213. 'Knowing that they were naked' means knowing and acknowledging that they did not dwell in innocence, as they had done previously, but were under the influence of evil. This is clear from the final verse of the previous chapter, where it is said, 'And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and they were not ashamed'. There it may be seen that being naked and not ashamed means being innocent. The contrary is meant when they are ashamed, as in this chapter which says that they sewed fig leaves together and hid themselves. Indeed when innocence is lacking nakedness arouses feelings of shame and disgrace because people are made aware of their own evil thoughts. Consequently nakedness in the Word stands for evil and shame and has reference to a corrupted Church, as in Ezekiel,

She was naked and bare, and was downtrodden in her own blood. Ezekiel 16:7, 11.

In the same prophet,

Let them leave her naked and bare, and let her nakedness be uncovered. Ezekiel 23:29.

In John,

I counsel you to buy white garments to clothe you, and let not the shame of your nakedness be manifested. Revelation 3:18.

And in reference to Judgement Day,

Blessed is he who is awake and keeps his garments, so that he may not walk naked, and men see his shame. Revelation 16:15.

In Deuteronomy,

If a man has found in his wife some nakedness, let him write her a bill of divorce. Deuteronomy 24:1.

This also was why Aaron and his sons were commanded to have linen breeches to cover their naked flesh when they approached the altar to serve, lest they should bring iniquity upon themselves and die, Exodus 28:42-43.

377. Verses 7, 8. And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth animal saying, Come and see. And I looked, and behold a pale horse; and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with the sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the wild beasts of the earth.

"And when he had opened the fourth seal," signifies, prediction manifested still further: "I heard the voice of the fourth animal saying," signifies, out of the inmost heaven from the Lord: "Come and see," signifies attention and perception. "And I looked, and behold a pale horse," signifies not any understanding of the Word, from evils of life, and then from the falsities thence; "and he that sat upon him," signifies the Word; "his name was Death, and Hell followed with him," signifies eternal damnation; "and power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill," signifies deprivation of all good, and thence of truth, from the Word, and thence in the doctrine of their church derived from the Word; "with the sword," signifies, by falsity; "and with hunger," signifies, by deprivation, lack, and ignorance of the knowledges of truth and good; "and with death," signifies the extinction thereby of spiritual life; "and with the wild beasts of the earth," signifies evils of life, or lusts and the falsities thence arising from the love of self and of the world, which devastate all things of the church with man.