6377. 'He washes his clothing in wine' means that His Natural consists in Divine Truth from His Divine Good. This is clear from the meaning of 'washing' as purifying, dealt with in 3147; from the meaning of 'wine' as the good of love towards the neighbour and the good of faith, and in the highest sense as Divine Truth from the Lord's Divine Good, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'clothing' as the exterior which covers the interior, dealt with in 5248, thus the natural since this is exterior and covers the rational, which is interior. Therefore 'clothing' also means truth since this is exterior and covers good, which is interior, 2576, 4545, 4763, 5319, 5954.

[2] The fact that 'wine' means love towards the neighbour and the good of faith may be recognized from what has been shown regarding the bread and wine in the Holy Supper, in 2165, 2177, 3464, 4581, 5915. These paragraphs show that 'bread' is the good of celestial love, and that 'wine' is the good of spiritual love. The same may also be recognized from the minchah and the drink-offering in sacrifices. The minchah in them meant the good of love, and the drink-offering the good of faith. The minchah consisted of the kinds of things that meant the good of love, while the drink-offering consisted of wine that meant the good of faith. The sacrifices themselves were also called 'bread', 2165. For the use in sacrifices of a drink-offering consisting of wine, see Exodus 29:40; Leviticus 23:12-13, 18-19; Numbers 15:2-15; 28:6-7, 18-end; 29:1-7 and following verses.

[3] The meaning that 'wine' has of love towards the neighbour and the good of faith is also evident in Isaiah,

Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! And come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Isaiah 55:1.

No one can fail to see that they did not have to buy wine and milk, but that they were to acquire what is meant by 'wine and milk', which is love towards the neighbour and faith. These gifts come from the Lord 'without money and without price'.

[4] In Hosea,

Threshing-floor and winepress will not feed them, and new wine will be deceptive to her. ¹ Ephraim will return to Egypt, and in Assyria they will eat what is unclean. They will not pour libations of wine to Jehovah, their sacrifices will not be pleasing to Him. Hosea 9:1-4.

Here also in the internal sense reference is made to the good of love and the good of faith, to the demise of them. The good of love is meant by 'threshing-floor' by virtue of the grain there and the bread made from it, while the good of faith is meant by 'winepress', 'new wine', and 'libation of wine'. 'Ephraim will return to Egypt' stands for the fact that the understanding would resort to factual knowledge for advice concerning the arcana of faith; 'in Assyria they will eat what is unclean' stands for that which is the outcome of consequent false reasoning - 'Ephraim' being the area of understanding in the Church, see 5754, 6112, 6238, 6267; 'Egypt' the area of factual knowledge, 1164, 1165, 1186, 1462, 5702; and 'Assyria' that of reasoning, 1186. The line of thought in this passage also shows that the words used here contain something more than what one sees in the letter. For everything hangs together in the internal sense, but not so in the external sense, for example when it says that 'threshing-floor and winepress will not feed them, and new wine will be deceptive to her', immediately followed by 'Ephraim will return to Egypt, and in Assyria they will eat what is unclean'. Moreover, without the internal sense what meaning would Ephraim's return to Egypt and their eating in Assyria what is unclean have?

[5] 'Winepress' and 'wine' are also used in Jeremiah to describe the demise of mutual love and the good of faith,

He who lays waste has fallen on your vintage, therefore joy and gladness have been plucked from Carmel, and from the land of Moab, for I have made the wine cease from the winepresses; none will tread the headed. ² Jeremiah 48:32-33.

[6] The fact that 'wine' means the good of mutual love and of faith is also evident in John,

I heard a voice from the midst of the four living creatures, saying, Do no harm to oil and wine. Revelation 6:6.

[7] 'Oil' stands for the good of celestial love, and 'wine' for the good of spiritual love.

'Oil' and 'wine' have a similar meaning in the Lord's parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke,

A certain Samaritan was journeying, and seeing him who had been wounded by the robbers was moved with compassion for him; going therefore to him, he bandaged his wounds, and poured on oil and wine. Luke 10:33-34.

'He poured on oil and wine' means that he performed the works of love and charity, 'oil' being the good of love, see 886, 3728. A like meaning was involved in the practice of the ancients, who poured oil and wine onto a pillar when they consecrated it, Genesis 35:14, 4581, 4582.

[8] The fact that 'wine' means the good of love and faith is evident from the words the Lord used when He instituted the Holy Supper. He said then regarding the wine,

I tell you that I shall not drink from now on of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom. Matthew 26:29; Luke 22:17-18.

