2686. That a “bow” here denotes the doctrine of truth, is evident from its signification. Wherever wars are treated of in the Word, and wherever they are mentioned, no other wars are signified than spiritual ones (n. 1664). There were books also in the Ancient Word that were entitled “The Wars of Jehovah;” as is evident in Moses (Numbers 21:14-16); which, being written in the prophetic style, had an internal sense, and treated of the combats and temptations of the Lord, and also of those of the church, and of the men of the church. This is manifest from the fact that some things were taken from these books by Moses; and also from other books of that church called “The Books of the Prophetic Enunciators” (respecting whichsee Numbers 21:27-30), in which almost the same words are found as in Jeremiah (compare Numbers 21:28, and Jeremiah 48:45). From this it may also be concluded that the Ancient Church had writings both historic and prophetic that were Divine and inspired, and that in their internal sense treated of the Lord and His kingdom; and that these were the Word to them, as are to us those historic and prophetic books which in the sense of the letter treat of the Jews and Israelites, but in their internal sense of the Lord, and of the things which are His.

[2] As in the Word, and also in the books of the Ancient Church, “war” signified spiritual war, so all arms, such as sword, spear, buckler, shield, darts, bow, and arrows, signified special things belonging to war as understood in the spiritual sense. What the several kinds of arms specifically signify, will of the Lord’s Divine mercy be told elsewhere. Here it will now be shown what a “bow” signifies, namely, the doctrine of truth; and this from the darts, arrows, or other missiles, which denote the doctrinal things from which and with which those in especial fight who are spiritual, and who were thence formerly called “shooters with the bow.”

[3] That a “bow” signifies the doctrine of truth is evident from the following passages.

In Isaiah:

Jehovah’s arrows are sharp, and all His bows are bent, the hoofs of His horses are counted as rock, and His wheels as the whirlwind (Isaiah 5:28).

Here the truths of doctrine are treated of; “arrows” are spiritual truths; “bows” are doctrine; the “horses’ hoofs” are natural truths; the “wheels” are their doctrine; and as these things have such a signification they are attributed to Jehovah, to whom they cannot be attributed except in a spiritual sense; for otherwise they would be empty words and unbecoming.

In Jeremiah:

The Lord hath bent His bow like an enemy, He hath stood with His right hand as an adversary, and hath slain all that were pleasant to the eye in the tent of the daughter of Zion, He hath poured out His fury like fire (Lam. 2:4).

Here “bow” denotes the doctrine of truth, which appears to those who are in falsities as an enemy and as hostile; no other bow can be predicated of the Lord.

In Habakkuk:

O Jehovah, Thou ridest upon Thy horses, Thy chariots of salvation, Thy bow will be made quite bare (Hab. 3:8-9).

Here also the “bow” is the doctrine of good and truth.

In Moses:

They grieved him, and shot at him, the archers hated him, his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob; from thence is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel (Genesis 49:23-24); where Joseph is spoken of. His “bow” denotes the doctrine of good and truth.

[4] In John:

I saw and behold a white horse, and he that sat thereon had a bow, and there was given unto him a crown (Revelation 6:2).

The “white horse” denotes wisdom; “he that sat thereon,” the Word, as is said plainly in Revelation 19:13, where the white horse is again treated of; and as he that sat thereon was the Word, it is evident that the “bow” is the doctrine of truth.

In Isaiah:

Who hath raised up righteousness from the east, and called him to his footsteps? He hath given nations before him, and made him to rule over kings; he gave them as dust to his sword, as the driven stubble to his bow (Isaiah 41:2); where the Lord is treated of; the “sword” denotes truth; the “bow,” doctrine from Him. In the same:

I will set a sign among them, and I will send such as escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan (Isaiah 66:19).

They that “draw the bow” denote those who teach doctrine. The signification of “Tarshish” may be seen above (n. 1156); that of “Lud” (n. 1195, 1231), that of “Tubal” (n. 1151), and that of “Javan” (1152-1153, 1155).

[5] In Jeremiah:

For the voice of the horseman and of him that shooteth the bow, the whole city fleeth; they have entered into clouds, and climbed up upon the rocks, the whole city is forsaken (Jeremiah 4:29).

