8364. 'I will not put on you any sickness that I put on the Egyptians' means that they are to be withheld from the evils present among those who uphold separated faith and lead a life of evil. This is clear from the meaning of 'sickness' as evil, dealt with below; from the representation of 'the Egyptians' as those who uphold separated faith and lead a life of evil, dealt with in 7097, 7317, 7926, 8148; and from the meaning of 'not putting on you' - when used in association with 'sickness', which means evil - as withholding from evil. For Jehovah, that is, the Lord, does not take away evil but withholds a person from it and maintains him in good, 929, 1581, 2256, 2406, 4564, 8206. So it is that 'not putting a sickness on them' means that they are to be withheld from evils.

[2] The reason why 'sickness' means evil is that in the internal sense the kinds of things that attack spiritual life are meant. The sicknesses which attack it are evils, and they are called evil desires and cravings; and the components of spiritual life are faith and charity. That life is sick when falsity exists instead of the truth of faith and evil instead of the good of charity, because they lead to the death of that life, which is called spiritual death and is damnation, just as sicknesses lead to the death of natural life. This is why in the internal sense 'sickness' means evil, and 'the sicknesses of the Egyptians' means the evils which those upholding separated faith and leading a life of evil cast themselves into, and which they used to molest the upright. Those evils have been dealt with in what has gone before, where the plagues in Egypt were the subject.

[3] Evils are again meant by 'sicknesses' elsewhere in the Word, as in Moses,

If you keep the commandments and the statutes and the judgements which I am commanding you today, Jehovah will take away all sickness from you, and will not put on you any of the evil diseases of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them on [all] who hate you. Deuteronomy 7:11, 15.

In the same author,

If you will not obey the voice of Jehovah your God, taking care to do all His commandments and His statutes, Jehovah will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke in all that you set your hand to do, ¹ until you are destroyed, because of the wickedness of your deeds by which you have forsaken Me. Jehovah will make the pestilence cling to you, until He has consumed you from upon the land. Jehovah will strike you with consumption, and hot fever, and burning fever, and raging fever, and drought, and blight, and mildew, which will pursue you until you perish. Jehovah will strike you with the sores of Egypt, and with hemorrhoids, and the scab, and the itch, so that you cannot be healed. Jehovah will strike you with madness, and blindness, and stupefaction. ² You will be made mad by what your eyes will see ³ . Jehovah will strike you with evil sores on the knees and on the thighs, from which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the top of your head. He will throw back onto you every disease of Egypt, also every sickness and every plague that is not written in the book of this Law. Jehovah will give you a trembling heart, failing ⁴ of eyes, and distress of soul. Deuteronomy 28:15, 20-22, 27-28, 34-35, 60-61, 65.

All the sicknesses mentioned here mean spiritual sicknesses, which are evils destructive of the life of a will desiring what is good and falsities destructive of the life of an understanding seeing what is true, in short things destructive of spiritual life composed of faith and charity. Natural sicknesses also correspond to such things, for every sickness present among the human race has its origin in spiritual ones, because each exists as a result of sin, 5712, 5726. Each sickness furthermore corresponds to its own evil. The explanation for this is that everything composing a person's life originates in the spiritual world. If therefore his spiritual life is sick, evil spreads from it into his natural life and becomes a sickness there. See what has been stated from experience in 5711-5727 about the correspondence of sicknesses with evils.

[4] The same things are meant by 'sicknesses' elsewhere, as in Moses,

You shall worship Jehovah your God, in order that He may bless your bread and your water; and I will take sickness out of your midst. Exodus 23:25.

In the same author,

If you despise My statutes, and if your soul abhors My judgements, so that you do not do all My commandments, while you make void My covenant, I will appoint terror over you, along with consumption, and burning fever, which will consume the eyes and torment the soul. Leviticus 26:15-16.

'Consumption' stands for the decrease of truth and the increase of falsity, 'burning fever' for the desire for evil. Further still, in Isaiah,

Why will you also defect? ⁵ The whole head [departs] into sickness, and the whole heart is diseased. From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it, but wounds, and scars, and recent blows. They are not pressed out, nor bound up, nor softened with oil. Isaiah 1:5-6.

Here nobody can fail to see that 'sickness', 'wounds', 'scars', and 'blows' are used to mean sins. Similarly in Ezekiel,

Woe to the shepherds of Israel! The weak sheep you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, and the broken you have not bound up. Ezekiel 34:2, 4.

In David,

My iniquities have gone over my head. My wounds have become putrid, they have rotted away because of my foolishness. For my intestines are full of burning, and there is no soundness in my flesh. Psalms 38:4-7.

[5] Since the disorders and evils of spiritual life are meant by 'sicknesses', the various kinds of disorders and evils of that life are meant by the various kinds of sicknesses. 'Pestilence' means the vastation or laying waste of goodness and truth, see 7102, 7505; and 'leprosy' means the profanation of truth, 6963. In general 'sicknesses' means sins, as may also be seen in Isaiah,

... a man of sorrows, and acquainted with sickness, on account of which as it were men hid their faces from Him. He was despised, so that we did not esteem Him. Nevertheless He has borne our sicknesses and carried our sorrows, and through His wounds healing has been given to us. Isaiah 53:3-5.

