51. 23. (This city [Jerusalem] shall be devastated so that there is no inhabitant (Jer. 26:9). This city shall become a devastation (Jeremiah 27:17).)

That great day there is none like it, a time of trouble (Jeremiah 30:7).

Behold the tempest of the anger of Jehovah shall go forth, a tempest rushing upon the head of the impious. In the latter days ye shall understand it (Jeremiah 30:23-24).

(Jerusalem and the cities of Judah are a desolation, nor is there an inhabitant in them (Jeremiah 44:2, 6, 22).)

(Because of the day that cometh to lay waste all the Philistines (Jeremiah 47:4). Throughout the chapter the vastation of the Philistines is treated of, who are those that are in some understanding of truth but not in the will of good, whence there is profanation of the truth by falsities, as with those who are in faith alone.)

(Of the vastation of those who adulterate the goods of the Word and the church, who are described by Moab: of their vastation the whole chapter treats (Jeremiah 48). And there vastation, desolation and visitation are mentioned (verses 1, 3, 8-9, 15, 20, 32, 34), visitation (verse 44). Again, of the desolation of those who adulterate the truths of the church; who is the man of Edom (49:7-22). Vastation and desolation are named (49:10, 13, 17, 20). Moreover, of those who falsify truths, who are the sons of Ammon, Damascus and Elam (Jeremiah 49, particularly verses 2-3 seq.).

Of those who vastate the church by the love of self and the love of dominion, who are Babel (Jeremiah 50:1 to the end), where in particular vastation and desolation are named (verses 3, 13, 23, 27, 45).

(Of the vastation of the Word and the church by Babel, throughout the chapter (Jeremiah 51) where vastation and desolation in particular are named and described (verses 26, 29, 41, 43, 48, 53, 55-56, 62).

Everywhere in the prophets vastation and desolation are described by the sword, famine, and pestilence. By the "sword" is meant falsity, by "famine" the loss of truth and good, by "pestilence" the evil of that life; they are also called the "slain" and many times it is said they are without bread and water, as in Ezekiel 11:6-7, and elsewhere.

3464. 'And pointed out to him the reasons for the well which they had dug; and they said to him, We have found water' means interior truths obtained by means of these. This is clear from the meaning of 'a well' as the Word, dealt with in 3424, and from the meaning of 'water' as truths, dealt with in 2702, that is to say, truths drawn from the Word. 'Pointing out to him the reasons for the well which they had dug' accordingly means concerning the Word, the source of matters of doctrine; 'and they said to him, We have found water' means that it is in these, that is to say, in matters of doctrine, that interior truths reside; for as stated above, all matters of doctrine drawn from the literal sense of the Word include interior truths within them. For the literal sense of the Word is like a well with water in it, in that every single thing in the Word holds within itself the internal sense, which resides also in matters of doctrine drawn from the Word.

[2] The situation with matters of doctrine drawn from the literal sense of the Word is that when anyone possesses them and at the same time lives according to them a correspondence exists within himself. For the angels who reside with him are alive to the interior truths when he is alive to the exterior; and in this way he has communication with heaven by means of matters of doctrine, though this is conditioned by how good a life he leads. For example, when at the Holy Supper this person in simplicity thinks about the Lord from the words 'This is My body' and 'This is My blood' the angels residing with him have in mind love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour; for love to the Lord corresponds to the Lord's body and to the bread, while charity towards the neighbour corresponds to His blood and to the wine, 1798, 2165, 2177, 2187. This being the nature of the correspondence, there flows from heaven by way of the angels into that holiness present with the person at that time an affection which he receives according to the good within his life.

[3] Actually angels dwell with every person in the affection that belongs to his life, and so in the affection for the matters of doctrine according to which he lives, but never in the matters of doctrine with which his life is at variance. If his life is at variance with them, as it is if his affection is to gain position and wealth for himself by means of matters of doctrine, the angels in that case depart and spirits from hell dwell in that affection. These either instill their confirmations into him that favour self and the world - thus a false persuasion, which is such that he does not care at all whether a thing is true or false, provided people's attention is drawn to himself - or they take away all faith, in which case the doctrine on that person's lips is merely a sound prompted and fashioned by the fire of those loves.