1600. That 'the men of Sodom were evil and great sinners before Jehovah' means the evil desires towards which facts were reaching out becomes clear from the meaning of 'Sodom' as evil desires, dealt with already, and from the meaning of 'men' (vir) as intellectual concepts and rational concepts, here factual knowledge since they are spoken of in reference to the external man when separated from the internal. That 'men' means intellectual concepts or rational concepts has been shown already in 265, 749, 1007. Facts are said to reach out towards evil desires when they are learned for no other purpose than that one may become great, and not so that they may serve the use of making one good. All facts exist to enable a person to become rational and thereby wise, and so to enable him to serve the internal man.

1007. 'At the hand of man' means from his entire will, and 'at the hand of brother man' from his entire understanding. This is clear from the meaning of 'man' (homo), for the essential element and life of a person is his will - indeed the character of the will determines that of the person; and from the meaning of 'brother man' (vir), for where the understanding resides in man it is called 'brother man', as shown already in 367. Whether the understanding residing there is true, spurious, or false, it is still called 'brother man'. In fact the understanding is called 'a man' (vir), 158, 265, and 'the brother' of the will, 367. The reason why a defiled will and a defiled understanding are here called 'a man' (homo) and 'brother man' (vir) is that the subject here is profanation, the mere mention and consequent representation of which is not tolerated in heaven but instantly rejected with disgust. This is why such mild expressions are employed here. The sense of the words of the verse can be taken two different ways so to speak, so as to prevent those in heaven knowing that this verse contains such matters.