620. 14:4 These are the ones who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. This symbolically means that they did not adulterate the church's truths or defile them with the falsities of their faith, but loved the truths because they are true.

A woman symbolizes the church from an affection for truth, and so in an opposite sense the church from an affection for falsity, as may be seen in nos. 434, 533 above - here the church from an affection for truth, because we are told that they were not defiled with women. Being defiled with women has the same symbolic meaning as committing adultery and behaving licentiously. To commit adultery and behave licentiously means, symbolically, to adulterate and falsify the Word, as may be seen in no. 134 above.

For they are virgins means, symbolically, because they have loved truths because they are true, thus loving them from a spiritual affection. These are meant by virgins because a virgin symbolizes the church as a bride who desires to be conjoined with the Lord and to become a wife; and a church that desires to be conjoined with the Lord loves truths because they are true. For truths bring about conjunction when people live in accordance with them.

That is why Israel, Zion and Jerusalem are called in the Word virgins and daughters; for Israel, Zion and Jerusalem symbolize the church.

[2] People in the Lord's church who are of such a character are all meant by virgins, whether they are maidens or youths, wives or husbands, boys or old men, girls or old ladies, and this can be seen from places in the Word where virgins are mentioned, such as the virgin of Israel (Jeremiah 18:13; 31:4, 21, Amos 5:2, Joel 1:8); the virgin daughter of Judah (Lamentations 1:15); the virgin daughter of Zion (2 Kings 19:21, Isaiah 37:22, Lamentations 1:4; 2:13); the virgins of Jerusalem (Lamentations 2:10); the virgin of My people (Jeremiah 14:17).

For that reason the Lord likened the church to ten virgins (Matthew 25:1-13), and we read in Jeremiah:

...I will build you, that you may be rebuilt, O virgin of Israel! You shall again... go forth in the dances of those who rejoice. (Jeremiah 31:4, 13)

And in the book of Psalms:

They have seen Your goings, O God, the goings of my God, my King, in the sanctuary..., in the midst of maidens playing timbrels. (Psalms 68:24-25)

And elsewhere:

Kings' daughters are among Your precious ones; at Your right hand stands the queen in pure gold from Ophir.

Listen, O daughter, and see... The King will delight in your beauty... The daughter of Tyre also will bring a gift; the rich among the people will appease Your face.

The King's daughter is all precious within; her clothing is woven with gold. She shall be brought to the King in embroidered garments. The virgins after her, her companions, shall come... into the palace of the King. (Psalms 45:9-15)

The King there means the Lord; the queen the church as a wife; and the daughters and virgins affections for goodness and truth.

[3] Similar affections are symbolically meant by virgins elsewhere in the Word in places where young men are mentioned at the same time, because young men symbolize truths, and virgins affections for those truths. For instance, in the following places:

Behold, the days are coming... that I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of Jehovah... In that day the fair virgins and young men shall faint from thirst. (Amos 8:11, 13)

Be ashamed, O Sidon; ...the sea has said..., "I have not travailed or given birth; neither have I reared young men or brought up virgins." (Isaiah 33:4)

The Lord trampled a winepress for the virgin daughter of Zion... Behold my sorrow; the virgins and the young men have gone into captivity. (Lamentations 1:4, 15, 18)

...how great is His goodness, and how great His beauty! Grain shall make the young men grow up, and new wine the young women. (Zechariah 9:17)

The streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in My streets. (Zechariah 8:5)

They sit on the ground..., the virgins of Jerusalem... To what shall I liken you..., O virgin daughter of Zion... ...They lay... in the streets..., My virgins and My young men... (Lamentations 2:10, 13, 21)

And so on elsewhere, as in Jeremiah 51:20-23, Lamentations 5:11, 13, 14, Ezekiel 9:4, 6, Psalms 78:62-64, Deuteronomy 32:25.

923. And there went out blood from the wine-press even to the bridles of the horses, signifies falsifications of the Word flowing forth from evil even to dominion over the understanding. This is evident from the signification of "went out from the wine-press," as being to be brought forth, or to flow forth, from evil see in articles above, n. 920, 922); also from the signification of "blood," as being the falsification of the Word; for "blood" signifies in the genuine sense the Divine truth, but in the contrary sense violence offered to the Divine truth or the Word, which is the falsification of it. (On this signification of "blood" see above, n. 329). The above is evident also from the signification of "even to the bridles of the horses," as being even to dominion over the understanding; for "horses" signify the understanding, and their "bridles" government and dominion, for one who sits on a horse governs it and rules over it by means of the bridle. (That "horses" signify the understanding of truth from the Word may be seen above, n. 355, 364; and that "bridles" signify government and dominion will be seen below.)

