Arcana Coelestia # 8908
8908. 'You shall not answer as a witness of a lie against your neighbour' means that good must not be called evil, nor truth falsity, and conversely that evil must not be called good, nor falsity truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'witness of a lie' as the confirmation of falsity. For the meaning of 'witness' as confirmation, see 4197; and the meaning of 'a lie' as falsity of faith will be evident from what follows below. 'Answering against the neighbour' is speaking to someone in that manner; for 'neighbour' means any and every person, in particular everyone governed by good, and in the abstract sense good itself, 3419, 5025, 6704, 6706-6711, 6818, 8123, so that in the internal sense 'you shall not answer as the witness of a lie against your neighbour' means not saying what is false to anyone, that is, not saying that good is evil and truth is falsity, or vice versa.
[2] What this implies must be explained briefly. None who are ruled by self-love or by love of the world, that is, whose end in view is either to have high and honoured positions or to possess wealth and gain, care when they tell and persuade others that something just is unjust or something unjust is just, and by doing this behave as 'witnesses of a lie'. The reason why they are like this is that their will is in complete subjection to those loves and accompanying desires; it is completely possessed and dominated by them. At the same time the understanding, which is the other part of the mind, indeed has the ability to see what is just or unjust but has no wish to see it. For the will prevails over the understanding; it flows into and persuades it, and at length also makes it blind. Those same people possess no conscience, nor do they know that conscience consists in saying that something just is just, and for no other reason than because it is so, that is, from a love of what is just. People who are like this in the world are also like it in the next life, except for the difference that they do not then say something just is unjust. Instead they call the good of faith evil, and truth falsity, since what is just in dealings with people in the world corresponds to what is good and true in the spiritual world. This is done by them without conscience and also without any shame because it was something they had learned to do during their lifetime and grown accustomed to.
[3] Many times in the Word the expression 'a lie' is used, and wherever it occurs the falsity and evil of faith is meant in the internal sense. And 'the witness of a lie', who is also called 'the witness of violence', means confirming something false, whether before a judge, or before someone else, or before oneself by convincing oneself in one's inner thinking, as in Exodus 23:1ff; Leviticus 19:11-12ff; Deuteronomy 19:16-20. The fact that 'a lie' in the spiritual sense is the evil and falsity of faith is clear from the following places: In John,
You are from your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has not stood in the truth because the truth is not in him. When he speaks a lie he speaks from the things that are his own, for he is the teller of a lie and the father of it. John 8:44.
Here 'a lie' stands for falsity of faith, for it refers to the unwillingness of the Jews to acknowledge the Lord. 'The devil' in the spiritual sense here is falsity, and 'the father of it' is evil; for falsity springs from evil like son from father. The falsity that is the devil's is the falsity of faith, the evil that is his is the evil of self-love and love of the world.
[4] In Isaiah,
Moab is exceedingly proud; his haughtiness, and his pride, and his anger - his lies are not firm. Isaiah 16:6.
'Lies' stands for falsities of faith, since 'Moab' is those who, ruled by the evil of self-love, therefore falsify truths, 2468, 8315. In the same prophet,
We have made a covenant with death, and with hell we have shaped a vision. We have put our trust in a lie, and we have hidden in falsity. Isaiah 28:15.
In the same prophet,
They were a rebellious people, lying sons, sons who did not wish to hear the law of Jehovah. Isaiah 30:9.
In Jeremiah,
They deceive one another, 1 and do not speak the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak a lie Jeremiah 9:5.
In the same prophet,
Behold, I am against those that prophesy lying dreams 2 and tell them in order that they may mislead My people by their lies. Jeremiah 23:32.
In the same prophet,
O sword, [be] against the liars, that they may become foolish. Jeremiah 50:36.
In Ezekiel,
They have seen vanity and lying divination, 3 saying, Jehovah has said! when Jehovah has not sent them. Therefore thus has the Lord Jehovih said, Because you speak vanity and see a lie, therefore behold, I am against you. Ezekiel 13:6-9.
In Nahum,
Woe to the city of blood! 4 It is all full of lies and plunder. Nahum 3:1.
In Zephaniah,
The remnant of Israel will not do iniquity or speak any lie; nor will a fraudulent tongue be found in their mouth. They will feed and rest. Zephaniah 3:13.
In John,
Outside are dogs, and sorcerers, and fornicators, and murderers, and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices a lie. Revelation 22:15.
In these as in many other places 'a lie' stands for the falsity and evil of faith.
Poznámky pod čarou:
1. literally, They deceive, a man his companion
2. literally, dreams of a lie
3. literally, divination of a lie
4. literally, bloods
Nahum 3
1
Woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies and robbery. The prey doesn't depart.
2
The noise of the whip, the noise of the rattling of wheels, prancing horses, and bounding chariots,
3
the horseman mounting, and the flashing sword, the glittering spear, and a multitude of slain, and a great heap of corpses, and there is no end of the bodies. They stumble on their bodies,
4
because of the multitude of the prostitution of the alluring prostitute, the mistress of witchcraft, who sells nations through her prostitution, and families through her witchcraft.
5
"Behold, I am against you," says Yahweh of Armies, "and I will lift your skirts over your face. I will show the nations your nakedness, and the kingdoms your shame.
6
I will throw abominable filth on you, and make you vile, and will set you a spectacle.
7
It will happen that all those who look at you will flee from you, and say, 'Nineveh is laid waste! Who will mourn for her?' Where will I seek comforters for you?"
8
Are you better than No-Amon, who was situated among the rivers, who had the waters around her; whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was of the sea?
9
Cush and Egypt were her boundless strength. Put and Libya were her helpers.
10
Yet was she carried away. She went into captivity. Her young children also were dashed in pieces at the head of all the streets, and they cast lots for her honorable men, and all her great men were bound in chains.
11
You also will be drunken. You will be hidden. You also will seek a stronghold because of the enemy.
12
All your fortresses will be like fig trees with the first-ripe figs: if they are shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater.
13
Behold, your troops in your midst are women. The gates of your land are set wide open to your enemies. The fire has devoured your bars.
14
Draw water for the siege. Strengthen your fortresses. Go into the clay, and tread the mortar. Make the brick kiln strong.
15
There the fire will devour you. The sword will cut you off. It will devour you like the grasshopper. Multiply like grasshoppers. Multiply like the locust.
16
You have increased your merchants more than the stars of the skies. The grasshopper strips, and flees away.
17
Your guards are like the locusts, and your officials like the swarms of locusts, which settle on the walls on a cold day, but when the sun appears, they flee away, and their place is not known where they are.
18
Your shepherds slumber, king of Assyria. Your nobles lie down. Your people are scattered on the mountains, and there is no one to gather them.
19
There is no healing your wound, for your injury is fatal. All who hear the report of you clap their hands over you; for who hasn't felt your endless cruelty?
