The Inner Meaning of the Prophets and Psalms # 155
155. Internal Meaning of Ezekiel, Chapter 32
Lament over those who by knowledges [scientiae] have perverted the holy things of the church. (3, 3)
1-2 They pervert all truths of the church. (3)
3-8 They fall into all falsities of evil, until they no longer see what is good and true. (3)
9-10 Those who are outside the church are horrified at their falsities. (3)
11-12 They destroy all things of the church by reasonings from the natural man. (3)
13-16 They shall be cast into hell, that they may no longer pervert truths in those who are in an affection for truth. (15)
15 In hell they will be associated with those who have profaned the holy things of the Word; (15, 17)
24-25 also with those who have falsified truths of doctrine; (15)
26-30 with those who have falsified the sense of the letter of the Word.
31-32 All of these will be with those who by knowledges [scientiae] have perverted the holy things of the church, and thus they will be separated from those who are of the church, lest they persecute them. (15)
Arcana Coelestia # 249
249. 'Eating dust all the days of its life' means that the sensory part had become such as could live from nothing else than the bodily and the earthly, and so had become hellish. This too is clear from the meaning of 'dust' in the Word, as in Micah, 7:14, 16-17.
Shepherd Your people as in the days of eternity. The nations will see and be ashamed at all their might, they will lick the dust like serpents of the earth they will be shifted from their strongholds.
'Days of eternity' stands for the Most Ancient Church, 'nations' for people who put their trust in the proprium, who are referred to as 'licking dust like a serpent'. In David,
Barbarians will bow down before God, and His enemies lick the dust. Psalms 72:9.
'Barbarians' and 'enemies' stand for those who look solely to earthly and worldly things. In Isaiah,
Serpents, dust will be their bread. Isaiah 65:25.
Because 'dust' meant people who did not look to spiritual and celestial things but to bodily and earthly, the Lord commanded the disciples to shake the dust off their feet if a city or house was not worthy, Matthew 10:14. For more on 'dust' meaning that which is condemned and hellish, see at verse 19.