[2] In regard to dominion over the understanding, it is the understanding of truth in the Word that is meant; for when falsities of religion are confirmed by the sense of the letter of the Word the understanding no longer sees truth. For everyone who is in the spiritual affection of truth is enlightened by the Lord when he reads the Word, and it is the understanding that is enlightened. But he who is not in the spiritual affection of truth cannot have his understanding enlightened; for he sees truth as if in the night, and falsity as if in the light. And as the church is such at its end the understanding of truth then so far perishes that it cannot be enlightened, since falsities of religion are then to that extent confirmed from the Word, that is, the Word is falsified. This takes place with those who are meant by "Babylon," verse 8, (Revelation 14:8) and by "the beast," verse 10, of this chapter. For it is said of Babylon that "she hath given all nations to drink of the wine of the anger of her whoredom;" and of the beast there that "he that hath adored the beast shall drink of the wine of the anger of God mixed with unmixed wine of His wrath." That falsifications of the Word are thereby signified may be seen above (n. 881 887).

[3] The understanding of truth in the Word would perish with such as are meant by "them that dwell in Babylon" and "the worshipers of the beast," because they have no spiritual good; and this good, which is the good of charity from the Lord, is what alone opens the spiritual mind, through which the Lord flows in and enlightens; and without the opening of that mind no enlightenment is possible, and thus no understanding of truth. He that believes that he can see any truth of the church from the mere light (lumen) of reason is much deceived. He may have knowledge of it from another, but he cannot see it in the light. And when he wishes to see it or to comprehend it in thought, mere shadows from falsities, which spring from fallacies and from what is man's own [proprium] hover over him and induce blindness. All this makes clear what is meant by the falsifications of the Word flowing forth from evil, even to dominion over the understanding, which are signified by "blood going out from the wine-press, even to the bridles of the horses."

[4] The term "bridle" is used in some passages in the Word, and it signifies in the spiritual sense restraint and government, and it is predicated of the understanding and its thought, because a bridle belongs to horses, and "horses" signify the understanding; and with those who have no understanding "horses" signify reasonings from falsities. This makes clear what is signified by "bridle" in Isaiah:

I will put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will bring thee back by the way by which thou camest (Isaiah 37:29).

This was said of the king of Assyria by whom reasoning from falsities is signified; for "Assyria" signifies in a good sense the rational. Because that king then besieged Jerusalem and blasphemed God it was said to him that "a hook should be put into his nose," which signifies that stupidity and foolishness should possess him; for the "nose" signifies perception, and a "hook" signifies taking it away, or properly, immersing it in the corporeal sensual, and when this is separated from the rational it is stupid. It was also said that "a bridle should be put in his lips," which signifies insanity as to the understanding of truth, for the "lips" signify thought from the understanding, and a "bridle" the withdrawal of it. "To bring him back into the way by which he came" signifies into the falsities by which he will perish; therefore his army, which signifies falsities, perished by a very great slaughter.

[5] In the same:

Jehovah's lips are full of indignation, His tongue is like a devouring fire, and His breath is like an overflowing stream. It shall reach even to the middle of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity, and a bridle that misleadeth upon the jaws of the peoples (Isaiah 30:27, 28).

The "lips," "tongue," and "spirit" of Jehovah signify the Divine truth, which is the Word, from its ultimates to its inmosts; when this is adulterated and falsified it is said to be "full of indignation," "like a devouring fire," and "like an overflowing stream," and for the reason that the adulteration and falsification of it closes heaven to man and devastates him. Because it appears that heaven does this, or what is the same, the Divine truth from which heaven exists, it is said to have "indignation," to be "a devouring fire," and "an overflowing stream." "It shall reach even to the middle of the neck" signifies the devastation of it by falsities, even till it is not understood, for the "neck" signifies conjunction, and conjunction perishes when that which is beneath is taken away. "To sift the nations with the sieve of vanity" signifies the adulteration of the Word by those who are in evils by means of fictions; "and a bridle that misleadeth upon the jaws of the peoples" signifies the falsification of the truth in the Word by those who are in falsities, "a bridle that misleadeth" being properly a withdrawing from the understanding of truth, "jaws" being thoughts from the corporeal sensual, thus from fallacies; and the term "peoples" being used of those who are in falsities; and "nations" of those who are in evils. They who are ignorant of correspondences might think that it is merely from comparison that a "horse's bridle" signifies government over the understanding; but it is from correspondence, as can be seen clearly from the fact that in the spiritual world horses are seen variously harnessed and caparisoned, and these horses, with everything upon them, are correspondences.