9198. Any widow. That this signifies those who are in good without truth, and yet long for truth, is evident from the signification of “a widow,” as being good without truth, and yet longing for it. That “a widow” has this signification is because by “a man” is signified truth, and by his “woman” is signified good; and therefore when the woman of a man becomes a widow, she signifies good without truth. But in a still more interior sense “a widow” signifies truth without good. The reason is that in this sense “a husband” signifies good, and his “wife” truth (see n. 3236, 4510, 4823). In this sense the Lord is called “Husband” and “Bridegroom,” from the Divine good; and His kingdom and church is called “Wife” and “Bride” from the reception of the Divine truth which proceeds from the the Lord, (n. 9182). But as in the passage under consideration the Lord’s celestial church is not treated of, but His spiritual church, by “a widow” is signified one who is in good and not in truth, and yet longs for truth. The case is similar with “an orphan.” In the inmost or celestial, sense “an orphan” signifies those who are in good and long for truth. See the passages quoted and explained in regard to the signification of “widow” and “orphan” in the celestial sense, in n. 4844; to which may be added what the Lord says in Luke concerning the widow in Sarepta:

Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country. Of a truth I say unto you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when there was a great famine over all the land; yet unto none of them was Elias sent, save to Sarepta of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow (Luke 4:24-26).

[2] As all things the Lord spoke, He spoke from the Divine, therefore His words have an internal sense, and in this sense the subject here treated of is the Lord Himself and His kingdom and church. What therefore the Lord meant in this sense by the words He spoke of the widow in Sarepta of Sidon, is plain when they are unfolded. That “no prophet is accepted in his own country” signifies that the Lord, and the Divine truth which is from Him, are less received and loved in heart within the church, than outside of it. He spoke to the Jews, with whom the church then was; and it is known that the Lord was less received by them than by the nations outside the church. The case is similar at this day in the church which from Him is called the Christian Church. In this the Lord is indeed received in doctrine; but only by a few with acknowledgment of heart; and by still fewer from the affection of love. It is otherwise with the converted Gentiles outside the church. These worship and adore Him as their one only God, and they say with the mouth, and think at heart, that they acknowledge Him as God, because He has appeared in a human form (n. 5256). The reverse is the case within the church, where because He was born a man He is with difficulty acknowledged from the heart as God. These make His Human like their own human, although they know that His Father was Jehovah, and not a man. From all this it is evident what is meant in the internal sense by “no prophet being accepted in his own country.” A “prophet” in this sense denotes the Lord as to Divine truth, thus in respect to the doctrine of the church. (That “a prophet” denotes one who teaches, and in the abstract sense doctrine, and when predicated of the Lord, the Divine truth of the Word, see above, n. 9188)

[3] That “there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elias” signifies in the internal sense the state of acknowledgment of truth Divine from the Word at that time in the church. For as before said, “widows” denote those who are in good without truth; “Elias” denotes the Lord as to the Word; “the days of Elias” denote the states of reception of truth Divine from the Word at that time; and “Israel” denotes the church. (That “Elias” represented the Lord as to the Word, may be seen in the preface to Genesis 18, and n. 2762, 5247, 8029; that “days” denote states, n. 893, 2788, 3462, 3785, 4850, 6110, 8426; and that “Israel” denotes the church, n. 4286, 6426, 6637, 8805)

[4] “When the heaven was shut up three years and six months” signifies the full vastation of the internal church; for “heaven” denotes the internal of the church; and “three years and six months” denotes to the full. That “heaven” denotes the internal of the church, see n. 1733, 1850, 3355, 4535; and this is said to be “shut up” when it is vastated, that is, when it is no more. That “three years and six months” denotes to the full, is evident from the signification of “a thousand two hundred and sixty days” in Revelation 11:3; 12:6 (which days make three years and six months), as being to the full, that is, even unto the end; in like manner from the signification of “three days and a half” in Revelation 11:9-11; and also from the signification of “a time and times and half a time” in Revelation 12:14, and Daniel 12:7, as being to the full, or, even to the end.

[5] “When there was a great famine over all the land” signifies the vastation of the external church also; for “a famine” denotes the lack and desolation of truth and good (n. 3364, 5277, 5279, 5281, 5300, 5360, 5376, 5415, 5576, 6110, 7102); and “the land” denotes the external church (n. 1262, 1413, 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118, 3355, 4535, 5577, 8011, 8732). “Yet unto none of them was Elias sent” signifies the Lord as to the Word-and thus the Word of the Lord-not sent to others, because He would not have been received elsewhere; for “Elias,” as before said, denotes the Lord as to the Word.

