9057. 'Blow for blow' means if anything of affection in the understanding is wiped out or injured. This is clear from the meaning of 'blow' as the wiping out or injuring of affection in the understanding, that is, of affection for truth. 'Blow' is expressed in the original language by a word that means a bruise resulting from a gathering of blood or corrupted blood; and 'blood' in the internal sense is the truth of faith derived from the good of love and in the contrary sense truth that has been falsified and rendered profane, 4735, 6978, 7317, 7326. 'A blow' therefore is truth that has been injured or wiped out. 'Blows' or 'plagues' ¹ have the same meaning in Revelation 9:20; 11:6; 13:12; 15:1, 6, 8; 16:21; 18:8; also in Jeremiah 30:12, 14, 17; Ezekiel 7:2; Zechariah 14:12-15; Psalms 38:5; and in Luke 10:30-35, where it speaks about the one who fell among thieves, who inflicted blows on him, and left him half dead, and about a Samaritan who bandaged his blows, poured in oil and wine, lifted him onto his own animal, and brought him to an inn.

[2] A person with an understanding of the internal sense of the Word can know why the Lord said that a Samaritan bandaged the victim's blows, poured in oil and wine, and set him on his own animal. In the internal sense 'a Samaritan' means someone with an affection for truth; 'bandaging blows' means healing that affection when it has been injured; 'pouring in oil and wine' means introducing the good of love and the good of faith; and 'lifting onto his animal' means supporting with his own power of understanding. Thus those words were used to describe charity towards the neighbour, in a natural way for the benefit of people in the world and in a spiritual way for the benefit of angels in heaven - in a natural way in the sense of the letter, and in a spiritual way in the internal sense. The reason why 'a Samaritan' is someone with an affection for truth is that in the Word 'Samaria' means that affection. For the meaning of 'oil' as the good of love, see 886, 3728, 4582; of 'wine' as the good of faith, 1798, 6377; of 'an animal' as the power of understanding, 2761, 2762, 2781, 3217, 5321, 5741, 6125, 6401, 6534, 7024, 8146, 8148. The Lord spoke in this manner, but few understand it; for they think that such details were mentioned by Him merely in order to make up some story that was a parable. But in that case they would not be words from God. Words from God all hold within themselves such things as tell of the Lord, of heaven, and of the Church, in every tiny detail, see above in 9049 (end).

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4736. 'Throw him into [this] pit in the wilderness' means that for the time being they should conceal it among their falsities, that is, that they should consider it a falsehood but nevertheless keep it because it is of importance to the Church. This is clear from the meaning of 'the pit' as falsities, dealt with above in 4728, and from the meaning of 'the wilderness' as a place where there is no truth; for 'wilderness' has a wide range of meanings. It is a place that is uninhabited and so uncultivated, and when used to refer to the Church means a place where there is no good and consequently no truth, 2708, 3900. Thus 'the pit in the wilderness' is used here to mean falsities among which no truth is present because no good is there.

[2] The expression 'no truth is present because no good is there' is used for the reason that if a person believes that faith saves without works, truth may indeed exist. Even so, it is not truth residing with him, because it does not look to good nor is it rooted in good. This truth is not a living one because it contains a false premise, and therefore when a truth of this kind exists with that person it is nothing but a falsehood based on the false premise that reigns within it. That premise may be likened to the soul from which all else has its life. On the other hand falsities can exist which are accepted as truths if good lies within them, especially if it is the good of innocence, as with gentiles and even with many within the Church.