162. Verse 21. And I gave her time that she might repent of her whoredom, and she repented not, signifies that those who are in falsities therefrom do not turn themselves to truths nor by means of truths. This is evident from the signification of "repenting of whoredom," as being to turn oneself from falsities to truths; for "whoredom" is the falsification of truth, and "to repent" is to turn oneself away from falsities; for repentance is an actual turning from falsities to truths, and dissociation and separation from falsities (See above, n. 143); also from the signification of "she repented not," as being that they do not turn themselves from falsities to truths. These things are said of Jezebel, but those are meant who from the delight of the loves of self and the world have falsified truths and adulterated goods; for in the prophecies of the Word one person is named, and by that person are meant all of that character.

[2] Something shall be here said briefly about this statement that those who have falsified truths with themselves by applying them to the delights of self-love do not afterwards turn themselves to truths. Man sees from the Word the truths of the church from the spiritual or internal man and from its intellectual, but he does not receive them therein except to the extent that he loves them so as to wish to do them. When man so wills, his internal or spiritual man calls forth and elevates to itself, out of the natural man and its memory, the truths that are there, and conjoins them to the love that is of his will; thus the internal spiritual man, where man's interior and higher mind resides, is opened and is successively filled and perfected. But if man permits the natural delight, which is the delight of the love of self and the world, to have dominion, then he views all things from that delight; and if he then sees truths he applies them to his own love and falsifies them. When this is done the internal spiritual man is closed; for as this is suited only to the reception of such things as are in heaven, it cannot bear that truths should be falsified; consequently when truths are falsified it contracts itself and closes almost, as a fibril does when touched by a prickle. When the internal is once closed, the love of self reigns, or the love of the world, or both together; and they form the external or natural man altogether in opposition to the internal or spiritual man. For this reason those who have falsified truths by applying them to the delights of the love of self and the world are unable afterwards to turn themselves to truths. This is what is here meant by these words, "I gave to the woman Jezebel time that she might repent of her whoredom, and she repented not."

4807. CHAPTER 38

In the preliminary section of the previous chapter, in 4661-4664, an explanation was begun of what, in Matthew 25:31-end, the Lord said about judgement on the good and the evil, who are there called the sheep and the goats. What the internal sense of those words is has not yet been explained, but comes up for explanation now in the preliminary sections of this and a couple of chapters ¹ following it. From these explanations it will be clear that by a last judgement in this parable He did not mean a last phase of the world, when - for the first time - the dead will rise again and will be gathered before the Lord and will be judged, but that He meant the last phase of a person passing over from the world to the next life, this point being his time of judgement. This is the judgement He meant. But none of this is seen from the sense of the letter, only from the internal sense. The reason the Lord spoke in the way He did is that He spoke using representatives and meaningful signs, as He has done everywhere else in the Old Testament Word and in the New. For to speak using representatives and meaningful signs is to speak simultaneously to the world and to heaven, that is, both to men and to angels. This kind of speech, being universal, is Divine and therefore proper to the Word. Consequently, those who are in the world and are interested only in worldly matters grasp nothing else from the words spoken by the Lord regarding a last judgement than the idea that everyone's resurrection will take place at one and the same point in time, when the Lord will sit on a throne of glory and address those gathered together there in the words used in the parable. But those who are interested in heavenly matters know that each person rises again at the point in time when he dies, and that the Lord's words in the parable carry the teaching that everyone will be judged according to what his life is, thus that everyone brings his judgement with him because he brings his life with him.

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