201. Internal Meaning of Amos, Chapter 1 (1)

1-2 [The teaching of] the Lord about the Word and doctrine from the Word: (1, 6)

3-5 About those who pervert knowledges [cognitiones] from the Word which are of service to doctrine and who thus turn away also the good of those knowledges: these will perish. (3, 15)

6-8 About those who apply the Word to a heretical falsity: these will perish. (3)

9-10 About those who pervert knowledges [cognitiones] of good and truth, and thereby do injury to the external sense of the Word. (3)

11-12 About those who pervert the sense of the letter of the Word by falsity, by which doctrine perishes. (3)

13-15 About those who falsify the truths of the sense of the letter of the Word: they do not resist in the day of combat, but destroy the truth of doctrine. (3, 15)

A 'sword,' as in Ezekiel 21:9-15, signifies a person so desolated that he can see nothing good and true, but only falsities and contradictions. A 'sword,' in the Word, signifies the truth of faith combating and the vastation of truth. In an opposite sense, it signifies falsity combating and the punishment of falsity.

The 'sword,' in Revelation 1:16, represents a dispersion of falsities by the Lord because the sword came out from His mouth, which means it comes from the Word. Because the Word is understood by doctrine taken from it, this is also symbolically meant. It is called a sharp two-edged sword because it pierces the heart and soul.

A 'flaming sword which turned every way,' as in Genesis 3:24, signifies divine truth in extremes, which, like the Word in its literal sense, can be turned.

(Odkazy: Arcana Coelestia 2799)