209. 'Wretched and poor.' This symbolically means that they have no truths or goods.

Wretched and poor people mean, in the spiritual sense of the Word, people who lack concepts of truth and good, for they are spiritually wretched and poor. They are also meant by the people in the following passages:

I am wretched and poor, O Lord; be mindful of me. (Psalms 40:18) [NCBSP: Psalms 40:17], cf. Psalms 70:5)

Incline Your ear, O Jehovah, and answer me, for I am wretched and poor. (Psalms 86:1)

The impious bare the sword and bend their bow, to cast down the wretched and poor... (Psalms 37:14)

(The impious man) persecuted the wretched and poor man, even to slay the downcast in heart. (Psalms 109:16)

(God) will judge the wretched of the people; He will save the children of the poor... He will deliver the poor man when he cries, and the wretched man... (Psalms 72:4, 12-13)

Jehovah... delivers the wretched man from one who is too strong for him, and the poor man... from those who plunder him. (Psalms 35:10)

(The impious man) devises wicked plans to destroy the wretched with lying words, even when the poor man speaks justly. (Isaiah 37:7)

The wretched shall have their joy in Jehovah, and the poor of mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel. (Isaiah 29:19)

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:3)

See also elsewhere, as Isaiah 10:2; Jeremiah 22:16; Ezekiel 16:49; 18:12; 22:29; Amos 8:4; Psalms 9:18; 69:32-33; 74:21; 109:22; 140:12; Deuteronomy 15:11; 24:14; Luke 14:13, 21, 23.

The wretched and poor mean chiefly people who lack concepts of truth and goodness and yet desire them, since the rich mean people who possess concepts of truth and goodness (no. 206).

427. Nowadays, kindnesses like these are seen as the central acts of goodwill that are referred to in the Word as "good works. " The reason for this is that many times in the Word goodwill is characterized as giving to the poor, helping the needy, and taking care of widows and orphans. Up until now people have not known that the letter of the Word mentions only things that are external and are in fact the outermost aspects of worship; people have not realized that these external things have meanings that are spiritual and internal. On this last point, see the chapter above on Sacred Scripture (193-209). Those passages make it clear that mentions of the poor, needy, widows, and orphans in the Word do not [literally] refer to such people; they refer to people who are spiritually poor, needy, widowed, or orphaned. For "the poor" meaning people who have no concepts of goodness or truth, see Revelation Unveiled 209. For "widows" meaning people who have been separated from truths and yet long for them, see 764 there; and so on.