Anyone can see that He was not about to drink wine in that kingdom, but that the good of love and faith is meant, which He was about to impart to those who belonged to His kingdom. Much the same is meant by 'wine' in Isaiah 24:9, 11; Lamentations 2:11-12; Hosea 14:7; Amos 9:13-14; Zechariah 9:15-16; Luke 5:37-39.

[9] Since 'wine' means the good of love and faith, Divine Truth from the Lord's Divine Good is therefore meant in the highest sense, for that Truth, when it flows into a person and is accepted by him, brings him the good of love and faith.

[10] Since most things in the Word also have a contrary meaning, so too does 'wine', the contrary meaning of which is falsity from evil, as in Isaiah,

Woe to those who rise in the morning around dawn, and then follow strong drink, who continue into dusk, so that wine may inflame them! Woe to heroes at drinking wine, and to valiant men in mixing strong drink! Isaiah 5:11, 22

In the same prophet,

Also these err through wine, and go astray through strong drink. The priest and the prophet err through strong drink. They are swallowed up by wine, they go astray through strong drink. They err among the seers, they are tottery in judgement. Isaiah 28:7.

In the same prophet,

The shepherds know no understanding, they all look to their own way. Come, I will get wine, and we will be drunken from strong drink; and let there be tomorrow, as there is this day, great abundance. Isaiah 56:11-12.

In addition to these places 'wine' is used with the contrary meaning in Jeremiah 13:12; Hosea 4:11; 7:5; Amos 2:8; Micah 2:11; Psalms 75:8; Deuteronomy 32:33.

Falsity from evil is also meant by the cup of the wine of wrath in Jeremiah 25:15-16; Revelation 14:8, 10; 16:19; the winepress of the wrath of God's anger, Revelation 19:15; and the wine of whoredom, Revelation 17:2; 18:3.

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962. And there came a great ¹ and noxious sore, signifies evil works therein and consequent falsifications of the Word. This is evident from the signification of a "sore," as being works that are done from man, thus that are from what is his own [proprium] and that are evil (of which presently); and as "great" ¹ is predicated of good, and in the contrary sense of evil, and "noxious" of what is falsified, therefore "a great ¹ and noxious sore" signifies evil works, and consequent falsifications of truth. "Sores" signify works from what is one's own [proprium], and thus evils, because from what is man's own nothing but evil can be produced. For what is man's own is that into which he is born, and which he afterwards carries into effect by means of his life. And as what is his own is thus from very birth composed of mere evils, man must be as it were created anew, that is, regenerated, that he may be in good and thus be received into heaven. When he is being regenerated the evils that are from his own are removed, and goods are implanted in their place, and this is effected by means of truths. That evil works and falsifications of truths are with those who acknowledge faith alone in doctrine, and confirm it in life is meant by what follows, namely, that "a great ¹ and noxious sore is on the men who have the mark of the beast and who adore his image."

[2] That "sores" signify works that are from one's own can be seen from the Word where sores and wounds, also diseases of various kinds, as leprosies, fevers, ulcers, emerods, and many others, are mentioned. All of these correspond to the cupidities that arise from evil loves, and thus signify them. Moreover, what sores or wounds signify can be seen from the following passages. In Isaiah:

From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; wound, and bruise, and the fresh blow, they have not been pressed out nor bound up nor softened with oil. Your land is a solitude, your cities are burned with fire (Isaiah 1:6, 7).

This describes that there is no good and consequently no truth in the church, but evil and falsity therefrom. "From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness" signifies that both natural and spiritual things which are the interiors of man and of his will have been destroyed. "Wound and bruise and fresh blow" signify the evils of the will, and the falsities of the thought therefrom continually increasing. Evils of the will are also evil works. "Not bound up nor softened with oil" signifies not amended by repentance and tempered by good. "Your land is a solitude, your cities are burned with fire" signifies that the church has been devastated as to all truth, and its doctrinals have been destroyed by a life according to the cupidities that spring from an evil love.

[3] In Hosea:

Ephraim saw his disease, and Judah his wound; and Ephraim went to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb, and he was not able to heal you, neither shall he cure you of your wound (Hosea 5:13).

"Ephraim" signifies the church as to the understanding of truth, here as to the understanding of falsity; and "Judah" signifies the will of good, but here the will of evil; the "Assyrian" and "king Jareb" signify the rational perverted as to good and truth. This makes clear the signification of these words in the series, namely, that man is unable from self-intelligence to amend the falsities that spring from the evils of the will, "wound" meaning the evil of the will, which also is the evil of the life.

[4] In David:

Mine iniquities have passed over my head. My wounds have putrefied, they have wasted away because of my foolishness (Psalms 38:4, 5).

Here, too, "wounds" stand for evils of the will, which are evil works, these are said "to putrefy and to waste away because of foolishness" when it is the delight of the will and of the thought therefrom to do them.

