Apocalypse Revealed # 788
788. 18:19 "And they put dust on their heads and cried out, weeping and mourning, and saying, 'Woe, woe, that great city!'" This symbolizes their interior and exterior grief and mourning, which is a lamentation that so eminent a religion was completely destroyed and condemned.
Putting dust on their heads symbolizes their interior and exterior grief and mourning over the destruction and damnation, as we will show below. To cry out, weeping and mourning, symbolizes their exterior grief and mourning - to weep symbolizing a mourning of the soul, and to grieve a grief of the heart. "Woe, woe, that great city!" symbolizes a grievous lamentation over the destruction and damnation. That "woe" symbolizes a lamentation over a calamity, misfortune, or damnation, and that "woe, woe," therefore symbolizes a grievous lamentation, may be seen in nos. 416, 769, 785; and that the city symbolizes the Roman Catholic religion may be seen in no. 785 and elsewhere.
That putting dust on the head symbolizes an interior grief and mourning over a destruction and damnation is clear from the following passages:
They will cry bitterly and cast dust on their heads; they will roll about in ashes. (Ezekiel 27:30)
(The daughters) of Zion sit on the ground...; they have cast dust on their heads... (Lamentations 2:10)
(Job's friends) rent their tunics and sprinkled dust upon their heads... (Job 2:12)
Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground without a throne... (Isaiah 47:1)
And so on elsewhere.
The people put dust on their heads when they grieved deeply, because dust symbolized something damned, as is apparent from Genesis 3:14, Matthew 10:14, Mark 6:11, Luke 10:10-12, and dust on the head represented the people's acknowledgment that of themselves they were damned, and thus their repentance, as in Matthew 11:21, Luke 10:13.
Dust symbolizes something damned because the land over the hells in the spiritual world consists of nothing but dust, without grass or plants.
Exodus 20
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God spoke all these words, saying,
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"I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
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"You shall have no other gods before me.
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"You shall not make for yourselves an idol, nor any image of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
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you shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me,
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and showing loving kindness to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
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"You shall not take the name of Yahweh your God in vain, for Yahweh will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
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"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
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You shall labor six days, and do all your work,
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but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God. You shall not do any work in it, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates;
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for in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day, and made it holy.
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"Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which Yahweh your God gives you.
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"You shall not murder.
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"You shall not commit adultery.
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"You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
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"You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's."
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All the people perceived the thunderings, the lightnings, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking. When the people saw it, they trembled, and stayed at a distance.
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They said to Moses, "Speak with us yourself, and we will listen; but don't let God Speak with us, lest we die."
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Moses said to the people, "Don't be afraid, for God has come to test you, and that his fear may be before you, that you won't sin."
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The people stayed at a distance, and Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.
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Yahweh said to Moses, "This is what you shall tell the children of Israel: 'You yourselves have seen that I have talked with you from heaven.
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You shall most certainly not make alongside of me gods of silver, or gods of gold for yourselves.
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You shall make an altar of earth for me, and shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your cattle. In every place where I record my name I will come to you and I will bless you.
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If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of cut stones; for if you lift up your tool on it, you have polluted it.
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Neither shall you go up by steps to my altar, that your nakedness may not be exposed to it.'
