403. From these quotations it is clear what 'a city' means. But because everything is put together as history, what else can people who are confined to the sense of the letter see than the idea that Cain built a city and called it Enoch? Yet even they from the sense of the letter must suppose that the earth was already populated, notwithstanding what is said about Cain being Adam' s firstborn. The historical sequence of events implies this. But as stated already, it was the custom among the most ancient people to convert all things into representative types and then arrange them as history. And to them this was something supremely delightful. When they did this everything they saw was seemingly alive.

2253. 'Will You also destroy and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous persons who are in the midst of it?' means intercession made from love that they should not perish. This is clear from the meaning of 'fifty', also of 'righteous', as well as of 'the midst of it', that is, of the city, dealt with above in 2252. All these expressions together imply intercession made from love, and that those persons should not perish. Regarding this intercession, see above in 2250. That it is made from love is also evident. With the Lord, when He was in the world, no other life was present than the life of love towards the whole human race, which He passionately desired to save eternally. That life is wholly celestial life, by which He united Himself to the Divine, and the Divine to Himself - for Being (Esse) itself, or Jehovah, is nothing else than mercy, which is the manifestation of love towards the whole human race - and that life was the life of pure love, which life cannot possibly exist with any human being. People who do not know what life is, and that the nature of the life is determined by that of the love, do not comprehend this. From this it is evident that in the measure anyone loves the neighbour he draws on the life that is the Lord's.