10217. As to those who are numbered of them. That this signifies a setting in order and disposing, is evident from the signification of “numbering,” when said of all things of the church, which are the truths and goods of faith and love, as being the setting in order and the disposing of them, consequently “those who were numbered” signify what has been set in order and disposed. “Numbering” has this signification because numbering involves survey, and that which is surveyed by the Lord is also set in order and disposed. Moreover, the word by which numbering is here expressed, in the original tongue means to survey, to estimate, to observe, and also to visit, to command, to preside, thus to set in order and dispose. That these significations belong to this word is because in the spiritual sense the one thing involves the other, and the spiritual sense is the interior sense of the words, which sense is often contained in the words of languages, especially of the oriental languages.

[2] That in the spiritual sense, in which sense the truths and goods of faith and love are treated of, “to number” denotes to set in order and dispose, is evident also from the passages in the Word where “numbering” is spoken of, and also “number,” as in the following, as in Isaiah:

The voice of a tumult of the kingdoms of the nations gathered together; Jehovah Zebaoth numbers (setteth in order) the army of war (Isaiah 13:4).

Lift up your eyes on high, and see who hath created these; He that hath brought forth by number their army; He calleth them all by name; of the multitude of the powerful and of the mighty in strength, not a man is lacking (Isaiah 40:26).

Jehovah who numbers the army of the stars; He calleth all by names (Psalms 147:4).

That by “numbering” in these passages is signified to set in order and dispose, is plain, for it is said of Jehovah, that is, the Lord, who does not number any army, or stars, but sets in order and disposes those things which are signified by an “army” and by “stars,” which are the truths and goods of faith and love; for the subject treated of is not wars in the natural world, but wars in the spiritual world, which are wars or combats of truths from good against falsities from evil. (That “wars” in the spiritual sense denote such combats, see n. 1664, 2686, 8273, 8295; that an “army” denotes the truths and goods of the church and of heaven, n. 7988, 8019; and that “stars” denote the knowledges of truth and good, n. 2495, 2849, 4697.)

[3] When it is known what is signified by “numbering,” and by “the sons of Israel,” it can be seen why it was not allowable for David to number the people, and why after he numbered them, Gad the prophet was sent to him, who declared the penalty (2 Samuel 24:1-15); and why it is here said that “everyone should give an expiation of his soul, that there be no plague in them in numbering them.” For by “the sons of Israel” are signified the truths and goods of the church, and by “numbering” is signified to set in order and dispose; and because it is of the Lord alone to set in order and dispose the truths and goods of faith and of love with everyone in the church and in heaven, therefore when this is done by a man, as it was done by David through Joab, it then signifies the setting in order and disposing of such things by man, and not by the Lord, which is not to set in order and dispose, but to destroy. If the numbering of the sons of Israel had not involved such things, there would not have been any sin or guilt in numbering them.

[4] (That by “the sons of Israel” are signified spiritual truths and goods, which are the truths and goods of the church and of heaven, see n. 5414, 5801, 5803, 5812, 5817, 5819, 5826, 5833, 5879, 5951, 7957, 8234, 8805; in like manner by the tribes into which the sons of Israel were divided, n. 3858, 3926, 4060, 6335, 6397) As by “the sons of Israel” and by the “tribes” such things are signified, and these are innumerable, therefore in the Word it is said of them that:

Their number should be as the sand of the sea, which shall not be measured, nor numbered (Hosea 1:10).

Who will number the dust of Jacob, and the number of Israel? (Numbers 23:10).

Jehovah said to Abraham, I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth; so that if one can number the dust of the earth, it shall be that thy seed will be numbered (Genesis 13:16; 16:10).

Look up toward heaven, and number the stars, if thou be able to number them. So shall thy seed be (Genesis 15:5).

That by “the sons of Israel,” and by “the seed of Abraham,” was not meant their posterity; but spiritual truths and goods, which are innumerable, and also for the most part unutterable, can be seen from the fact that there was not a greater multitude of them than of other nations, which also Moses testifies:

Not because of your multitude above all peoples hath Jehovah desired you, that He should choose you, for indeed ye are fewer than all peoples (Deuteronomy 7:7).

[5] Moreover, by “numbering” is signified to set in order and dispose, in Jeremiah:

In the cities of Jerusalem and of Judah shall the flocks yet pass over according to the hands of him that numbers them (Jeremiah 33:13);

“flocks” also denote the goods and truths of the church (n. 6048, 8937, 9135); “according to the hands of him that numbers” denotes according to the disposing of the Lord.

