6119. 'And why should we die near by you because the silver is lacking?' means that otherwise spiritual death takes place because of the lack of truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'dying' as spiritual death, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'the silver lacking' as a lack of truth - 'silver' being factual knowledge that holds truth in it and is appropriate, see 6112. What is implied by the notion that spiritual death takes place when there is a lack of truth is that spiritual life consists in deeds carried out in accordance with truths, consequently in useful services. For people endowed with spiritual life possess a yearning and desire for truths with life in view - that is, their end in view is to lead a life according to those truths - thus with useful services in view. Therefore the extent to which they can absorb truths, in accordance with which useful services are to be rendered, determines how much spiritual life they possess, because it determines how much of the light of intelligence and wisdom they possess. When truths are lacking therefore, as happens when a state of shade arrives - a state meant in the Word by 'evening', 6110 - spiritual life languishes. It languishes because things such as belong to the state of shade, that is, to spiritual death, enter in. When this happens people cannot be kept in the light in which they were before but are returned in part to a state of selfhood. As a consequence there emerges from the shade an image of spiritual death, that is, of damnation.

[2] It is clear from very many places in the Word that 'death' means spiritual death, or damnation; but let simply the following be quoted here: In Isaiah,

With righteousness He will judge the poor, and will reprove with uprightness the wretched of the earth. On the other hand He will smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath ¹ of His lips He will make the wicked die. Isaiah 11:4.

This refers to the Lord. 'The rod of His mouth' and 'the breath of His lips stand for Divine Truth, the source of judgement. 'Dying' stands for suffering damnation. In the same prophet, He Will swallow up death for ever, and the Lord Jehovih will wipe away tears from upon all faces. Isaiah 15:8.

In the same prophet,

The dead will not live, the Rephaim will not rise. To that end You have visited them, You have wiped them out. Isaiah 16:14.

In the same prophet,

Your dead will live, my corpse will rise again. Isaiah 26:19.

In the same prophet,

You have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell we have shaped a vision. Your covenant with death will be annulled, and your vision with hell will not stand. Isaiah 28:15, 18.

[3] In Jeremiah,

You look for light, but He will turn it into the shadow of death, He will place it in thick darkness. Jeremiah 13:16.

In Ezekiel,

You have desecrated Me among My people for handfuls of barley and for crusts of bread, to slay souls that ought not to die and to bestow life on souls that ought not to live. Ezekiel 13:19, 22.

In Hosea,

Out of the hand of hell I will redeem them, from death I will deliver them. I will be your plagues, O death; I will be your destruction, O hell! Hosea 13:14.

In David,

You lift me up from the gates of death. Psalms 9:13.

In the same author,

Lighten my eyes, lest perhaps I sleep [the sleep of] death. Psalms 13:3.

In the same author,

The cords of death encompassed me, and the cords of hell. Psalms 18:4-5.

In the same author,

Like sheep they will be placed in hell, death will feed them. Psalms 49:14.

In John,

I have the keys of hell and of death. Revelation 1:18.

In the same book,

He who overcomes will not suffer harm in the second death. Revelation 1:11.

[4] In the same book,

I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive; but you are dead. Be watchful, and strengthen what remains, which is at the point of death. Revelation 3:1-2.

In Matthew,

The people sitting in darkness have seen a great light; and for those sitting in the region and shadow of death, the light has arisen. Matthew 4:16.

In John,

He who hears My word and believes Him who sent Me will have eternal life, and will not come into judgement, but has passed from death to life. John 5:24.

In the same gospel,

I am going away and you will seek Me, but you will die in your sin. I have said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins. If anyone keeps My word he will not ever see death. John 8:21, 14, 51-52.

Because 'death' meant damnation those who belonged to the representative Church were forbidden to touch the dead. If they did touch them they were unclean and had to be cleansed, Ezekiel 44:25; Leviticus 15:31; 21:2-3; 22:8; Numbers 6:6-12; 19:11-end.

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1050. 'And with every living soul in all flesh' means the entire human race. This is clear from the meaning of 'living soul in all flesh'. Every individual is called 'a living soul' from that which is living within him. No one can possibly live, let alone as a human being, if he does not have something living within him, that is, if he does not have some measure of 'innocence, charity, and mercy, or from these something of a similar or comparable nature. This measure of innocence, charity, and mercy a person receives from the Lord when he is an infant and during childhood, as becomes clear from the state of infants and also from that of childhood. What a person receives at that time is preserved within him, and the things that are preserved are in the Word called 'remnants', which are the Lord's alone with a person. These remnants that are being preserved are what make it possible for someone when he becomes adult to be a human being. Regarding these remnants, see what appears in 468, 530, 560-563, 576.

[2] That the states of innocence, charity, and mercy that have been his in infancy and in childhood years enable a person to be human is quite clear from the fact that man is not born as animals are, ready to perform any of life's activities, but has to learn how to do every single one. The things he learns to do then become through the performance of them habitual and so to speak natural to him. Man is not even able to walk, or to talk, until he learns how to do so; and the same applies to everything else. Through usage these activities become so to speak natural to him. The situation is the same with regard to the states of innocence, charity, and mercy with which likewise he is endowed from infancy. But for these states man would be far inferior to any animal. These states however are not states that man acquires by learning but ones which he receives as a free gift from the Lord, and which the Lord preserves within him. These, together with truths of faith, are what are also called remnants and are the Lord's alone. To the extent that a person in adult life destroys these states, he becomes a dead man. When a person is being regenerated these states are the principal agents of regeneration, and he is brought into these states, for, as stated already, the Lord works by means of remnants.

[3] These remnants present with everybody are what are here called 'the living soul in all flesh'. That 'all flesh' means everybody and so the entire human race becomes clear from the meaning of 'flesh' in many places in the Word - see what has been shown in 574 - as in Matthew,

Unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved. Matthew 24:22; Mark 13:20.

In John,

Jesus said, Father, glorify Your Son, as You have given Him power over all flesh. John 17:1-2.

In Isaiah,

The glory of Jehovah will be revealed, and all flesh will see it. Isaiah 40:5.

In the same prophet,

All flesh will know that I am Jehovah your Saviour. Isaiah 49:26.