7668. 'Go now, you young men, and serve Jehovah' means that those guided by truths that have been corroborated will be left alone, in order that they may worship the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of the command 'go' as the intimation that they will be left alone, as above in 7658; from the meaning of 'young men' as corroborated truths, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'serving Jehovah' as worshipping the Lord, as above in 7654, 7664. The reason why 'young men' means those guided by truths that have been corroborated is that by sons, boys, young men, men, and old men' are meant aspects of intelligence and wisdom in their true order. Such aspects instead of those male persons are understood in heaven; for those in heaven possess spiritual ideas which are such that images from the purely natural order or the world cannot enter them without being instantly sloughed off and transformed into the kinds of images that are more in keeping with the wisdom of heaven and with angelic thought. This is why 'sons, boys, young men, men, and old men' cannot in the spiritual sense mean those male persons, only corresponding spiritual realities, which are aspects of intelligence and wisdom. The fact that these are meant is plainly evident from the internal sense of the places in the Word where they are mentioned.

[2] In the Word 'young men' is used to mean those who have intelligence, or - on the level of abstract ideas on which angels think - intelligence itself. And since intelligence is meant by them, so is firmly established truth since this belongs to intelligence. Also the expression which is used here in the original language to denote young men is derived from strength and power, which truth receives from good, and so which firmly established truth receives. And this name is therefore applied to the Lord in Zechariah,

O sword, rise up against My shepherd, and against the (young) man, My neighbour. Strike the shepherd, and the sheep are scattered. Zechariah 13:7.

These words were spoken in reference to the Lord, see Matthew 26:31. And also in Jeremiah,

How long do you wander around, O estranged daughter? Jehovah has created a new thing on the earth, a woman has surrounded a (young) man. Jeremiah 31:22.

[3] Another word for 'young men in the original language stands for intelligence, and so for the truth that belongs to it, in Amos,

I have sent the pestilence upon you in the way of Egypt, I have killed your young men with the sword, along with captured horses. ¹ Amos 4:10.

'The way of Egypt' stands for perverted factual knowledge, young men who have been killed' for truths which have as a result been destroyed, and 'captured horses' for an understanding that has been led into error.

[4] In the same prophet,

They will wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they will run to and fro to seek the Word of Jehovah, and will not find it. On that day the beautiful virgins and the young men will faint from thirst. Amos 8:12-13.

'The beautiful virgins' stands for the affection for truth, 'the young men' for intelligence, and 'fainting from thirst' for being deprived of truth; and this is why it says 'they will run to and fro to seek the Word of Jehovah, and will not find it'. The fact that neither beautiful virgins, nor young men, nor fainting because of thirst are meant here is self-evident.

In Jeremiah,

Death has come up through our windows, it has entered our palaces, cutting off the young child from the street, young men from the lanes. Jeremiah 9:11.

In the same prophet,

How is the city of glory not forsaken, the city of My joy? Therefore her young men will fall in her streets. Jeremiah 49:25-26; 50:30.

In the same prophet,

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

In these places 'young men' stands for the truths that belong to intelligence.

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8908. 'You shall not answer as a witness of a lie against your neighbour' means that good must not be called evil, nor truth falsity, and conversely that evil must not be called good, nor falsity truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'witness of a lie' as the confirmation of falsity. For the meaning of 'witness' as confirmation, see 4197; and the meaning of 'a lie' as falsity of faith will be evident from what follows below. 'Answering against the neighbour' is speaking to someone in that manner; for 'neighbour' means any and every person, in particular everyone governed by good, and in the abstract sense good itself, 3419, 5025, 6704, 6706-6711, 6818, 8123, so that in the internal sense 'you shall not answer as the witness of a lie against your neighbour' means not saying what is false to anyone, that is, not saying that good is evil and truth is falsity, or vice versa.

[2] What this implies must be explained briefly. None who are ruled by self-love or by love of the world, that is, whose end in view is either to have high and honoured positions or to possess wealth and gain, care when they tell and persuade others that something just is unjust or something unjust is just, and by doing this behave as 'witnesses of a lie'. The reason why they are like this is that their will is in complete subjection to those loves and accompanying desires; it is completely possessed and dominated by them. At the same time the understanding, which is the other part of the mind, indeed has the ability to see what is just or unjust but has no wish to see it. For the will prevails over the understanding; it flows into and persuades it, and at length also makes it blind. Those same people possess no conscience, nor do they know that conscience consists in saying that something just is just, and for no other reason than because it is so, that is, from a love of what is just. People who are like this in the world are also like it in the next life, except for the difference that they do not then say something just is unjust. Instead they call the good of faith evil, and truth falsity, since what is just in dealings with people in the world corresponds to what is good and true in the spiritual world. This is done by them without conscience and also without any shame because it was something they had learned to do during their lifetime and grown accustomed to.

[3] Many times in the Word the expression 'a lie' is used, and wherever it occurs the falsity and evil of faith is meant in the internal sense. And 'the witness of a lie', who is also called 'the witness of violence', means confirming something false, whether before a judge, or before someone else, or before oneself by convincing oneself in one's inner thinking, as in Exodus 23:1ff; Leviticus 19:11-12ff; Deuteronomy 19:16-20. The fact that 'a lie' in the spiritual sense is the evil and falsity of faith is clear from the following places: In John,

You are from your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has not stood in the truth because the truth is not in him. When he speaks a lie he speaks from the things that are his own, for he is the teller of a lie and the father of it. John 8:44.

Here 'a lie' stands for falsity of faith, for it refers to the unwillingness of the Jews to acknowledge the Lord. 'The devil' in the spiritual sense here is falsity, and 'the father of it' is evil; for falsity springs from evil like son from father. The falsity that is the devil's is the falsity of faith, the evil that is his is the evil of self-love and love of the world.

[4] In Isaiah,

Moab is exceedingly proud; his haughtiness, and his pride, and his anger - his lies are not firm. Isaiah 16:6.

'Lies' stands for falsities of faith, since 'Moab' is those who, ruled by the evil of self-love, therefore falsify truths, 2468, 8315. In the same prophet,

We have made a covenant with death, and with hell we have shaped a vision. We have put our trust in a lie, and we have hidden in falsity. Isaiah 28:15.

In the same prophet,

They were a rebellious people, lying sons, sons who did not wish to hear the law of Jehovah. Isaiah 30:9.

In Jeremiah,

They deceive one another, ¹ and do not speak the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak a lie Jeremiah 9:5.

In the same prophet,

Behold, I am against those that prophesy lying dreams ² and tell them in order that they may mislead My people by their lies. Jeremiah 23:32.

In the same prophet,

O sword, [be] against the liars, that they may become foolish. Jeremiah 50:36.

In Ezekiel,

They have seen vanity and lying divination, ³ saying, Jehovah has said! when Jehovah has not sent them. Therefore thus has the Lord Jehovih said, Because you speak vanity and see a lie, therefore behold, I am against you. Ezekiel 13:6-9.

In Nahum,

Woe to the city of blood! ⁴ It is all full of lies and plunder. Nahum 3:1.

In Zephaniah,

The remnant of Israel will not do iniquity or speak any lie; nor will a fraudulent tongue be found in their mouth. They will feed and rest. Zephaniah 3:13.

In John,

Outside are dogs, and sorcerers, and fornicators, and murderers, and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices a lie. Revelation 22:15.

In these as in many other places 'a lie' stands for the falsity and evil of faith.

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