[6] “Save to Sarepta of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow,” signifies only unto those who are in good and long for truth. It is said “Sarepta of Sidon” because “Sidon” signifies the knowledges of good and truth (n. 1201). That “a woman a widow” denotes one who is in good, and longs for truth, is evident from what has just been said, and especially from what is related of her in the first book of Kings, where are these words: “Elijah came to Sarepta of Sidon to a widow woman, that she might sustain him; and he said to her, Fetch me a little water that I may drink, and bring me a morsel of bread in thine hand; and she said that she had only a little meal in the barrel, and a little oil in the cruse, sufficient only for a cake for herself and her son.” And Elijah said:

Make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it out to me, and afterward make for thee and for thy son. She did so; and the barrel of meal was not consumed; and the cruse of oil did not fail (1 Kings 17:9-16).

[7] Obedience, and the longing of good for truth, are described by her giving water to the prophet at his bidding, and afterward by her first making a cake for him out of her own little supply, and then for herself and her son; and that thereby she was enriched with the good of truth is signified by “the barrel of meal not being consumed, and the cruse of oil failing not;” for in the internal sense “water” denotes truth (n. 2702, 3058, 3424, 4976, 5668, 8568); “meal,” truth from good (n. 2177); “oil,” the good of love (n. 886, 4582, 4638); and “a cake” made of these, truth conjoined with its good (n. 7978). From all this it is clear that “a widow” denotes one who is in good and longs for truth. Good and its longing for truth is described by the charity toward the prophet, which was greater than toward herself and her son. “The prophet,” as before shown, denotes the doctrine of truth.

[8] From all this it is evident what is the nature of the Word, namely, that it conceals within itself the secret things of heaven, which are not apparent in the letter; when yet in every word which the Lord Himself spoke when He was in the world, and which He had before spoken through the prophets, there are things heavenly and wholly Divine, and raised above the sense of the letter; and this not only in each word, but also in each syllable of the words, nay, in every point of each syllable. But who believes that this is so? Nevertheless it is a certain fact, of which I have received full and unquestionable proof, concerning which of the Lord’s Divine mercy elsewhere.

5376. Because the famine was strengthened in all the earth. That this signifies that everywhere, except there, was there desolation in the natural, is evident from the signification of “famine,” as being desolation (of which above); and from the signification of “earth,” as being the natural (of which also above). Its being everywhere except there, namely, in the memory-knowledges where the celestial of the spiritual was, follows from what goes before. How the case is with the desolation of the natural, or the deprivation of truth there, has already been told; but as the same subject is continued in what follows, it must be told again. The man who is born within the church, from earliest childhood learns from the Word and from the doctrinal things of the church what the truth of faith is, and also what the good of charity is. But when he grows up to manhood he begins either to confirm or to deny in himself the truths of faith that he has learned; for he then looks at these truths with his own sight, and thereby causes them either to be made his own or else to be rejected; for nothing can become one’s own that is not acknowledged of one’s own insight, that is, which the man does not know to be so from himself, and not from somebody else; and therefore the truths learned from childhood enter no further into the man’s life than the first entrance, from which they can either be admitted more interiorly, or else be cast out.

[2] With those who are being regenerated, that is, who the Lord foresees will suffer themselves to be regenerated, these truths are greatly multiplied, for these persons are in the affection of knowing truths; but when they come nearer to the very act of regeneration, they are as it were deprived of these truths, for these are drawn inward, and then the man appears to be in desolation; nevertheless as regeneration goes on these truths are successively let back into the natural, and are there conjoined with good. But with those who are not being regenerated, that is, who the Lord foresees will not suffer themselves to be regenerated, truths are indeed usually multiplied, for these persons are in the affection of knowing such things for the sake of reputation, honor, and gain; yet when they advance in years and submit these truths to their own sight, they then either do not believe them, or they deny them, or they turn them into falsities; thus with them truths are not withdrawn inward, but are cast forth, although they still remain in the memory for the sake of ends in the world, though without life. This state also is called in the Word “desolation” or “vastation,” but differs from the former state in the desolation of the former being apparent, while the desolation of this state is absolute; for in the former state man is not deprived of truths, while in this state he is entirely deprived of them. The desolation of the former state has been treated of in the internal sense in this chapter, and is still further treated of in the following one, and is what is signified by the “famine of seven years.”

[3] This same desolation is often treated of in other parts of the Word, as in Isaiah:

Awake, awake, O Jerusalem, who hast drunk at the hand of Jehovah the cup of His anger; two things are befallen thee, who shall bemoan thee? Wasting and breaking, famine and the sword; how shall I comfort thee? Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets. Therefore hear, do this, thou afflicted and drunken one, but not with wine, behold I have taken out of thy hand the cup of trembling, the dregs of the cup of My wrath; thou shalt no more drink it again, but I will put it into the hand of them that make thee sad (Isaiah 51:17-23);

in this passage is described the state of desolation in which is the man of the church who is becoming a church, or who is being regenerated. This desolation is called “wasting,” “breaking,” “famine,” “sword,” and also the “cup of the anger and wrath of Jehovah,” and the “cup of trembling.” The truths of which he is then deprived are the “sons who faint, and lie at the head of all the streets.” That “sons” are truths may be seen above (n. 489, 491, 533, 1147, 2623, 2803, 2813, 3373), and that “streets” are where truths are (n. 2336); hence “to lie at the head of all the streets” means that truths appear to be dispersed. It is evident that this desolation is apparent, and that by it as by temptations regeneration is effected, for it is said that she “shall no more drink,” but that “He will put the cup into the hand of them that make her sad.”

