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
Because people are governed by angels and spirits, in Genesis 1:26 it says 'let us make man into our image.' But because the Lord alone...
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
The symbolic meaning of "seeing" is "understanding," which is obvious enough that it has become part of common language (think about it; you might see...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
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
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...
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
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...
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...
skin
'Skin' corresponds to truth or to falsity in the extremes. 'The skin,' as relates to the grand human, means the natural self. There are spirits...
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...
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.
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
Elders are mentioned in the Bible mainly in two ways: First the elders of Israel: and second the 24 elders seated about the throne of...
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...
under
Generally speaking things that are seen as lower physically in the Bible represent things that are lower or more external spiritually. In some cases this...
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
'Hills' signify the good of charity.
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.
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...