The “horseman” denotes those who declare truth; the “bow,” the doctrine of truth, which they who are in falsities flee from or fear. In the same:

Set yourselves in array against Babel round about; all ye that bend the bow shoot at her, spare not with the arrow, for she hath sinned against Jehovah (Jeremiah 50:14, 29; 51:2-3); where “they that shoot, and bend the bow” denote those who declare and teach the doctrine of truth.

[6] In Zechariah:

I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and He shall speak peace unto the nations (Zech. 9:10).

“Ephraim” denotes the understanding of truth in the church; the “bow,” doctrine.

In Samuel:

David lamented with this lamentation over Saul, and over Jonathan his son, and he said it to teach the sons of Judah the bow (2 Samuel 1:17-18).

where the “bow” is not the subject, but the doctrinal things of faith.

In Ezekiel:

Said the Lord Jehovih, This is the day whereof I have spoken; and they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall set on fire and burn up the weapons, the shield and the buckler, the bow and the arrows, and the hand staff and the spear, and they shall kindle fire in them seven years (Ezekiel 39:8-9).

The arms here named are all arms of spiritual war; the “bow with the arrows” denote doctrine and its truths. In the other life truths themselves, when separated from good and represented to the sight, appear like arrows.

[7] As a “bow” signifies the doctrine of truth, in the opposite sense it signifies the doctrine of falsity. The same things in the Word have usually an opposite sense, as has been said and shown in several places; thus in Jeremiah:

Behold a people cometh from the north country, and a great nation shall be stirred up from the sides of the earth; they lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and shall not have compassion; their voice shall roar like the sea, they shall ride upon horses set in array as a man for battle, against thee, O daughter of Zion (Jeremiah 6:22-23); where “bow” denotes the doctrine of falsity. In the same:

Behold a people cometh from the north, and a great nation, and many kings shall be stirred up from the sides of the earth, they lay hold on bow and spear, they are cruel, and have no compassion (Jeremiah 50:41-42); where the meaning is similar. In the same:

They bend their tongue; their bow is a lie, and not for truth, they are grown strong in the land; for they have gone forth from evil to evil, and have not known Me (Jeremiah 9:3).

[8] That the “bow” is the doctrine of falsity is plainly manifest, for it is said, “they bend their tongue; their bow is a lie, and not for truth.” In the same:

Jehovah Zebaoth said, Behold I will break the bow of Elam, the chief of his might (Jeremiah 49:35).

In David:

Come, behold the works of Jehovah, who hath made desolations in the earth; He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth, He breaketh the bow, He cutteth the spear in sunder, He burneth the chariots in the fire (Psalms 46:9).

In Judah is God known, His name is great in Israel; in Salem also shall be His tabernacle, and His dwelling-place in Zion; there brake He the fiery shafts of the bow, the shield and the sword, and the war (Psalms 76:1-3).

In the same:

Lo the wicked bend the bow, they make ready their arrows upon the string, to shoot in darkness at the upright in heart (Psalms 11:2).

Here the “bow and arrows” plainly denote doctrinal things of falsity.

1664. That the wars here mentioned signify nothing else, in the internal sense, than spiritual wars, or temptations, was said above, at the beginning of this chapter. By the wars mentioned in the Word, especially in the Prophets, nothing else is signified. The wars of men can have no place in the internals of the Word; for such things are not spiritual and celestial, such as alone belong to the Word. That combats with the devil, or what is the same, with hell, are signified by the wars mentioned in the Word, may be seen from the passages that now follow, besides many others.

In John:

They are spirits of demons, doing signs, to go forth to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them together unto the war of that great day of God Almighty (Revelation 16:14); where everyone can see that no other war is signified, on the “great day of God Almighty.”

[2] Again:

The beast that cometh up out of the abyss shall make war (Revelation 11:7); where “the abyss” is hell. Again:

The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ (Revelation 12:17).

Again:

It was given unto him to make war with the saints (Revelation 13:7).

All of these “wars” are combats such as are those of temptations. The wars of the kings of the south and of the north, and the other wars mentioned in Daniel (chapters 8 and 11), also the things said of Michael (Daniel 10:13, 21; 12:1; Revelation 12:7), mean the same.

[3] That “wars” signify nothing else is evident also from the other Prophets. As in Ezekiel:

Ye have not gone up into the breaches, neither have ye built up the fence for the house of Israel, to stand in the war in the day of Jehovah (Ezekiel 13:5); where this is said concerning the Prophets.

