4937. Spirits from hell sometimes use delusion to produce a shoulder with which they cause force to be repelled; it cannot even pass by them. But all this is solely for the protection of those employing that kind of delusion; for they know that in the spiritual world the shoulder corresponds to all power. In the Word too 'the shoulder' means all power, as is evident in the following places,

You have broken the yoke of his burden, and the rod of his shoulder. Isaiah 9:4.

You push with side and with shoulder, and butt with your horns. Ezekiel 34:21.

You will tear for them every shoulder. Ezekiel 29:6-7.

That they may serve Jehovah with one shoulder. Zephaniah 3:9.

To us a Boy is born, and the government will be upon His shoulder. Isaiah 9:6.

I will place the key of the house of David on His shoulder. Isaiah 22:22.

887. The waters abated from over the earth' means that all this was so because the obstructive falsities were now fewer. This is clear from the meaning of the same words that have appeared already in verse 8. As regards the obstructive falsities being fewer than previously in this second state which is the subject here, all the falsities a person has acquired so remain with him that not one is done away with, as stated already. But when a person is being regenerated truths are planted in him towards which falsities are turned by the Lord. It thus appears as though they have been dispersed, dispersed by means of the goods which he is given.