435. And their teeth were like lions' teeth. This symbolically means that matters of the senses, which constitute the lowest elements of the natural self's life, appeared to them to have power over all else.

Teeth symbolize the lowest elements of the natural self's life, which are called sensual, as discussed in no. 424 above. These sensual elements are of two kinds, one having to do with the will, the other with the intellect. Sensual elements having to do with the will are symbolized by women's hair, as said just above in no. 434; and sensual elements having to do with the intellect are symbolized by teeth. The latter, which is to say, sensual people caught up in falsities by conviction, appear to themselves to have power over everything, so that they cannot be overcome. Therefore the locusts' teeth, which symbolize such sensual elements, were like lions' teeth - a lion symbolizing power (no. 241).

That teeth symbolize the lowest elements of a person's life - those elements called sensual - and that when these are divorced from the interior levels of the mind, they are caught up in nothing but falsities and attack truths and destroy them, can be seen from the following passages:

With my soul I lie down among lions...; their teeth are a spear and arrows... (Psalms 57:4)

O God, destroy their teeth in their mouth! Turn aside the molars of the young lions... (Psalms 58:6)

...a nation has come up against My land, strong..., its teeth the teeth of a lion, and it has the molars of a fierce lion. (Joel 1:6)

...O Jehovah..., You have broken the teeth of the impious. (Psalms 3:7)

...a beast (came up from the sea), terrible, dreadful, and exceedingly strong, which had huge iron teeth; it was devouring and breaking in pieces... (Daniel 7:3, 7).

Blessed be Jehovah, who has not given us as prey to their teeth. (Psalms 124:6)

Since sensual people do not see any truth in its own light, but reason and argue about everything as to whether it is so, and since these altercations in the hells sound outside the hells like the gnashing of teeth, which regarded in itself is a colliding of falsity and truth, it is apparent what the gnashing of teeth symbolizes in Matthew 8:12; 13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30, and Luke 13:28; and in some measure what to gnash with the teeth symbolizes in Job 16:9, Psalms 35:15-16; 37:12; 112:10, Micah 3:5, and Lamentations 2:16.

688. Fell upon their faces and worshipped God, signifies the adoration of the Lord with them from a most humble heart. This is evident from the signification of "to fall upon the face," as being the deepest humiliation of heart, for it is a gesture of the body corresponding to humiliation of heart, thus a gesture that is representative of the humiliation of the whole man. Worship of God at such a time is what flows forth from such a heart, which varies according to the matter that engages the mind.

[2] To fall upon the face before God is a gesture representative of deepest humiliation, because the face is the form of man's affections and thus of the interiors that pertain to his mind and disposition, for the affections shine forth in the face as in their type, and this is why the face is called an index and image of the mind. When, therefore, a man acknowledges that all things in him are turned away from God, and are consequently damned, and that thus he is neither able nor dares to look to God, who is essential Holiness, and if he should look to Him from such a self he would spiritually die, then from such thought and acknowledgment man falls upon the face to the earth; and because what is man's own [proprium] is thus removed, he is then filled by the Lord and so raised up as to be able to look to Him.

[3] They are said to have "worshipped God," for the reason that "God" means in the Word the Divine proceeding which is called the Divine truth. And as this Divine is truth with the angels, for they are the recipients of it and it constitutes their wisdom, so in the Word angels are called "gods," and signify Divine truths. Moreover, in the Hebrew, God is called "Elohim," in the plural, therefore "God" means in the Word the Divine that is with the angels of heaven and the men of the church, which is the Divine proceeding. And as the higher heavens were now in enlightenment and power, because of the separation of the evil from the good in the lower parts, and because of the Last Judgment which was to come shortly, therefore they are said "to worship God," from which it is evident that the Lord was then with them; for from a more intense and powerful influx of the Divine truth that proceeds from the Lord they had enlightenment and power.