1082. And shall eat her flesh, signifies rejection of its evils, which are adulterated goods, and then the manifestation that they were without any good. This is evident from the signification of "flesh," as being the good of the Word and of the church, and in the contrary sense the evil thereof. Here "flesh" means evils, which are adulterated goods. Also from the signification of "to eat," as being to consume, but here to reject wholly, because this is said of the Reformed, who have rejected the works or goods of Babylon, which consist especially in gifts to the idols of their saints, to their sepulchers, also to monasteries, and to the monks themselves, given as offerings for various expiations. It follows that the same words mean also the manifestation that they were without any good, for when spurious and meritorious goods are rejected, which are signified by the "flesh that they should eat," it is then manifest that they are without any good.

[2] "Flesh" has various significations in the Word. It signifies what is man's own [proprium], thus either his good or evil, and from this it signifies the whole man. But in the highest sense it signifies the Lord's Divine Human, and particularly the Divine good of the Divine love that proceeds from Him. That "flesh" signifies the Divine Human as to the good of love is evident in John:

Jesus said, I am the living bread, which cometh down out of heaven; if anyone eat of this bread he shall live forever; and the bread which I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The Jews, therefore, strove one with another, saying, How can this one give His flesh to eat? Jesus therefore said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood ye shall not have life in yourselves. He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day; for My flesh is truly food, and My blood is truly drink. He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood abideth in Me and I in him. This is the bread which cometh down out of heaven (John 6:51-58).

It is clearly evident that "flesh" here means the own [proprium] of the Lord's Divine Human, which is the Divine good of the Divine love, and is that which is called in the Holy Supper the body. (That the "body" there, that is, the "flesh," is the Divine good, and the "blood" is the Divine truth, may be seen above, n. 329.) And as "bread and wine" have the same signification as "flesh and blood," "bread" meaning the Divine good, and "wine" the Divine truth, therefore these were commanded in place of flesh and blood.

[3] Divine good from the Lord was signified also by the flesh of the sacrifices that Aaron, his sons, and those who sacrificed, and others who were clean, might eat:

And that this was holy (may be seen in Exodus 12:7-9, 29:31-34; Leviticus 7:15-21; 8:31; Deuteronomy 12:27; 16:4);

Consequently if an unclean person ate of that flesh he would be cut off from his people (Leviticus 7:21).

That those sacrifices were called bread (Leviticus 22:6-7).

That that flesh was called the flesh of holiness (Jeremiah 11:15; Haggai 2:12),

And the flesh of the offering, which was to be upon the table in the Lord's kingdom (Ezekiel 40:43).

The Lord's Divine Human is also called "flesh" in John:

The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us; and we saw His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father (John 1:14).

[4] That "flesh" signified also the good with man can be seen from the following passages. In Ezekiel:

I will give them one heart, and I will give a new spirit in the midst of you, and I will take away the heart of stone out of their flesh, and I will give them a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 11:19; 36:26).

"Heart of flesh" means the will and love of good. In David:

O God, Thou art my God, in the morning I seek Thee; my soul thirsteth for Thee; my flesh longeth for Thee in a land of drought and weariness without waters (Psalms 63:1).

In the same:

My soul longeth for the courts of Jehovah; my heart and my flesh cry out unto the living God (Psalms 84:2).

The "flesh" that longeth for Jehovah, and that crieth out unto the living God, signifies man as to good of the will, for the "flesh" of man corresponds to the good or evil of his will, and the "blood" to the truth or falsity of his understanding; here "flesh" means the good of the will, because it longeth for Jehovah and crieth out unto God.

[5] In Job:

I have known my Redeemer, He liveth, and at the last He shall rise upon the dust; and afterwards these things shall be encompassed by my skin, and from my flesh I shall see God (Job 19:25-27).

To see God from one's flesh signifies from one's own voluntary made new by the Lord, and thus good. In Ezekiel:

Upon the bones seen in the midst of the valley, I will put sinews, and I will cause flesh to come up upon them, and I will cover them with skin, and I will give spirit unto them that they may live (Ezekiel 37:6, 8).

Here, too, "flesh" signifies what is one's own [proprium] of the will made new by the Lord, and thus good. What "bones" and the rest signify here may be seen above (n. 418, 419, 665). In Revelation:

Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God, that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of commanders of thousands, and the flesh of the mighty, and the flesh of horses and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all, free and bond, small and great (Revelation 19:17-18; Ezekiel 39:17-19).

That "flesh" here does not mean flesh but goods of every kind, is clearly evident.

