507. And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and be glad. (11:10) This symbolizes the delight of the heart and soul's affection on that account among those people in the church who were caught up in faith alone as regards their doctrine and life.

Those who dwell on the earth mean people in the church, here people in the church where the faith is faith alone. The earth symbolizes the church in which they are (no. 285). To rejoice and be glad symbolizes a delight of the heart and soul's affection. A delight of the heart's affection is a delight of the will, and a delight of the soul's affection is a delight of the intellect, for in the Word the heart and soul mean a person's will and intellect. Thus the people are said to rejoice and be glad, even though joy and gladness seem to be the same thing. Present in the two, however, is a marriage of the will and intellect, which is also a marriage of goodness and truth, a marriage that exists in each and every particular of the Word, as we showed in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture, nos. 80-90.

That is why both terms, to rejoice and be glad, or joy and gladness, are frequently mentioned elsewhere in the Word, as in the following places:

Lo, joy and gladness, the slaying of oxen... (Isaiah 22:13)

They shall obtain joy and gladness; sorrow and sighing shall flee away. (Isaiah 35:10; 51:11)

...cut off has been... joy and gladness from the house of our God. (Joel 1:16)

(Caused to cease will be) the sound of joy and the sound of gladness... (Jeremiah 7:34, cf. 25:10)

...the fast of the tenth shall be for joy and gladness... (Zechariah 8:19)

Be glad in Jerusalem, rejoice in her... (Isaiah 66:10)

Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom... (Lamentations 4:21)

The heavens shall rejoice; be glad you lands. (Psalms 96:11)

You will make me hear joy and gladness... (Psalms 51:8)

Joy and gladness will be found in (Zion).... (Isaiah 51:3)

You will have gladness... many will rejoice at his birth. (Luke 1:14)

I will cause to cease... the sound of joy and the sound of gladness, the sound of the bridegroom and the sound of the bride. (Jeremiah 7:34; 16:9, cf. 25:10; 33:10-11)

Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad... (Psalms 40:16; 70:4)

Let the righteous be glad..., and let them rejoice in their gladness. (Psalms 68:3)

Be glad in Jerusalem...; rejoice for joy with her... (Isaiah 66:10)

285. We are told they "will reign upon the earth" because the earth here and elsewhere means the Lord's church in heaven and on earth. The church in both worlds is the Lord's kingdom. Therefore, lest anyone suppose that people who are redeemed by the Lord all become kings and priests who will reign upon the earth, it is important that we demonstrate from the Word that the earth or land symbolizes the church. This can be seen from the following passages:

Behold, the Lord makes the earth empty and makes (the earth) waste, and will overturn its surface... The land shall be entirely emptied... The (habitable) earth will mourn and... be turned upside down... The earth will be profaned under its inhabitants... Therefore a curse shall devour the earth... and... the inhabitants of the earth shall be burned, and few men will be left... ...in the midst of the land... it shall be like the stripping of an olive tree... ...the cataracts on high are opened, and the foundations of the earth are shaken. The earth is violently broken, the earth is utterly split open, the earth is shaken exceedingly. The earth reels to and fro like a drunkard... (Isaiah 24:1-23.)

[2] The lion has come up from his thicket... to make your land desolate... I beheld the earth (when) lo, it was empty and void... ...Jehovah has said, "The whole land shall be desolate... For this shall the earth mourn... (Jeremiah 4:7, 23-28)

How long will the land mourn...? The whole land is made desolate, because no one lays it to heart. (Jeremiah 12:4, 11-13)

The earth mourns and languishes, Lebanon is shamed and withered away. (Isaiah 33:9)

Its land shall become burning pitch...(and) it shall lie waste. (Isaiah 34:9-10)

...I have heard from the Lord... a destruction decreed upon the whole earth. (Isaiah 28:22)

Behold, the day of Jehovah comes... to lay the land desolate..., and the earth will be shaken out of its place... (Isaiah 13:9-13)

The earth shook and trembled, and the foundations of the mountains quaked... (Psalms 18:7)

...we will not fear when the earth is transformed... When He uttered His voice, the earth melted. (Psalms 46:2-3, 6, 8)

Have you not understood the foundations of the earth? (Isaiah 40:21)

O God, You have forsaken us... You have made the earth tremble...; heal its breaches, for it is shaken. (Psalms 60:1-2)

[3] The earth and all its inhabitants will melt away; I will firm up its pillars. (Psalms 75:3)

Woe to a land overshadowed by wings... Go, ...messengers, to... a nation... trodden down, whose land rivers have despoiled. (Isaiah 18:1-2)

By the wrath of Jehovah of Hosts the land is darkened... (Isaiah 9:19)

...you will be a delightful land... (Malachi 3:12)

...I have given You as a covenant of the people to restore the earth... Sing, O heavens! And exult, O earth! (Isaiah 49:8, 13)

I shall not see Yah... in the land of the living. (Isaiah 38:11)

...who caused terror in the land of the living. (Ezekiel 32:23-27)

I would not have believed I would see the goodness... in the land of life. (Psalms 27:13)

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. (Matthew 5:5)

I am Jehovah, who makes all things, who stretches out the heavens alone, who spreads out the earth by Myself. (Isaiah 44,24, cf. Zechariah 12:1, Jeremiah 10:11-13; 51:15, Psalm. 136:6)

Let the earth open, let them bring forth salvation... ...thus said Jehovah, who created the heavens..., who formed the earth... (Isaiah 45:8, 12, 18-19)

...behold, I create new heavens and a new earth... (Isaiah 65:17, cf. 66:22)

And in many other places as well, which, if I were to cite them, would fill a page.

[4] The earth or land symbolizes the church for the reason that it very often means the land of Canaan, which is where the church was. That is the heavenly Canaan. Moreover, when the earth or land is mentioned, angels, being spiritual, do not think of the earth or land, but of the human race dwelling upon it and its spiritual state; and its spiritual state is the state of the church.

The earth or land also has an opposite meaning, and in that sense it symbolizes damnation, since when the church is not present in a person, damnation is. The earth or land is mentioned in that sense in Isaiah 14:12; 21:9; 26:19, 21; 29:4; 47:1; 63:6, Lamentations 2:2, 10, Ezekiel 26:20; 32:24, Numbers 16:29-33; 26:10, and elsewhere.