Jerusalem, on Mount Zion, signifies the doctrine of love to the Lord, and how it governs your life. Jerusalem first comes to our attention in 2 Samuel 5, when King David takes the city from the Jebusites and makes it his capital. In the next chapter he brings the Ark of the Covenant there, and later it is where Solomon builds the temple, and his own palace. From then on Jerusalem is the center of worship of the Israelitish church. It is the place where the Lord was presented in the temple as a baby, where He tarried to talk to the priests at age twelve, where He cleansed the temple, had the last supper, was crucified and then rose. It is a central place in both the old and new Testaments. The city was built on Mount Zion, the highest point of the mountains of Judea. A city, in the Word, represents doctrine, the organized knowledge of the truths of the church. Mountains represent love of the Lord and the consequent worship. If you put those things together, Jerusalem on Mount Zion signifies the doctrine of love to the Lord, and how it governs your life. This is why David was led to make Jerusalem the most important city of the land, and why all worship was conducted there. And this is also why Jeroboam was condemned for introducing idol worship in Samaria. In the Book of Revelation, John's vision of the city New Jerusalem descending from God is a prophecy of a new dispensation of doctrine coming from the Lord.

(Odkazy: Arcana Coelestia 4539, 8938; The Apocalypse Explained 365 [35-38])

266. "Of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David." This symbolically means, through the Divine goodness united to the Divine truth in His humanity.

In the Word, Judah means a church governed by the goodness of love toward the Lord, and in the highest sense the Lord Himself in respect to the Divine goodness of His Divine love; and David means the Lord in respect to the Divine truth of His Divine wisdom. That the first is the meaning of Judah may be seen in nos. 96 and 350, and that the latter is the meaning of David, in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord, nos. 43, 44.

It is apparent from this that "Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed" symbolically means that the Lord overcame the hells and put everything into order through the Divine goodness united to the Divine truth in His humanity.

In the literal sense it cannot be seen that this is the meaning of these words, but only that it is the Lord who was born in the world of the tribe of Judah and of the lineage of David. But still these same words carry within them a spiritual sense, in which people's names have meanings, as we have said here and there above. Thus Judah does not mean Judah, nor David, David, but Judah means the Lord in respect to Divine good, and David the Lord in respect to Divine truth. It is because of this that the spiritual meaning is thus formed. We are here setting forth that meaning, because the book of Revelation is now being opened in respect to its spiritual meaning.