3448. And Ahuzzath his companion, and Phicol the captain of his army. That this signifies the primaries of the doctrine of their faith, is evident from the representation of Abimelech, as being the doctrine of faith that looks to rational things; hence “his companion and the captain of his army” signify these primaries, and indeed the primaries which are of doctrine; for a “captain,” like a “prince,” signifies the things that are primary (n. 1482, 2089); and an “army” signifies the doctrinal things themselves. That an “army” signifies the doctrinal things that are of truth, or that are lower truths, is because by “warfare” in the Word, and by “war,” are signified the things that are of spiritual warfare and war (n. 1664, 1788, 2686); as also by “arms,” such as spears,” “shields,” “bows,” “arrows,” “swords,” and the like, as has been shown elsewhere. And because it is truths or doctrinal things by means of which spiritual combats are waged, therefore by “armies” these are signified; and also in the opposite sense things false or heretical.

[2] That both are signified in the Word by “armies,” may be seen from many passages, as in Daniel:

One horn of the he-goat grew exceedingly toward the south, and toward the sunrise, and toward beauty. And it grew even to the army of the heavens, and some of the army and of the stars it cast down to the ground, and trampled upon them. Yea, it magnified itself, even to the Prince of the army. His army was given over with the continual sacrifice to transgression; and it cast down truth to the ground. I heard a holy one speaking; and another holy one said, How long shall be this vision, the continual sacrifice, and the transgression that wasteth, to give both the sanctuary and the army to be trampled down? (Daniel 8:9-13).

The “horn which grew toward the south, toward the sunrise, and toward beauty,” is the power of falsity from evil (n. 2832); the “armies of the heavens” are truths; the “Prince of the army” is the Lord as to Divine truth; and because in a good sense an “army” is truth, it is said that the horn “cast down of the army to the ground,” and afterwards that it “cast truth to the ground.”

[3] Again:

The king of the north ¹ shall set forth a multitude greater than the former, and he shall come on at the end of the times of years, coming with a great army, and with much substance. And he shall stir up his power and his heart against the king of the south, with a great army; and the king of the south shall war in battle with an exceeding great and mighty army; but he shall not stand, for they that eat of his meat shall destroy him, and his army shall overflow; and many shall fall down slain (Daniel 11:13, 25-26).

The subject of this whole chapter is the war between the king of the north and the king of the south; and by the “king of the north” are meant falsities, as also by his “army;” and by the “king of the south” and his “army” are meant truths: it is a prophecy of the vastation of the church.

[4] In John:

I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse, and he that sat upon him was called faithful and true. He was clothed in a garment dipped in blood. And his armies in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen white and clean. And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against him that sat upon the horse, and against his army (Revelation 19:11, 13-14, 19);

“he that sat upon the white horse” denotes the Lord’s Word, or the Lord as to the Word (n. 2760-2762); “his armies in heaven that followed him” denote the truths therefrom, consequently those in heaven who are in truths; the “beast” denotes the evils of the love of self; the “kings of the earth and their armies” denote falsities. The combats of falsity with truth are what are here described.

[5] In David:

By the word of Jehovah were the heavens made, and all the army of them by the breath of His mouth (Psalms 33:6).

The “army of them,” or of the heavens, denotes truths. Because truths are signified by an “army,” the sons of the kingdom and the angels, from the truths in which they are, are called the “army of the heavens” as in Luke:

Suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly army praising God (Luke 2:13).

In David:

Bless Jehovah, all ye His armies, ye ministers of His that do His will (Psalms 103:21).

Praise ye him all His angels; praise ye Him all His army (Psalms 148:2).

In Isaiah:

Lift up your eyes on high, and see who hath created these; He that bringeth out their army by number. He calleth them all by name; of the multitude of the powerful and of the mighty not a man is lacking (Isaiah 40:26).

I have made the earth and created man upon it; I, My hands have stretched out the heavens, and all their army have I commanded (Isaiah 45:12); where the “army of the heavens” denotes truths, thus the angels, because they are in truths, as has been shown.

[6] In the first book of Kings:

I saw Jehovah sitting on His throne, and all the army of the heavens standing by Him on His right hand and on His left (1 Kings 22:19).

In Joel:

Jehovah uttereth His voice before His army; for His camp is very great; for he is strong that doeth His word (Joel 2:11).

