4779. 'And put sackcloth on his loins' means mourning for lost good. This is clear from the meaning of 'putting sackcloth over the loins' as an act representative of mourning for lost good. For 'the loins' means conjugial love and from this all celestial and spiritual love, 3021, 3294, 4277, 4280, 4575. This meaning of 'the loins' is derived from correspondence, for as all the organs, members, and viscera of the human body correspond to the Grand Man, as shown at the ends of chapters, so the loins correspond to those who are within the Grand Man, which is heaven, and in whom genuine conjugial love has existed. And because conjugial love is the fundamental of all kinds of love 'the loins' therefore means in general all celestial and spiritual love. From this arose the custom of putting sackcloth over their loins when they mourned over lost good; for all good belongs to love.

[2] The fact that people put sackcloth over their loins to testify to this mourning becomes clear from the historical and the prophetical parts of the Word, as in Amos,

I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; so will I cause sackcloth to come up over all loins, and baldness over every head, and I will make it as the mourning for an only-begotten son, and its end as a bitter day. Amos 8:10.

'Causing sackcloth to come up over all loins' stands for mourning over lost forms of good, 'all loins' standing for all forms of the good of love. In Jonah,

The men of Nineveh believed in God, and therefore they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloths, from the greatest even to the least of them. And when word reached the king of Nineveh he rose up from his throne, and laid aside his royal robe from upon him, and covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. And he proclaimed that man and beast were to be covered with sackcloths. Jonah 3:5-8.

Clearly this was a sign representative of mourning over evil on account of which Nineveh was to perish, and so mourning over lost good.

[3] In Ezekiel,

They will let forth a cry over you with their voice and will cry out bitterly; and they will cause dust to come up over their heads, and will roll themselves in ashes, and will make themselves bald over you, and will gird themselves with sackcloths. Ezekiel 27:30-31.

This refers to Tyre, each action mentioned here being representative of mourning for falsities and evils and so for lost truths and goods. 'Letting forth a cry and crying out bitterly' stands for lamentation over falsity or lost truth, 2240; 'causing dust to come up over the head' stands for having been condemned on account of evil, 278; 'rolling themselves in ashes' for having been condemned on account of falsities; 'making themselves bald' for mourning because the natural man has no truth, 3301 (end); 'girding themselves with sackcloths' for mourning because the natural man has no good. Similarly in Jeremiah,

O daughter of My people, gird yourself with sackcloth. and roll yourself in ashes; make mourning as for an only-begotten son, very bitter wailing; for suddenly he who lays waste will come upon you. Jeremiah 6:26.

And elsewhere in the same prophet,

The elders of the daughter of Zion will sit on the ground, they will become silent; they will cause dust to come up over their head, they will gird themselves with sackcloths; the virgins of Jerusalem will cause their heads to come down to the ground. Lamentations 2:10.

Here similar representative actions are described which, as above, were appropriate for the types of good and truth which had become lost.

[4] In Isaiah,

A prophecy concerning Moab. He will go up to Bayith, and to Dibon into the high places to weep; over Nebo and over Medeba Moab will howl. On all heads there is baldness; every beard is shaved off; in its streets they have girded themselves with sackcloth; on its roots and in its streets everyone will wail, descending into weeping. Isaiah 15:2-3.

'Moab' stands for those who adulterate all good, 2468. The mourning over that adulteration meant by 'Moab' is described by the kinds of things that correspond to that type of evil. Virtually the same description therefore occurs in Jeremiah,

Every head is bald, and every beard shaved off; upon all hands are cuts, and over the loins is sackcloth; on all the roofs of Moab and in its streets there is mourning everywhere. Jeremiah 48:37-38.

[5] When king Hezekiah heard the blasphemous utterances of the Rabshakeh against Jerusalem 'he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth', Isaiah 37:1; 2 Kings 19:1. The reason for mourning was that his utterances were directed against Jehovah, the king, and Jerusalem. Their being utterances made in opposition to truth is meant by the king rending his clothes, 4763, and utterances made in opposition to good by his covering himself with sackcloth; for when in the Word truth is dealt with, so also is good. This is so because of the heavenly marriage, which is a marriage of good to truth and of truth to good in every single part; as also in David,

You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have loosed ¹ my sackcloth and girded me with gladness. Psalms 30:11.

Here 'dancing' has reference to truths, and 'gladness' to goods, as they also do in other parts of the Word. 'Loosing sackcloth' accordingly means releasing from mourning over lost good.

[6] In 2 Samuel,

David said to Joab and to all the people who were with him, Rend your clothes, and gird sackcloth round you, and wail before Abner. 2 Samuel 3:31.

Because an outrageous act had been committed against that which was true and good David therefore commanded them to rend their clothes and gird sackcloths round them. Something similar occurred in the case of Ahab, for when he heard Elijah's words that he was to be cut off because he had acted contrary to what was fair and right - meaning in the spiritual sense contrary to what is true and good - 'he tore his clothes apart, and put sackcloth over his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went about slowly, 1 Kings 21:27.

