3023. I will make thee swear by Jehovah the God of heaven and the God of the earth. That this signifies a most holy pledging to the Divine which is in the highest and in that which is therefrom, is evident from the signification of “causing to swear,” as being to pledge by oath; for to cause to swear is nothing else than to pledge; and this is most holy when it is by Jehovah the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that is, to the Divine which is above and which is beneath, or what is the same, to the Divine which is in the highest and in that which is therefrom. “Jehovah the God of heaven,” being said of the Lord, denotes Jehovah Himself who is called the Father, from whom He was conceived, thus who was His Divine Essence; for the conception itself gave the veriest essence from which He was. “Jehovah the God of the earth” in this case means Jehovah who is called the Son, thus His Human essence; this came forth from the Divine essence when the Lord made it also Divine. Thus by “Jehovah the God of heaven” is signified the Divine that is in the highest; and by “Jehovah the God of the earth” is signified the Divine that is in that which is therefrom. But the Lord is called “Jehovah the God of heaven” from His Divine that is in the heavens; and He is called the “God of the earth” from His Divine that is on earth. The Divine in the heavens is also that which is with man in his internals; but the Divine on earth is that which is in his externals; for the internals of man are his heaven, because by them he is conjoined with the angels; but his externals are his earth, for by them he is conjoined with men (n. 82, 913, 1411, 1733). When a man is regenerate, the internals flow into the externals, and the externals are from the internals. Hence also it may be known what the internals of the church are, and what its externals.

82. Verse 1. And the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the army of them. By these words is meant that man is now rendered so far spiritual as to have become the “sixth day;” “heaven” is his internal man, and “earth” his external; “the army of them” are love, faith, and the knowledges thereof, which were previously signified by the great luminaries and the stars. That the internal man is called “heaven” and the external “earth” is evident from the passages of the Word already cited in the preceding chapter, to which may be added the following from Isaiah:

I will make a man more rare than solid gold, even a man than the precious gold of Ophir; therefore I will smite the heavens with terror, and the earth shall be shaken out of its place (Isaiah 13:12-13).

Thou forgettest Jehovah thy Maker, that stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundations of the earth; but I will put My words in thy mouth, and I will hide thee in the shadow of My hand, that I may stretch out the heaven, and lay the foundation of the earth (Isaiah 51:13, 16).

From these words it is evident that both “heaven” and “earth” are predicated of man; for although they refer primarily to the Most Ancient Church, yet the interiors of the Word are of such a nature that whatever is said of the church may also be said of every individual member of it, who, unless he were a church, could not possibly be a part of the church, just as he who is not a temple of the Lord cannot be what is signified by the temple, namely, the church and heaven. It is for this reason that the Most Ancient Church is called “man” in the singular number.