[5] In Isaiah:

In the day that Jehovah shall bind up the breach of His people, and shall heal the wound of their blow (Isaiah 30:26).

"The breach of the people" signifies the falsity of doctrine; and "the wound of their blow" the evil of life; the reformation of doctrine by means of truths is signified by "Jehovah shall bind up the breach of His people;" and reformation of the life by means of truths is signified by "He shall heal the wound of their blow."

[6] In Luke:

The Samaritan bound up the wounds of the man disabled by robbers, and poured into them oil and wine (Luke 10:33, 34).

This signifies that by means of truths from good, those who are in the good of charity will to amend the evils that spring from falsities; "robbers" mean those who have infused falsities from which come evils, in particular the Jews; "wounds" mean those evils; "oil" means the good of love; and "wine" the truth of the Word and of doctrine. (But this may be seen explained above, n. 376, 444)

[7] In Luke:

Lazarus, full of sores, who was cast forth at the vestibule of the rich man (Luke 16:20, 21),

signifies the nations that were in falsities from ignorance of truth, and thus were not in goods. From this he is said to have been "fall of sores;" "the rich man" at whose vestibule he was cast forth means the Jewish nation, which could have been in the truths from the Word that it possessed.

[8] That "a boil breaking forth" was one of the plagues in Egypt is evident in Moses:

Jehovah said unto Moses and unto Aaron, Take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace, and let Moses scatter it towards heaven before the eyes of Pharaoh; and it shall become dust upon all the land of Egypt. And they took ashes of the furnace, and Moses scattered it towards heaven, and it became a boil of pustules breaking forth on man and beast; and the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boil, because the boil was upon the magicians and upon all the Egyptians (Exodus 9:8-11).

"Pharaoh and the Egyptians" signify the natural man obsessed by evils and falsities of every kind, and the natural man's striving after dominion over the spiritual; the spiritual man is here signified by the sons of Israel. The miracles in Egypt, which were so many plagues, also called diseases, signify so many evils and falsities infesting, devastating, and destroying the church which is with spiritual men. "The ashes of the furnace" which Moses scattered towards heaven signify the falsities of lusts that are stirred up; "the dust in the land of Egypt" signifies damnation; "the boil breaking forth in pustules" signifies the filthy things of the will with blasphemies. (But this may be seen explained in detail in the Arcana Coelestia 7516-7532.)

[9] So, too, these words in Moses have a like signification:

Jehovah shall smite thee with the boil of Egypt and with emerods, and with scab and the itch, so that thou canst not be healed, with which thou shalt become mad from the sight of their eyes. Jehovah shall smite thee with an evil boil upon the knees and upon the thighs, of which thou canst not be healed (Deuteronomy 28:27, 34-36).

The plagues here mentioned signify evils and falsities of various kinds arising from the filthy loves of the natural man, for they correspond thereto. For sores and wounds exist from injury to flesh and blood, and evils and falsities from injury to the Divine good and the Divine truth; and flesh corresponds to good, and thus signifies it in the Word, and blood to truth, and thus signifies it.

[10] As "leprosy" signifies the profanation of truth, and the profanation of truth is various, is light or grievous, interior or exterior, and is according to the quality of the truth profaned, so too its effects are various, and these are signified by the appearances in leprosy, which were:

Tumors, suppurating tumors, white pustules, reddenings, abscesses, burnings, tetter, scall (Leviticus 13 to the end). The Jewish nation was afflicted with such things from correspondence because of their profanations of the Word, not only in their flesh, but also in their garments, houses, and vessels.

(Continuation respecting the Second Commandment)

[11] As the Divine truth or the Word is meant by "the name of God," and the profanation of it means a denial of its holiness, and thus contempt, rejection, and blasphemy, it follows that the name of God is interiorly profaned by a life contrary to the commandments of the Decalogue. For there is profanation that is interior and not exterior, and there is profanation that is interior and at the same time exterior, and there can be also a kind of profanation that is exterior and not at the same time interior. Interior profanation is produced by the life, exterior by the speech. Interior profanation, which is produced by the life, becomes exterior also, or of the speech, after death. For then everyone thinks and wills, and so far as it can be permitted, speaks and acts, according to his life; thus not as he did in the world. In the world, for the world's sake and to gain reputation, man is wont to speak and act otherwise than as he thinks and wills from his life. This is why it has been said that there is profanation that is interior and not at the same time exterior. There can also be a kind of profanation that is exterior and not at the same time interior. It can come from the style of the Word, which is not at all the style of the world, and for this reason it may be to some extent despised from ignorance of its interior sanctity.

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