3
And four great beasts came up from the sea, different one from another.
Apocalypse Revealed # 573
573. Whose feet were like those of a bear. This symbolically means, full of misconceptions taken from the literal sense of the Word, read but not understood.
Feet symbolize the natural support which is the basis on which the heresy meant by the leopard rests and, so to speak, propels itself, and that support is the literal sense of the Word. A bear symbolizes people who read the Word but fail to understand it, so that they derive from it misconceptions.
That these are the people symbolized by bears became apparent to me from seeing bears in the spiritual world, and from seeing some people there wearing bearskins. They were all people who read the Word and did not see any doctrinal truth in it. They were also people who affirmed the appearances of truth there, resulting in misconceptions.
Some bears seen in the spiritual world are dangerous and some are not, and some also are white, but they are told apart by their heads. Bears that are not dangerous have heads like those of calves or sheep.
Bears symbolize people and things like this in the following passages:
A bear lying in wait for me has overturned my paths, a lion in hidden places has corrupted my ways... He has made me desolate. (Lamentations 3:9-11)
I will meet them like a bereaved bear..., and there I will devour them like a savage lion. The wild beast of the field shall rend them. (Hosea 13:8)
...there shall lie down... the calf and the young lion... The heifer and the bear shall graze. (Isaiah 11:6-7)
(The second beast that came up from the sea was) like a bear... and had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. (Daniel 7:5)
The lion and bear that David smote, catching the lion by its beard (1 Samuel 17:34-37), have a similar symbolic meaning. So, too, in 2 Samuel 17:8.
[2] A lion and a bear are mentioned in these places because a lion symbolizes falsity destroying the Word's truths, and a bear symbolizes misconceptions that destroy them also, but not to the same degree. Thus we are told in Amos:
...the day of Jehovah...(a day of) darkness, and not light. It is as if one who flees from a lion comes upon a bear. (Amos 5:18-19)
In the second book of Kings we read that Elisha was mocked by some boys and called a baldhead, and that forty-two boys were therefore torn apart by two female bears from the woods (2 Kings 2:23-24). This occurred because Elisha represented the Lord in respect to the Word (no. 298), because baldness symbolized the Word without its literal sense, thus having no reality (no. 47), because the number forty-two symbolized blasphemy (no. 583), and because female bears symbolized the literal sense of the Word read indeed, but not understood.
Isaiah 10
1
Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees, and to the writers who write oppressive decrees;
2
to deprive the needy from justice, and to rob the poor among my people of their rights, that widows may be their spoil, and that they may make the fatherless their prey!
3
What will you do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth?
4
They will only bow down under the prisoners, and will fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
5
Alas Assyrian, the rod of my anger, the staff in whose hand is my indignation!
6
I will send him against a profane nation, and against the people who anger me will I give him a command to take the spoil and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
7
However he doesn't mean so, neither does his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off not a few nations.
8
For he says, "Aren't all of my princes kings?
9
Isn't Calno like Carchemish? Isn't Hamath like Arpad? Isn't Samaria like Damascus?"
10
As my hand has found the kingdoms of the idols, whose engraved images exceeded those of Jerusalem and of Samaria;
11
shall I not, as I have done to Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?
12
Therefore it will happen that, when the Lord has performed his whole work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the willful proud heart of the king of Assyria, and the insolence of his haughty looks.
13
For he has said, "By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I have understanding: and I have removed the boundaries of the peoples, and have robbed their treasures. Like a valiant man I have brought down their rulers.
14
My hand has found the riches of the peoples like a nest, and like one gathers eggs that are abandoned, have I gathered all the earth. There was no one who moved their wing, or that opened their mouth, or chirped."
15
Should an axe brag against him who chops with it? Should a saw exalt itself above him who saws with it? As if a rod should lift those who lift it up, or as if a staff should lift up someone who is not wood.
16
Therefore the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, will send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory a burning will be kindled like the burning of fire.
17
The light of Israel will be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame; and it will burn and devour his thorns and his briers in One day.
18
He will consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body. It will be as when a standard bearer faints.
19
The remnant of the trees of his forest shall be few, so that a child could write their number.
20
It will come to pass in that day that the remnant of Israel, and those who have escaped from the house of Jacob will no more again lean on him who struck them, but shall lean on Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.
21
A remnant will return, even the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.
22
For though your people, Israel, are like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. A destruction is determined, overflowing with righteousness.
23
For the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, will make a full end, and that determined, in the midst of all the earth.
24
Therefore the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, says "My people who dwell in Zion, don't be afraid of the Assyrian, though he strike you with the rod, and lift up his staff against you, as Egypt did.
25
For yet a very little while, and the indignation against you will be accomplished, and my anger will be directed to his destruction."
26
Yahweh of Armies will stir up a scourge against him, as in the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb. His rod will be over the sea, and he will lift it up like he did against Egypt.
27
It will happen in that day, that his burden will depart from off your shoulder, and his yoke from off your neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing oil.
28
He has come to Aiath. He has passed through Migron. At Michmash he stores his baggage.
29
They have gone over the pass. They have taken up their lodging at Geba. Ramah trembles. Gibeah of Saul has fled.
30
Cry aloud with your voice, daughter of Gallim! Listen, Laishah! You poor Anathoth!
31
Madmenah is a fugitive. The inhabitants of Gebim flee for safety.
32
This very day he will halt at Nob. He shakes his hand at the mountain of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.
33
Behold, the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, will lop the boughs with terror. The tall will be cut down, and the lofty will be brought low.
34
He will cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon will fall by the Mighty One.