In Zechariah:

I will encamp about My house against the army that passeth through and returneth, and no exactor shall pass through them any more. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; make a loud noise, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold thy King cometh unto thee (Zech. 9:8-9); where the coming of the Lord is treated of; his “army” denotes truths Divine. It is from this and also because the Lord alone fights for man against the hells which are in the continual effort to assault him, that in the Word the Lord is so often called “Jehovah Zebaoth,” “God Zebaoth,” the “Lord Zebaoth,” that is, “of armies” as in Isaiah:

The voice of a tumult of the kingdoms of the nations gathered together; Jehovah Zebaoth mustereth the army for the battle (Isaiah 13:4);

“the kingdoms of the nations” denote falsities from evils; “mustering the army for the battle” denotes fighting for man.

[7] Inasmuch as the twelve tribes of Israel represented the Lord’s heavenly kingdom, and “tribes” and likewise “twelve” signified all things of faith in one complex, that is, all truths of the kingdom (n. 577, 2089, 2129, 2130, 3272), therefore also they were called the “armies of Jehovah;” as in Exodus 7:4; 12:17, 41, 51; and it was commanded that they should be brought out of Egypt “according to their armies” (Exodus 6:26); and should mete out the camp “according to their armies” (Numbers 1:52); and should be distributed into their “armies” (Numbers 2).

[8] That by “armies” are signified truths, is evident also in Ezekiel:

Persia and Lud and Put were in thine army, thy men of war; they hanged the shield and the helmet in thee, they set forth thine honor; the sons of Arvad and thine army were upon thy walls round about, and the Gammadim were in thy towers (Ezekiel 27:10-11);

speaking of Tyre, by which are signified the interior knowledges of good and truth, and thus those who are therein (n. 1201); “army” denotes the truths themselves; that “Lud and Put” are also those who are in knowledges may be seen above (n. 1163, 1164, 1166, 1195, 1231); “shield and helmet” are such things as pertain to spiritual combat or war.

[9] That in the opposite sense “armies” signify falsities, is manifest in Isaiah:

It shall come to pass in that day that Jehovah shall visit upon the army of the height in the height, and upon the kings of the earth upon the earth (Isaiah 24:21); where the “armies of the height” denote falsities from the love of self.

In Ezekiel:

I will bring thee back, and put hooks in thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them completely clad, a great company with buckler and shield, all of them handling swords. Thou shalt come from thy place out of the sides to the north, thou and many peoples with thee, all of them riding on horses, a great company and a mighty army (Ezekiel 38:4, 15);

speaking of Gog, by whom is signified external worship separate from internal, thus become idolatrous (n. 1151); his “army” denotes falsities.

[10] In Jeremiah:

I will send against Babylon him that bendeth, bending his bow, and lifting up himself in his coat of mail; spare ye not her young men, give to the curse all her army (Jeremiah 51:2-3);

“Babylon” denotes worship the externals of which appear holy, but the interiors are profane (n. 1182, 1283, 1295, 1304, 1306-1308, 1321, 1322, 1326); “her army” is the falsities of such profane interiors, as in like manner the “army of Babylon” in other passages (as Jeremiah 32:2; 34:1, 21; 39:1).

In Ezekiel:

Pharaoh shall see them, and shall be comforted over all his multitude, Pharaoh and all his army, slain by the sword. For I will put the terror of Me in the land of the living (Ezekiel 32:31-32);

speaking of Egypt, by which are signified those who pervert truths by reasonings from memory-knowledges (n. 1164, 1165); “his army,” or the army of Pharaoh, denotes falsities therefrom; the like is also signified by the “army of Pharaoh” in other passages (as Jeremiah 37:5, 7, 11; 46:2; Ezekiel 17:17).

In Luke:

When ye see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that her desolation is at hand (Luke 21:20); where the consummation of the age is treated of, or the last time of the church, when there is no longer any faith. That by “Jerusalem” is signified the church, see above (n. 2117), which is “compassed with armies” when it is beset by falsities.

[11] Hence it is evident that by the “armies of the heavens” which the Jews and idolaters adored, in the internal sense were signified falsities, concerning which in the second book of Kings:

They forsook all the commandments of their God, and made them a molten image, even two calves, and made a grove, and bowed themselves down to all the army of the heavens (2 Kings 17:16).

This is said of the Israelites; and in another place it is written concerning Manasseh that:

He built altars for all the army of the heavens (2 Kings 21:5);

and again that:

Josiah the king brought forth out of the temple all the vessels made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the army of the heavens (2 Kings 23:4);

and in Jeremiah, that:

They should bring out the bones of the princes, of the priests, and of the prophets, and should spread them before the sun and the moon, and all the army of the heavens, which they have loved, and which they have served, and after which they have walked (Jeremiah 8:1-2

The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah shall be unclean like Tophet, as to all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the army of the heavens, and have poured out drink-offerings unto other gods (Jeremiah 19:13).

