days
"Day" describes a state in which we are turned toward the Lord, and are receiving light (which is truth) and heat (which is a desire...
Shinar
'The land of Shinar,' as in Genesis 10:10, signifies external worship, which has profane internal.
Chedorlaomer
Chedorlaomer, the king mentioned in Genesis 14:4, 5, denotes apparent good and truth in the Lord's external man. Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, signifies truths; and...
elam
Elam, mentioned in Isaiah 21:1, signifies faith originating in charity, consequently, the internal church. Elam, in Jeremiah 49:34, signifies the falsification of doctrine. In Jeremiah...
tidal
'Tidal, king of Goiim' signifies goods.
nations
The Bible generally uses two different terms for large groups: “people” and “nations.” When it uses “nation,” it is talking about a group with the...
war
War in the Word represents the combat of temptation when what is good is assaulted by what is evil or false. The evil that attacks...
sodom
"Sodom" in the Bible represents the love of self and the love of ruling or dominating others springing from the love of self. This is...
Gomorrah
'Sodom' signifies the evil of self-love, and 'Gomorrah,' the falsity derived from it.
Shinab
'Shinab, king of Admah' is a kind of evil lust and false persuasion which the Lord fought against.
Shemeber
'Shemeber' denotes evil lusts and false persuasions.
Zoar
Zoar, a city mentioned in Genesis 13:10, signifies the affection of goodness. Zoar was located not far from Sodom; Lot fled there after he was...
vale
Mountains in the Bible represent people's highest points, where we are closest to the Lord - our love of the Lord and the state of...
Vale of Siddim
'The vale of Siddim, which is the salt sea' as in Genesis 14:3, signifies the filthiness of lusts and the falsities derived from them.
Siddim
'The valley of Siddim' signifies the uncleanness of lust, and the falsities derived from them.
salt
'Salt' is the desire of conjunction of truth with good, which is why only salt will conjoin water, which corresponds to truth, and oil, which...
salt sea
'The vale of Siddim, which is the salt sea' as in Genesis 14:3, signifies the filthiness of lusts and the falsities derived from them.
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,...
served
Generally speaking, those who are at lower levels of an organization serve those at higher levels. Bosses boss and their employees serve; coaches devise strategy...
thirteenth
'Thirteen,' between twelve and fourteen, denotes the intermediate state. 'Thirteen,' as the sum of ten and three, denotes remains.
Thirteenth year
'The thirteenth year,' as in Genesis 14, signifies the beginning of the Lord’s temptations in childhood.
rebelled
'Rebel,' as in Genesis 14:4, relates to evils pertaining to a person, or to evil spirits, when they begin to arise and infest, after they...
fourteenth
Fourteen, as in Genesis 31:40, signifies a first period of time. The fourteenth year, as in Genesis 14:5, signifies the first temptation of the Lord...
came
As with common verbs in general, the meaning of “come” in the Bible is highly dependent on context – its meaning is determined largely by...
kings
The human mind is composed of two parts, a will and an understanding, a seat of loves and affections, and a seat of wisdom and...
smote
To strike or smite, when used in the Bible, means to attack, harm or destroy, and is usually in reference to an attack on someone’s...
rephaim
'The Rephaim' signify people who, above all others, were in the love of self, and so most completely natural. From the persuasion of their own...
Zuzim
The Zuzim (Genesis 14:5) signify persuasions of falsity, or those who, through a delusion of their own supremacy, make light of all things holy and...
Ham
'The land of Ham' signifies the church destroyed.
horites
'Horites,' as mentioned in Genesis 14:6, represent those who are principled in the persuasions of what is false, grounded in self-love.
mount
'Hills' signify the good of charity.
Seir
'Seir,' as in Genesis 33:14, signifies the conjunction of spiritual and celestial things in the natural level, that is, the truth of faith with the...
wilderness
'Wilderness' signifies something with little life in it, as described in the internal sense in Luke 1:80 'Wilderness' signifies somewhere there is no good because...
returned
Everyone knows the phrase "the natural order of things." It means that everything is in its proper place, occupying the niche it is meant to...
kadesh
'Kadesh' denotes truths, and contention about truths.
dwelt
'Inhabit' refers to good.
battle
War in the Word represents the combat of temptation when what is good is assaulted by what is evil or false. The evil that attacks...
four
The number "four" in the Bible represents things being linked together or joined. This is partly because four is two times two, and two represents...
five
Five also signifies all things of one part.
