6377. 'He washes his clothing in wine' means that His Natural consists in Divine Truth from His Divine Good. This is clear from the meaning of 'washing' as purifying, dealt with in 3147; from the meaning of 'wine' as the good of love towards the neighbour and the good of faith, and in the highest sense as Divine Truth from the Lord's Divine Good, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'clothing' as the exterior which covers the interior, dealt with in 5248, thus the natural since this is exterior and covers the rational, which is interior. Therefore 'clothing' also means truth since this is exterior and covers good, which is interior, 2576, 4545, 4763, 5319, 5954.

[2] The fact that 'wine' means love towards the neighbour and the good of faith may be recognized from what has been shown regarding the bread and wine in the Holy Supper, in 2165, 2177, 3464, 4581, 5915. These paragraphs show that 'bread' is the good of celestial love, and that 'wine' is the good of spiritual love. The same may also be recognized from the minchah and the drink-offering in sacrifices. The minchah in them meant the good of love, and the drink-offering the good of faith. The minchah consisted of the kinds of things that meant the good of love, while the drink-offering consisted of wine that meant the good of faith. The sacrifices themselves were also called 'bread', 2165. For the use in sacrifices of a drink-offering consisting of wine, see Exodus 29:40; Leviticus 23:12-13, 18-19; Numbers 15:2-15; 28:6-7, 18-end; 29:1-7 and following verses.

[3] The meaning that 'wine' has of love towards the neighbour and the good of faith is also evident in Isaiah,

Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! And come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Isaiah 55:1.

No one can fail to see that they did not have to buy wine and milk, but that they were to acquire what is meant by 'wine and milk', which is love towards the neighbour and faith. These gifts come from the Lord 'without money and without price'.

[4] In Hosea,

Threshing-floor and winepress will not feed them, and new wine will be deceptive to her. ¹ Ephraim will return to Egypt, and in Assyria they will eat what is unclean. They will not pour libations of wine to Jehovah, their sacrifices will not be pleasing to Him. Hosea 9:1-4.

Here also in the internal sense reference is made to the good of love and the good of faith, to the demise of them. The good of love is meant by 'threshing-floor' by virtue of the grain there and the bread made from it, while the good of faith is meant by 'winepress', 'new wine', and 'libation of wine'. 'Ephraim will return to Egypt' stands for the fact that the understanding would resort to factual knowledge for advice concerning the arcana of faith; 'in Assyria they will eat what is unclean' stands for that which is the outcome of consequent false reasoning - 'Ephraim' being the area of understanding in the Church, see 5754, 6112, 6238, 6267; 'Egypt' the area of factual knowledge, 1164, 1165, 1186, 1462, 5702; and 'Assyria' that of reasoning, 1186. The line of thought in this passage also shows that the words used here contain something more than what one sees in the letter. For everything hangs together in the internal sense, but not so in the external sense, for example when it says that 'threshing-floor and winepress will not feed them, and new wine will be deceptive to her', immediately followed by 'Ephraim will return to Egypt, and in Assyria they will eat what is unclean'. Moreover, without the internal sense what meaning would Ephraim's return to Egypt and their eating in Assyria what is unclean have?

[5] 'Winepress' and 'wine' are also used in Jeremiah to describe the demise of mutual love and the good of faith,

He who lays waste has fallen on your vintage, therefore joy and gladness have been plucked from Carmel, and from the land of Moab, for I have made the wine cease from the winepresses; none will tread the headed. ² Jeremiah 48:32-33.

[6] The fact that 'wine' means the good of mutual love and of faith is also evident in John,

I heard a voice from the midst of the four living creatures, saying, Do no harm to oil and wine. Revelation 6:6.

[7] 'Oil' stands for the good of celestial love, and 'wine' for the good of spiritual love.

'Oil' and 'wine' have a similar meaning in the Lord's parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke,

A certain Samaritan was journeying, and seeing him who had been wounded by the robbers was moved with compassion for him; going therefore to him, he bandaged his wounds, and poured on oil and wine. Luke 10:33-34.

'He poured on oil and wine' means that he performed the works of love and charity, 'oil' being the good of love, see 886, 3728. A like meaning was involved in the practice of the ancients, who poured oil and wine onto a pillar when they consecrated it, Genesis 35:14, 4581, 4582.

[8] The fact that 'wine' means the good of love and faith is evident from the words the Lord used when He instituted the Holy Supper. He said then regarding the wine,

I tell you that I shall not drink from now on of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom. Matthew 26:29; Luke 22:17-18.

