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.

4669. 'Joseph' means the Lord's Spiritual [from His] Divine Human. This is clear from the representation of 'Joseph' in the highest sense as the Lord's Divine Spiritual, dealt with in 3969. It is well known in the Church that the Lord is represented by 'Joseph', for when the heavenly Joseph is spoken of, no one else is meant. But what aspect of the Lord is represented by 'Joseph' is less well known, namely the Divine Spiritual which proceeds from His Divine Human. The Divine Spiritual which proceeds from the Lord's Divine Human is the Divine Truth received from Him in heaven and in the Church; essentially the Spiritual is nothing else. The Divine Spiritual or Divine Truth is also that which is called the kingship of the Lord, as well as being that which is meant by 'Christ' or 'Messiah', see 2015 (end), 3009, 3670. This also explains why Joseph became virtually the king in Egypt - so that he might at that time represent the things which constitute the Lord's kingship.