以色列
'Israel,' in Jeremiah 23:8, signifies the spiritual natural church. The children of Israel dispersed all the literal sense of the Word by falsities. 'The children...
天
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...
腳
The foot, as in Deuteronomy 33:3, signifies an inferior principle. To set the right foot on the sea and the left on the earth, as...
腳凳
A footstool, as in Psalm 132:7, signifies the Lord's church in the earths. A footstool, as in Psalm 110:1, signifies the lowest region under the...
吞
To 'swallow' signifies natural truth.
雅各
Jacob is told twice that his name will now be Israel. The first time is when he wrestles with an angel on his journey to...
猶大
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.
國家
Generally in the Bible a "country" means a political subdivision ruled by a king, or sometimes a tribe with a territory ruled by a king...
火
Just as natural fire can be both comforting in keeping you warm or scary in burning down your house, so fire in the spiritual sense...
弓
A bow signifies falsity of doctrine destroying truth, and spear, the falsity of evil destroying good. (Jer. 6:23.)
殺
'To slay a man to his wounding,' means extinguishing faith, and 'to slay a young man to his hurt,' signifies extinguishing charity, as in Genesis...
宮
'A palace,' as in Psalm 144:12, represents the understanding in which truths have a beautiful form. They have a beautiful form when they are from...
安息日
In Exodus 31:13, 'verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep,' signifies continuous holy thought about the union of the Lord’s divine with His human.
忘記
To forget, in the internal sense, signifies nothing else but removal and apparent privation.
王
The human mind is composed of two parts, a will and an understanding, a seat of loves and affections, and a seat of wisdom and...
祭司
Priests' represent the Lord regarding His divine good. When they do not acknowledge the Lord, they lose their signification of the Lord.
壇
The first altar mentioned in the Word was built by Noah after he came out of the ark. On that altar, he sacrificed clean animals...
手
Scientists believe that one of the most crucial developments in the evolution of humans was bipedalism – walking on two legs. That left our hands...
耶和華的
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...
城牆
'A wall' signifies truth in outer extremes. 'A wall,' as in Revelation 21, signifies the divine truth proceeding from the Lord, and so, the truth...
門
"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...
先知
The idea of a "prophet" is very closely tied to the idea of the Bible itself, since the Bible was largely written by prophets. At...
異象
Vision is the innermost revelation, which is of perception. Visions are according to the state of humankind. The visions of people whose interiors are closed,...
居民
Inhabitants,' in Isaiah 26:9, signify the men of the church who are in good of doctrine, and thence in the good of life.
長老
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...
坐
If you think about sitting, it seems fair to say that where you're sitting is more important than that you're sitting. Sitting in a movie...
頭
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....
麻布
'Being clothed in sackcloth' signifies lamentation because of the devastation of truth in the church. 'Sackcloth,' as in Revelation 6:12, relates to destroyed good.
耶路撒冷
Jerusalem first comes to or attention in II Samuel, chapter 5 where King David takes it from the Jebusites and makes it his capital. In...
處女
'Virgins,' as in Revelation 14:4, signify people who love truths because they are truths, so from a spiritual affection. 'Virgin' signifies the church as a...
眼睛
It’s common to say “I see” when we understand something. And indeed, “seeing” in the Bible represents grasping and understanding spiritual things. So it makes...
肝
'The liver,' as in Exodus 29:13, signifies interior purification, and 'the caul above the liver,' the inferior good of the external or natural self.
嬰兒
The infants in the street,' in Jeremiah 9:21, signify truth beginning to grow.
母親
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...
懷
"Bosom" in general terms means the chest, but more as the seat of the emotions than simply as part of the body. You'd think of...
安慰
When the Bible talks about someone being comforted or consoled, it generally means that they are being offered ideas that will help bring them to...
海
Water generally represents what Swedenborg calls “natural truth,” or true concepts about day-to-day matters and physical things. Since all water ultimately flows into the seas,...
大
The word "great" is used in the Bible to represent a state with a strong degree of love and affection, of the desire for good;...
路
These days we tend to think of "roads" as smooth swaths of pavement, and judge them by how fast we can drive cars on them....
說
As with many common verbs, the meaning of “to say” in the Bible is highly dependent on context. Who is speaking? Who is hearing? What...
口
In most cases, "mouth" in the Bible represents thought and logic, especially the kind of active, concrete thought that is connected with speech. The reason...
牙
'Tooth,' as in Exodus 21:24, denotes the exterior understanding, and natural truth.
看
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...
高興
To make glad signifies influx and reception from joy of heart.
敵人
Foes, or adversaries, denote the falsities of evil. Foes, or adversaries, when predicate of the Lord, signifies to avert falsities derived from evil.
敵人的
An enemy in the Bible refers to people who are in the love of evil and the false thinking that springs from evil. On a...
心
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...
眼淚
'A tear' signifies grief because of a lack of understanding of truth.
流
A 'stream' signifies aspects of intelligence.
水
'Waters' signify truths in the natural self, and in the opposite sense, falsities. 'Waters' signify particularly the spiritual parts of a person, or the intellectual...
吃
When we eat, our bodies break down the food and get from it both energy and materials for building and repairing the body. The process...
年輕
"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...
