339. And they said to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!" (6:16) This symbolizes affirmations of evil by falsity and of falsity springing from evil, until they did not acknowledge anything of the Lord's Divinity.

Mountains symbolize loves of evil, thus evils themselves (no. 336), and rocks symbolize falsities of faith. Falling on these people and hiding them means, symbolically, protecting them from influx from heaven. And because this is accomplished by affirmations of evil by means of falsity, and of falsity springing from evil, therefore this is the symbolic meaning. Hiding from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb means, symbolically, until they no longer acknowledge anything of the Lord's Divinity. He who sits on the throne means the Lord's Divinity from which all else springs, and the Lamb means the Lord Himself in respect to His Divine humanity. The Lord was upon the throne in both respects, as we have shown above. ¹

The verse says, from His face and wrath, because all those people who live in caves and rocks do not dare to set foot out of them, or even to stick out a finger, on account of the torment and torture they experience if they do. The reason is that they hate the Lord, even so much that they cannot speak His name. And the Lord's Divine atmosphere pervades everything, which they cannot drive away from themselves except by affirmations of evil by means of falsity, and of falsity springing from evil. It is the delights of evil that cause this.

[2] Similar symbolic meanings are found in the following verse in Hosea:

They shall say to the mountains, "Cover us!" And to the hills, "Fall on us!" (Hosea 10:8)

And in Luke:

Then they will begin to say to the mountains, "Fall on us!" and to the hills, "Cover us!" (Luke 23:30)

That this is the spiritual meaning of these words cannot be seen in the letter, but it is seen in the spiritual sense from the fact that when a last judgment is being executed, then those people who are caught up in evil, but wish to be directed by good, suffer hardships to begin with, but less hard than those who confirm themselves in their evil by means of falsities. For whereas the former lay bare their evil, the latter cover their evil by falsities; and the latter cannot bear Divine influx then, as shown in the following verse.

The caves and caverns into which they cast themselves are correspondent phenomena.

Poznámky pod čarou:

737. 17:10 "The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. They are also seven kings." This symbolizes the Divine goods and truths in the Word on which the Roman Catholic religion was founded, in time destroyed and finally profaned.

Since the scarlet beast symbolizes the Word, and therefore its heads symbolize the goods of love and truths of wisdom in it, it follows that Word is here described such as it is in these two respects in people meant by Babylon - mountains symbolizing the Divine goodness of love in it, and kings the Divine truth in it. That mountains symbolize goods of love may be seen in nos. 336, 339, 713[1]; that kings symbolize truths of wisdom, in nos. 20, 664, 704. A head in reference to the Lord symbolizes the Divine love of the Lord's Divine wisdom and the Divine wisdom of His Divine love (nos. 47, 538, 568). The number seven symbolizes all and completeness, and is predicated of holy things (nos. 10, 391, 657). And the woman symbolizes the Roman Catholic religion (no. 723).

So, then, the seven heads being seven mountains, on which the woman sits, symbolizes the Divine goods and truths in the Word on which the Roman Catholic religion was founded. That is because the whole Word has been profaned and adulterated by that religion, as said in nos. 717, 719-721, 723, 728-730 above.

[2] We say in time profaned, since to begin with they regarded the Word as holy; but as they saw they could use the sanctities of the church to gain dominion, they turned away from the Word and regarded their own edicts, commandments and rules as having equal, but really greater, holiness. And at last they transferred all of the Lord's authority to themselves, leaving nothing behind.

It is because of their first state, when they regarded the Word as holy, that Lucifer, meaning Babel (no. 717), is called the son of the morning, and because of their later state that he was brought down to hell (Isaiah 14). But on this subject more may be seen in Angelic Wisdom Regarding Divine Providence 257.

It may seem as though the seven mountains on which the woman sits means Rome, because Rome was built on seven mountains, for which it is also famous. But although Rome is meant, since the papal Throne and Curia of the Roman Catholic religion is located there, still the seven mountains here nevertheless symbolize the Divine goods in the Word and so in the church profaned, for the number seven adds only that something is holy, here that something has been profaned, as is the case with the same number elsewhere. So we find reported seven spirits before the throne of God (Revelation 1:4); seven lampstands with the Son of Man in their midst (Revelation 1:13; 2:1); seven stars (Revelation 2:1; 3:1). So, too, the scarlet beast here had seven heads, and the seven heads were seven mountains and also seven kings.