905. 21:16 The city is laid out as a square. This symbolizes justice in the New Church.

The city was seen as square because a square or quadrilateral form symbolizes justice, inasmuch as a triangle symbolizes rectitude, all of these being symbols on the lowest level, which is the natural one.

A square or quadrilateral layout symbolizes justice because it has four sides, and the four sides face the four cardinal points of the compass; and to face the four cardinal points equally is to regard everything equitably. That is why there were three gates on each side giving entrance into the city, and why it is said in Isaiah,

Open the gates, that a righteous nation which keeps its fealties may enter in. (Isaiah 26:2)

The city was laid out as a square in order that its length and breadth might be equal, the length symbolizing the goodness of the New Church, and the breadth its truth, and when goodness and truth are in balance, then there is justice.

It is because a square has this symbolic meaning that we say in everyday speech that this or that man deals squarely, meaning a man who does not incline unjustly to either one party or the other.

Because a square symbolizes justice, therefore the altar of burnt offering was square (Exodus 27:1), which symbolized a worship springing from a celestial goodness and consequent truth. The altar of incense, too, was square as well (Exodus 30:1-2). And other objects also were square.

898. 21:12 It had a great and high wall. This symbolizes the Word in its literal sense from which the doctrine of the New Church comes.

Since the holy city Jerusalem means the Lord's New Church in respect to its doctrine, its wall can only mean the Word in its literal sense, from which its doctrine comes; for the literal sense protects the spiritual meaning that lies within, as a wall protects a city and its inhabitants.

That the literal sense is the foundation, containing vessel, and buttress of the Word's spiritual meaning may be seen in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture, nos. 27-36; and that the literal sense serves as a safeguard to keep the Divine truths within from being injured - truths which constitute the Word's spiritual meaning - may be seen in no. 97 of the same work. Also, that the church's doctrine is to be drawn from the Word's literal sense and verified by it, in nos. 50-61 there.

The wall is said to be great and high because it means the Word in respect to its Divine goodness and Divine truth, for greatness is predicated of goodness, and height of truth, as in no. 896 above.

[2] A wall symbolizes something that protects, and when mentioned in reference to the church, it symbolizes the Word in its literal sense, as it does also in the following places:

I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they shall not keep silent day or night, who make mention of Jehovah... (Isaiah 62:6)

They shall call you the City of Jehovah, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel... And you shall call your walls salvation, and your gates praise. (Isaiah 60:14, 18)

(Jehovah) will be a wall of fire all around her, and... the glory in her midst. (Zechariah 2:5)

Men of Arvad... were on your walls..., and the men of Gammad... hung their shields on your walls all around, and made your beauty perfect. (Ezekiel 27:11)

The last is said of Tyre, which symbolizes the church in respect to its concepts of truth from the Word.

Run about through the streets of Jerusalem, and see... if there is anyone who... seeks the truth... Go up on her walls and cast them down. (Jeremiah 5:1, 10)

Jehovah has purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion... ...He has caused the rampart and wall... to lament, to languish together... The Law and her prophets are no more... (Lamentations 2:8-9)

They will run about in the city, they will run on the wall; they will climb up into the houses, they will enter through the windows... (Joel 2:9)

These passages refer to falsifications of truth.

Day and night (the impious) go around (in the city) on its walls... Destructions are in their midst. (Psalms 55:10-11)

And so on elsewhere, as in Isaiah 22:5; 56:5; Jeremiah 1:15; Ezekiel 27:11; Lamentations 2:7.

That a wall symbolizes the Word in its literal sense is clearly apparent from the following verses in the present chapter, which describe at some length the wall of the city and its gates, foundations and dimensions. That is because the doctrine of the New Church, which the city symbolizes, comes only from the Word's literal sense.