7724. Your babe also shall go with you. That this signifies that they should worship from truth, is evident from the signification of “babe” here, as being truth; for by “babe” are meant boys, youths, young men, in a word, sons, by whom are signified whatever is of intelligence, thus truths (see n. 7668); and from the signification of “going with you,” as being that they were to be left so that they may worship the Lord their God. It must be told what it is to worship the Lord from good, and what to worship from truth without good, which are here signified by “the flock and the herd that should stay,” and by “the babe that should go.” The veriest worship is from good through truth, for the Lord is present in good. But worship from truth without good is not worship, but only an external rite and act, without any internal; for truth without good is merely memory-knowledge. To make this memory-knowledge of faith, it must be conjoined with good, and then it passes into the internal man, and becomes faith. That faith without charity is not faith, has been frequently shown above. From this it is evident what is meant by worship from good, and what by worship from truth without good. By the good from which is worship, is meant the good of life, which has been made spiritual by conjunction with truth; for spiritual good has its quality from truth, and truth has its essence from good, so that good is the soul of truth. From this it is again evident what truth is without good-that it is like a body without a soul, thus is like a carcass.

7668. Go I pray, ye that are young men, and serve Jehovah. That this signifies that they who are in confirmed truths shall be left, so that they may worship the Lord, is evident from the signification of “go ye,” as being that they shall be left (as ab ove, n. 7658); from the signification of “young men,” as being truths confirmed (of which in what follows); and from the signification of “serving Jehovah,” as being to worship the Lord (as above, n. 7654, 7658, 7664). That “young men” denote those who are in confirmed truths, is because by “sons,” “boys,” “young men,” “men,” and “old men” are signified the things that are of intelligence and wisdom in their order. Such things are meant in heaven instead of men of these ages; for they who are in heaven are in spiritual ideas, into which what is of mere nature and the world cannot enter, but is instantly put off and passes into what is conformable to the wisdom of heaven and to angelic thought; hence by “sons,” “boys,” “young men,” “men,” and “old men,” in the spiritual sense cannot be signified those who are so called; but corresponding spiritual things, which are those which pertain to intelligence and wisdom; that these are signified is very manifest from the internal sense in the Word where they are mentioned.

[2] By “young men” in the Word are meant those who are intelligent, or according to abstract angelic ideas, intelligence; and because intelligence is meant, therefore by them confirmed truth is also meant, for this pertains to intelligence. Moreover, the word by which “young men” is here expressed in the original tongue is derived from the strength and power which truth has from good, thus which confirmed truth has; whence this name is attributed to the Lord.

In Zechariah:

O sword, rise up against My shepherd, and against the man (young man) My neighbor; smite the shepherd, and let the sheep be scattered (Zech. 13:7);

but these words were spoken of the Lord, see Matthew 26:31. And also in Jeremiah:

How long dost thou wander about, O thou backsliding daughter? For Jehovah hath created a new thing in the earth, a woman hath encompassed a [young] man (Jeremiah 30:1).

[3] “Young men” in another word in the original tongue denote intelligence, thus its truth, in Amos:

I have sent among you the pestilence in the way of Egypt; your young men have I slain with the sword, with the captivity of the horses (Amos 4:10); where “the way of Egypt” denotes memory-knowledges perverted; the “young men who were slain,” the truths thence destroyed; “the captivity of the horses,” the intellectual seduced.

[4] In the same:

They shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even unto the east; they shall run to and fro to seek the word of Jehovah, and shall not find it. In that day shall the fair virgins and the young men faint for thirst (Amos 8:12-13); where “fair virgins” denote the affection of truth; “young men” intelligence; “to faint for thirst” denotes to be deprived of truth; therefore it is said, “they shall run to and fro to seek the word of Jehovah and shall not find it.” That fair virgins are not meant, nor young men, nor faintness by reason of thirst, is plain.

In Jeremiah:

Death is come up through our windows, it is entered into our palaces; to cut off the babe from the street, the young men from the avenues (Jeremiah 9:21).

How is the city of glory not forsaken, the city of my joy? Wherefore her young men shall fall in her streets (Jeremiah 49:25-26; 50:30).

Hear, I pray, all ye peoples, see my grief; my virgins and my young men are gone into captivity (Lam. 1:18).

In these passages “young men” denote the truths which are of intelligence.