[7] The use of 'sackcloth' to refer to lost good is also clear in John,

When he opened the sixth seal, behold, a great earthquake took place, and the sun became black as sackcloth, and the full moon became like blood. Revelation 6:12.

'An earthquake' stands for an alteration in the state of the Church as regards good and truth, 3355. 'The sun' stands for the good of love, 1529, 1530, 2441, 2495, 4060, 4300, 4696, and therefore 'sackcloth' here has reference to lost good. 'The moon' stands for the truth of faith, 1529, 1530, 2120, 2495, 4060, and 'blood' has reference to this because 'blood' means truth that has been falsified and rendered profane, 4735.

[8] Because 'being clothed in sackcloth and rolling oneself in ashes' represented mourning over evils and falsities, it also represented both humility and repentance. For humility begins first with the acknowledgement that in oneself one is nothing but a source of evil and falsity. Repentance begins with the same acknowledgement and does not become a reality except through humility, and humility does not become a reality except through heartfelt confession that in oneself one is such a source of evil and falsity. For 'putting on sackcloth' was an expression of humility, see 1 Kings 21:27-29, also of repentance, Matthew 11:21; Luke 10:13. But the fact that this was no more than some representative, and so merely an external activity of the body and not an internal activity of the heart, is evident in Isaiah,

Is he to bow his head like a rush and to lie in sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast, and a day of that which is pleasing to Jehovah? Is not this the fast that I choose, to loose ² the bonds of wickedness, to break bread for the hungry? Isaiah 58:5-7.

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995. 'Will be food for you' means the accompanying delight which people were to enjoy. This becomes clear from the fact that any pleasure not only stirs a person's emotion but also sustains him, like food. Pleasure without delight is not pleasure but something lifeless. It is from the delight that a pleasure has its being and gets its name. The nature of the delight however determines that of the pleasure. In themselves things of the body and of the senses are wholly material, lifeless and dead; but from the delights that spring from interior things ranged in order they receive life. From this it is clear that the nature of the life of interior things determines the nature of the delight inherent in pleasures, for delight has life within it. No other kind of delight has life except that which contains good from the Lord, for in that case it does so from the life of good itself. Hence the wording here - 'every creeping thing that is living will be food for you', that is, will be an enjoyment. Some people are of the opinion that anyone who wishes to be happy in the next life ought never to indulge in bodily and sensory pleasures, but ought to renounce all such things. They say that such bodily and worldly pursuits are what deter and withhold men from spiritual and heavenly life. But people who think in this way and who willingly reduce themselves during their lifetime to a miserable standard of living are ill-informed of the truth of the matter.

[2] Nobody is in any way forbidden to enjoy bodily and sensory pleasures, namely the pleasures of possessing land and wealth; the pleasures of positions of honour and of service to the state; the pleasures of conjugial love, and of love of infants and children; the pleasures of friendship and of social intercourse; the pleasures of the ear - the sweet sounds of music and song; the pleasures of seeing - things of beauty, which are manifold, such as nice clothes, attractive homes together with their furniture, beautiful gardens, and things of a like nature which as they blend together give delight; pleasures of smell - the pleasant odours; pleasures of taste - all the delicious and nourishing qualities of food and drink; and the pleasures of touch. Indeed, as stated, all of these are most external or bodily affections having their origin in interior affections.

[3] Interior affections, which are living, all derive their delight from good and truth, while good and truth derive theirs from charity and faith, and these in turn do so from the Lord, and so from Life itself. This is why affections and pleasures from this source are living. And because that is where genuine pleasures have their origins they are in no way denied to anybody. Indeed when this is their source, the delight that accompanies them is immeasurably greater than delight that is not from that source. The latter delight in comparison is filthy. Take for example the pleasure that goes with conjugial love; when its origins lie in truly conjugial love it is immeasurably greater than the pleasure that is not from that source - indeed, so much greater that people who dwell in truly conjugial love dwell in delight and happiness such as is heavenly, since it comes down from heaven. People also who belonged to the Most Ancient Church declared the same. The delight which adulterers gain from acts of adultery was to those people so detestable that even the thought of it filled them with horror. This makes clear the nature of any delight that does not come down from the true fount of life, which is the Lord.

[4] That the pleasures mentioned above are in no way denied anyone - indeed, far from being denied they are for the first time pleasures when they flow from their true origin - is also made clear by the fact that very many people who during their lifetime had power, position, and wealth, and enjoyed in abundance all pleasures of the body and the senses, are now in heaven among the blessed and happy. And with them now interior delights and happiness are living because they have had their origin in goods that stem from charity and in truths of faith in the Lord. And since these have originated in charity and faith in the Lord, they have looked upon all their pleasures from the point of view of use, which has been their end in view. To them the use itself has been exceedingly delightful, and from this has come the delight inherent in their pleasures. See what has been stated from experience in 945.