“The eyes are the windows of the soul.” That's a sentiment with roots somewhere in murky antiquity, but one that has become hopelessly cliché because it is both poetic and obviously true. We feel that if we can look in someone's eyes, we can truly know what they are inside. And it's not just the eyes; really it is the face as a whole that conveys this. As Swedenborg puts it, the face is “man's spiritual world presented in his natural world” (Heaven and Hell, No. 91). Our faces reveal our interior thoughts and feelings in myriad ways, which is why psychologists, poker players and criminal investigators spend so much time studying them. It makes sense, then, that people's faces in the Bible represent their interiors, the thoughts, loves and desires they hold most deeply. We turn our faces to the ground to show humility when we bow in worship; we turn them to the mountains when seeking inspiration; we turn them toward our enemies when we are ready to battle temptation. When things are hard, we need to “face facts,” or accept them internally. When the topic is the Lord's face, it represents the Lord's interiors, which are perfect love and perfect mercy. And when people turn away from the Lord and refuse his love, it is described as the Lord “hiding his face.”

(Odkazy: Heaven and Hell 91)

8143. 'And the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people' means a change of state, a change to evil within those steeped in falsities arising from evil. This is clear from the meaning of 'the turning of the heart' as a change of state, to evil (the fact that 'being turned' means undergoing a change - at this point a change of mind, and so a change of state - is self-evident; and for the meaning of 'heart' as evil, see above in 8135); from the representation of 'Pharaoh' as those steeped in falsities arising from evil, dealt with above in 8132; from the meaning of 'servants' as those who belong to a lower rank and minister, and since these are meant, each and every one steeped in falsities arising from evil is meant, 7396; and from the representation of 'the children of Israel' as those who belong to the spiritual Church. From all this it is evident that 'the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people' means a change of state, a change to evil feelings within all those steeped in falsities arising from evil, directed against those belonging to the spiritual Church.