4936. On several occasions spirits have appeared holding rods, who, I was told, were magicians. They are in front, a long way off on the right, deeply within caverns. Magicians who have been more malevolent ones are hidden more deeply than the rest within them. They seem to themselves to have rods, and by means of delusions they also produce many more kinds of rods, believing that they can use these to perform miracles. For they imagine that these rods have power within them, and they imagine this because the right hand and the arm, which by correspondence are embodiments of strength and power, support themselves on those rods. This has made it evident to me why people of old assigned rods to magicians, for the gentiles of old received this idea from the representative Ancient Church, in which rods, like the hand, meant power, see 4876. And because these meant power Moses was commanded, when miracles were performed, to stretch out his rod or his hand, Exodus 4:17, 20; 8:5-20; 9:23; 10:3-21; 14:21, 26-27; 17:5-6, 11-12; Numbers 20:7-10.

6908. 'Not even by a strong hand' means that against them the power of those who belong to the spiritual Church will not be strong enough. This is clear from the meaning of 'hand' as power, dealt with in 878, 3387, 4931-4937, and therefore 'not by a strong hand' means power which will not be strong enough. The fact that these words are used to mean the power of those who belong to the spiritual Church is evident from those that immediately follow them, 'And I will stretch out My hand, and strike Egypt with all My wonders', meaning that they are to be overcome through power from the Divine and through the means used by that power.