156. Internal Meaning of Ezekiel, Chapter 33

Of those who instruct and are instructed. (2)

1-5 Those who are instructed by the preacher concerning falsities and do not take heed, perish; (2, 11)

6-7 when the preacher sees falsities and does not give instruction concerning them, he perishes. (2)

8-9 The same is true of everyone who teaches doctrine, when he teaches and is not heard, or when he does not teach. (2, 3)

10-11 So now in the church, they must be taught in order that they may be converted, because the Lord wishes the salvation of all. (2)

12-16 If the evil man becomes good, His evil is forgiven; if the good man becomes evil, His good is not regarded. (2)

17-20 These things are Divine justice. (2, 3)

21-26 A perverted church declares that it is the church because it has the Word; nevertheless it falsifies the Word, worships another god and does evil, (2, 4)

27-29 and will perish by reason of falsities of evil, (3)

30-33 notwithstanding its hearing the Word, and being in external worship. (3)

Evening, a time when the light and heat are fading away, represents a state in which a person -- or a community of people -- is turning away from the Lord, with little desire left to be good and little knowledge left regarding what good is. Evening is often a time of judgment.

In Genesis 19:1, the evening signifies the visitation that comes before judgment. (Arcana Coelestia 2318)

In Genesis 30:16, this signifies the good or truth in a state of good, but in the obscurity that is characteristic of the natural. (Arcana Coelestia 3949)