243. The third living creature had a face like a human being. This symbolizes the Divine truth of the Word in respect to its wisdom.

A human being in the Word symbolizes wisdom, because the human being was born to receive wisdom from the Lord and become an angel. The wiser someone is, therefore, the more human he is. True human wisdom consists in perceiving the existence of God, the nature of God, and what pertains to God. This is what the Divine truth of the Word teaches.

That a human being symbolizes wisdom is apparent from the following passages:

I will make a man more rare than fine gold, and a human being more rare than the gold of Ophir. (Isaiah 13:12)

A man means intelligence, and a human being wisdom.

...the inhabitants of the earth shall be burned up, and rare will be the human being left. (Isaiah 24:6)

...I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of a human being and the seed of an animal. (Jeremiah 31:27)

You are My flock...; you are humankind, I am your God. (Ezekiel 34:31)

...the ruined cities shall be filled with a flock of humankind. (Ezekiel 36:38)

I looked upon the earth when, lo, it was empty and void, and to the heavens when they had not their light... I looked when, lo, there was no human being... (Jeremiah 4:23, 25)

They sacrifice a human being, they kiss the calves. (Hosea 13:2)

He measured the wall (of the Holy Jerusalem): one hundred and forty-four cubits, the measure of a human being, which is that of an angel. (Revelation 21:17)

So, too, in many other places, where a human being symbolizes someone who is wise, and in an abstract sense, wisdom itself.

5696. 'And went out' means by means of a removal. This is clear from the meaning here of 'going out' as a removal; for one who removes himself goes out or departs from another. The matter contained in the internal sense is as follows: 'Joseph' in the highest sense represents the Lord; 'the ten sons of Israel' represents the truths and the forms of good present in the natural in the case of those who are being regenerated; while 'Benjamin' is the intermediary. Mercy springing out of love is shown towards the intermediary because this is the means by which what is below, that is, in the natural, is regenerated. But the Lord's love and mercy remain unseen until the joining together has been effected by means of the intermediary. Steps are also taken to prevent their being seen; for if they did come to be seen no regeneration would be possible. Those steps involve removal and concealment. Not that the Lord ever removes or conceals His mercy; but when the evils present in one who is being regenerated are brought to the fore it appears to that person as though the Lord has been removed and is concealed from him; for those evils stand in the way and are responsible for that appearance. One may compare what they do to dark clouds which stand between him and the sun, causing this to be absent and concealed from him. It is that kind of concealment and removal that is meant here.