In Isaiah:

They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more (Isaiah 2:4); where it is plain that no other wars are meant; and consequently that by the weapons of war, as by swords, spears, shields, and others, nothing else is meant in the Word than the things that pertain to such wars.

[4] Again in Isaiah:

Bring ye water to him that is thirsty; ye inhabitants of the land of Tema, meet with his bread him that is wandering; for they shall wander before the swords, before the drawn sword, and before the bent bow, and before the grievousness of war (Isaiah 21:14-15).

In Jeremiah:

Shepherds and their flocks shall come unto the daughter of Zion; they shall pitch their tents against her round about; they shall feed down everyone his space; sanctify a war against her; arise, and let us go up at noon (Jeremiah 6:3-5); where no other war is meant, for it is against the daughter of Zion, that is, the church.

[5] Again:

How is the city of praise not forsaken, the city of my joy; therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day (Jeremiah 49:25-26);

“the city of praise and of joy” denotes the things which are of the church; “the men of war,” those who combat.

[6] In Hosea:

In that day will I make a covenant for them with the wild beast of the field, and with the fowl of the heavens, and with the creeping thing of the ground; and I will break the bow, and the sword, and war out of the land, and will make them to lie down in confidence (Hos. 2:18); where in like manner “war” denotes combats, and the various arms of war those things which pertain to spiritual combat; these are “broken” when, yearnings and falsities ceasing, the man comes into the tranquillity of peace.

[7] In David:

Behold the works of Jehovah, who hath made solitudes in the earth, making wars to cease unto the end of the earth; He breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; He burneth the chariots in the fire (Psalms 46:8-9); where the meaning is similar. Again:

In Salem is the habitation of God, and his dwelling place in Zion. There He brake the fiery shafts of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the war (Psalms 76:2-3).

As the priests represented the Lord, who alone combats for man, their service is called “warfare” (Numbers 4:23, 35, 39, 4 4:43, 47).

[8] That Jehovah alone, that is, the Lord, combats and overcomes the devil that is with man when he is in the combats of temptations, although it does not so appear to the man, is a constant truth; for not even the smallest thing can be brought upon a man by evil spirits that is not by permission; and nothing, however small, can be averted by angels, except from the Lord; so that it is the Lord alone who sustains all the combat, and who overcomes; which also is everywhere represented by the wars waged by the sons of Israel against the nations. That it is the Lord alone, is also declared in Moses:

Jehovah your God who walketh before you, He shall fight for you (Deuteronomy 1:30).

Again:

Jehovah your God is He that walketh with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you (Deuteronomy 20:4; so too in Joshua, as chapter 23, 5).

[9] For the wars there that were carried on against the idolatrous inhabitants of the land of Canaan, all represented the Lord’s combats with hell; and consequently those of His church, and those of the men of His church. This also accords with the following words in Isaiah:

As the lion roareth, and the young lion, over his prey, when a multitude of shepherds come running against him, he will not be dismayed at their voice, nor afflicted by their tumult; so Jehovah Zebaoth shall come down to fight upon Mount Zion, and upon the hill thereof (Isaiah 31:1).

[10] For this reason, also, Jehovah or the Lord is also called a “Man of War.” As in Moses:

Jehovah is a Man of War, Jehovah is His name (Exodus 15:9). And in Isaiah:

Jehovah shall go forth as a Hero, He shall stir up zeal like a Man of wars; He shall cry, yea, He shall shout aloud, He shall prevail against His enemies (Isaiah 42:13).

This also is why many things that pertain to war are attributed to the Lord; as here to “cry” and “shout aloud.”

[11] Spirits and angels also appear as men of war when a representation is made. As in Joshua:

Joshua lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold there stood a man over against him, and his sword drawn in his hand. And he said unto Joshua, I am the prince of Jehovah’s army. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth (Josh. 5:13-14).

These things were so seen because they were representative; and for the same reason the posterity of Jacob called their wars the Wars of Jehovah.

[12] The same also was the case in the Ancient Churches; and among them were books which also were called The Wars of Jehovah; as is evident in Moses:

It is said in the Book of the Wars of Jehovah (Numbers 21:14-15).

This was written in a manner not unlike that in which wars are treated of in this chapter; but the wars of the church were signified. Such a mode of writing was familiar in those times; for then there were interior men, and they thought of exalted things.