9052. Tooth for tooth. That this signifies if anything in the exterior intellectual, is evident from the signification of “a tooth,” as being the exterior intellectual, and therefore natural truth, for this makes the life of this understanding. That “the teeth” have this signification is because they grind like a mill, and thus prepare, the food which is to nourish the body; here the food which is to nourish the soul. The food which nourishes the soul is intelligence and wisdom. This is first received, ground, and prepared by means of the knowledges of truth and good in the natural. (That it is intelligence and wisdom which is called “spiritual and celestial food,” see n. 56-58, 680, 1480, 4792, 5147, 5293, 5340, 5342, 5576, 5579, 5915, 8562, 9003.) From this it is plain whence it is that “the teeth” signify the exterior understanding. What the exterior understanding is can be seen from what was shown just above (n. 9051) concerning the interior understanding.

[2] That “the teeth” signify natural truth, which belongs to the exterior understanding, and in the opposite sense the falsity which destroys this truth, is evident from the following passages in the Word. That they signify natural truth, in Moses:

His eyes shall be redder than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk (Genesis 49:12).

Here also both “eyes” and “teeth” are mentioned together. The subject treated of is Judah, by whom is meant the Lord as to the Divine celestial (n. 6363); “the eyes” signify the Divine intellectual of the the Lord, (n. 6379); and “the teeth,” His Divine natural (n. 6380), thus also the Divine truth in the natural.

[3] In Amos:

I have given you emptiness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places (Amos. 4:6).

“Emptiness of teeth” denotes scarcity of truth; and “lack of bread,” scarcity of good. From all this it is evident what is meant by the “gnashing of teeth” among those who are in hell (Matthew 8:12; 13:42, 50; 22:13; 25:30; Luke 13:28), namely, the collision of falsities with the truths of faith. For as before said, “the teeth,” in the opposite sense, signify the falsity which destroys truth; as in David:

Arise, O Jehovah; save me, O my God; for Thou wilt smite all mine enemies on the jaw; Thou wilt break the teeth of the wicked (Psalms 3:7).

“To break the teeth of the wicked” denotes to break the falsities by which they destroy truths. In the same:

As to my soul I lie in the midst of lions, their teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword (Psalms 57:4).

“The teeth of lions” denote the falsities that destroy truths; “lions,” falsities from evil in their power (n. 6367, 6369).

[4] In the same:

Destroy their teeth, O God, in their mouth; turn aside the grinders of the young lions (Psalms 58:6).

In Joel:

A nation is come up upon My land, strong, and without number; his teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the grinders of a great lion. He hath reduced My vine to a waste; and My fig-tree into froth (Joel 1:6-7).

“Teeth” and “grinders” denote the falsities that destroy the truths of the church; a “vine” denotes the spiritual church (n. 1069, 5113, 6376); and a “fig-tree” its natural good (n. 217, 4231, 5113). That “teeth” have this signification is plain also from the fact that they are attributed to a nation which will lay waste.

In John:

The shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared for war; they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions (John 9:7-8).

“Locusts” denote those who are in external falsities (n. 7643), from which it is also evident that “teeth” denote falsities that destroy truths.

217. That the “vine” is used in the Word to signify spiritual good, and the “fig-tree” natural good, is at this day utterly unknown, because the internal sense of the Word has been lost; nevertheless, wherever these expressions occur, they signify or involve this meaning; as also in what the Lord spoke in parables concerning a “vineyard” and a “fig-tree;” as in Matthew:

Jesus seeing a fig-tree in the way, came to it, but found nothing thereon save leaves only, and He said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward forever; and presently the fig-tree withered away (Matthew 21:19),

by which is meant, that no good, not even natural good, was to be found upon the earth. Similar is the meaning of the “vine” and “fig-tree” in Jeremiah:

Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? Nay, they were not at all ashamed, and they knew not how to blush; therefore I will surely gather them, saith Jehovah; there shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig-tree, and the leaf hath fallen

(Jeremiah 8:12-13),

by which is signified that all good, both spiritual and natural, had perished, since they were so depraved as to have lost even the sense of shame, like those at the present day who are in evil, and who, so far from blushing for their wickedness, make it their boast.

In Hosea:

I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the first-ripe in the fig-tree in the beginning (Hosea 9:10).

And in Joel:

Be not afraid, ye beasts of My fields, for the tree shall bear its fruit, the fig-tree and the vine shall yield their strength (Joel 2:22).

The “vine” here denotes spiritual good, and the “fig-tree” natural good.