278. The second memorable occurrence. Once a sheet of paper was sent down to me from heaven that was full of writing in Hebrew lettering, but written in the way the ancients used to write. Letters that today are largely straight were curved then and had little horns or tips that turned upward. Angels who were with me at the time said they knew whole meanings just from the letters. They derived these meanings especially from the curvature of the lines and of the tips of the letters. They explained what these meant individually and in combination. They said that the letter "h," which was added to both Abram and Sarai's names, meant infinity and eternity. They also explained to me the meaning of Psalm 32:2 in the Word on the basis of the letters alone. Taken all together the meaning of the letters was that the Lord is also compassionate to those who do evil.

The angels told me that the writing in the third heaven consists of letters that are bent and curved in various ways, each of which contains some meaning. The vowels in that writing indicate sounds that correspond to different feelings of love. Angels in that heaven cannot pronounce the vowel sounds of "I" and "e," so instead they use "y" and "eu. " They do use the vowel sounds of "a," "o," and "u" since these give a full sound. There are some consonantal letters that these angels pronounce as soft rather than hard. This is why some Hebrew letters have a dot inside them as a sign to pronounce them as [hard, and no dot as a sign to pronounce them as] soft. They said that pronouncing these letters as hard was practiced in the spiritual heaven because the angels there focus on truths and truth allows for hardness. The goodness among angels in the Lord's heavenly kingdom (the third heaven) does not allow for hardness. The angels [with me] said that the written Word they have also has curved letters with meaningful horns or tips.

All this makes it clear what these sayings of the Lord's mean: "Not one little letter or the tip of one letter will pass from the law until all of it is fulfilled" (Matthew 5:18); and "It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for the tip of one letter of the law to fall" (Luke 16:17).