788. 18:19 "And they put dust on their heads and cried out, weeping and mourning, and saying, 'Woe, woe, that great city!'" This symbolizes their interior and exterior grief and mourning, which is a lamentation that so eminent a religion was completely destroyed and condemned.

Putting dust on their heads symbolizes their interior and exterior grief and mourning over the destruction and damnation, as we will show below. To cry out, weeping and mourning, symbolizes their exterior grief and mourning - to weep symbolizing a mourning of the soul, and to grieve a grief of the heart. "Woe, woe, that great city!" symbolizes a grievous lamentation over the destruction and damnation. That "woe" symbolizes a lamentation over a calamity, misfortune, or damnation, and that "woe, woe," therefore symbolizes a grievous lamentation, may be seen in nos. 416, 769, 785; and that the city symbolizes the Roman Catholic religion may be seen in no. 785 and elsewhere.

That putting dust on the head symbolizes an interior grief and mourning over a destruction and damnation is clear from the following passages:

They will cry bitterly and cast dust on their heads; they will roll about in ashes. (Ezekiel 27:30)

(The daughters) of Zion sit on the ground...; they have cast dust on their heads... (Lamentations 2:10)

(Job's friends) rent their tunics and sprinkled dust upon their heads... (Job 2:12)

Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground without a throne... (Isaiah 47:1)

And so on elsewhere.

The people put dust on their heads when they grieved deeply, because dust symbolized something damned, as is apparent from Genesis 3:14, Matthew 10:14, Mark 6:11, Luke 10:10-12, and dust on the head represented the people's acknowledgment that of themselves they were damned, and thus their repentance, as in Matthew 11:21, Luke 10:13.

Dust symbolizes something damned because the land over the hells in the spiritual world consists of nothing but dust, without grass or plants.

785. 18:16 18:17 "And saying, 'Woe, woe, that great city, clothed in fine linen, purple, and scarlet, and adorned with gold, precious stones and pearls,' because in one hour such great riches were laid waste." This symbolizes their grievous lamentation that their magnificence and material gains were so suddenly and completely destroyed.

"Woe, woe," symbolizes a grievous lamentation, as in no. 769 above. That great city symbolizes the Roman Catholic religion, because it is said to be clothed in fine linen, purple, and scarlet, and adorned with gold, precious stones and pearls, which cannot be said of a city, but can be said of a religion. Being clothed in fine linen, purple, and scarlet, and adorned with gold, precious stones and pearls, symbolizes the same things as in nos. 725-727 above where the same words occur, depicting in general things magnificent in outward form. Such great riches being laid waste in one hour means symbolically that their material gains were suddenly and completely destroyed - one hour meaning suddenly and completely, as in no. 769 above, because time and everything having to do with time symbolizes a state (no. 476).

It is apparent from this that the description here contains the same symbolic meanings as those reported above.

Regarding the devastation of Babylon, something similar is said in Jeremiah:

(The land of Babylon) is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel... The thoughts of Jehovah stand against (her), to make (her) a desolation... They shall not take from you a stone for a corner, nor a foundation stone, because you shall be desolate forever... Babylon shall become a heap of ruins, a habitation of dragons, an astonishment and a hissing... ...Babylon has been reduced to desolation... The sea has come up over (her), she is covered with the multitude of its waves. Her cities have become a desolation, a dry land and a wilderness... (Jeremiah 51:5, 29, 26, 37, 41-43)