400. And they were cast down to the earth, and a third of the trees were burned up. This symbolically means that in people concerned with the internal elements of the church and caught up in faith alone, all affection for truth and perception of truth, which make a person a person of the church, had perished.

To be shown that the earth to which the hail and fire mingled with blood were cast down symbolizes the church among people concerned with its internal elements and caught up in faith alone, and that these are the clergy, see no. 398 above. A third part symbolizes everything in relation to truth, as a fourth part symbolizes everything in relation to goodness (no. 322). That the number three symbolizes all, completeness, and totally, will be seen in no. 505 below. A third part or a third consequently has the same symbolism.

To be burned up means, symbolically, to perish - in this case to perish by falsity springing from a hellish love, which is what is meant by hail and fire mingled with blood, as just explained in no. 399 above.

A tree symbolizes a person. And because a person is human by virtue of the affection of his will and the perception of his intellect, these also are therefore symbolized by a tree.

There is as well a correspondence between a person and a tree. Consequently in heaven one sees paradisal parks formed of trees that correspond to the affections and resulting perceptions of angels. And elsewhere, in hell, there are forests formed of trees that bear harmful fruit, in accordance with their correspondence to the lusts and resulting thoughts of the inhabitants there.

That trees in general symbolize people in respect to their affections and consequently perceptions can be seen from the following passages:

All the trees of the field shall know that I, Jehovah, bring low the tall tree and raise up the low tree, and dry up the green tree and make the dry tree burgeon. (Ezekiel 17:24)

Blessed is the man who trusts in Jehovah... He shall be like a tree planted by the waters... Nor will He cease from bearing fruit. (Jeremiah 17:7-8)

Blessed is the man...(whose) delight is in the law... He shall be like a tree planted by rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season... (Psalms 1:1-3)

Praise Jehovah... you fruitful trees... (Psalms 148:7-9)

Satiated are the trees of Jehovah... (Psalms 104:16)

...the ax is laid to the root of the tree... ...every tree which does not bear good fruit will be cut down... (Matthew 3:10; cf. 7:16-20)

Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree rotten and its fruit rotten; for a tree is known by its fruit. (Matthew 12:33, cf. Luke 6:43-44)

...I will kindle a fire..., (which) shall devour every green tree and every dry tree... (Ezekiel 20:47)

Since a tree symbolizes a person, therefore it was a statute that the fruit of a tree serving for food in the land of Canaan be uncircumcised (Leviticus 19:23-25). Furthermore, that when the people besieged a city, they not take an axe to any tree bearing good fruit (Deuteronomy 20:19-20). And still other regulations, which we do not cite here owing to their number.

399. And hail and fire followed, mingled with blood. This symbolizes falsity springing from a hellish love, destroying goodness and truth and falsifying the Word.

Hail symbolizes falsity destroying goodness and truth. Fire symbolizes hellish love. And blood symbolizes the falsification of truth.

The reason that hail symbolizes falsity destroying goodness and truth will be seen below. To be shown that fire is love in both senses, heavenly and hellish, see no. 468; and that blood is the Lord's Divine truth, which is also the Word, and in an opposite sense, the Word falsified, no. 379.

When these are assembled into a single meaning, it is apparent that "hail and fire followed, mingled with blood," symbolizes falsity springing from a hellish love, destroying goodness and truth and falsifying the Word.

This is the symbolic meaning because these are the kinds of things that appear in the spiritual world when the atmosphere of the Lord's Divine love and wisdom dips down from heaven into societies where there are falsities springing from hellish love and these are used to falsify the Word.

[2] Hail and fire together have the same symbolism in the following places:

From the brightness before Him, ...clouds passed with hailstones and coals of fire... ...the Most High uttered His voice, hailstones and coals of fire. And He sent out His (many) arrows and scattered them... (Psalms 18:12-14)

I will dispute... with pestilence and blood, and I will rain down on (them)...hailstones, fire, and brimstone. (Ezekiel 38:22)

Then Jehovah will cause His... voice to be heard..., with the flame of a devouring fire... and hailstones. (Isaiah 30:30)

He made their rain hail, a flaming fire in their land..., and splintered the trees of their border. (Psalms 105:32-33)

He smote their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with heavy hail, and... their cattle with burning coals... He sent in the wrath of His anger... an incursion of evil angels. (Psalms 78:47-49)

The latter passages refer to Egypt, of whom we read in the books of Moses the following:

Moses stretched out his rod... and Jehovah sent voices and hail... And there was hail and fire together proceeding in the midst of heavy hail... And the hail struck every herb of the field and broke every tree of the field. (Exodus 9:23-35)

All the miracles done in Egypt symbolized those evils and falsities, springing from a hellish love, that existed in the Egyptians, each miracle symbolizing some evil and falsity. For the church with them had been representational, as it was in many Asiatic kingdoms, but one that became idolatrous and given to sorcery. The Red Sea symbolizes hell, in which the Egyptians finally perished.

[3] The hailstones which killed many more of the enemy than the sword in Joshua 10:11 have a similar symbolism. So, too, hail in the following passages:

Woe to the crown of pride... ...strong is the Lord, like an inundation of hail... The hail overturns the refuge of lies... (Isaiah 28:1-2, 17)

It will hail until it flattens the forest... (Isaiah 32:19)

The temple of God was opened in heaven..., and there were lightnings, voices, and thunderings, an earthquake, and great hail. (Revelation 11:19)

And great hail with the weight of a talent fell from heaven upon men. (Revelation 16:21)

...have you seen the treasuries of hail, which have been reserved... for the day of battle and war? (Job 38:22-23)

Say to those who plaster the unsuitable that it will fall. There will be flooding rain, in which you, hailstones, shall fall. (Ezekiel 13:11)

To plaster the unsuitable is to defend falsity so that it appears as true. Consequently people who do this are called hailstones.