In David:

Who knoweth the vehemence of Thine anger? For numbering our days, make known what is right, that we may put on a heart of wisdom (Psalms 90:12);

“to number days” denotes to set in order and dispose the states of life; and days are said to be “numbered” when they are set in order and disposed, thus when they are finished, as in Isaiah:

By the letting out of my days I shall go away unto the gates of hell; I have been numbered as to the residue of my years (Isaiah 38:10);

A writing appeared before King Belshazzar: Numbered, Weighed, and Divided (Daniel 5:25);

for when “to number” signifies to set in order and dispose, then what is “numbered” signifies what is finished, as when a line is drawn under numbers on completing the calculation.

[6] That by “numbering” is signified to set in order and dispose, is because by “number” is signified the quality of a thing and of a state, and the quality is determined by the adjoined number; hence “to number” denotes to qualify, and in spiritual things qualification is effected by a setting in order and a disposing by the Lord. This is signified by “number” in John:

He causeth that he give to all a mark upon their right hand or upon their foreheads, and that no one can buy or sell save he that hath the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath intelligence count the number of the beast; for it is the number of a man; namely, the number six hundred and sixty-six (Revelation 13:16-18).

[7] The subject treated of in this chapter is the beast out of the sea and the beast out of the earth; by the “beast out of the sea” is meant the truth of the church falsified by means of memory-knowledges which are from the world; and by the “beast out of the earth” is meant the truth of the church falsified by means of the literal sense of the Word applied to favor the evils of the loves of self and of the world; for the “earth” denotes the church as to good and truth (see the places cited in n. 9325; and the “sea” denotes memory-knowledge in general, n. 28, 2850, 2120). “To have his mark upon the hand and upon the forehead” denotes to acknowledge all things no matter what they may be; for the “forehead” signifies love (n. 9936); and a “name” signifies all the quality of that which is being treated of (n. 3006, 3421, 6674, 8274, 9310).

[8] “To count the number of the beast” denotes to explore and know these falsified truths of the church; “the number of a man” signifies the subject and the state of the church; “six hundred and sixty-six” signifies its quality as to all truths falsified from evil, and also the profanation of what is holy, and likewise the end. To know these things, and to explore them, is the part of a wise and intelligent man, and therefore it is said, “this is wisdom, let him that hath intelligence count its number;” for the number “six” signifies the same as the number “twelve,” because it is the half of it (n. 3960, 7973, 8148); and “twelve” signifies all the truths and goods of the church in the complex (n. 2129, 2130, 3272, 3858, 3913, 7973), hence also in the opposite sense it signifies all falsities and evils in the complex. The trebling of the number six also involves the end, and the end is when truth is completely profaned.

[9] From all this it is very evident that numbers in the Word involve things and states, and signify quality according to the numbers fixed upon, as also in the following words in John:

The angel measured the wall of the holy Jerusalem a hundred and forty-four cubits, which is the measure of a man, that is, of an angel (Revelation 21:17);

by the number fixed upon in this passage are also signified all truths and goods in the complex, for “a hundred and forty-four” signifies the same as “twelve” (n. 7973), for it arises from twelve multiplied into itself; and therefore it is here said that its “measure is the measure of a man,” as above that this number is “the number of a man;” but as truths from good are here signified, it is added that this measure is also “the measure of an angel,” for “an angel” in the Word signifies truths from good, because he is a recipient of Divine truth from the Lord (see n. 8192).

1664. That the wars here mentioned signify nothing else, in the internal sense, than spiritual wars, or temptations, was said above, at the beginning of this chapter. By the wars mentioned in the Word, especially in the Prophets, nothing else is signified. The wars of men can have no place in the internals of the Word; for such things are not spiritual and celestial, such as alone belong to the Word. That combats with the devil, or what is the same, with hell, are signified by the wars mentioned in the Word, may be seen from the passages that now follow, besides many others.

In John:

They are spirits of demons, doing signs, to go forth to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them together unto the war of that great day of God Almighty (Revelation 16:14); where everyone can see that no other war is signified, on the “great day of God Almighty.”

[2] Again:

The beast that cometh up out of the abyss shall make war (Revelation 11:7); where “the abyss” is hell. Again:

The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ (Revelation 12:17).

Again:

It was given unto him to make war with the saints (Revelation 13:7).

All of these “wars” are combats such as are those of temptations. The wars of the kings of the south and of the north, and the other wars mentioned in Daniel (chapters 8 and 11), also the things said of Michael (Daniel 10:13, 21; 12:1; Revelation 12:7), mean the same.

