bloody
The internal meaning of “blood” is a little tricky, because Swedenborg gives two meanings that seem quite different. In most cases, Swedenborg links blood with...
city
Cities of the mountain and cities of the plain (Jeremiah 33:13) signify doctrines of charity and faith.
Full
'To satiate' relates to the extent of a person's will, for good or evil.
Rapine
'Rapine' signifies violence offered by the false principle.
noise
'A voice crying,' and 'the voice of a cry,' are common expressions in the Word, and are applied whenever there is a noise or disturbance,...
wheels
'Wheels,' as in Exodus 14:25, signify the power of proceeding and divine intelligence. 'Wheels,' as in Isaiah 5:28, signify the doctrine of natural truth. 'Wheels,'...
horses
'A horse' signifies knowledges or understanding of the Word. In an opposite sense it signifies the understanding of the Word falsified by reasonings, and likewise...
horseman
'A horseman' signifies intelligence, or one who is intelligent. 'A horseman,' as mentioned in Revelation 9:16, signifies reasonings concerning faith alone. 'A horseman' can also...
sword
A 'sword,' in the Word, signifies the truth of faith combating and the vastation of truth. In an opposite sense, it signifies falsity combating and...
glittering
'Lightning' is the radiance and brilliance of God's truth.
spear
'Spears and swords' signify truths adapted to spiritual warfare.
multitude of slain
'A multitude of slain' relates to people who perish from falsities, and 'a great number of carcasses,' of people who perish from evils, as in...
slain
'The slain' when referring to the Lord, as in Revelation 5, means the separation of everything from the divine. In denial of His divinity, He...
stumble
To 'stumble' denotes being scandalized or offended, and falling, as a result, from truths into falsities.
harlot
'A harlot' signifies the affection of falsities, thus the church corrupted.
witchcrafts
In Revelation 9:21, 'sorceries' take the place of the eighth commandment, 'thou shalt not bear false witness.' The three other evils, which are murder, fornication,...
selleth
'To sell,' as in Genesis 41:56, means transferring to another as their own, because what is sold becomes the property of the one who buys...
nations
'Nations' signify people who are in the good of love and charity from the Lord. Two nations in the womb,' as in Genesis 25:23, signify...
families
Families (as in Genesis 8:19) signify goodnesses and truths arranged in man by the Lord, according to order. See Secrets of Heaven 917. In Nahum...
saith
As with many common verbs, the meaning of “to say” in the Bible is highly dependent on context. Who is speaking? Who is hearing? What...
jehovah
The Lord, in the simplest terms, is love itself expressed as wisdom itself. In philosophic terms, love is the Lord's substance and wisdom is His...
hosts
A host and an army come from the same Hebrew word and mean the same thing in Bible; when the Children of Israel were numbered...
uncover
To uncover' signifies adulterating the goods of the Word, and 'to grind meal' signifies falsifying its truths.
skirts
In Isaiah 6:1, 'the train of the Lord' signifies in general the divine proceeding, and specifically the divine truth which is in the extremities of...
face
“The eyes are the windows of the soul.” That’s a sentiment with roots somewhere in murky antiquity, but one that has become hopelessly cliché because...
show
'Shew' signifies instruction to the life.
nakedness
'Unclothed' signifies being deprived of the truths of faith.
shame
On a natural level, there are a variety of things that can cause shame. We might be ashamed of physical weakness or ugliness; we might...
look
To look,' as in Genesis 18:22, signifies thinking, because seeing denotes understanding. Look not back behind thee,' as in Genesis 19:17, means that Lot, who...
say
As with many common verbs, the meaning of “to say” in the Bible is highly dependent on context. Who is speaking? Who is hearing? What...
nineveh
'Nineveh' signifies the falsities of doctrinal matters, also the Gentiles, or the falsities originating in the fallacies of the senses, in the obscurity of an...
seek
The meaning of "to seek" in the Bible is pretty straightforward, but there is a bit of nuance: Swedenborg tells us that in most cases...
comforters
When the Bible talks about someone being comforted or consoled, it generally means that they are being offered ideas that will help bring them to...
No
'No,' as in Ezekiel 30:15, denotes doubt in a state of temptation.
rivers
'Waters,' 'rivers,' and 'depths,' as in Psalm 78:15-16, signify truths from the Lord.
Round about
'Round about' denotes the things most distant from the middle, or from good and truth.
rampart
A rampart,' as in Lamentations 2:8, signifies doctrinal matters.
sea
Water generally represents what Swedenborg calls “natural truth,” or true concepts about day-to-day matters and physical things. Since all water ultimately flows into the seas,...
wall
'A wall' signifies truth in outer extremes. 'A wall,' as in Revelation 21, signifies the divine truth proceeding from the Lord, and so, the truth...
egypt
'Mizraim' signifies the same thing as Egypt.