This refers to the Lord.

[6] Since sicknesses represented the unrighteous ways and the evils of spiritual life the sicknesses which the Lord healed have as their meaning deliverance from the different kinds of evil and falsity that were molesting the Church and human race and that would have brought spiritual death. Divine miracles are distinguishable from other miracles by the fact that they involve and have regard to states of the Church and the heavenly kingdom; and this is why the Lord's miracles were primarily healing of sicknesses. These miracles are meant by the Lord's words addressed to the disciples sent by John,

Tell John the things which you hear and see: the blind see and the lame walk; lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead rise again and the poor hear the gospel. Matthew 11:4-5.

This is why it says so many times that the Lord healed every sickness and every disease among the people, Matthew 4:23; 9:35; 14:14, 35-36; Luke 4:40; 5:15; 6:17; 7:21; Mark 1:32-34; 3:10.

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6534. 'And horsemen' means intellectual concepts. This is clear from the meaning of 'horsemen' as things connected with the understanding; for 'a horse' means the power of understanding, 2760-2761, 3217, 5321, 6125. The meaning of 'horsemen' as things connected with the understanding becomes clear in addition from the following places: In Moses,

Jehovah alone led him; He caused him to ride over the heights of the land. Deuteronomy 32:12, 17.

This refers to the Ancient Church. 'Causing to ride over the heights of the land' stands for endowing with superior understanding.

[2] In David,

In your majesty ¹ climb into [your chariot], and ride on the word of truth and meekness and righteousness, and your right arm will teach you marvellous things. Psalms 45:4.

This refers to the Lord. 'Riding on the word of truth' stands for having a genuine understanding of truth. In the same author,

Sing to God, praise His name; exalt Him who rides on the clouds by His name Jah. Psalms 68:4.

This too refers to the Lord. 'The clouds' stands for the literal sense of the Word, preface to Genesis 18, and 4060, 4391, 5922, 6343 (end); 'riding on them' stands for being in command of the internal sense, in which truth resides with all the intelligence and wisdom it can bring.

[3] In Zechariah,

On that day I will strike every horse with panic, and its rider with madness; and on the house of Judah I will open My eye. But every horse of the peoples I will strike with blindness. Zechariah 12:4.

'Horse' stands for the power of understanding, and 'rider' or 'horseman' for the intellect. Does anyone not see that 'horse' here does not mean a horse, or that 'rider' does not mean rider, but that something else such as can be struck with panic and madness, and also with blindness, is meant? That something else, it is evident, is the understanding or intellect.

[4] By 'horses and horsemen' intellectual concepts are meant, and in the contrary sense reasonings and consequent falsities, as may be seen in John,

I saw, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow; to him a crown was given; he went out conquering. Then there came out another horse, fiery-red; and it was granted to him who sat on it that he should take peace away from the earth, and that men should slay one another. Therefore to him was given a great sword. I saw, and behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it held a balance in his hand. I saw therefore, and behold, a pale horse and he who sat on it, whose name was death. Revelation 6:2, 4-5, 8.

Here, as is evident from the details of the description, the horses and those seated on them mean things connected with an understanding consisting of truth, and in the contrary sense an understanding consisting of falsity. 'The white horse and he who sat on it' stands for an understanding consisting of truth gained from the Word; the one seated on the white horse is, as explicitly stated in Revelation 19:11, 13, 16, the Lord as to the Word. 'The fiery-red horse and he who sat on it' stands for reasonings resulting from desires for evil, which do violence to truths from the Word. 'The black horse and he who sat on it' stands for a destroyed ability to understand the truth, while 'the pale horse and he who sat on it' stands for damnation resulting from such destruction.

[5] 'Horses and horsemen' in the contrary sense stands for a perverted understanding and the falsities it produces, in Ezekiel also,

Oholah committed whoredom under Me and doted on her lovers - governors and leaders, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding on horses. Her sister Oholibah was in love with the sons of Asshur - governors and leaders, her neighbours, clothed in perfect adornment, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men. Ezekiel 23:5-6, 12.

'Oholah' stands for the perverted spiritual Church, which is Samaria, and 'Oholibah' for the perverted celestial Church, which is Jerusalem; for the Israelites who belonged to Samaria represented the spiritual Church, but the Jews who belonged to Jerusalem represented the celestial Church. 'The Assyrians' and 'the sons of Asshur' stand for reasoning against the truths of faith, 1186, 'horsemen riding on horses' for a perverted understanding, from which falsities are produced.

[6] In Habakkuk,

I am rousing the Chaldeans, a bitter and headstrong nation, marching into the breadth of the earth, to inherit habitations that are not its own Its horses are swifter than leopards, sharper than the evening wolves, so that its horsemen spread out, and therefore its horsemen come from afar. Habakkuk 1:6, 8.

'The Chaldeans' stands for those governed by falsities, though to outward appearances they are governed by truths; thus 'the Chaldeans' stands for the profanation of truth, whereas 'Babel' stands for the profanation of good, 1182, 1368. 'Marching into the breadth of the earth' stands for destroying truths - 'the breadth of the earth' meaning truth, see 3433, 3434, 4482. From this it is evident that 'the horsemen who spread out and who arrive from afar' are things connected with a perverted understanding, which are therefore falsities.

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