Apocalypse Revealed # 436
436. And they had breastplates like breastplates of iron. (9:9) This symbolically means that their arguments based on fallacies, with which they battled and prevailed, appeared to them too strong to be refuted.
Breastplates symbolize protections, because they protect the breast. Here they symbolize protections of falsities, which are concocted by arguments based on fallacies, which people use to defend a false proposition. For from a false proposition nothing but falsities can flow. If truths are advanced, they are regarded only externally or superficially, thus also sensually, and so are falsified, becoming then fallacies in the people who entertain them.
Breastplates have this symbolism because battles in the Word symbolize spiritual battles, and weapons of war therefore symbolize various defenses connected with such a battle - as in Jeremiah,
Harness the horses, and mount up, you horsemen! And station yourselves in your helmets, polish the spears, put on the cuirass. (Jeremiah 46:4)
In Isaiah,
He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head. (Isaiah 59:17)
In the book of Psalms,
...under His wings you shall be confident; His truth shall be your shield and buckler. (Psalms 91:4)
And so also elsewhere, as Ezekiel 23:24; 38:4; 39:9, Nahum 2:3, Psalm. 5:12; 35:2-3.
Their breastplates being breastplates of iron means, symbolically, that their arguments seemed to them too strong to be refuted; for owing to its hardness iron symbolizes strength.
Jeremiah 46
1
The word of Yahweh which came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the nations.
2
Of Egypt: concerning the army of Pharaoh Necoh king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates in Carchemish, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon struck in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah.
3
Prepare the buckler and shield, and draw near to battle!
4
Harness the horses, and get up, you horsemen, and stand forth with your helmets; furbish the spears, put on the coats of mail.
5
Why have I seen it? they are dismayed and are turned backward; and their mighty ones are beaten down, and have fled apace, and don't look back: terror is on every side, says Yahweh.
6
Don't let the swift flee away, nor the mighty man escape; in the north by the river Euphrates have they stumbled and fallen.
7
Who is this who rises up like the Nile, whose waters toss themselves like the rivers?
8
Egypt rises up like the Nile, and his waters toss themselves like the rivers: and he says, I will rise up, I will cover the earth; I will destroy cities and its inhabitants.
9
Go up, you horses; and rage, you chariots; and let the mighty men go forth: Cush and Put, who handle the shield; and the Ludim, who handle and bend the bow.
10
For that day is [a day] of the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge him of his adversaries: and the sword shall devour and be satiate, and shall drink its fill of their blood; for the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, has a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates.
11
Go up into Gilead, and take balm, virgin daughter of Egypt: in vain do you use many medicines; there is no healing for you.
12
The nations have heard of your shame, and the earth is full of your cry; for the mighty man has stumbled against the mighty, they are fallen both of them together.
13
The word that Yahweh spoke to Jeremiah the prophet, how that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon should come and strike the land of Egypt.
14
Declare in Egypt, and publish in Migdol, and publish in Memphis and in Tahpanhes: say, Stand forth, and prepare; for the sword has devoured around you.
15
Why are your strong ones swept away? they didn't stand, because Yahweh did drive them.
16
He made many to stumble, yes, they fell one on another: and they said, Arise, and let us go again to our own people, and to the land of our birth, from the oppressing sword.
17
They cried there, Pharaoh king of Egypt is but a noise; he has let the appointed time pass by.
18
As I live, says the King, whose name is Yahweh of Armies, surely like Tabor among the mountains, and like Carmel by the sea, so shall he come.
19
You daughter who dwells in Egypt, furnish yourself to go into captivity; for Memphis shall become a desolation, and shall be burnt up, without inhabitant.
20
Egypt is a very beautiful heifer; [but] destruction out of the north is come, it is come.
21
Also her hired men in the midst of her are like calves of the stall; for they also are turned back, they are fled away together, they didn't stand: for the day of their calamity is come on them, the time of their visitation.
22
The sound of it shall go like the serpent; for they shall march with an army, and come against her with axes, as wood cutters.
23
They shall cut down her forest, says Yahweh, though it can't be searched; because they are more than the locusts, and are innumerable.
24
The daughter of Egypt shall be disappointed; she shall be delivered into the hand of the people of the north.
25
Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Behold, I will punish Amon of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with her gods, and her kings; even Pharaoh, and those who trust in him:
26
and I will deliver them into the hand of those who seek their lives, and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of his servants; and afterwards it shall be inhabited, as in the days of old, says Yahweh.
27
But don't you be afraid, Jacob my servant, neither be dismayed, Israel: for, behold, I will save you from afar, and your seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be quiet and at ease, and none shall make him afraid.
28
Don't you be afraid, O Jacob my servant, says Yahweh; for I am with you: for I will make a full end of all the nations where I have driven you; but I will not make a full end of you, but I will correct you in measure, and will in no way leave you unpunished.