Anyone can see that He was not about to drink wine in that kingdom, but that the good of love and faith is meant, which He was about to impart to those who belonged to His kingdom. Much the same is meant by 'wine' in Isaiah 24:9, 11; Lamentations 2:11-12; Hosea 14:7; Amos 9:13-14; Zechariah 9:15-16; Luke 5:37-39.

[9] Since 'wine' means the good of love and faith, Divine Truth from the Lord's Divine Good is therefore meant in the highest sense, for that Truth, when it flows into a person and is accepted by him, brings him the good of love and faith.

[10] Since most things in the Word also have a contrary meaning, so too does 'wine', the contrary meaning of which is falsity from evil, as in Isaiah,

Woe to those who rise in the morning around dawn, and then follow strong drink, who continue into dusk, so that wine may inflame them! Woe to heroes at drinking wine, and to valiant men in mixing strong drink! Isaiah 5:11, 22

In the same prophet,

Also these err through wine, and go astray through strong drink. The priest and the prophet err through strong drink. They are swallowed up by wine, they go astray through strong drink. They err among the seers, they are tottery in judgement. Isaiah 28:7.

In the same prophet,

The shepherds know no understanding, they all look to their own way. Come, I will get wine, and we will be drunken from strong drink; and let there be tomorrow, as there is this day, great abundance. Isaiah 56:11-12.

In addition to these places 'wine' is used with the contrary meaning in Jeremiah 13:12; Hosea 4:11; 7:5; Amos 2:8; Micah 2:11; Psalms 75:8; Deuteronomy 32:33.

Falsity from evil is also meant by the cup of the wine of wrath in Jeremiah 25:15-16; Revelation 14:8, 10; 16:19; the winepress of the wrath of God's anger, Revelation 19:15; and the wine of whoredom, Revelation 17:2; 18:3.

Poznámky pod čarou:

427. Till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads, signifies that those who are in truths from good are first to be separated. This is evident from the signification of "to seal," as being to distinguish and separate (of which presently); also from the signification of "the servants of God," as being those who are in truths from good (of which see above, n. 6); also from the signification of "forehead," as being the good of love. It is from correspondence that "forehead" means the good of love; for all things pertaining to man in the whole body, whether within or without, correspond to heaven, for the universal heaven in the sight of the Lord is as one Man, so arranged as to correspond to each and all the things in man. The whole face, where the organs of sight, smell, hearing, and taste, are situated, corresponds to the affections and the thoughts therefrom in general, the eyes corresponding to the understanding, the nose to perception, the ears to hearkening and obedience, and the taste to the desire to know and be wise; but the forehead corresponds to the good of love, from which all these are, for it forms the highest part of the face, and directly encloses the front and primary part of the brain, which is the seat of man's intellect. This is why the Lord looks upon angels in the forehead, and the angels look to the Lord through the eyes; this is so because the forehead corresponds to the love, from which the Lord looks upon them, and the eyes correspond to the understanding from which they look to the Lord; for the Lord grants Himself to be seen through the influx of love into their understanding. (Respecting this see in the work on Heaven and Hell 145, 151; and that The Universal Heaven in its Whole Complex answers to One Man, n. 68-86; and that There is thence a Correspondence of all Things of Heaven with all Things of Man, n 87-102.) This makes clear the signification of "being sealed on the forehead," namely, to be in the good of love to the Lord from the Lord, and thereby to be distinguished and separated from those who are not in that love; for the Lord looks upon such in the forehead, and fills them with the good of love, from which they look to the Lord by thought from affection. The rest cannot be looked upon by the Lord in the forehead, for they turn away from Him and turn themselves to the opposite love, by which they are filled and attracted. (That everyone in the spiritual world, and man as well in respect to his spirit, turns the face to the ruling love, see in the work on Heaven and Hell 17, 123, 142-144, 153, 552)

[2] "To be sealed" means not to be sealed, but to be reduced to such a state that their quality may be recognized, and that they may thus be conjoined with those who are in a like state and separated from those who are in a dissimilar state. This is signified by "to be sealed," and by a "sign" in the following passages. In Ezekiel:

Jehovah said to the man clothed in linen, Pass through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and mark a sign upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and groan over all the abominations done in the midst thereof. And pass ye through the city after him and smite; let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity; but come not near against any man upon whom is the sign (Ezekiel 9:4, 6).