[6] But on the other hand, that "flesh" signifies man's own voluntary, which regarded in itself is evil, is evident from the following passages. In Isaiah:

They shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm (Isaiah 9:20).

In the same:

I will feed thine oppressors with their own flesh (Isaiah 49:26).

In Jeremiah:

I will feed you with the flesh of their sons and with the flesh of their daughters; and they shall eat every man the flesh of his companion (Jeremiah 19:9).

In Zechariah:

The rest shall eat everyone the flesh of another (Zechariah 11:9).

In Moses:

I will chastise you sevenfold for your sins, and ye shall eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters (Leviticus 26:28-29).

[7] In Jeremiah:

Cursed is the man who trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm (Jeremiah 17:5).

Here "flesh" signifies what is man's own [proprium] which in itself is evil; to appropriate this to oneself is signified by eating and feeding upon it. Again, "flesh" signifies what is man's own [proprium] in Matthew:

Jesus said, Blessed art thou, Simon, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee (Matthew 16:17).

In John:

As many as received, to them gave He power to become sons of God, who were born, not from bloods nor from the will of the flesh, but from God (John 1:12-13).

In Ezekiel:

Jerusalem committed whoredom with the sons of Egypt her neighbors, great in flesh (Ezekiel 16:26).

In Isaiah:

Egypt is man and not God, and his horses are flesh and not spirit (Isaiah 31:3).

In John:

It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing (John 6:63).

In the same:

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is begotten of the spirit is spirit (John 3:6).

In David:

God remembered that they were flesh, a breath that passeth away and returneth not (Psalms 78:39).

The evil of man's will, which is what is his own [proprium] from birth is what is signified in these passages by "flesh"; also by:

The flesh that the sons of Israel lusted after in the desert, and on account of which they were smitten with a great plague, and from which the place was called graves of lust (Numbers 11:4-34).

Moreover, in the Word the expression "all flesh" is frequently used as meaning every man (as in Genesis 6:12, 13, 17, 19; Isaiah 40:5, 6; 49:26; 66:16, 23, 24; Jeremiah 25:31; 32:27; 45:5; Ezekiel 20:48, 21:4, 5; and elsewhere).

(Continuation respecting the Word)

[8] The spiritual by influx presents what is correspondent to itself in the natural, in order that the end may become a cause, and the cause become an effect, and thus the end through the cause may present itself in the effect as visible and sensible. This trine, namely, end, cause, and effect, is given from creation in every heaven. The end is the good of love, the cause is truth from that good, and the effect is use. That which produces is love, and the product therefrom is of love from good by means of truth. The final products, which are in our world, are various, as numerous as the objects are in its three kingdoms of nature, animal, vegetable, and mineral. All products are correspondences.

[9] As this trine, namely, end, cause, and effect, exists in each heaven, there must be in each heaven products that are correspondences, and which in form and aspect are like the objects in the three kingdoms of our earth; from which it is clear that each heaven is like our earth in external appearance, differing only in excellence and beauty according to degrees. Now in order that the Word may be full, that is, may consist of effects in which are a cause and an end, or may consist of uses, in which truth is the cause and good is the end and love is that which produces, it must needs consist of correspondences; and from this it follows that the Word in each heaven is like the Word in our world, differing only in excellence and beauty according to degrees. What this difference is shall be told elsewhere.

9407. 'There was so to speak a work of sapphire [stone]' means that it is translucent with inner truths on that level, and that all things in it are translucent from the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of 'a work of sapphire' as the character of the literal sense of the Word when the internal sense is discerned within it, that is, when Divine Truth emanating from the Lord, as it is in heaven, shines through it. For the Word is Divine Truth emanating from the Lord. In origin it is Divine, but as it passes through the heavens it is celestial in the inmost heaven, spiritual in the second or middle heaven, spiritual-natural in the first or lowest heaven, and natural and worldly in the world; this last is its character in the sense of the letter intended for people there. From this it is evident that the sense of the letter, which is the lowest in order, contains a spiritual and a celestial level of meaning, and inmostly the Divine Himself. And since these inner levels are contained in the lowest or literal sense and are seen by those who understand the Word in a spiritual manner, that sense is represented by 'a work of sapphire', which lets rays of heavenly light through, that is, which is translucent.

