769. 18:10 "Standing at a distance for fear of her torment, saying, 'Woe, woe, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour your judgment has come.' " This symbolizes their fear of punishments, and grievous lamentation then that the Roman Catholic religion, so well fortified, could be so suddenly and completely overturned, and that they could perish.

To stand at a distance for fear of torment symbolizes a state as yet distant from the state of those in a state of damnation, because the people here have a fear of torment, of which we will say more below. "Woe, woe," symbolizes a grievous lamentation. "Woe" symbolizes a lamentation over a calamity, misfortune, or damnation, as may be seen in no. 416 above; "woe, woe," therefore symbolizes a grievous lamentation. The great city Babylon symbolizes the Roman Catholic religion, here Babylon as a woman or harlot as in no. 751 above, because the torment is said to be her torment. A mighty city symbolizes a religion so well fortified. "In one hour your judgment has come" means symbolically that it could be so suddenly overturned and that they could perish. "In one hour" means, symbolically, so suddenly, and its judgment symbolizes its overturn and the destruction of those who committed whoredom with her and delighted in her, who are the subject here. That they perished as a result of the Last Judgment may be seen in the short work, The Last Judgment and Babylon Destroyed (London, 1758). Their destruction is the subject of what is said here.

[2] We said that the kings' standing at a distance for fear of Babylon's torment symbolizes a state as yet distant from the state of those in a state of damnation, because the people here have a fear of torment, and the reason is that distance does not mean a spatial distance, but a distance of state when someone has a fear of being punished; for as a long as a person is in a state of fear, he then sees, considers, and laments. Distance of state, which is what distance is in the spiritual sense, is also symbolized by distance elsewhere in the Word, as in the following places:

Hear, you who are afar off, what I have done; and you who are near, acknowledge My might. (Isaiah 33:13)

Am I a God near at hand..., and not a God afar off? (Jeremiah 23:23)

It found grace in the wilderness... Israel (said)..., Jehovah appeared to me from afar... (Jeremiah 31:2-3)

Bring My sons from afar... (Isaiah 43:6)

Attend, O peoples, from afar! (Isaiah 49:1-2)

(The peoples and nations that) come from a far land, Isaiah 13:4-5.

And so on elsewhere, as in Jeremiah 4:16; 5:15, Zechariah 6:15, where nations and peoples from afar mean people relatively distant from the truths and goods of the church.

In common speech, too, some relatives are said to be near relatives, and ones more remotely related are said to be distant relatives.

416. Saying with a loud voice, "Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!" This symbolizes the utmost lamentation over the state of damnation of people in the church who in doctrine and life have confirmed themselves in a faith divorced from charity.

"Woe" symbolizes a lamentation over the evil in someone, and so over his unhappy state. Here it means over the state of damnation of those people who are the subject of the next chapter and later. "Woe, woe, woe," moreover, symbolizes the utmost lamentation; for tripling it forms a superlative, since three symbolizes all and complete (no. 505).

Inhabitants of the earth mean people who are in a church which has the Word and where by it the Lord is known. To be shown that the earth symbolizes the church, see no. 285 above.

The blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound symbolize the examination and exposure of the state of the church and life in people who in doctrine and life have confirmed themselves in a faith divorced from charity, over whose state the lamentation takes place.

"Woe" symbolizes a lamentation over the present or future calamity, unhappiness, or damnation of various other people in the following:

Woe to you, ...Pharisees (and) hypocrites... (Matthew 23:13-16, 23, 25, 27, 29)

...woe to (the) man by whom (the Son of man) is betrayed! (Luke 22:22)

...woe to him through whom (offenses) do come! (Luke 17:1)

Woe to those who join house to house... Woe to those who rise early in the morning; they pursue intoxicating drink... Woe to those who draw to themselves iniquity... Woe to those who speak... good of evil... Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes... Woe to men mighty at drinking wine... (Isaiah 5:8, 11, 18, 20, 21, 22)

And so also in many other places.

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