Apocalypse Revealed # 435
435. And their teeth were like lions' teeth. This symbolically means that matters of the senses, which constitute the lowest elements of the natural self's life, appeared to them to have power over all else.
Teeth symbolize the lowest elements of the natural self's life, which are called sensual, as discussed in no. 424 above. These sensual elements are of two kinds, one having to do with the will, the other with the intellect. Sensual elements having to do with the will are symbolized by women's hair, as said just above in no. 434; and sensual elements having to do with the intellect are symbolized by teeth. The latter, which is to say, sensual people caught up in falsities by conviction, appear to themselves to have power over everything, so that they cannot be overcome. Therefore the locusts' teeth, which symbolize such sensual elements, were like lions' teeth - a lion symbolizing power (no. 241).
That teeth symbolize the lowest elements of a person's life - those elements called sensual - and that when these are divorced from the interior levels of the mind, they are caught up in nothing but falsities and attack truths and destroy them, can be seen from the following passages:
With my soul I lie down among lions...; their teeth are a spear and arrows... (Psalms 57:4)
O God, destroy their teeth in their mouth! Turn aside the molars of the young lions... (Psalms 58:6)
...a nation has come up against My land, strong..., its teeth the teeth of a lion, and it has the molars of a fierce lion. (Joel 1:6)
...O Jehovah..., You have broken the teeth of the impious. (Psalms 3:7)
...a beast (came up from the sea), terrible, dreadful, and exceedingly strong, which had huge iron teeth; it was devouring and breaking in pieces... (Daniel 7:3, 7).
Blessed be Jehovah, who has not given us as prey to their teeth. (Psalms 124:6)
Since sensual people do not see any truth in its own light, but reason and argue about everything as to whether it is so, and since these altercations in the hells sound outside the hells like the gnashing of teeth, which regarded in itself is a colliding of falsity and truth, it is apparent what the gnashing of teeth symbolizes in Matthew 8:12; 13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30, and Luke 13:28; and in some measure what to gnash with the teeth symbolizes in Job 16:9, Psalms 35:15-16; 37:12; 112:10, Micah 3:5, and Lamentations 2:16.
Psalms 101
1
I will sing of loving kindness and justice. To you, Yahweh, I will sing praises.
2
I will be careful to live a blameless life. When will you come to me? I will walk within my house with a blameless heart.
3
I will set no vile thing before my eyes. I hate the deeds of faithless men. They will not cling to me.
4
A perverse heart will be far from me. I will have nothing to do with evil.
5
I will silence whoever secretly slanders his neighbor. I won't tolerate one who is haughty and conceited.
6
My eyes will be on the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me. He who walks in a perfect way, he will serve me.
7
He who practices deceit won't dwell within my house. He who speaks falsehood won't be established before my eyes.
8
Morning by Morning, I will destroy all the wicked of the land; to cut off all the workers of iniquity from Yahweh's city. A Prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed and pours out his complaint before Yahweh.