[2] To give some idea of that translucence, let human speech serve to illustrate it. Such speech has its origin in the end a person has in view which he wishes to make known through speech. This end is his love; for a person has what he loves as his end in view. From that end arises the person's thought, and finally his speech. Anyone who stops to think properly about this can see and discern the truth of it. The fact that the end is the primary component of speech is clear from the general rule that all intelligence has an end within it, and devoid of the end it is not intelligence. And everyone knows that thought is a secondary component arising from the first, for nobody can speak without thinking or think without having an end in view. The fact that spoken words ensue from this, and that these are the final component, which is properly called speech, is also well known. All this being so, when a person pays attention to what another utters he pays attention not to the words the speaker uses but to the meaning conveyed by them which is present in the speaker's thought. And one who is wise pays attention to the end in view that has given rise to the thought expressed in speech, that is, he pays attention to what the speaker's aims are and what it is he loves. These three components are present in human speech, in which the spoken words serve as the outward form.

[3] This comparison enables one to gain some idea regarding the Word in the letter. For those in heaven pay attention to the Word in the letter and perceive things there in exactly the same way as anyone is accustomed to perceive a person's thought as it presents itself in spoken words, or in the inmost heaven as anyone is accustomed to perceive a person's aims or end in view. But the difference is that when someone reads the sense of the letter of the Word this is not heard or understood in heaven, only the internal sense, because in heaven they perceive solely the spiritual and celestial levels of the Word, not the natural level of it. The one sense accordingly passes over into the other, for they correspond to each other and only things which have a correspondence have been used in the writing of the Word. All this shows what to understand when reference is made to the translucent nature of the Word, meant by 'a work of sapphire'.

[4] But a person who is unable to think on a higher level of understanding, that is, on a level altogether above material things, cannot grasp any of this, not even the idea that it is possible for a sense to exist in the Word other than the one perceived in the letter. If that person is told that the letter holds within itself a spiritual sense which has to do with truth, and that this in turn holds within itself a celestial sense which has to do with good, and also that these senses shine through the literal sense, he will be taken aback at first, then dismiss the idea as nonsense, and finally ridicule it. Actual experience has shown me that this is what people are like in the Christian world at the present day, especially the learned, and that those who reason against that truth boast of being wiser than those who uphold it. Yet the learning in earliest times, which were called golden and silver ages, had consisted in speaking and in writing in ways in which no attention was be paid to the literal meaning other than to enable hidden wisdom to shine through it, as becomes perfectly clear from the oldest books, including those by gentile authors, as well as from fragments in their languages. For their knowledge was primarily the knowledge of correspondences and the knowledge of representations, which forms of knowledge at the present day are some of those which have been lost.

[5] The reason why there appeared under the Lord's feet 'so to speak a work of sapphire' and why this means the translucence of the Word in the sense of the letter is that 'stone' in general means truth, and 'precious stone' truth shining through from what is Divine and the Lord's. For the meaning of 'stone' in general as truth, see 643, 1298, 3720, 3769, 3771, 3773, 3789, 3798, 6426, 8609, 8940-8942. As for 'precious stone' being truth shining through from what is Divine and the Lord's, this was meant by the twelve precious stones in Aaron's breastplate, which was called the Urim and Thummim, 3862, 6335, 6640.

[6] Something similar occurs in Ezekiel,

Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty, you were in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was your covering - ruby, topaz, diamond, tarshish, shoham, and jasper, sapphire, chrysoprase, emerald, and gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and your pipes was within you; on the day you were created they were prepared. You were perfect in your ways on the day you were created. Ezekiel 28:12-13, 15.

This refers to Tyre, by which the Church in respect of interior cognitions or knowledge of truth and good is meant, 1201. Its intelligence and wisdom as these had been in its infancy or earliest period are described by those precious stones. 'The day you were created' means the first state when they were regenerated, for 'creation' in the Word means the regeneration or new creation of a person, 16, 88.

[7] Similar things are meant by 'the precious stones' in John,

The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. Revelation 21:19-20.

This refers to the holy Jerusalem coming down from heaven, by which a new Church among gentile nations is meant, after the present-day Church in our European world has been laid waste. 'The precious stones that are its foundations' are God's truths shining through on the lowest level of order.

[8] God's truth shining through on the lowest level of order, which is the Word in the letter, is meant by 'sapphire' in particular, as in Isaiah,

O afflicted one and storm-tossed, and receiving no comfort! Behold, I am arranging your stones with antimony, and will lay your foundations in sapphires. Isaiah 54:11.

This too refers to the Church which will take the place of the former one, meant in verse 1 of that chapter by 'her that is desolate who is going to have more sons than the previously married one'. 'Arranging stones' stands for the Church's truths, 'foundations in sapphires' for truths shining through on lowest levels.

