remember
'To remember,' as in Genesis 41:9, signifies conjunction. 'Remembering' denotes conjunction because the remembrance of anyone in the other life joins them together, because as...
Yahweh
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...
us
Angels do give us guidance, but they are mere helpers; the Lord alone governs us, through angels and spirits. Since angels have their assisting role,...
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...
see
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...
reproach
To revile something – or "reproach," as it is often translated – represents making a direct and deliberate attack on what is spiritually true, in...
Inheritance is turned to strangers
In Lamentations 5:2, 'our inheritance is turned to strangers,' signifies the truths of the church converted into falsities, and 'our houses to aliens' signifies the...
inheritance
In Biblical times, possessions passed from fathers to sons, a patriarchal system that would not be accepted in today's society – but one that is...
turned
Swedenborg says that the Lord is the sun of heaven, and like the natural sun of our world shines on everyone, good or evil. What...
Our houses to aliens
In Lamentations 5:2, 'our inheritance is turned to strangers,' signifies the truths of the church converted into falsities, and 'our houses to aliens' signifies the...
houses
A "house" is essentially a container - for a person, for a family, for several families or even for a large group with shared interests...
aliens
There is a long history of using travel to round out an education, from the 19th-century “world tours” taken by Oxford and Cambridge graduates to...
orphans
'Orphans' signify people who are in a state of innocence and charity, and desire to know and to do what is good but are not...
fatherless
'Orphans' signify people who are in a state of innocence and charity, and desire to know and to do what is good but are not...
mothers
In general, mothers in the Bible represent the Lord's church on earth, or the church among those who know and follow the Lord. In some...
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...
money
'Silver,' in the internal sense of the Word, signifies truth, but also falsity. 'Silver' means the truth of faith, or the truth acquired from selfhood,...
wood
In general, plants in the Bible represent facts, thoughts and ideas – intellectual things. This makes sense: Plants are rooted in place, but can grow...
necks
'The neck' signifies influx and the communication of interior and exterior levels and the following conjunction. The inmost or third heaven has reference to the...
weary
On the surface, it appears that Swedenborg gives two different representations for “weariness.” In discussing Genesis - where Esau and later Jacob are described as...
given
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...
hand
In Genesis 27:22, 'voice' relates to truth, and 'hand,' to good.
egyptians
Egyptians represent those who are in natural science, thus the natural, but the Hebrews, those who are of the church, thus respectively the spiritual. The...
satisfied
'What satisfies' is what nourishes the soul.
bread
The word “bread” is used two ways in the Bible. In some cases it means actual bread; in others it stands for food in general....
fathers
Father in the Word means what is most interior, and in those things that are following the Lord's order, it means what is good. In...
iniquities
In the Word three terms are used to mean bad things that are done. These three are transgression, iniquity, and sin, and they are here...
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...
sword
The three words, sword, famine and pestilence, appear in a group in 26 different Bible verses. That's not an accident. Sword, famine and pestilence describe...
wilderness
'The wilderness of Sin,' as in Exodus 16, signifies the good from truth in a state of temptation.
skin
'Skin' corresponds to truth or to falsity in the extremes. See Arcana Coelestia 1835, 10036, and Apocalypse Explained 386. 'Skin,' as in Job 19:26, means...
oven
'An oven,' as in Malachi 4:1, signifies hell, where the people live who confirm themselves in false doctrines and evils of life from earthly and...
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...
virgins
A ‘virgin’ in the Word means those who are in the Lord’s kingdom. –Secrets of Heaven 3081...
cities
Cities of the mountain and cities of the plain (Jer. 33:13) signify doctrines of charity and faith.
judah
City of Judah,' as in Isaiah 40:9, signifies the doctrine of love towards the Lord and love towards our neighbor in its whole extent.
princes
Captains and Rulers (Jer. 51:23) signifies principal evils and falsities. Captains and Rulers (Ezek 33:6) signifies principal truths. See Chief Captains.
hanged
'To hang,' as mentioned in Genesis 41:13, signifies rejecting. 'Hanging' represents the damnation of profanation.
faces
“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...
elders
Ancients of the people, and the princes thereof ('Isaiah 3:14'), have a similar signification with the twelve disciples.
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...
Mill
'Grinding at the mill,' in a positive sense, means examination and confirmation of spiritual truth from Word. But in a negative sense, 'mill' signifies the...
stumbled
To 'stumble' denotes being scandalized or offended, and falling, as a result, from truths into falsities.
under
In the Bible, things that are lower down, or under, physically, generally represent things that are lower or more external spiritually. In some cases, the...
gate
"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...
heart
The heart means love. A good heart means love to the Lord and to the neighbor while a hard or stony heart means the love...
fallen
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...
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....
eyes
'Pairs of hands, eyes, etc.' relate to the will and understanding, or to good and truth. The right side to the will or good, and...
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...
foxes
If man closes up the middle natural degree, which corresponds to the middle spiritual, he becomes, with respect to love, like a fox, and with...
walk
To walk in the Bible represents living, and usually means living according to the true things taught to us by the Lord -- to "walk...
forever
'Perpetual' in the literal sense, means to the end of one’s life, after death, and eternity.
throne
'The Lord's throne' signifies, in general, the whole heaven, and specifically, the spiritual heaven, and by extension, divine truth proceeding, and so, everything of heaven...
generation
To “generate” something is to create it, and that idea underpins the meaning of a “generation” of people – it is a group that was...
forget
To forget, in the internal sense, signifies nothing else but removal and apparent privation.
long
'Long' and thence to prolong, refer to good.
turn
Swedenborg says that the Lord is the sun of heaven, and like the natural sun of our world shines on everyone, good or evil. What...
days
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...
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