414. So that a third of the day did not shine, and likewise the night. This symbolically means that they no longer have in them any spiritual truth or natural truth from the Word serviceable for doctrine and life.

The day's not shining means that they had no light from the sun, and "likewise the night" means that they had no light from the moon and stars. Light in general symbolizes Divine truth, which is truth from the Word. The light of the sun symbolizes spiritual Divine truth, and the light of the moon and stars symbolizes natural Divine truth, both acquired from the Word. Divine truth in the spiritual sense of the Word is like the light of the sun during the day, and Divine truth in the natural sense of the Word is like the light of the moon and stars at night. The spiritual sense of the Word, moreover, flows into its natural sense, as the sun does with its light to the moon, and this reflects the light of the sun indirectly.

In this way also does the spiritual sense of the Word enlighten people, even people who know nothing of that sense, when they read the Word in its natural sense. However, it enlightens a spiritual person as light from the sun does his eye, but a natural person as light from the moon and stars does his eye. Everyone is enlightened in accordance with his spiritual affection for truth and goodness, and at the same time in accordance with the genuine truths by which he has opened his rational faculty.

[2] Day and night also have this meaning in the following places:

God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night...." Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule by day, and the lesser light to rule by night. He made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to rule by day and by night, and to divide the light from the darkness. (Genesis 1:14-19)

(Jehovah) made great lights..., the sun to rule by day..., the moon and stars to rule by night... (Psalms 136:7-9)

The day is Yours, (O Jehovah,) the night also is Yours; You have prepared the light and the sun. (Psalms 74:16)

...Jehovah... gives the sun for a light by day, the ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night... (Jeremiah 31:35)

If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that there will not be day and night in their season, then My covenant also may be broken with David My servant... If I have not appointed My covenant with day and night, the ordinances of heaven and earth, I also will reject the offspring of Jacob and David... (Jeremiah 33:20-21, 25-26)

I cite these passages to make known that the darkening of both kinds of light is meant.

2395. 'For we are destroying this place' means that the state of evil which was theirs would condemn them. This is clear from the meaning of 'destroy', when used of the Lord, as - in the internal meaning - to perish from evil, that is, to be condemned; and also from the meaning of 'place' as a state of evil, 2393. The expression 'Jehovah destroys' occurs many times in the Word, but in the internal sense the meaning is that man destroys himself, for Jehovah or the Lord destroys no one. But because it does seem as though Jehovah or the Lord were the author of such destruction since He sees every single thing and governs every single thing, that expression occurs in various places in the Word, for the reason that it holds men to the very general idea that all things are before the Lord's eyes and all things under His guidance. Once they are held to that idea men can then be taught easily, for explanations of the Word giving its internal sense are nothing other than the details that fill out the general idea. There is the further reason that those who do not have love are held in fear, and in that fear revere the Lord and flee to Him for deliverance. From this it is evident that it does no harm to believe the sense of the letter, even though the internal sense teaches something other, provided that such belief is that of a simple heart. But these points are dealt with more fully further on at verse 24, in 2447, where it is said that 'Jehovah rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire'. Because they have the internal sense angels are so far removed from thinking of Jehovah's or the Lord's destroying anybody that they do not tolerate the very idea. Consequently when man reads these and similar statements in the Word, the sense of the letter is so to speak pushed to the back and at length merges into the teaching that evil itself is what destroys a person and that the Lord destroys nobody, as becomes clear from the example referred to in 1875.