[4] In Ezekiel:

Thus hath said the Lord Jehovih, Because they lay waste and swallow you up on every side, that ye be an inheritance unto the remains of the nations, therefore ye mountains of Israel hear the word of the Lord Jehovih: thus hath said the Lord Jehovih to the mountains and to the hills, to the watercourses and to the valleys, and to the desolate wastes and to the cities that are forsaken, which became a prey and derision to the remains of the nations that are round about; I have spoken in My zeal and in My wrath, because ye have borne the reproach of the nations. Surely the nations that are round about you, these shall bear their reproach; but ye mountains of Israel shall put forth your branch and yield your fruit to My people Israel. For behold I am with you, and I will have regard unto you, that ye may be tilled and sown; and I will multiply man upon you, the whole house of Israel, and the cities shall be inhabited, and the wastes builded. I will cause you to dwell according to your times of old, and will do better to you than at your beginnings (Ezekiel 36:3-12);

here also the subject treated of is the desolation that precedes regeneration, the desolation being signified by the “desolate wastes,” and the “cities that are forsaken, which became a prey and derision”; but regeneration being signified by “putting forth branch and yielding fruit,” by “having regard unto them that they may be tilled and sown, that man may be multiplied, the cities inhabited, and the wastes built,” and by “causing them to dwell according to their times of old,” and “doing better to them than at their beginning.”

[5] How the case is in regard to desolation is plain from those who are in desolation in the other life. They who are in desolation there are harassed by evil spirits and genii, who pour in persuasions of evil and falsity until they are almost overwhelmed, the result being that truths do not appear; but as the time of desolation draws to a close they are enlightened by light from heaven, and in this way the evil spirits and genii are driven away, everyone into his own hell, where they undergo punishments. These are the things signified by “the cities becoming a prey and derision to the remains of the nations that are round about,” and by “the nations that are round about bearing their reproach”; and above in Isaiah by “the cup being put into the hand of them that make her sad”; and also in other passages in Isaiah by the “waster being laid waste” (Isaiah 33:1). Also in Jeremiah:

I will visit upon the wasters, and will make them everlasting desolations (Jeremiah 25:12).

In Isaiah:

Thy destroyers will hasten thy sons, and thy wasters shall go forth from thee. Lift up thine eyes round about and see; all gather together, they come to thee. For as to thy wastes and the land of thy destruction, thou shalt be too straitened for an inhabitant, they that swallow thee up shall be far away (Isaiah 49:17-19);

[6] here again, and in this whole chapter, the subject treated of is the desolation of those who are being regenerated, and their regeneration and fruitfulness after desolation, and lastly the punishment of those who oppressed them (verse 26). In the same:

Woe to thee that layeth waste when thou art not laid waste! When thou hast ceased to lay waste, thou shalt be laid waste (Isaiah 33:1);

meaning that they who vastate are punished, as above. In the same:

Let mine outcasts tarry in thee; Moab, be thou a covert to them before the waster; for the oppressor hath ceased, the wasting is ended (Isaiah 16:4).

Again:

The day of Jehovah is near, it shall come as a wasting from Shaddai (Isaiah 13:6);

“a wasting from Shaddai” denotes vastation in temptations; that God as to temptations was by the ancients called Shaddai, may be seen above (n. 1992, 3667, 4572).

[7] Again:

Then they shall not thirst; He shall lead them in wastes, He shall cause the waters to flow out of the rock for them; and He will cleave the rock that the waters flow out (Isaiah 48:21);

speaking of the state after desolation. Again:

Jehovah will comfort Zion, He will comfort all the wastes thereof, so as to make the wilderness thereof as Eden, and the solitude thereof as the garden of Jehovah; gladness and joy shall be found therein, confession and the voice of a song (Isaiah 51:3).

Where the subject treated of is the same, for as before said desolation is for the sake of the end that the man may be regenerated, that is, that after evils and falsities are separated, truths may be conjoined with goods, and goods with truths. The regenerate man as to good is what is compared to “Eden,” and as to truths to the “garden of Jehovah.”

In David:

Jehovah hath made me come up out of the pit of devastation, out of the mire of clay, and hath set my feet upon a rock (Psalms 40:2).

