Apocalypse Revealed # 282
282. "Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation." This symbolically means that the Lord has redeemed those in the church or in any other religion who are impelled by truths in respect to their doctrine and by goods in respect to their life.
Tribes mean, symbolically, the church in respect to religion. Tongues symbolize its doctrine, as we will see presently. People mean, symbolically, people impelled by doctrinal truths, and abstractly doctrinal truths themselves (no. 483). And nations mean, symbolically, people who are impelled by goods of life, and abstractly goods of life themselves (no. 483). It is apparent from this that every tribe and tongue and people and nation has the symbolic meaning stated, as it does also in no. 627.
[2] We will now confirm here that tongues in the spiritual sense symbolize the doctrine possessed by a church and by every religion. This is apparent from the following:
My tongue ponders Your righteousness, Your praise all the day long. (Psalms 35:28)
My tongue shall ponder Your righteousness all the day long. (Psalms 71:24)
Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb sing. For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness... (Isaiah 35:6)
...the tongue of stammerers will be swift to speak... (Isaiah 32:4)
It seems as though tongue there means speech, but in the spiritual sense it means that which is spoken, which is the doctrinal truth that they will have from the Lord.
So likewise:
I have sworn... that to Me every knee shall bow, every tongue swear an oath. (Isaiah 45:23)
The time will come to gather all nations and tongues, that they may come and see My glory. (Isaiah 66:18)
In those days ten men from all the tongues of the nations shall take hold of the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, "We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you." (Zechariah 8:23)
These passages describe as well the Lord's conversion of the nations to doctrinal truth.
[3] On the other hand, in the following places tongues in an opposite sense symbolize doctrinal falsities:
A smooth-tongued man shall not continue to exist in the land. (Psalms 140:11)
You hide them... in Your tabernacle from the strife of tongues. (Psalms 31:20)
...I will bring a nation against you... whose language you do not know... (Jeremiah 5:15)
(To be sent to peoples heavy in tongue.) (Ezekiel 3:5-6). (To a people barbarous in tongue.) (Isaiah 33:19).
It should be known that the tongue as an organ symbolizes doctrine, while as speech it symbolizes also religion.
[4] Someone who knows that the tongue symbolizes doctrine can understand what is symbolically meant by the plea of the rich man in hell to Abraham to send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool his tongue, to keep him from being tormented in the flame (Luke 16:24). The water symbolizes truth, and the tongue doctrine, by whose falsities the rich man was being tormented, and not by any flame. For no one in hell is on fire, but a flame there is how a love of falsity appears, and fire how a love of evil appears.
Hosea 13
1
When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling. He exalted himself in Israel, but when he became guilty in Baal, he died.
2
Now they sin more and more, and have made themselves molten images of their silver, even idols according to their own understanding, all of them the work of the craftsmen. They say of them, 'They offer human sacrifice and kiss the calves.'
3
Therefore they will be like the morning mist, and like the dew that passes away early, like the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the threshing floor, and like the smoke out of the chimney.
4
"Yet I am Yahweh your God from the land of Egypt; and you shall acknowledge no God but me, and besides me there is no savior.
5
I knew you in the wilderness, in the land of great drought.
6
According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted. Therefore they have forgotten me.
7
Therefore I am like a lion to them. Like a leopard, I will lurk by the path.
8
I will meet them like a bear that is bereaved of her cubs, and will tear the covering of their heart. There I will devour them like a lioness. The wild animal will tear them.
9
You are destroyed, Israel, because you are against me, against your help.
10
Where is your king now, that he may save you in all your cities? And your judges, of whom you said, 'Give me a king and princes?'
11
I have given you a king in my anger, and have taken him away in my wrath.
12
The guilt of Ephraim is stored up. His sin is stored up.
13
The sorrows of a travailing woman will come on him. He is an unwise son; for when it is time, he doesn't come to the opening of the womb.
14
I will ransom them from the power of Sheol. I will redeem them from death! Death, where are your plagues? Sheol, where is your destruction? "Compassion will be hidden from my eyes.
15
Though he is fruitful among his brothers, an east wind will come, the breath of Yahweh coming up from the wilderness; and his spring will become dry, and his fountain will be dried up. He will plunder the storehouse of treasure.
16
Samaria will bear her guilt; for she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women will be ripped open."
