952. 22:15 But outside are dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie. This symbolically means that no one is received into the New Jerusalem who disregards the Ten Commandments and does not refrain from any of the evils listed there as being sins, and therefore lives caught up in them.

This is the general symbolic meaning of the items listed, because they have reference to the Ten Commandments, and what they mean here can be seen from the explanation in no. 892 above, where a similar list is found. Only here dogs are listed as well, which symbolize people caught up in lusts, the kind of people addressed in the ninth and tenth commandments of the Decalogue.

[2] Dogs in general symbolize people who are caught up in lusts of every kind and indulge in them, particularly people caught up in merely carnal pleasures, especially in the pleasure of gluttony, which constitutes their only delight. Consequently dogs in the spiritual world are the way people appear who have indulged their gullet and tongue, and they are called there carnal appetites personified. Because people of that character are dull-minded, they regard matters connected with church as unimportant. Therefore we are told that they will stand outside, which is to say that they will not be received into the Lord's New Church.

[3] Dogs have similar symbolic meanings in the following passages in the Word:

His watchmen are blind..., they are all mute dogs..., watching, lying down, loving to sleep. They are single-minded dogs; they never have enough. (Isaiah 56:10-11)

They make a racket like dogs, and go all around the city... They wander about looking for food; if they do not get their fill, they are then up all night. (Psalms 59:6, 14-15)

The vilest of people are meant by dogs in Job 30:1, 1 Samuel 24:14, 2 Samuel 9:8, and 2 Kings 8:13, and also those who are unclean. So we are told in Deuteronomy,

You shall not bring the wages of a harlot or the price of a dog into the house of Jehovah... for any votive offering whatever, for both... are an abomination to Jehovah your God. (Deuteronomy 23:18)

892. "And murderers, the sexually licentious, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars." This symbolizes all those people who have no regard for the Ten Commandments, and do not refrain from any of the evils named there as sins, and therefore live caught up in them.

What is symbolically meant on three levels, natural, spiritual and celestial, by these four of the Ten Commandments - namely, you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, and you shall not bear false witness - may be seen in The Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem, 62-91. Consequently there is no need to expound them here again.

However, in place of the seventh commandment not to steal, listed here are sorcerers and idolaters, and sorcerers symbolize people who seek truths, which they falsify in order to use them to defend falsities and evils, as those do who take this truth, that no one can do good of himself, and use it to defend faith alone. For this is a type of spiritual theft. Moreover, what enchantments are may be seen in no. 462 above. Idolaters symbolize people who institute worship, or take part in worship, not from the Word, thus not from the Lord, but from their own intelligence (no. 459), as those do also who, on the basis of a single statement of Paul's, ¹ wrongly interpreted, and not on the basis of any of the Lord's words, have fabricated the whole doctrine of the church; and this, too, is a type of spiritual theft. Liars symbolize people caught up in falsities arising from evil (no. 924).

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