[8] The vastation and desolation of the man of the church, or of the church in man, was represented by the captivity of the Jewish people in Babylon; and the raising up of the church by the return from that captivity, as occasionally described in Jeremiah, especially in chapter 32, verse 37 to the end; for desolation is captivity, the man then being kept as it were bound, and therefore by “those bound,” “in prison,” and “in the pit,” are signified those who are in desolation (see n. 4728, 4744, 5037, 5038, 5085, 5096).

[9] The state of desolation and vastation with those who are not being regenerated is also occasionally treated of in the Word. In this state are they who deny truths, or turn them into falsities: this is the state of the church toward its end, when there is no longer any faith or charity. Thus in Isaiah:

I will make known to you what I will do to My vineyard, in removing the hedge thereof so that it shall be eaten up, in breaking through the fence thereof that it may be trodden down. I will then make it a desolation; it shall not be pruned nor hoed, that there may come up brier and shrub; nay, I will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it (Isaiah 5:5-6).

In the same:

Tell this people, Hearing hear ye, but understand not; and seeing see ye, but know not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and smear over their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and their heart should understand, and they should be converted, and be healed. Then said I, Lord, how long? And he said, Until the cities be devastated that they be without inhabitant, and the houses that there be no man in them, and the land be reduced into a solitude; Jehovah will remove man. And the desert shall be multiplied in the midst of the land; scarcely a tenth part shall be in it any more, and yet it shall be banished (Isaiah 6:9-13).

[10] In the same:

Remains shall return, the remains of Jacob, unto the mighty God; for a consummation is decreed, overflowing with righteousness; for a consummation and a decree shall the Lord Jehovih Zebaoth make in all the earth (Isaiah 10:21-23).

Jehovah maketh the earth void, and maketh it empty, and will overturn the faces thereof. The earth shall be utterly void, the habitable earth shall mourn, shall be confounded, the world shall languish and be confounded, a curse shall devour the earth; the new wine shall mourn, the vine shall languish; that which is left in the city shall be a waste, the gate shall be smitten even to devastation; breaking, the earth is broken; breaking, the earth is broken in pieces; moving, the earth is moved; reeling, the earth reeleth like a drunkard (Isaiah 24:1-23).

The paths are devastated, the wayfaring man ceaseth, the land mourneth and languisheth, Lebanon is ashamed and withered away, Sharon is become like a desert (Isaiah 33:8-9).

I will make desolate and swallow up together, I will make waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herb (Isaiah 42:14-15).

[11] In Jeremiah:

I will give to the curse all the nations round about, and will make them a desolation, and a derision, and perpetual wastes; I will take from them the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of the millstones and the light of the candle; that the whole land may be a desolation and a devastation. It shall come to pass when seventy years are fulfilled, that I will visit their iniquity upon the king of Babylon, and upon this nation, and upon the land of the Chaldees, and will make it everlasting desolations (Jeremiah 25:9-12).

Bozrah shall become a desolation, a reproach, a waste, and a curse; and all the cities thereof shall become perpetual wastes; Edom shall be a desolation, everyone that goeth by it shall be amazed, and shall hiss over all the plagues thereof (Jeremiah 49:13-18).

In Ezekiel:

Thus saith the Lord to the inhabitants of Jerusalem concerning the land of Israel, They shall eat their bread with solicitude, and drink their waters with amazement; that her land may be devastated from its fullness, because of the violence of all them that dwell therein; the cities that are inhabited shall be devastated, and the land shall be made desolate (Ezekiel 12:19-20).

[12] Again:

When I shall make thee a desolate city, like the cities that are not inhabited; when I shall make the deep come up against thee, and many waters shall cover thee, and I shall make thee go down with them that descend into the pit, to the people of old time, and shall make thee to dwell in the earth of the lower things, for a desolation from eternity with them that go down into the pit (Ezekiel 26:19-21);

speaking of Tyre.

In Joel:

A day of darkness and of thick darkness, a day of cloud and of obscurity; a fire devoureth before him and behind him a flame burneth; the land is as the garden of Eden before him, but behind him a wilderness of waste (Joel 2:2-3).

In Zephaniah:

The day of Jehovah is near, a day of wrath is this day, a day of distress and of cramping, a day of wasteness and devastation, a day of darkness and thick darkness, a day of cloud and shade; the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of the zeal of Jehovah, for I will make a consummation, yea, a speedy one, with all the inhabitants of the land (Zeph. 1:14-18).

In Matthew:

When ye shall see the abomination of desolation, foretold by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, then let them that are in Judea flee into the mountains (Matthew 24:15-16; Mark 13:14; Daniel 9:27; 12:10-12).

From these passages it is evident that desolation is the apparent deprivation of truth with those who are being regenerated, but is the absolute deprivation of it with those who are not being regenerated.