422. And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. (9:2) This symbolizes falsities accompanying the lusts of the natural self springing from those people's evil loves.

The bottomless pit symbolizes the hell described just above in no. 421. The smoke from it symbolizes falsities arising from lusts, and because the smoke is said to be like that of a great furnace, it means falsities accompanying lusts springing from evil loves, inasmuch as fire symbolizes love (no. 468), and the fire of hell, evil love (no. 494). A great furnace has the same symbolism, since it smokes owing to fire.

Spirits of hell are not caught up in any material fire, but in a spiritual fire, which is the fire of their love. Consequently they do not feel any other fire. On this subject, see the book Heaven and Hell, nos. 134 566-575.

When any love is aroused in the spiritual world, it appears at a distance like fire - in the hells like a brightly burning fire, and outside the hells like the smoke of a conflagration or the smoke of a furnace.

Falsities accompanying lusts springing from evil loves are described also elsewhere in the Word by smoke from a fire or from a furnace or oven, as in the following places:

(Abraham) looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah..., and behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace. (Genesis 19:28)

...the sun went down and it was dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between the pieces. (Genesis 15:17)

...they sin more and more... Therefore they shall be... like smoke from a flue. (Hosea 13:2-3)

...the wicked shall perish... In smoke they shall be consumed. (Psalms 37:20)

I will show wonders in heaven and on the earth: ...fire and pillars of smoke. (Joel 2:30)

(They) will cast (the evil) into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 13:41-42, 49-50)

And elsewhere.

174. "'Who has the key of David, who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens.'" This symbolically means, who alone has the omnipotence to save.

David means the Lord in respect to Divine truth. The key symbolizes the Lord's omnipotence over heaven and hell. And to open so that no one shuts, and to shut so that no one opens, means, symbolically, to lead out of hell and introduce into heaven, thus to save, the same as in no. 62 above, where this was explained.

To be shown that David means the Lord in respect to Divine truth, see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord, nos. 43, 44.

The symbolic meaning of the key here is the same as that of the keys of Peter (Matthew 16:15-19), ¹ as may be seen explained in no. 798 below. The same is also meant by this declaration to all the disciples,

Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. (Matthew 18:18)

For the twelve disciples represented all elements of the church as regards its goods and truths, while Peter represented the church in respect to its truth; and it is truths and goods, thus the Lord from whom they come, that save a person.

The key of David given to Eliakim has also the same meaning, concerning which we read,

I will give your government into his hands, that he may be as a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah, and I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David, so that he may open and no one shut, and close and no one open. (Isaiah 22:21-22)

The person referred to as he here was the person over the house of the king, and the house of the king symbolizes the church in respect to Divine truth.

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