460. Which can neither see nor hear nor walk. This symbolically means, which do not have in them any spiritual or truly rational life.

This is said because idolaters believe that their idols see and hear, for they make them gods. But still this is not what the statement means. Rather it means that falsities in worship do not have in them any spiritual or truly rational life, as to see and hear means, symbolically, to understand and perceive (nos. 7, 25, 87). To walk, moreover, symbolically means to live (no. 167). Thus the three together symbolize a spiritual and truly rational life.

This is the symbolic meaning because idols symbolize falsities in worship, and these have no spiritual or rational life in them.

The statement that idols do not see, hear, or walk would be too obvious to deserve mention here if it did not have in it some symbolic meaning.

Similar statements regarding idols are made elsewhere in the Word, as in the following places:

They do not know or understand; ...their eyes... do not see; their hearts... do not know... Nor do they have any knowledge or intelligence... (Isaiah 44:9, 18-19)

...they do not speak..., they do not walk... (Jeremiah 10:3-10)

They have mouths, but they do not speak; they have eyes, but they do not see. (Psalms 115:5; 135:15-16)

These statements have a similar symbolic meaning, because idols symbolize falsities in worship, and falsities in worship have in them no life that is real.

In Genesis 18:22, this signifies the Lord's thought from His Human conjoined and adjoined with His Divine. (Arcana Coelestia 2245, 2247)

In Genesis 24:13, this signifies the state of conjunction of truth divine in the Human. (Arcana Coelestia 3065)

In Genesis 24:30, this signifies the presence of truth in general external knowledge of the natural man. (Arcana Coelestia 3135)

In Exodus 18:13, this signifies obedience from truth divine. (Arcana Coelestia 8686)

In Revelation 7:9, this signifies hearing the Lord and doing His Commandments. (Apocalypse Revealed 366)

In Psalm 1:1, to walk expresses life of thought from intention; to stand expresses the life of the intention from the will; and to sit, the life of the will. (Apocalypse Explained 687)

'To sit before Jehovah' is to be with Him, and so, it also means willing and acting from Him. 'To stand before Him,' is to look to and understand His will, and 'to walk before Him,' is to live according to His precepts, so from Him.