9163. And it die or be broken. That this signifies loss or injury, is evident from the signification of “dying,” as being extinction and loss; and from the signification of “to be broken,” as being injury. In the Word “a breach,” and “to be broken,” signifies dispersion and also injury. This has its origin from the spiritual world, where each and all things are conjoined according to the reception of truth Divine from the Lord, thus according to the reception of order, which is induced on each and all things through the truth Divine which proceeds from the Lord (see n. 8700, 8988). From this it is that the truths in a man have a connection one with another according to their reception in good. Truths which are so connected make a one; and therefore when they are broken in general, the truths together with the good are dispersed; and when they are broken in particular, the truths which are there are dispersed. For while they are in connection, the one subsists from the other; but when they are broken, the one recedes from the other. It is from this that in the Word by “being broken,” as also by “being divided,” is signified dispersion (n. 9093), and likewise injury.

[2] Dispersion is signified when the whole is broken, and injury when a part is broken, as is evident from the following passages in the Word.

In Isaiah:

Many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken (Isaiah 8:15; 28:13);

“to stumble” denotes to be induced to commit evil, and thus to fall from truths into falsities; “to fall and be broken” denotes to be dispersed, here in general.

In Ezekiel:

Behold, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt; I will break his arms, the strong, and that which is broken (Ezekiel 30:22);

“Pharaoh king of Egypt” denotes the memory-knowledges that pervert and destroy the truths and goods of faith (n. 6651, 6679, 6683, 6692); “to break his arms” denotes to disperse their strength, and thus these memory-knowledges (n. 4932); “the strong, and that which is broken” denote those things which not having suffered injury, resist, and those which having suffered injury do not resist.

[3] In Luke:

It is written, The stone which the builders rejected hath become the head of the corner; whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken, and on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder (Luke 20:17-18);

“the stone” denotes the Lord as to Divine truth (n. 6426); and “to be broken,” being said of the truths which are from Him, denotes to be dispersed, and thus to be destroyed; and together with the truths, those things which are of the spiritual life; as comes to pass with those who deny the Lord and discard the truths which are from Him, and these are they who “reject the stone.”

In Jeremiah:

Bring upon them the day of evil, and break them with a double breaking (Jeremiah 17:18);

“to break with a double breaking” denotes to utterly destroy.

[4] In Isaiah:

I disposed myself even unto the morning; as a lion, so He breaketh all my bones; from day even to night Thou wilt make an end of me (Isaiah 38:13).

My flesh and my skin hath He made old, and hath broken my bones (Lam. 3:4).

Thou shalt not carry forth out of the house any of the flesh of the paschal lamb, neither shall ye break a bone in it (Exodus 12:46).

“To break the bones” denotes to destroy the truths from the Divine which are the last in order, and on which interior truths and goods rest, and by which they are supported; for if these are destroyed, those things also fall which are built upon them. The truths last in order are those of the literal sense of the Word, within which are the truths of the internal sense; and upon which these latter rest as columns on their bases. (That “bones” denote truths, see n. 3812, 6592, 8005.) From all this it is evident what was represented and signified by what is written concerning the Lord in John:

They came to Jesus, and when they saw that He was dead, they broke not His legs. This came to pass that the Scripture might be fulfilled, A bone of Him ye shall not break (John 19:33, 36).

The reason was that He was the Divine truth itself in the first as well as in the last of order.

[5] In Isaiah:

Jehovah shall bind up the breach of His people, and shall heal the wound of their blow (Isaiah 30:26).

From the prophet even unto the priest everyone maketh a lie, and they heal the breach by a thing of no weight (Jeremiah 6:13-14).

For the breach of My people am I broken, I am in black (Jeremiah 8:21).

Thou hast made the earth to tremble; Thou hast broken it; heal the breaches thereof (Psalms 60:2).

I will stir up a shepherd in the land; he shall not heal the broken one, he shall not uphold that which standeth (Zech. 11:16).

There is no scar of thy breach; thy blow is desperate (Nah. 3:19).

In these passages a “breach” signifies injury done to the truths and goods of faith, and thus to the church; “healing” denotes amending and restoration. The like was signified by the words:

A man that is brokenfooted or brokenhanded shall not come nigh to offer the bread of God (Leviticus 21:17, 19).

That which is broken shall not be offered upon the altar unto Jehovah (Leviticus 22:22);

for “that which is broken” signified that which is destroyed. Injury is signified also by a “fracture,” as in Isaiah:

Ye have seen the fractures of the house of David, that they are many (Isaiah 22:9).

In that day will I raise up the tent of David that is fallen, and close up the fractures thereof; I will set up again its ruins, and I will build them as in the days of eternity (Amos 9:11);

“the house of David,” and “the tent of David,” denote the church of the Lord, for “David,” in the prophetic Word, denotes the the Lord, (n. 1888).