[3] That “wars” signify nothing else is evident also from the other Prophets. As in Ezekiel:

Ye have not gone up into the breaches, neither have ye built up the fence for the house of Israel, to stand in the war in the day of Jehovah (Ezekiel 13:5); where this is said concerning the Prophets.

In Isaiah:

They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more (Isaiah 2:4); where it is plain that no other wars are meant; and consequently that by the weapons of war, as by swords, spears, shields, and others, nothing else is meant in the Word than the things that pertain to such wars.

[4] Again in Isaiah:

Bring ye water to him that is thirsty; ye inhabitants of the land of Tema, meet with his bread him that is wandering; for they shall wander before the swords, before the drawn sword, and before the bent bow, and before the grievousness of war (Isaiah 21:14-15).

In Jeremiah:

Shepherds and their flocks shall come unto the daughter of Zion; they shall pitch their tents against her round about; they shall feed down everyone his space; sanctify a war against her; arise, and let us go up at noon (Jeremiah 6:3-5); where no other war is meant, for it is against the daughter of Zion, that is, the church.

[5] Again:

How is the city of praise not forsaken, the city of my joy; therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day (Jeremiah 49:25-26);

“the city of praise and of joy” denotes the things which are of the church; “the men of war,” those who combat.

[6] In Hosea:

In that day will I make a covenant for them with the wild beast of the field, and with the fowl of the heavens, and with the creeping thing of the ground; and I will break the bow, and the sword, and war out of the land, and will make them to lie down in confidence (Hos. 2:18); where in like manner “war” denotes combats, and the various arms of war those things which pertain to spiritual combat; these are “broken” when, yearnings and falsities ceasing, the man comes into the tranquillity of peace.

[7] In David:

Behold the works of Jehovah, who hath made solitudes in the earth, making wars to cease unto the end of the earth; He breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; He burneth the chariots in the fire (Psalms 46:8-9); where the meaning is similar. Again:

In Salem is the habitation of God, and his dwelling place in Zion. There He brake the fiery shafts of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the war (Psalms 76:2-3).

As the priests represented the Lord, who alone combats for man, their service is called “warfare” (Numbers 4:23, 35, 39, 4 4:43, 47).

[8] That Jehovah alone, that is, the Lord, combats and overcomes the devil that is with man when he is in the combats of temptations, although it does not so appear to the man, is a constant truth; for not even the smallest thing can be brought upon a man by evil spirits that is not by permission; and nothing, however small, can be averted by angels, except from the Lord; so that it is the Lord alone who sustains all the combat, and who overcomes; which also is everywhere represented by the wars waged by the sons of Israel against the nations. That it is the Lord alone, is also declared in Moses:

Jehovah your God who walketh before you, He shall fight for you (Deuteronomy 1:30).

Again:

Jehovah your God is He that walketh with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you (Deuteronomy 20:4; so too in Joshua, as chapter 23, 5).

[9] For the wars there that were carried on against the idolatrous inhabitants of the land of Canaan, all represented the Lord’s combats with hell; and consequently those of His church, and those of the men of His church. This also accords with the following words in Isaiah:

As the lion roareth, and the young lion, over his prey, when a multitude of shepherds come running against him, he will not be dismayed at their voice, nor afflicted by their tumult; so Jehovah Zebaoth shall come down to fight upon Mount Zion, and upon the hill thereof (Isaiah 31:1).

[10] For this reason, also, Jehovah or the Lord is also called a “Man of War.” As in Moses:

Jehovah is a Man of War, Jehovah is His name (Exodus 15:9). And in Isaiah:

Jehovah shall go forth as a Hero, He shall stir up zeal like a Man of wars; He shall cry, yea, He shall shout aloud, He shall prevail against His enemies (Isaiah 42:13).

This also is why many things that pertain to war are attributed to the Lord; as here to “cry” and “shout aloud.”

[11] Spirits and angels also appear as men of war when a representation is made. As in Joshua:

Joshua lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold there stood a man over against him, and his sword drawn in his hand. And he said unto Joshua, I am the prince of Jehovah’s army. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth (Josh. 5:13-14).

These things were so seen because they were representative; and for the same reason the posterity of Jacob called their wars the Wars of Jehovah.

[12] The same also was the case in the Ancient Churches; and among them were books which also were called The Wars of Jehovah; as is evident in Moses:

It is said in the Book of the Wars of Jehovah (Numbers 21:14-15).

This was written in a manner not unlike that in which wars are treated of in this chapter; but the wars of the church were signified. Such a mode of writing was familiar in those times; for then there were interior men, and they thought of exalted things.