Apocalypse Explained # 812
812. If anyone shall kill with the sword he must be killed with the sword, signifies that those who imbue others with falsities are imbued with falsities from hell. This is evident from the signification of a "sword" [gladius et machaera] as being truth fighting against falsity, and in the contrary sense falsity fighting against truth, here falsity fighting against truth; therefore "to kill with the sword" means to destroy truths by falsities, and also to imbue with falsities. Also from the signification of "he must be killed with the sword," as being to be imbued with falsities from hell. Such are imbued with falsities from hell because they have shut heaven against themselves by falsities; and when heaven is shut against anyone then hell is open to him. For man must be either in heaven or in hell; he cannot be between the two; consequently when anyone closes heaven to himself he opens hell to himself and from hell nothing but falsities of evil spring forth, and with these he becomes imbued. But no other falsities but the falsities of evil close heaven. For there are various kinds of falsities, for instance, falsities of ignorance, falsities of religion, and falsities from misunderstanding the Word; in a word, the falsities that lead to a life of evil, or that proceed from a life of evil, because they are from hell close heaven. From this it is clear that "if anyone shall kill with the sword he must be killed with the sword" signifies that those who imbue others with falsities will be imbued with falsities from hell.
[2] There is a like signification in what the Lord said to Peter:
All they that take the sword must perish by the sword (Matthew 26:52).
This was said to Peter because he represented the truth of faith, and also the falsity of faith; therefore "to take the sword and to perish by it" signified to receive the falsity of faith, and to perish by it. Those who are signified by this "beast," who are such as by reasonings confirm the separation of faith from life, "kill with the sword, and are killed with the sword," that is, imbue others with falsities, and are themselves imbued with falsities from hell, because the dogma of faith alone shuts out all truths and rejects all goods. Faith alone shuts out all truths because such insist that we are saved solely by this, "That the Lord endured the cross for our sins, and thereby took away the condemnation of the law, and that He thus redeemed us." And as they hold that this alone, which they call faith itself, saves, they make no effort to learn truths, although truths are what teach man how he must live, and these truths are manifold. That faith alone rejects goods follows from the dogma itself, which is that faith justifies without good works; thus the essential goods of love to God and the goods of charity towards the neighbor are made of no account.
Judges 4
1
The children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, when Ehud was dead.
2
Yahweh sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor; the captain of whose army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth of the Gentiles.
3
The children of Israel cried to Yahweh: for he had nine hundred chariots of iron; and twenty years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel.
4
Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, she judged Israel at that time.
5
She lived under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim: and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment.
6
She sent and called Barak the son of Abinoam out of Kedesh Naphtali, and said to him, "Hasn't Yahweh, the God of Israel, commanded, 'Go and draw to Mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun?
7
I will draw to you, to the river Kishon, Sisera, the captain of Jabin's army, with his chariots and his multitude; and I will deliver him into your hand.'"
8
Barak said to her, "If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go."
9
She said, "I will surely go with you: nevertheless, the journey that you take shall not be for your honor; for Yahweh will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman." Deborah arose, and went with Barak to Kedesh.
10
Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali together to Kedesh; and there went up ten thousand men at his feet: and Deborah went up with him.
11
Now Heber the Kenite had separated himself from the Kenites, even from the children of Hobab the brother-in-law of Moses, and had pitched his tent as far as the oak in Zaanannim, which is by Kedesh.
12
They told Sisera that Barak the son of Abinoam was gone up to Mount Tabor.
13
Sisera gathered together all his chariots, even nine hundred chariots of iron, and all the people who were with him, from Harosheth of the Gentiles, to the river Kishon.
14
Deborah said to Barak, "Go; for this is the day in which Yahweh has delivered Sisera into your hand. Hasn't Yahweh gone out before you?" So Barak went down from Mount Tabor, and ten thousand men after him.
15
Yahweh confused Sisera, and all his chariots, and all his army, with the edge of the sword before Barak; and Sisera alighted from his chariot, and fled away on his feet.
16
But Barak pursued after the chariots, and after the army, to Harosheth of the Gentiles: and all the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword; there was not a man left.
17
However Sisera fled away on his feet to the tent of Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite; for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite.
18
Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said to him, "Turn in, my lord, Turn in to me; don't be afraid." He came in to her into the tent, and she covered him with a rug.
19
He said to her, "Please give me a little water to drink; for I am thirsty." She opened a bottle of milk, and gave him drink, and covered him.
20
He said to her, "Stand in the door of the tent, and it shall be, when any man comes and inquires of you, and says, 'Is there any man here?' that you shall say, 'No.'"
21
Then Jael Heber's wife took a tent peg, and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly to him, and struck the pin into his temples, and it pierced through into the ground; for he was in a deep sleep; so he swooned and died.
22
Behold, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him, and said to him, "Come, and I will show you the man whom you seek." He came to her; and behold, Sisera lay dead, and the tent peg was in his temples.
23
So God subdued on that day Jabin the king of Canaan before the children of Israel.
24
The hand of the children of Israel prevailed more and more against Jabin the king of Canaan, until they had destroyed Jabin king of Canaan.
