses 20, 21).

These are the contents of the three chapters, Zechariah 12 to Zechariah 14, in the spiritual sense, disclosed because they also have as their subject the last state of a former church and the first state of a new church. Moreover, because [in the present verse] we are told that people were to be gathered together to the place called in Hebrew Armageddon, it follows that what is said in Zechariah applies equally to the last state of today's church and to the first state of the New Church.

Armageddon symbolizes, as we said, a love of acclaim, dominion and preeminence, for it is because of that love that a conflict arises, and it is because of that love and on its account that there is the mourning described in Zechariah 12:11-14.

Megiddo also has the same symbolic meaning in 2 Kings 23:29-30 and 2 Chronicles 35:20-24, but in the spiritual sense.

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