Here are some excerpts from Swedenborg's "Arcana Coelestia" that help explain the inner meaning of this chapter:

AC 2312. In this chapter, in the internal sense, by "Lot" is described the state of the Spiritual Church which is in the good of charity but in external worship: how in course of time it declines.

AC 2313. The First State of that church: that they are in the good of charity and acknowledge the Lord, and that from Him they are confirmed in good (verses 1 to 3); and are saved (verse 12). The Second State: that with them evils begin to act against goods, but they are powerfully withheld from evils and kept in goods by the Lord (verses 14 to 16). Their weakness is described (verse 17); that they are saved (verse 19). The Third State: that they no longer think and act from the affection of good, but from the affection of truth (verses 18 to 20); and that they are saved (verse 23). The Fourth State: that the affection of truth perishes, which is Lot’s wife becoming a pillar of salt (verse 26). The Fifth State: that an impure good, or a good of falsity, succeeds, which is Lot in the cave of the mountain (verse 30). The Sixth State: that even this good is still more adulterated and falsified (verses 31 to 33); and the truth likewise (verses 34, 35). That therefrom there is conceived and born a certain semblance of a church whose good, so called, is "Moab," and whose truth, also so called, is the "son of Ammon" (verses 36 to 38).

AC 2314. Further: in the internal sense, by the "inhabitants of Sodom" is described the state of those within the same church who are against the good of charity, and how in course of time evil and falsity increase with them until they have nothing but evil and falsity.

AC 2315. Their First State: that they are against the good of charity and against the Lord (verses 4, 5). Their Second State: that although informed concerning the good of charity and concerning the delights of its affections which they should enjoy, they are obstinate and reject good (verses 6 to 8). That they also endeavor to destroy the very good of charity itself, but that the Lord protects it (verses 9, 10). The Third State: that at last they become such that they cannot even see truth and good, still less that truth leads to good (verse 11). That they are possessed by evil and falsity, so that they cannot but perish (verse 13). The Fourth State: their destruction (verse 24); and that all goods and truths are separated from them (verse 25).

AC 2316. That the good are separated from the evil, and that the good are saved through the Lord‘s Human made Divine (verses 27-29).

2312. Genesis 19

1. And the two angels came to Sodom in the evening; and Lot was sitting in the gateway of Sodom. And Lot saw and rose up to meet them, and bowed down with his face towards the ground.

2. And he said, Behold now, my Lords, turn aside now to your servant's house and spend the night, and wash your feet. And in the morning you may rise up and go your way. And they said, No, for we will spend the night in the street.

3. And he urged them strongly; and they turned aside to him and came to his house. And he made a feast for them and baked unleavened bread; and they ate.

4. Scarcely had they lain down when the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, from boy even to old man, all the people from furthest away.

5. And they cried out to Lot, and said to him, Where are the men who came to you in the night? Bring them out to us and let us know them.

6. And Lot went out to them to the door (janua) and shut the door (ostium) behind him.

7. And he said, No, my brothers, do not act wickedly.

8. Behold now, I have two daughters, who have not known a man; let me now bring them out to you and you may do to them as is good in your eyes; only do nothing to those men, for they have come under the shadow of my roof.

9. And they said, Stand back. And they said, Did not this one come to sojourn, and will he surely judge? Now we will do more harm to you than to them. And they pressed on the man, on Lot forcefully, and came near to break down the door (ostium).

10. And the men reached out their hand and brought Lot into the house to them and shut the door.

11. And the men who were at the door of the house they struck with blindness, both small and great; and these strove to find the door (janua).

12. And the men said to Lot, Whom have you here still? Son-in-law, and your sons, and your daughters, and everyone you have in the city - bring [them] out of the place.

13. For we are destroying this place, for their cry has become great before Jehovah; and Jehovah has sent us to destroy it.

14. And Lot went out, and spoke to his sons-in-law who were marrying his daughters, and said, Rise up, go out of this place, for Jehovah is destroying the city. But he was in the eyes of his sons-in-law like one who was jesting.

15. As dawn ascended the angels pressed Lot to hurry, saying, Rise up, take your wife and your two daughters found [here], lest you are consumed in the iniquity of the city.

16. And he lingered; and the men grasped his hand, and his wife's hand, and his daughters' hands, because of Jehovah's compassion for him, and they led him away, and placed him outside the city.

17. And so it was, when they were leading them away outside, that [one of the two] said, Escape for your life ¹ ; do not look back behind you, and do not halt in all the plain; escape into the mountain, lest you are consumed.

18. And Lot said to them, Not so, my Lords.

19. Behold now, your ² servant has found grace in your eyes, and you have magnified your mercy which you have shown to me in causing my soul to live. But I shall not be able to escape into the mountain in case the evil clings to me and I die.

20. Behold now, this city is near to flee to it, and it is small. Let me, I beg you, escape to it (is it not small?) and let my soul live.

21. And he said to him, Behold, I have accepted you ³ as regards this matter also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken.

22. Make haste, escape to it, for I cannot do anything until you come to it. Therefore he called the name of the city Zoar.

23. The sun had gone forth over the earth, and Lot came to Zoar.

24. And Jehovah rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah brimstone and fire from Jehovah out of heaven.

25. And He overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew in the ground.

26. And his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

27. And Abraham rose up in the early morning, [and went] to the place where he had stood before Jehovah.

28. And he looked out towards the face of Sodom and Gomorrah, and towards the whole face of the land of the plain; and he saw, and behold the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.

29. And so it was, when God was destroying the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot away out of the midst of the overthrowing when He was overthrowing the cities in which Lot dwelt.

30. And Lot went up out of Zoar and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him, for he was afraid to dwell in Zoar. And he dwelt in a cave - he, and his two daughters.

31. And the firstborn said to the younger, Our father is old, and there is no man in the land to come to us, according to the way of all the earth.

32. Come, let us make our father drink wine, and let us lie with him, and let us keep seed alive by our father.

33. And they made their father drink wine that night, and the firstborn came and lay with her father; and he did not know when she lay down and when she rose up.

34. And so it was on the next day, that the firstborn said to the younger, Behold, I lay last night with my father; let us make him drink wine again tonight, and come, lie with him, and let us keep seed alive by our father.

35. And they made their father drink wine that night also; and the younger rose up and lay with him; and he did not know when she lay down and when she rose up.

36. And the two daughters of Lot conceived by their father.

37. And the firstborn gave birth to a son and called his name Moab; he is the father of Moab even to this day.

38. And the younger also gave birth to a son and called his name Benammi; he is the father of the children of Ammon even to this day.

CONTENTS

In this chapter 'Lot' describes, in the internal sense, the state of the spiritual Church in which good flowing from charity exists but the worship of which is external - how in course of time that Church falls away.

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