2959. Land of four hundred shekels of silver. That this signifies the price of redemption by means of truth, is evident from the signification of “four hundred shekels” (concerning which presently); and from the signification of “silver” as being truth (see n. 1551, 2048, 2937). That “four hundred shekels” signifies the price of redemption, is because “four hundred” signifies vastation; and “shekel” signifies the price. What vastation is may be seen above (n. 2455, 2682, 2694, 2699, 2701, 2704), namely, that it is twofold; of one kind when a church altogether perishes, that is, when there is no longer any charity or faith, and when it is said to be “devastated” or laid waste;” and of the other kind when they who are of the church are reduced to a state of ignorance, and also of temptation, in order that the evils and falsities with them may be separated and as it were dispersed. They who emerge from this kind of vastation are they who are specifically called the redeemed, for they are then instructed in the goods and truths of faith, and are reformed and regenerated by the Lord (concerning whom see the passages cited). Now whereas “four hundred” when predicated of time, as “four hundred years,” signifies the duration and state of vastation, so when predicated of shekels it signifies the price of redemption; and when mention is made of silver at the same time, there is signified the price of redemption by means of truth.

[2] That “four hundred years” signifies the duration and state of vastation, may also be seen from what was said to Abram:

Jehovah said unto Abram, Knowing thou shalt know that thy seed shall be a sojourner in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years (Genesis 15:13); where it seems that by “four hundred years” is meant the stay of the sons of Israel in Egypt. But that their stay in Egypt is not what is signified, but something else which is not manifest to anyone except from the internal sense, is evident from the fact that the stay of the sons of Israel in Egypt was but half of that time; as is clearly evident from the generations from Jacob to Moses; for from Jacob came Levi; from Levi, Kohath; from Kohath, Amram; and from Amram, Aaron and Moses (Exodus 6:16-20). Leviticus and his son Kohath came with Jacob into Egypt (Genesis 46:11); Moses was of the second generation after this, and he was eighty years old when he spoke to Pharaoh (Exodus 7:7); from all which it is evident that from the coming of Jacob into Egypt to the going forth of his sons was about two hundred and fifteen years.

[3] It is still further evident that by “four hundred” in the Word something else is signified than what is meant by the number itself in the historic sense, from its being said:

The dwelling of the sons of Israel which they dwelt in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years; and it came to pass at the end of four hundred and thirty years, in the selfsame day it came to pass that all the armies of Jehovah went out from the land of Egypt (Exodus 12:40-41);

when nevertheless the stay of the sons of Israel there was but half that number of years; but it was four hundred and thirty years counting from Abraham’s entrance into Egypt; and therefore it was so said for the sake of the internal sense that lies concealed in the words. In the internal sense, by the sojourning of the sons of Jacob in Egypt is represented and signified the vastation of the church; the state and duration of which is described by the number “four hundred and thirty years”; by “thirty” the state of vastation of Jacob’s sons, that it was none at all, because they were such that they could not be reformed by any state of vastation (concerning the signification of the number thirty, see n. 2276); and by “four hundred years,” the general state of vastation of those who were of the church.

[4] Therefore they who go forth from this vastation are they who are called the “redeemed” as is also plain from the words spoken to Moses:

Wherefore say unto the sons of Israel, I am Jehovah, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of Egypt, and I will deliver you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments (Exodus 6:6).

Jehovah brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of servants, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt (Deuteronomy 7:8; 13:5).

Thou shalt remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, but Jehovah thy God redeemed thee (Deuteronomy 15:15; 24:18).

In Samuel:

Thy people whom thou hast redeemed to thee out of Egypt (2 Samuel 7:23).

Because those who emerge from the state of vastation are called the “redeemed,” therefore by “four hundred shekels” is signified the price of redemption.

[5] That a “shekel” signifies the price or estimation is evident from the following passages in the Word; in Moses:

And all thy estimation shall be in the shekel of the holiness (Leviticus 27:25).

And in another place:

When a soul hath committed a trespass, and sinned in error from the holy things of Jehovah, he shall bring his guilt offering to Jehovah, a ram without blemish out of the flock, according to thy estimation, in silver of shekels, after the shekel of holiness (Leviticus 5:15).

From these passages it is plain that by a “shekel” is signified the price or estimation. It is said the “shekel of holiness,” because the price or estimation has regard to truth and good from the Lord; and truth and good from the Lord are the holy itself in the church. For this reason it is called the “shekel of holiness” in other places also (as in Exodus 30:24; Leviticus 27:3; Numbers 3:47, 50; 7:13, 19, 25, 31, 37, 43, 49, 55, 61, 67, 73; 18:16).

[6] That the “shekel” denotes the price of what is holy, is clearly evident in Ezekiel, where the Holy Land and the Holy City are treated of. It is there said of the shekel:

The shekel shall there be twenty gerahs; twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels, shall be your maneh [pound] (Ezekiel 45:12).

