'Works,' as in Revelation 16:11, signify falsities of faith, and the resulting evils of life.

In Revelation, 'I know thy works,' is said frequently. This makes it clear that 'works' signify, generally, every aspect of the church.

'Works,' as in Genesis 46:33, denote goods, because they are from the will, and anything from the will is either good or evil, but anything from the understanding, like spoken words, are either truths or falsities.

In Genesis 2:2, the work signifies the celestial man, the highest use of God; or the accomplishment when the spiritual man becomes celestial. (Arcana Coelestia 84, 88)

In Exodus 5:9, work signifies assault for the purpose of subjugation. (Arcana Coelestia 7120)

In Genesis 39:11, it signifies the process when the Lord was conjoining Himself with spiritual good in the natural. (Arcana Coelestia 5004)

In Genesis 47:3; Psalms 8:3; 44:1; 63:12, works concern offices and uses which are done for the neighbor, the country, the church, and the Lord's kingdom.

In Exodus 5:4, work signifies that the people were not to be exempted from things that were hard to bear. (Arcana Coelestia 6073, Arcana Coelestia 7104)

In Revelation 2:2, works signify that the Lord sees man's exterior as well as his interior things. (Apocalypse Revealed 76)

In Revelation 2:6, it signifies that people do not want to claim personal merit. (Apocalypse Revealed 86)

In Revelation 2:19, 23, 26, it signifies all things of charity and faith. (Apocalypse Revealed 138, 141)

In Revelation 9:20, it signifies that they did not shun as sins their own things, which are evils of every kind. (Apocalypse Revealed 457)

(Odkazy: Arcana Coelestia 6048)

458. So as not to worship demons. This symbolically means that thus they were caught up in the evils of their lusts, and acted in concert with their like in hell.

Demons symbolize lusts for evil arising from a love of the world. That is because people in hell who are caught up in those lusts are called demons, and people on earth who are caught up in them too, become demons after death. They also have an affiliation with those in hell. For everyone is affiliated with spirits in respect to his affections, so closely that the two are inseparable. It is apparent from this that to worship demons is to yield to those lusts from a love of them.

Someone, then, who invokes faith alone as the chief tenet of his religion or as his idol - he, because he does not search out any evil in himself that he calls a sin, and therefore does not determine to remove it by repentance, remains caught up in it. And because every evil is composed of lusts, and is nothing but a bundle of lusts, it follows that a person who does not search out any evil in himself and refrain from it as a sin against God, which is possible solely through repentance, after death becomes a demon.

[2] Demons symbolize just such lusts in the following passages:

They sacrifice to demons, not to God. (Deuteronomy 32:17)

(The children of Israel) no longer offered their sacrifices to demons, after whom they had played the harlot. (Leviticus 17:7, cf. Psalms 106:37)

Ziyyim will meet with 'iyyim, and the forest demon will encounter its companion. (Isaiah 34:14)

Ziyyim will sing there, and their houses will be full of 'ochim; the offspring of owls will dwell there, and forest demons will caper there. (Isaiah 13:21).

Ziyyim, 'iyyim, 'ochim, and the offspring of owls symbolize various lusts. Forest demons are the kinds of lusts exhibited by priapi and satyrs.

Babylon... has become a dwelling place of demons, and a prison for every foul spirit... (Revelation 18:2)

The demons that the Lord cast out embodied such lusts when they lived in the world - regarding which see Matthew 8:16, 28; 9:32-33; 10:8; 12:22; 15:22; Luke 4:33-37, 41; 8:2, 8:26-40; 9:1, 9:37-42, 9:49; 13:32.