This also treats of the separation of the good from the evil; and "to mark on the forehead" has a similar signification as in this passage in Revelation, namely, to be distinguished and separated from the evil and to be conjoined to the good; the casting out and damnation of the evil are treated of afterwards. Those who are in good are described by those "that sigh and groan over all the abominations done in the midst of the city Jerusalem;" "those that sigh and groan over abominations" mean those who are not in evils and in falsities therefrom, "sighing and groaning over them" signifying aversion and grief because of them, "Jerusalem" meaning the church, and "city" the doctrine. Afterwards that they should "pass through the city after him and smite, and the eye should not spare," describes the casting out and damnation of the evil; "to smite and kill" signifying damnation, for spiritual death, which is damnation, is signified in the Word by natural death.

[3] In Isaiah:

He shall come for bringing together all nations and tongues, that they may come and see My glory. And I will set a sign upon them (Isaiah 66:18, 19).

This is said of the Lord, and of a new church to be established by Him, and thus of a new heaven and a new earth (as is evident from verse 22 that chapter). "Bringing together all nations and tongues" has a similar signification, as:

Gathering together the elect from the four winds (Matthew 24:31);

"to gather together" signifies to receive to Himself those who are His own; "nations" signify those who are in good, and "tongues" those who are in a life according to doctrine; "to come and see the glory of the Lord" signifies to be illustrated by Divine truth, and thus to enjoy heavenly joy; for "the glory of the Lord" signifies Divine truth, and illustration and joy from it; "to set a sign upon them" signifies to distinguish and separate them from the evil and conjoin them to the good.

[4] It is written of Cain:

That Jehovah set a sign upon him that no one might slay him (Genesis 4:15).

He who does not know this arcanum of the Word that the persons named in its histories mean in the spiritual sense things, or that every person there mentioned represents and thence signifies something of the church and of heaven, can know nothing beyond the historical things of the letter, in which nothing more of the Divine appears than in other histories; and yet there is in the Word, both prophetical and historical, and in each and all things of it, something Divine that does not appear in the letter except to those who are in the spiritual sense and who know it. The spiritual arcanum in the history of Cain and Abel is this: "Abel" represents the good of charity, and "Cain" the truth of faith, and that good and that truth are called in the Word "brethren;" and the truth of faith is called "the firstborn" because the truths that are afterwards to become truths of faith are first acquired and stored up in the memory, that from it, as from a storehouse, good may draw what it may conjoin to itself and make the truths to be truths of faith. For truth does not become of faith until man wills it and does it; but so far as man does this the Lord conjoins him to Himself and to heaven, and from love flows in with good, and through good into the truths that the man has acquired from childhood, and conjoins them to good and makes them to be truths of faith; before this they are nothing but the cognitions and knowledges, in which as yet man has no other faith than such as he has in things heard from another, from which he can withdraw if he afterwards thinks differently; therefore this faith is not his own but that of another in him; and yet if a man's faith is to remain with him after death it must be his own faith; and it becomes his own when he sees, wills, and does what he believes, for it then enters into the man and forms his spirit, and comes to be of his affection and thought; for man's spirit in its essence is nothing but his affection and thought.

[5] That which is of the affection is called good, and that which is of the thought therefrom is called truth; and man believes nothing to be true except what is of his affection, but of the interior affection that pertains to his spirit; consequently that which a man thinks from interior affection is his faith, and whatever other things he holds in his memory, whether he has drawn them from the Word or from the doctrine of the church, by reading or from preachings, or from his own understanding, are not faith, however much he thinks that they are, and it is at present said and believed that they are. This first-begotten and primary thing is what "Cain" represents and signifies in this history, for Cain was the first-begotten. When this, and not willing and doing the truth, that is, living according to it, is believed to be the faith that saves man, then there springs up a pernicious heresy that faith alone saves, whatever the life may be, and that there may be faith apart from the life; and yet this is not faith, but mere knowledge residing outside of man in his memory, and not within him in the life. If this is called faith it is historical faith, which is having in oneself another's faith, and such a faith does not receive life until the man sees that what he has thus imbibed is true, and this he first sees when he wills and does it. When that heresy prevails, charity, which is the good of life, is destroyed, and at length rejected as not essential to salvation. This was represented by Cain's slaying his brother Abel; for faith and charity, or the truth of faith and the good of charity, are called in the Word "brethren," as was said above.

[6] That "Jehovah set a sign upon Cain lest he should be slain" signifies that He distinguished him from others and preserved him, because saving faith cannot be given unless historical faith precedes, and this is knowing from others the things of the church and heaven; in a word, it is a knowledge of such things as faith afterwards consists of; for unless man from infancy imbibed truths from the Word, or from the doctrine of the church, or from preachings, he would be empty, and into an empty man no operation could fall, and no influx out of heaven from the Lord could come, for the Lord operates and flows in through good into truths with man, and conjoins these, and thus makes charity and faith to be one. From this can be seen the signification of "Jehovah set a sign upon Cain that no one might slay him, and that whosoever should slay him vengeance should be taken on him sevenfold." Moreover, those who are in mere historical faith, that is, in a knowledge of such things as constitute faith, who are the persons or which is the faith meant by "Cain," these are preserved also because they can teach truths from the Word to others, which they do from memory.