That here by “shekel,” and by “pound,” and by the numbers, are signified holy things, that is, good and truth, anyone can see; for the Holy Land, and the Holy City in it (or the New Jerusalem there treated of) is no other than the kingdom of the Lord, where neither shekel nor gerah nor pound, nor the counting by them, but the number itself, from its signification in the internal sense, determines the estimation or the price of what is good and what is true.

[7] In Moses:

They shall give every man an expiation for his soul lest there should be a plague, half a shekel, after the shekel of holiness: the shekel is twenty gerahs and the half shekel for a therumah [an oblation] to Jehovah (Exodus 30:12-13); where ten gerahs, which are the “half shekel,” denote the remains which are from the Lord. (Remains are goods and truths stored up with man, and these are signified by “ten,” as may be seen above, n. 576, 1738, 1906, 2284; and also that remains are goods and truths from the Lord stored up with man, n. 1906, 2284). These therefore are called an “oblation to Jehovah,” and it is said that by them there shall be an expiation for the soul. The reason why it is so often said that the shekel was twenty gerahs (as in the passages quoted, and also in Leviticus 27:25; Numbers 3:47; 18:16, and elsewhere) is that the “shekel which is twenty gerahs” signifies the estimation of the good of remains (that “twenty” signifies the good of remains may be seen above, n. 2280). On this account the shekel was likewise a weight, according to which the value both of gold and of silver was estimated (see Genesis 24:22; Exodus 38:24; Ezekiel 4:10; 45:12); the value of gold, because “gold” signifies good (n. 113, 1551, 1552); and of silver, because “silver” signifies truth (n. 1551, 2048). From all this it is now plain that by “land of four hundred shekels of silver” is signified the price of redemption by means of truth. It is called “land” because the subject is the spiritual church, which is reformed and regenerated by means of truth from the the Lord, (n. 2954). (That by “land” is signified the church, may be seen above, n. 662, 1066, 1067, 1262, 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118 at the end.)

2701. God opened her eyes. That this signifies intelligence, is evident from the signification of “opening” and of “God opening,” and also of “eyes” as being to give intelligence (that “eyes” signify the understanding may be seen above, n. 212, in like manner as “sight” or “seeing,” n. 2150, 2325). It is said that “God opens the eyes” when He opens the interior sight or understanding; which is effected by an influx into man’s rational, or rather into the spiritual of his rational. This is done by the way of the soul, or the internal way, unknown to the man. This influx is his state of enlightenment, in which the truths which he hears or reads are confirmed to him by a kind of perception interiorly within his intellectual. This the man believes to be innate in him, and to proceed from his own intellectual faculty; but in this he is very much mistaken; for it is an influx through heaven from the Lord into what is obscure, fallacious, and seeming with the man, which by means of the good therein causes the things which he believes to be similar to truth. But they only who are spiritual are blessed with enlightenment in the spiritual things of faith. It is this which is signified by “God opening the eyes.”

[2] That the “eye” signifies the understanding is because the sight of the body corresponds to the sight of its spirit, which is the understanding; and because it corresponds, in the Word the understanding is signified by the “eye” in almost every place where it is mentioned, even where it is believed to be otherwise; as where the Lord says in Matthew:

The light of the body is the eye; if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light; but if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness; if therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness (Matthew 6:22-23; Luke 11:34).

Here the “eye” is the understanding, the spiritual of which is faith, as also is evident from the explication: “if therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness.”

So too in the same:

If thy right eye causeth thee to stumble, pluck it out, and cast it from thee (Matthew 5:29; 18:9).

The “left eye” is the intellectual, but the “right eye” is its affection: that the right eye is to be plucked out means that the affection is to be subdued if it causes stumbling.

[3] In the same:

Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear (Matthew 13:16);

and in Luke:

Jesus said to the disciples, Blessed are the eyes which see the thing which ye see (Luke 10:23).

Here by the “eyes which see,” intelligence and faith are signified; for their seeing the Lord, and also His miracles and works, did not make them blessed; but comprehending them with the understanding and having faith, which is “seeing with the eyes;” and obeying, which is “hearing with the ears.” That to “see with the eyes” is to understand, and also to have faith, may be seen above (n. 897, 2325) for the understanding is the spiritual of the sight, and faith is the spiritual of the understanding. The sight of the eye is from the light of the world, but the sight of faith is from the light of heaven. Hence it is common to speak of seeing with the understanding, and of seeing by faith. (That to “hear with the ear” is to obey, may be seen above, n. 2542)

[4] Also in Mark:

Jesus said to the disciples, Do ye not yet perceive, neither understand? Have ye your heart yet hardened? Having eyes see ye not? And having ears hear ye not? (Mark 8:17-18); where it is manifest that not to be willing to understand and not to believe, is to “have eyes and not see.”

In Luke:

Jesus said of the city, If thou hadst known the things that belong unto thy peace; but now it is hid from thine eyes (Luke 19:41-42).

And in Mark:

This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes (Mark 12:11); where to be “hid from the eyes,” and to be “marvelous in the eyes,” means to be so to the understanding, as is known to everyone from the signification of the eye even in the common use of language.