Put
'To put' has reference to order, arrangement, application, and influx.
head
The head is the part of us that is highest, which means in a representative sense that it is what is closest to the Lord....
streets
The phrase 'in the streets and synagogues' in Matthew 6:2, 5, and Luke 8:26-27, refers to a representative rite amongst the Jews to teach in...
lots
On the most internal level, the stories of Abraham tell us about the Lord's development in his own childhood, with Abraham representing the Lord's spiritual...
great
The word "great" is used in the Bible to represent a state with a strong degree of love and affection, of the desire for good;...
Great men
Great men, as in Revelation 6:15, signify those who are in good, and, in an opposite sense, those who are in evil. Great men, as...
enemy
An enemy in the Bible refers to people who are in the love of evil and the false thinking that springs from evil. On a...
fig
The Writings tell us that the fig tree represents the "natural human," which is our outward life in the world, and the thoughts and feelings...
Ripe
'Ripe' relates to the final state of the church.
figs
The Writings tell us that the fig tree represents the "natural human," which is our outward life in the world, and the thoughts and feelings...
fall
Like other common verbs, the meaning of "fall" is highly dependent on context in regular language, and is highly dependent on context in a spiritual...
mouth
In most cases, "mouth" in the Bible represents thought and logic, especially the kind of active, concrete thought that is connected with speech. The reason...
women
The word "woman" is used a number of different ways in the Bible – as a simple description, as someone connected to a man ("his...
gates
"Gates" in ancient times had a significance that does not hold in the modern world. Cities then were enclosed by walls for protection; gates in...
land
Land' in the Word, denotes the church, for the things which signify the church also signify the things relating to the church, for these constitute...
open
To open,' as in Revelation 9, signifies communication and conjunction.
enemies
An enemy in the Bible refers to people who are in the love of evil and the false thinking that springs from evil. On a...
fire
Just as natural fire can be both comforting in keeping you warm or scary in burning down your house, so fire in the spiritual sense...
devoured
When we eat, our bodies break down the food and get from it both energy and materials for building and repairing the body. The process...
bars
In Lamentations 2:8-9, 'wall,' 'rampart,' 'gates,' and 'bars' signify doctrines.
water
'Waters' signify truths in the natural self, and in the opposite sense, falsities. 'Waters' signify particularly the spiritual parts of a person, or the intellectual...
go
In the physical world, the places we inhabit and the distances between them are physical realities, and we have to get our physical bodies through...
devour
When we eat, our bodies break down the food and get from it both energy and materials for building and repairing the body. The process...
Canker-worm
Canker-worm, caterpillar, and palmer-worm, in Joel 2:25, signify the falsities and evils vastating or consuming the truths and goods of the church.
locust
Grasshoppers signify the same as locusts: the false which vastates the extremes of the natural part of the mind.
merchants
'Merchants' signify people who have knowledges of good and truth. Merchants,' as in Nahum 3:16, signify people who falsify the Word, and communicate, and sell.
heaven
"Heaven" and "heavens" are used many times in the Bible, with a couple of variations of meaning. Sometimes it is relatively literal, including times when...
locusts
Grasshoppers signify the same as locusts: the false which vastates the extremes of the natural part of the mind.
grasshoppers
Grasshoppers signify the same as locusts: the false which vastates the extremes of the natural part of the mind.
day
The expression 'even to this day' or 'today' sometimes appears in the Word, as in Genesis 19:37-38, 22:14, 26:33, 32:32, 35:20, and 47:26. In a...
sun
The 'sun' signifies celestial and spiritual love. The 'sun' in the Word, when referring to the Lord, signifies His divine love and wisdom. Because the...
place
'A room' or 'place' denotes state.
known
Like so many common verbs, the meaning of "know" in the Bible is varied and dependent on context. And in some cases – when it...
shepherds
The Writings tell us that shepherds represent those who lead and teach others, using knowledge and true ideas to help people reach the goodness of...
mountains
The Writings tell us that the Lord's love is the sun of heaven, and it is natural for us to look above ourselves to the...
hurt
'To hurt,' as mentioned in Revelation 6:6, signifies violation and profanation. 'To hurt' as mentioned in Revelation 9:4, signifies perverting the truths and goods of...
hear
Thanks to modern science, we now understand that hearing actually happens in the brain, not the ears. The ears collect vibrations in the air and...
hands
'Washing of the hands' was an ancient declaration of innocence, and signifies purification from evils and falsities, as in Psalms 73:13 and Matthew 27:24.
wickedness
'Wickedness' signifies evil, and 'iniquity' signifies falsities.
passed
'To pass,' as in Genesis 31:52, signifies flowing in. 'To pass the night,' as in Genesis 24:54, signifies having peace. 'To pass through,' as in...
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