Full
'To satiate' relates to the extent of a person's will, for good or evil.
fled
Flight, as in Matthew 14:20, signifies removal from a state of the good of love and innocence. Flight, as in Mark 8:18, signifies the last...
fell
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...
mountain
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...
Abram
Abram represents different spiritual things, as his story develops. When he is first mentioned, Abram, with his brothers Nahor and Haran, are listed as the...
brother
Brethren (Gen. 27:29) signify the affections of good.
son
Marriages in the Bible represent the union we all can have between the desire for good and the understanding of truth (or an understanding of...
hebrew
The term 'Hebrew' is used in the Word to signify anything relating to service, whatever its nature may be. Hence Abraham, in one passage only...
Mamre
Mamre was an Amorite who lived in the land of Canaan, in the area called Hebron in what would much later be the kingdom of...
heard
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...
led
'To be led by the Lord' is to be in a state of essential liberty, blessedness, and happiness.
house
A "house" is essentially a container - for a person, for a family, for several families or even for a large group with shared interests...
three
The Writings talk about many aspects of life using the philosophical terms "end," "cause" and "effect." The "end" is someone’s goal or purpose, the ultimate...
hundred
It's a landmark for a young child to count to 100; it sort of covers all the "ordinary" numbers. One hundred is obviously significant for...
pursued
'To pursue,' as in Genesis 14:16, signifies a state of purification, because 'to pursue enemies' is the expulsion of evils and falsities which were with...
dan
The tribe of Dan (Jer. 8:16) signifies truth in its own ultimate degree of order, here truth in the church, which is contained in the...
night
The sun in the Bible represents the Lord, with its heat representing His love and its light representing His wisdom. “Daytime,” then, represents a state...
servants
“Servant” literally means “a person who serves another,"" and its meaning is similar in reference to the spiritual meaninngs of the Bible. Our lives in...
damascus
Damascus and Aroer (Isaiah 17:1, 2) signify the knowledges of truth and good. See Eliezer of Damascus.
back
There are many instances in the Bible which describe people turning back, looking back or going back. In most cases it is a negative, sometimes...
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...
meet
In natural language, to "meet" someone can be positive or negative: it can be a welcoming and greeting, or it can be "meeting" them in...
after
According to Swedenborg, time and space don’t exist in spiritual reality; they are purely natural things that exist only on the physical plane. This means...
valley of
'The valley of Siddim' signifies the uncleanness of lust, and the falsities derived from them.
valley
Mountains in the Bible represent people's highest points, where we are closest to the Lord - our love of the Lord and the state of...
Shaveh
'Shaveh' signifies goods of the external self.
salem
'Salem' signifies a state of peace and perfection, or the tranquility of peace. 'Salem,' as in Psalm 76:3, signifies the Lord’s spiritual kingdom where there...
bread
Just as natural food feeds the natural body, so spiritual food feeds the spiritual body. And since our spiritual body is the expression of what...
Wine
In Revelation 18:13, 'wine, oil, flour, and wheat' signify celestial principles of worship.
Most high
'The most high' signifies the inmost.
high
'Height' signifies what is inward, and also heaven.
blessed
The Lord is perfect love expressed as perfect wisdom. He created us so that He could love us, could give us love and wisdom of...
said
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...
heavens
Heavens are celestial and spiritual things. Consequently, they are inmost things, both of the Lord's kingdom in heaven the and in the earth. This also...
earth
Is there any difference in meaning between “earth” and “ground”? At first it doesn’t seem so; both refer to the soil making up the land...
hand
Scientists believe that one of the most crucial developments in the evolution of humans was bipedalism – walking on two legs. That left our hands...
tenth
'Tithes,' as in tenths, signifies goods and truths stored up from the Lord in a person’s interior self. These goods are called remains. When these...
give
Like other common verbs, the meaning of "give" in the Bible is affected by context: who is giving what to whom? In general, though, giving...
souls
The nature of the soul is a deep and complicated topic, but it can be summarized as "spiritual life," who we are in terms of...
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...
sandal
In the Word, 'the sole of the foot' and 'the heel' signifies the ultimate natural. 'The shoe' is what clothes the sole of the foot...
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...
young men
"Youths" or "Young men" generally represent intelligence or the understanding of truth. This is fitting, since adolescent boys tend to be more advanced intellectually than...
young
"Youths" or "Young men" generally represent intelligence or the understanding of truth. This is fitting, since adolescent boys tend to be more advanced intellectually than...
eaten
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...
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