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
'A nation,' as in Genesis 21:18, signifies the spiritual church which should receive the good of faith. Nation from afar,' as in Jeremiah 5:17, signifies...
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.
zeboiim
The Zeboiim, mentioned in Genesis 14:2 signify the most general or universal kinds of evils and falsities. (Arcana Coelestia 1663). In Deuteronomy 29:23, Zeboiim and...
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
'The smitten' signify people who are oppressed by the falsities of ignorance.
Rephaims
'Rephaims, Zuzims, and Emims,' as in Genesis 14:5, signify races similar to the Nephilim of Genesis 6:4.
Zuzims
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
'The land of Seir' signifies in the highest sense, celestial natural good of the Lord. It has this signification because Mount Seir was the boundary...
wilderness
'The wilderness of Sin,' as in Exodus 16, signifies the good from truth in a state of temptation.
returned
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...
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.
slime
'Tar and pitch,' as in Exodus 2:3, signifies good mixed with evils and falsities, because 'tar' signifies good mixed with evils, and 'pitch' signifies good...
fled
To flee signifies to escape, and be rescued. To flee signifies to be overcome.
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...
goods
The “goods” that people have in the Bible – their possessions – represent spiritual possessions, which are desires to be good and knowledge that helps...
way
These days we tend to think of "roads" as smooth swaths of pavement, and judge them by how fast we can drive cars on them....
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
A child is a young boy or girl in the care of parents, older than a suckling or an infant, but not yet an adolescent....
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...
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...
Three hundred
'Three hundred' signifies fullness, because the number comes from three and a hundred multiplied. Both 'three' and 'a hundred' signifies fullness. The significance of products...
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...
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...
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...
Left hand
'The left hand' in a negative sense signifies falsity which is used to produce evil.
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...
return
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...
slaughter
'Slaughter' signifies perdition and damnation. 'Slaughter' and 'a storm of slaughter,' signifies evils which destroy the goods of the church. 'The day of great slaughter'...
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 and Kiriathaim' signify the hells of the people in persuasions of falsity.
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...
heaven
"Air" in the Bible represents thought, but in a very general way – more like our capacity to perceive ideas and the way we tend...
Heaven and earth
'Heaven and earth' signify, in general, the internal and external church. In particular, they signify the internal and external, or the spiritual and the natural...
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...
tithes
'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...
the Lord
The Bible refers to the Lord in many different ways, which from the text seem indistinguishable and interchangeable. Understood in the internal sense, though, there...
lord
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...
shoe
'A shoe latchet' signifies evil.
Latchet
'A shoe latchet' signifies evil.
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
"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 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...
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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