591. 13:10 Anyone who leads into captivity shall go into captivity. This symbolically means that someone who uses that heresy to draw others away from believing rightly and living rightly is drawn by his own falsities and evils into hell.

To lead into captivity means, symbolically, to persuade and win over to one's side so that people consent to and attach themselves to that heresy meant by the dragon and the beast, and thus to draw them away from believing rightly and living rightly. To go into captivity means, symbolically, to be drawn by one's own falsities and evils into hell.

Captivity here means spiritual captivity, which is to be led astray and so to be drawn away from truths and goods into falsities and evils.

That captivity in the Word means this spiritual captivity can be seen from the following passages:

Hear now, all peoples, and behold my sorrow; my virgins and my young men have gone into captivity. (Lamentations 1:18)

(God) forsook His dwelling..., (and) the tent where He dwelt among men, and delivered His strength into captivity... (Psalms 78:60-61)

The wind shall shepherd all your shepherds, and your lovers shall go into captivity; ...then you will be ashamed... because of all your wickedness. (Jeremiah 22:22)

I will make My arrows drunk... with the blood of the slain and the captivity... (Deuteronomy 32:42)

They stooped (and) bowed down..., and their soul will go into captivity. (Isaiah 46:1-2)

(Jehovah) has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, ...to the bound, ...to the blind... (Isaiah 61:1, Luke 4:18-19)

I will stir him up in righteousness...; he shall... let My captives go free, not for price nor reward... (Isaiah 45:13)

You have ascended on high, You have led captivity captive... (Psalms 68:18)

Shall... the captivity of the righteous be delivered? ..."Even the captivity of the strong shall be taken away, and the captured of the violent be delivered." (Isaiah 49:24-25)

Shake yourself from the dust...; sit, O Jerusalem! Loose yourself from the bonds of your neck, O captive daughter of Zion! (Isaiah 52:1-2)

And so on elsewhere, as in Jeremiah 48:46-47; 50:33-34, Ezekiel 6:1-10; 12:1-12, Obadiah 1:11, Psalms 14:7; 53:6.

The captivities of the children of Israel by their enemies described in the book of Judges, in 2 Kings 25, and in the prophets represented and so symbolized spiritual captivities, as discussed elsewhere.

The bound have the same symbolic meaning as captives in the following places:

...by the blood of your covenant I will set the bound free from the... pit. (Zechariah 9:11)

The groaning of the bound shall come to You. (Psalms 79:11)

...the bound shall be gathered in the pit, and will be shut up in the prison. (Isaiah 24:22)

He made the world a wilderness..., He did not open the house to his bound ones. (Isaiah 14:17)

(The king said, "I was) in prison and you did not come to Me." (Matthew 25:43)

(Jesus said,) "Ought not this... daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound..., be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?" (Luke 13:16)

2159. That 'servant' means the Lord's human before it was made Divine becomes clear from many places in the Prophets. The reason, which has been given frequently already, is this: The Lord's human, before He cast it off and made it Divine, was nothing else than a servant. His human came from the mother and was for that reason imperfect. From her it possessed a hereditary element which He overcame and utterly cast aside by means of the conflicts brought about by temptations. He did so even to the point when nothing was left of the imperfect and hereditary element received from the mother, indeed until at length nothing whatever from the mother remained. He cast off that which came from the mother so completely that He was no longer her son, as He also Himself declares in Mark,

They said to Jesus, Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are outside, asking for You. And He answered them. saying, Who is My mother, or My brothers? And looking around on those who were sitting around Him He said, Behold My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God is My brother, and My sister, and My mother. Mark 3:32-35; Matthew 12:46-50; Luke 8:20-21.

[2] Once He had cast off this human He put on the Divine Human, by virtue of which He called Himself the Son of Man, as may be seen many times in the New Testament Word, and also the Son of God. By 'the Son of Man' He meant truth itself and by 'the Son of God' good itself which belonged to His Human Essence once this had been made Divine. The former state was that of the Lord's humiliation but the latter that of His glorification, which has been dealt with already in 1999.

[3] In the former state, namely the state of humiliation, when He still had the imperfect human with Him, He worshipped Jehovah as one other than Himself, and was indeed like a servant, for the imperfect human is by comparison nothing else. In the Word also therefore that human is referred to as 'a servant', as in Isaiah,

I will protect this city to save it for My own sake and for the sake of David My servant. Isaiah 37:35.

This refers to the Assyrians in whose camp an angel slew a hundred and eighty-five thousand. 'David' stands for the Lord who, because He is yet to come, is, as regards the human, called 'a servant'. That 'David' in the Word stands for the Lord, see 1888.

[4] In the same prophet,

Behold, My servant on whom I will lean, My chosen [in whom] My soul is well pleased. I have put My spirit upon him; he will bring forth judgement to the nations. Isaiah 42:1.

This is a plain reference to the Lord, of whom, when He was in the human, the expressions 'servant' and 'chosen one' are used. In the same prophet,

Who is blind but My servant, and deaf as My angel ¹ whom I will send? Who is blind as the perfect one, and blind as the servant or Jehovah? Isaiah 42:19.

This too is a reference to the Lord, of whom in a similar way, when He was in the human, the expressions 'servant' and 'angel' are used.

[5] In the same prophet,

You are My witnesses, said Jehovah, and My servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe Me, and understand that I am He. Isaiah 43:10.

In the same prophet,

[Then] said Jehovah who formed me from the womb, to be a servant to Him, to bring back Jacob to Him, and that Israel might be gathered to Him - He said, It is a light thing that you should be a servant to Me to raise up the tribes of Jacob. I have given you as a light of the nations, to be My salvation right to the ends of the earth. Isaiah 49:5-6.

This too is a plain reference to the Lord and to His human before it was made 'a light of the nations' and 'a salvation to the ends of the earth'. In the same prophet,

Who among you fears Jehovah, hearkens to the voice of His servant who walks in darkness and has no brightness? Let him trust in the name of Jehovah and lean on his God. Isaiah 50:10.

'Servant' again stands for the Lord's human. His teaching of the way of truth, while He was in that Human, is meant by 'the voice of Jehovah's servant'.

[6] In the same prophet,

Jehovah goes before you, and the God of Israel gathers you up. Behold, My servant will deal wisely; he will be raised up and exalted and lifted up very high. Isaiah 52:12-13.

'Servant' is clearly used in reference to the Lord when He was in the human, because it is said of Him that He will be raised up, exalted, and lifted up. In the same prophet,

He had no form and no honour. We saw him, but there was no beauty in him. He was despised, a man of sorrows, acquainted with sickness. Jehovah was willing to bruise him and make him imperfect. If he makes his soul guilt he will see his seed he will prolong his days, and the will of Jehovah will prosper by his hand. He will see [the fruit of] the travail of his soul and be satisfied; by his knowledge will the righteous one My servant make many righteous; and He has borne their iniquities. Isaiah 53:2-3, 10-11.

Here reference is openly made, as in the whole of this chapter, to the Lord's state of humiliation. The fact that in that state He was in the imperfect human is also declared, namely in the statements that He was 'a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief', 'was made imperfect', and experienced 'the travail of his soul', besides many other statements, in which state He is referred to as 'a servant'.

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