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Lamentations 3:63

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63 Take note of them when they are seated, and when they get up; I am their song.

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Arrow and bow

  

In the Word, arrows stand for truths which defend person from falsity.

In Arcana Coelestia 2709, it says this when discussing Genesis 21:20:

"And he became a shooter of the bow." That this signifies the man of the spiritual church, is evident from the signification of a “shaft,” “dart,” or “arrow,” as being truth; and from the signification of a “bow,” as being doctrine (see above, n. Arcana Coelestia 2686). The man of the spiritual church was formerly called a “shooter of the bow,” because he defended himself by truths, and disputed about truths; differently from the man of the celestial church, who is secure by means of good, and does not dispute about truths (see above, n. Arcana Coelestia 2708). The truths by which the man of the spiritual church defends himself, and respecting which he disputes, are from the doctrine which he acknowledges.

[2] That the spiritual man was in old time called a “shooter” and an “archer,” and that doctrine was called a “bow” and a “quiver,” and that the truths of doctrine, or rather doctrinal matters, were called “darts,” “shafts,” and “arrows,” is further evident in David:

The sons of Ephraim, being armed, shooters of the bow, turned back in the day of battle (Psalms 78:9).

In some places in the Word, an arrow can also have a negative meaning -- where it is falsity destroying truth, and a bow is the doctrine from falsity. A really good source to check here is Apocalypse Explained 357, stating in subsection 12 (in some translations).

(Odkazy: Isaiah 7:24)

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Arcana Coelestia # 895

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895. 'The waters dried up from over the earth' means that falsities were not at that time apparent. This is clear from what has been stated. In particular these words mean that falsities had been separated from things of the will belonging to the member of this Church. The statement 'the waters dried up from over the earth' occurs at this point because here 'earth' means the person's will, which is nothing but evil desire. As stated already, the ground is situated in the understanding part of man's mind, in which part truths are sown. No sowing ever takes place in the will part, which in the spiritual man has been separated from the understanding part. This is why in the last part of this verse it is said that 'the face 1 of the ground was dry'. With the member of the Most Ancient Church there was ground in the will part of his mind, where the Lord implanted goods. It was from goods therefore that he was able to know and perceive truth, that is, it was from love that he was able to possess faith. If the same thing were to happen today however, a person would inevitably and eternally perish, for his will is utterly corrupted. What implantation in the will part entails and what in the understanding part becomes clear from the consideration that the member of the Most Ancient Church had in fact enjoyed revelations through which from early childhood onwards he was led into a perception of goods and truths. But since they used to be implanted in the will part of his mind he perceived without any further instruction the countless aspects of any one general matter. He knew from the Lord the details and the finer points which nowadays men must learn before knowing about them. And even then they can know scarcely one thousandth of them. For the member of the spiritual Church knows nothing unless he acquires it by learning; and what he gets to know in this fashion he retains and believes to be true. Indeed if he learns something false and this is impressed on him as though it were true, he believes that as well, for he has no other perception than that a thing is true because he has in that way been persuaded of it. People who possess conscience derive from conscience a certain dictate. Yet with them a thing is true only because they have heard and learned that it is. This is what constitutes their conscience, as becomes clear from people who have a conscience of what is false.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. literally, the faces

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.