[7] Because the "forehead" corresponds to the good of love, and therefore the Lord from Divine love looks upon angels and men in the forehead, as was said above, it was commanded that a plate of pure gold, upon which was written "Holiness to Jehovah," should be placed upon the miter of Aaron on the forehead, concerning which it is thus written in Moses:

Thou shalt make a plate, pure gold, and grave upon it with the engravings of a signet, Holiness to Jehovah. And thou shalt put it on a thread of blue; over against the faces of the miter it shall be, that it may be upon Aaron's forehead, and may be constantly on his forehead, that they may have acceptance before Jehovah (Exodus 28:36-38).

For Aaron as high priest represented the Lord in relation to the good of Divine love, therefore his garments represented such things as proceed from that love; the miter represented intelligence and wisdom; and the front part of it love, from which are intelligence and wisdom; therefore the plate of pure gold, upon which was engraved "Holiness to Jehovah," was placed upon a thread of blue; "pure gold" of which the plate was made signifies the good of celestial love; the "blue" of which the thread was made, on which was the plate, signifies the good of spiritual love (spiritual love is the love of truth); "the engraving of a signet" signifies endurance to eternity; "Holiness to Jehovah" signifies the Lord in respect to the Divine Human from which proceeds all the holiness of heaven and the church; these were upon the front of the miter which was upon Aaron's head, because the "miter" signifies the like as the head, namely Divine wisdom, and the "forehead" the Divine good of love. (That Aaron represented the Lord in relation to the good of love, see Arcana Coelestia, 9806, 9946, 10017; that "blue" signifies the love of truth, n. 9466, 9687, 9833; and the "miter" signifies intelligence and wisdom, n. 9827)

[8] Because the "forehead" signifies the good of love, the sons of Israel were commanded to bind the commandment respecting love to Jehovah upon their foreheads, as is taught in Moses:

Thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And thou shalt bind these words for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be for frontlets before thine eyes (Deuteronomy 6:5 (Deuteronomy 6:6, 8; 11:18; Exodus 13:9, 16).

It is said "they shall be for frontlets before the eyes," as a representation that the Lord looks upon angels and men in the forehead, because from Divine love, and grants to angels and men to look at Him from intelligence and wisdom, for the "eyes" signify the understanding, and all man's understanding is from the good of his love and according to that which he receives from the Lord. That they bound these words upon the hand also represented ultimate things, because the hands are the ultimates of the powers of man's soul; therefore "upon the forehead and upon the hand" signifies in things first and last, and "first and last" signifies all things (as may be seen above, n. 417. This commandment was so bound because "on it hang the law and the prophets," that is, the whole Word, consequently all things of heaven and the church:

That on this commandment hang the law and the prophets the Lord teaches (Matthew 22:35-38, 40).

This also makes clear why kings, in former times and also at present, when crowned, were anointed with oil upon the forehead and upon the hand, and what this signifies; for kings formerly represented the Lord in relation to Divine truth, and because this is received in the good of love that flows in from the Lord, therefore they were anointed upon the forehead and upon the hand, the "oil" also with which they were anointed signifying the good of love. This is why kings in the Word signify those who are in truths from good, and in an abstract sense truths from good (See above, n. 31). From this it can be seen what "a seal upon the forehead" means, as also elsewhere in Revelation (Revelation 9:4; 14:1; 22:3, 4).

[9] But on the contrary, the "forehead" signifies that which is opposite to the good of love, namely, the evil of love, and thus what is hard, obstinate, shameless, and infernal. It signifies what is hard in Isaiah:

Thou art hard, for thy neck is a sinew of iron, and thy forehead brass (Isaiah 48:4).

It signifies what is stubborn in Ezekiel:

The house of Israel will not hearken unto Me; for the whole house of Israel are stubborn in forehead and hard in heart (Ezekiel 3:7, 8).

It signifies what is shameless in Jeremiah:

The forehead of a harlot remained to thee, thou didst refuse to be ashamed (Jeremiah 3:3).

It signifies what is infernal in Revelation (Revelation 13:16; 14:9-11; 16:2; 17:5; 19:20; 20:4); for as the good of love is heavenly, and thence mild, patient, and modest, so the evil opposite to that good is infernal, hard, stubborn, and shameless.