[9] 'Sapphire' is used with a similar meaning in Jeremiah,

Her Nazirites were brighter than snow, they were whiter than milk. Their bones ¹ were ruddier than pearls, ² polished like sapphire. ³ Lamentations 4:7.

'Nazirites' in the representative sense meant the Lord in respect of the Divine Natural, 3301, 6437, and therefore also Divine Truth emanating from Him as it exists on its lowest levels, that is, the Word in the sense of the letter. For 'the hair', which is implied by 'Nazirites' here, and is said to be 'brighter than snow and whiter than milk', means truth on its lowest levels, 3301, 5247, 5570, 'brightness' and 'whiteness' having reference to truth, 3301, 5319. 'Bones that were ruddy' means factual knowledge of truth, or truth on its lowest level, which acts as servant to all other levels, 6592, 8005, 'ruddiness' having reference to the good of love present in truths, 3300. From all this it is evident that 'sapphire' means truth on the lowest levels which is translucent with inner truths.

[10] In Ezekiel,

Above the expanse that was above the heads of the cherubs, in appearance like a sapphire stone, there was the likeness of a throne, and above the likeness of a throne there was the appearance of a man (homo) sitting upon it. Ezekiel 1:26; 10:1.

'The cherubs' are the Lord's protection and providence, guarding against access to Him except through good, 9277 (end). 'A throne over which there was the appearance of a man' is Divine Truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Good, 5313, 6397, 9039. From this it is evident that 'a sapphire stone' means truth translucent with inner truths; that is to say, 'a stone' means truth, and 'sapphire' translucence.

[11] The reason why all things of the Word are translucent with the Lord is that Divine Truth emanating from the Lord is the one and only source of everything there. For what is primary is the one and only vital element present in the things which follow and are derived from it, because they have their being in it and come into being from it; and the Divine Truth is the Lord. Here also lies the reason why the subject in the highest sense of the Word is the Lord alone, His love, providence, kingdom in heaven and on earth, and especially the glorification of His Human.

[12] The fact that the Divine Truth is the Lord Himself is evident from the consideration that whatever emanates from someone is the someone himself. What emanates for instance from a person when he speaks or acts originates in his will and understanding; and will and understanding constitute a person's life, thus the person himself. For the human being is not a human being by virtue of the shape of face and body but by virtue of an understanding that sees what is true and a will that intends what is good. From this it becomes clear that what emanates from the Lord is the Lord; and the fact that this is Divine Truth has been shown often in what has gone before.

[13] But anyone unacquainted with the arcana of heaven may suppose that the nature of Divine Truth which emanates from the Lord is no different from that of spoken words emanating from a human being. It is not spoken words however; rather It is the Divine filling the heavens, like light and heat from the sun filling the world. This may be illustrated by means of the spheres which emanate from the angels in heaven, dealt with in 1048, 1053, 1316, 1504-1520, 1695, 2401, 4464, 5179, 6206 (end), 6598-6613, 7454, 8063, 8630, 8794, 8797. In these places it has been shown and may be seen that they are spheres of the truth of faith and the good of love received from the Lord. But the Divine sphere which emanates from the Lord and is called Divine Truth spreads everywhere; as has been stated, it fills the whole of heaven and composes all of the life there. It appears before the eyes there as light, which enlightens not only angels' sight but also their minds. That same light is in addition what composes a person's understanding in the world. This is the meaning in John,

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. He was the true light which enlightens every person coming into the world. And the world was made by Him. John 1:4, 9-10.

These words refer to Divine Truth, which in this chapter is called 'the Word'; and Divine Truth or 'the Word' - it says - is the Lord Himself.

[14] That light, which is Divine Truth emanating from the Lord, was described by the ancients as radiating rings of golden hue around the head and body of God represented as a human being. For the ancients had no thought of God except of Him in human form.

[15] When a person is governed by good, and because of good is guided by truths, this person is raised to that Divine light, and - according to the amount and essential nature of the good - to interior light. This provides him with a general enlightenment in which the Lord enables him to see countless truths and to perceive them from good. At this time that person is led by the Lord to discern and absorb those which are suitable to him. He is led to do so as regards the most specific things, in keeping with order, so far as it contributes to his eternal life. The words 'as regards the most specific things' are used because the Lord's providence reigns universally, and it does so because it is present in the most specific things. For specific things are at the same called what is universal, 1919 (end), 6159, 6338, 6482, 6483, 8864, 8865.

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