And in Zephaniah:

I will stretch out Mine hand against them that worship the army of the heavens upon the roofs (Zeph. 1:4-5);

for it is principally the stars that are called the “army of the heavens;” and that by the “stars” are signified truths, and in the opposite sense falsities, may be seen above (n. 1128, 1808).

Poznámky pod čarou:

2015. Kings shall go forth from thee. That this signifies that all truth is from Him, is evident from the signification of a “king,” in both the historical and the prophetic Word, as being truth (stated above, n. 1672, but not yet fully shown). From the signification of “nations” as being goods, and from the signification of “kings” as being truths, we can see the nature of the internal sense of the Word, and also how remote it is from the sense of the letter. He who reads the Word, especially the historical portion, has no other belief than that the nations there are nations, and kings, and thus that nations and kings are treated of in the very Word itself. But the idea of nations, as well as that of kings, altogether perishes when it is received by the angels, and in their place there succeed good and truth. This cannot but appear as strange and indeed as a paradox, but still it is really so, and the truth of it may appear to everyone from considering that if, in the Word, nations were signified by “nations,” and kings by “kings,” then the Word of the Lord would involve scarcely anything more than any other history, or any other writing, and thus would be a merely worldly affair, when yet there is nothing in the Word that is not Divine, and therefore celestial and spiritual.

[2] Take as a single instance what is said in this verse, that Abraham should be made fruitful and should be made nations, and that kings should go forth from him-what is this but a merely worldly matter, and in no respect heavenly? For in these things there is only the glory of the world, which is nothing at all in heaven; but if this is the Word of the Lord, there must be in it the glory of heaven, and none of the world’s glory. Therefore the sense of the letter is altogether obliterated and vanishes when it passes into heaven; and it is so purified that nothing that is worldly is intermingled. For by “Abraham” is not meant Abraham, but the Lord; by his being “made fruitful” is not meant that his posterity should increase exceedingly, but that the good of the Lord’s Human Essence should increase to infinitude; by the “nations” are not meant nations, but goods; and by the “kings,” not kings but truths. Still the history according to the sense of the letter remains true; for it is true that it was so said to Abraham; also that he was made fruitful, and that nations and kings came from him.

[3] That “kings” signify truths, may be seen from the following passages.

In Isaiah:

The sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee; thou shalt suck the milk of the nations, and the breast of kings shalt thou suck (Isaiah 60:10, 16);

what it is to “suck the milk of nations” and “the breast of kings,” is by no means plain from the letter, but it is from the internal sense, in which it signifies to be gifted with goods, and instructed in truths.

In Jeremiah:

There shall enter in by the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses (Jeremiah 17:25; 22:4);

to “ride in chariots and on horses” is a prophetical saying which signifies an abundance of intellectual things, as may appear from very many passages in the Prophets; and thus by “kings entering in by the gates of the city” is signified in the internal sense that they should be imbued with truths of faith. This is the heavenly sense of the Word, into which the worldly literal sense passes.

[4] Again, in the same Prophet:

Jehovah hath despised in the indignation of His anger the king and the priest; the gates of Zion have sunk into the earth; He hath destroyed and broken her bars; her king and her princes are among the nations; the law is not (Lamentations 2:6, 9);

“the king” here denotes the truth of faith; “the priest” the good of charity; “Zion” the church which is being destroyed, and whose bars are being broken; hence “the king and the princes are among the nations,” that is, truth and the things which are of truth will be banished to such an extent that there will be no “law,” that is, nothing of the doctrine of faith.

In Isaiah:

Before the child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the ground shall be forsaken, which thou loathest in the presence of her two kings (Isaiah 7:16); where the Lord’s coming is treated of; the “ground which shall be forsaken” denotes faith, of which there would then be none, and the truths of which are the “kings that would be loathed.”

[5] In the same Prophet:

I will lift up My hand to the nations, and raise up My ensign to the peoples; and they shall bring thy sons in their bosom, and thy daughters shall be carried upon the shoulder; and kings shall be thy nourishers, and their queens those that give thee suck (Isaiah 49:22-23);

“the nations” and “the daughters” denote goods; and “the peoples” and “the sons” truths (as shown in Part First, where it may be seen that “nations” denote goods, n. 1259, 1260, 1416, 1849; and that “daughters” have a similar signification, n. 489-491; also that “peoples” denote truths, n. 1259, 1260; and “sons” likewise, n. 489, 491, 533, 1147). “Kings” therefore denote truths in general, by which they will be nourished, and their “queens” the goods from which they will be “suckled.” Whether you say goods and truths, or those who are in goods and truths, it is the same.

[6] Again in the same Prophet:

He shall sprinkle many nations, upon him kings shall shut their mouth-for that which was [not] told them have they seen; and that which they did not hear have they understood (Isaiah 52:15),

where the Lord’s coming is spoken of; the “nations” denote those who are affected by goods, and “kings” those who are affected by truths.

