437. And the sound of their wings was like the sound of many horse-drawn chariots rushing into battle. This symbolizes their reasonings, as though founded on doctrinal truths from the Word fully understood, which they had to ardently defend.

The sound of wings symbolizes reasonings, because to fly means, symbolically, to perceive and teach (nos. 245, 415). Chariots symbolize doctrinal teachings, as we are about to show. Horses symbolize an understanding of the Word (no. 298), and many horses a full understanding. Plainly to rush into battle symbolizes an ardor to fight.

That a chariot symbolizes doctrine is clear from the following passages:

The chariots of God are twenty thousand, thousands of peaceful ones, the Lord among them... (Psalms 68:17)

(Jehovah) makes the clouds His chariots, He walks on the wings of the wind. (Psalms 104:3)

O Jehovah..., ...You ride on Your horses, Your chariots are salvation. (Habakkuk 3:8)

...behold, Jehovah will come with fire, and like a whirlwind His chariots... (Isaiah 66:15)

You shall be filled at My table with horses and chariots... (Thus) I will set My glory among the nations. (Ezekiel 39:20-21)

I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem. (Zechariah 9:10)

I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms... I will overthrow the chariots and those who ride in them. (Haggai 2:22)

...set a watchman, let him declare what he sees. He saw therefore a chariot, a pair of horsemen..., a chariot of camels..., and... the chariot of a man... And he... said, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen!" (Isaiah 21:6-7, 9)

Since Elijah and Elisha represented the Lord in respect to the Word and thus symbolized doctrine drawn from the Word, as did all the prophets (no. 8), therefore they were called "the chariots of Israel and its horsemen;" and for the same reason Elisha saw Elijah taken up into heaven in a chariot of fire, and Elisha's servant saw chariots and horses of fire around Elisha (2 Kings 2:11-12; 6:17; 13:14).

See also elsewhere where chariots are mentioned, as in Isaiah 31:1; 37:24; 66:20; Jeremiah 17:25; 22:4; 46:2-3, 8-9; 50:37-38; 51:20-21.

335. Verse 11. And I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the animals, and the elders, signifies the acknowledgment and consequent glorification of the Lord by the angels of the lower heavens. This is evident from what has been said above (n. 322), namely, that they acknowledged and glorified the Lord in this order; first the angels of the higher heavens, then the angels of the lower heavens, and lastly those who are below the heavens; for "the four animals" and "the four and twenty elders" who first glorified signify the angels of the higher heavens (See above, n. 322), but these now mentioned, who were "round about the throne" and "round about the animals and the elders," mean the angels of the lower heavens; and by "every creature that is in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth and in the sea" (of which see just below, verse 13) those who are below the heavens are meant. That the angels of the lower heavens are here meant is clear also from this, that they are said to be "round about the throne, the animals, and the elders," and "round about" means in the Word what is in the remote borders, thus what is distant; but where heaven is treated of, it means what is distant in degree of intelligence and wisdom, thus what is below. For the heavens are higher and lower, differing from each other according to the reception of Divine truth and good, thus according to degrees of intelligence and wisdom. (But respecting the degrees according to which the heavens, and consequently the angels who are in them, are distant from each other, see in the work on Heaven and Hell 33, 34, 38, 39, 208, 209, 211, 425.) What is below in accordance with these degrees is what is signified by "round about;" in like manner also, elsewhere in the Word, "round about," "circuit," "afar," "distant," "uttermost parts," and the like, have a like signification.