9052. 'Tooth for tooth' means if anything [is injured] in the outer part of the understanding. This is clear from the meaning of 'tooth' as the outer part of the understanding, and therefore as natural truth since this composes the life of that part of the understanding. The reason why 'the teeth' have this meaning is that like a mill they grind and so prepare the food which will serve as nourishment for the body, at this point the food which will serve as nourishment for the soul. The food that nourishes the soul is intelligence and wisdom; this food is first received, ground, and prepared by cognitions or knowledge of truth and good in the natural - intelligence and wisdom being what spiritual and celestial food is called, see 56-58, 680, 1480, 4792, 5147, 5293, 5340, 5342, 5576, 5579, 5915, 8562, 9003. From this one may see why it is that 'the teeth' means the outer part of the understanding. What this outer area is becomes clear from what has been shown immediately above in 9051 regarding the inner area of the understanding.

[2] 'The teeth' means natural truth, which belongs to the outer part of the understanding, and in the contrary sense falsity destroying that truth, as is clear from the following places in the Word Natural truth is meant in Moses,

His eyes will be redder than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk. Genesis 49:12.

These words too mention both eyes and teeth together. They refer to Judah, by whom the Lord's Divine Celestial is meant, 6363. 'His eyes' means the Lord's Divine Intellect, 6379, and 'his teeth' the Lord's Divine Natural, 6380, thus also Divine Truth in His Natural.

[3] In Amos,

I gave you emptiness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places. Amos 4:6

'Emptiness of teeth' stands for scarcity of truth, and 'lack of bread' for scarcity of good.

All this makes plain what the gnashing of teeth is among those in hell, Matthew 8:12; 13:42, 50; 22:13; 25:30; Luke 13:28. It is the clash of falsities with the truths of faith, 4424 (end); for as has been stated, 'the teeth' in the contrary sense means falsity destroying truth, as in David,

Rise up, O Jehovah; save me, O my God! For You will strike all my enemies on the jaw, You will break the teeth of the wicked. Psalms 3:7.

'Breaking the teeth of the wicked' stands for breaking the falsities that the wicked use to destroy truths. In the same author,

As to my soul, I lie in the midst of lions; their teeth are a spear and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword. Psalms 57:4.

'The teeth of lions' stands for falsities destructive of truths, 'lions' being falsities arising from evil in their power, 6367, 6369.

[4] In the same author,

O God, destroy their teeth in their mouth; tear out ¹ the molars of the young lions. Psalms 58:6.

A nation has come up over My land, strong and innumerable; its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and it has the molars of a fierce lion. It has turned My vine into a waste, and My fig tree into froth. Joel 1:6-7.

'Teeth' and 'molars' stand for falsities destructive of the Church's truths. 'Vine' is the spiritual Church, 1069, 5113, 6376, and 'fig tree' is its natural good, 217, 4231, 5113. The fact that 'teeth' has that meaning is also evident from their being attributed to a nation which will lay waste. In John,

The shapes of the locusts were like horses prepared for war. They had hair like women's hair, and their teeth were like lions'. Revelation 9:7-8.

'The locusts' are those who are steeped in external falsities, 7643, from which it is evident that again 'teeth' are falsities destructive of truths.

Poznámky pod čarou:

217. That in the Word 'vine' means spiritual good and 'fig' natural good is totally unknown nowadays because the internal sense of the Word has been lost. Nevertheless this is what vine and fig mean or embody whenever they occur, as with the Lord's statements in His parables involving a vineyard and also a fig tree, and in the incident recorded in Matthew,

Jesus seeing a fig tree by the wayside went to it but found nothing on it but leaves only; therefore He said to it, Let no fruit from now on ever be born from you! Therefore the fig tree withered at once. Matthew 21:19.

This meant that no good, not even natural good, was found on earth. 'Vine' and 'fig' have the same meaning in Jeremiah,

Were they ashamed that they committed abomination? No indeed, they were not at all filled with shame and they did not know how to blush. Therefore I will surely gather them, says Jehovah; there will be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree; and its leaf has fallen. Jeremiah 8:12-13.

This means that all good, both spiritual and natural, had perished, for people were such that they were not even capable of being filled with shame, just as nowadays people governed by evil are so brazen that they even boast about that evil. In Hosea,

Like grapes in the wilderness I found Israel; like the first fruit on the fig tree, in the beginning, I saw your fathers. Hosea 9:10.

And in Joel,

Fear not, you beasts of my fields, for the tree will bear its fruit, the fig tree and the vine will give their full yield. Joel 2:22.

'Vine' stands for spiritual good, 'fig' for natural good.