806. "And He has avenged the blood of His servants shed by her hand." This symbolizes a retribution for the injuries and violence done to the souls of worshipers of the Lord.

His avenging the blood of His servants shed by her hand symbolizes a retribution for the injuries and violence done to the souls of worshipers of the Lord, because His avenging symbolizes retribution. To shed blood means, symbolically, to do violence to the Lord's Divinity and to the Word (nos. 327, 684), in this case to worshipers of the Lord, who are meant by His servants. Roman Catholics inflicted injuries and violence on their souls by transferring Divine worship of the Lord to themselves and preventing their reading of the Word.

The Lord is said to have avenged or exacted retribution for the blood of His servants as though He did this to take revenge or punish; but still He does not act to take revenge or punish, just as He does not act out of anger or wrath, even though anger and wrath are occasionally attributed to Him in the Word (see nos. 525, 635, 658, 673 above).

Anger and revenge are attributed to the Lord when evil people are separated from the good and cast into hell, as happens at the time of a last judgment. That time is therefore called wrath and a day of wrath, and a day of vengeance. Not that the Lord is angry or vengeful, but that those people are angry at the Lord and filled with vengeance against Him. The case is like that of a criminal after sentence has been passed, who is angry at the law and filled with vengeance against the judge. For the law is not angry, nor is the judge taking revenge.

[2] Vengeance is meant in this sense in the following passages:

...the day of vengeance is in My heart, and the year of My redeemed has come. (Isaiah 63:4)

The reference there is to the Lord and the Last Judgment.

...the day of Jehovah's vengeance, the year of retribution for the case of Zion. (Isaiah 34:8)

Behold, your God will come for vengeance; for the retribution of God He will come, and He will save you. (Isaiah 35:4)

...these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. (Luke 21:22)

The reference there is to the culmination of the age, when the Last Judgment takes place.

The Spirit of the Lord Jehovih is upon Me... to proclaim the day Jehovah's good pleasure, and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn. (Isaiah 61:1-2)

Shall My soul not take vengeance... for this? (Jeremiah 5:9, 29)

I will take vengeance (on Babylon), and will not allow anyone to intercede. (Isaiah 47:3)

...His thought is against Babylon to destroy it, because it is the vengeance of Jehovah, vengeance for His temple. (Jeremiah 51:11, cf. 51:36)

Sing, O nations, His people, for He will avenge the blood of His servants, and visit vengeance on His adversaries; He will purge His land, His people. (Deuteronomy 32:43)

673. Full of the wrath of God who lives forever and ever. This symbolizes the evils and falsities that will be exposed to view by the pure and genuine truths and goods in the Word.

The bowls are said to have been full of the wrath of God because they were full of plagues, which symbolize evils and falsities in the church (no. 657). Nevertheless they were not full of these, but were full of the pure and genuine truths and goods from the Word by which the evils and falsities in the church were exposed. Neither were there any actual bowls containing truths and goods, but they are symbols of an influx from heaven into the church. Their being said to be full of the wrath of the living God accords with the style of the Word in its literal sense, as may be seen from passages presented above in which we find anger and wrath attributed to God, even though no anger or wrath exists in Jehovah, but is found in man directed at Him. The reason that the literal sense speaks so may be seen in nos. 525, 635, 658 above.

It is apparent from this that the bowls full of the wrath of God who lives forever and ever symbolize the grievous evils and falsities that will be exposed to view by the pure and genuine goods and truths in the Word. Evils and falsities are exposed to view only by truths and goods, as truths and goods exist in the light of heaven, while falsities and evils exist in the darkness of hell, and nothing is exposed in a state of darkness, because only evil and falsity are seen in it. But light from heaven exposes everything to view, because everything is seen in it; for the light of heaven is the Divine truth of the Lord's Divine wisdom.