In David:

Now, O ye kings, be intelligent; be instructed, ye judges of the earth; serve Jehovah with fear, and exult with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish in the way (Psalms 2:10-12).

“Kings” denote those who are in truths; who also from their truths are often called “king’s sons;” “the Son” here denotes the Lord, who is here called “the Son” because He is the truth itself, and because all truth is from Him.

[7] In John:

They shall sing a new song, Worthy art Thou who takest the book, and openest the seals thereof; Thou hast made us unto our God kings and priests, that we may reign upon the earth (Revelation 5:9-10); where they who are in truths are called “kings.”

The Lord also calls such persons “the sons of the kingdom,” in Matthew:

He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; the field is the world; the seed is the sons of the kingdom, and the tares are the sons of the evil one (Matthew 13:37-38).

In John:

The sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the Kings that are from the sun rising might be prepared (Revelation 16:12).

That by the “Euphrates” is not meant the Euphrates, nor by “the kings from the sun-rising” any kings therefrom, is evident (what is meant by the “Euphrates” may be seen above, n. 120, 1585, 1866); so that “the way of the kings that are from the sun-rising” means the truths of faith that are from the goods of love.

[8] In the same:

The nations that are saved shall walk in the light of it, and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory and honor into it (Revelation 21:24); where “the nations” denote those who are in goods, and “the kings of the earth” those who are in truths, as may be inferred from the fact that these words are prophetic, and not historical.

In the same:

With the great harlot that sitteth upon many waters the kings of the earth have committed whoredom, and have been made drunken with the wine of her whoredom (Revelation 17:1-2).

And again:

Babylon hath made all the nations drink of the wine of her whoredom, and the kings of the earth have committed whoredom with her (Revelation 18:3, 9); where in like manner it is evident that kings are not meant by “the kings of the earth;” for the falsification and adulteration of the doctrine of faith, that is, of truth, is treated of, and this is the “whoredom;” “the kings of the earth” denote the truths that are falsified and adulterated.

[9] In the same:

The ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, that have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority [potestas] as kings with the beast for one hour. These shall have one mind, and shall give their power and authority to the beast (Revelation 17:12-13).

That these “kings” are not kings, is evident to everyone; for if so it would be wholly unintelligible that the ten kings should receive authority as kings one hour. So too in another passage:

I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war with him that sat upon the horse, and with his army (Revelation 19:19).

That “he that sat upon the horse” is “the Word of God,” is openly stated in verse 13; and it is against this that the kings of the earth are said to have been gathered together. “The beast” denotes the goods of love, profaned; and “the kings” denote the truths of faith, adulterated; these are called “the kings of the earth,” because they are within the church. (That “the earth” is the church may be seen above, n. 662, 1066, 1067, 1262.) The “white horse” denotes the understanding of truth; and “he that sat upon the horse,” the Word. This meaning is still more manifest in Daniel (chapter 11), where the war between “the king of the south” and “the king of the north” is treated of; by which terms are signified the truths and falsities that had fought, the combats being described here also in an historical manner by this “war.”

[10] As “a king” signifies truth, it may be seen what is meant in the internal sense when the Lord is called a King and also a Priest; and also what it was in the Lord that was represented by kings, and what by priests. Kings represented His Divine truth, and priests His Divine good. All the laws of order by which the Lord governs the universe as King, are truths; but all the laws by which He governs the universe as Priest, and by which also He rules truths themselves, are goods; for government from truths alone would condemn everyone to hell; but government from goods lifts everyone out thence and uplifts him into heaven (see n. 1728). Because in the Lord’s case these two are conjoined, they were anciently represented by kingship conjoined with priesthood; as with Melchizedek, who was king of Salem and at the same time priest to God Most High (Genesis 14:18); and afterwards with the Jews, among whom the representative church was instituted in its own form, by judges and priests, and afterwards by kings.

[11] But as the kings represented truths, which ought not to have command, for the reason, as before said, that they condemn, therefore the desire to have kings was so displeasing as to call for rebuke, and the nature of truth as regarded in itself was described by the rights [jus] of the king (1 Samuel 8:11-18); and at an earlier day it was commanded by Moses (Deuteronomy 17:14-18) that they should choose genuine truth which is from good, and not spurious; and that they should not defile it by reasonings and memory-knowledges [scientifica]. This is what is involved in the directions concerning a king, given in Moses in the place just cited; which no one can possibly see from the sense of the letter, but yet is evident from the several points contained in the internal sense; so that “king” and “kingship” evidently represented and signified nothing else than truth.