329. And it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until the number of both their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was complete. This symbolically means that the Last Judgment would be delayed a little while longer, until those people should be gathered together from all sides who likewise were hated by the evil, treated with scorn and expelled because of their acknowledgment of the Lord's humanity and their life in accordance with His Word's truths.

That this is the symbolic meaning is apparent from what we have already said.

A similar symbolism is found in the following passage in Isaiah:

Your dead shall live... Awake and rejoice, you who dwell in dust... Go, my people, enter into your chambers, and shut the door behind you; hide yourself, as it were, for a little moment, until the anger is past. For behold, Jehovah is coming from His place, to punish the inhabitant of the earth for his iniquity; then the earth will disclose her blood, and will no more conceal her slain. (Isaiah 26:19-21)

But as we said before, these people and others like them are the subject in chapter 20ff., a chapter which we have explained in nos. 840-874.