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).

2495. CHAPTER 20

That the Word contains within it an internal sense that is not apparent in the letter has already been stated and shown in many places, and the nature of this internal sense appears from all that has thus far been unfolded, beginning with the first chapter of Genesis. Nevertheless as the few who at this day believe in the Word do not know that there is such a sense, it may be well to confirm it further.

[2] The Lord describes the Consummation of the Age, or the last period of the church, as follows:

Immediately after the affliction of those days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken (Matthew 24:29; Mark 13:24).

That in this passage the “sun” does not mean the sun, nor the “moon” the moon, nor the “stars” the stars; but that the “sun” signifies love to the Lord and charity toward the neighbor; the “moon” the faith of love and charity; and the “stars” the knowledges of good and truth, was shown above (n. 31, 32, 1053, 1521, 1529-1531, 2120, 2441); so that by these words of the Lord there is signified that in the consummation of the age (or last period of the church) there will no longer be any love, or charity, nor therefore any faith.

[3] That this is the meaning is evident from similar words of the Lord in the Prophets, as in Isaiah:

Behold, the day of Jehovah cometh, to make the earth a solitude; and He shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it; for the stars of the heavens and the constellations thereof shall not shine with their light; the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine (Isaiah 13:9-10); where also the last period of the church, or what is the same, the consummation of the age, is treated of.

In Joel:

A day of darkness and of thick darkness, a day of cloud and obscurity, before Him the earth quaked, the heavens trembled, the sun and the moon were darkened, and the stars withdrew their shining (Joel 2:2, 10);

with a similar meaning. Again in the same:

The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of Jehovah comes (Joel 2:31).

And again in the same:

The day of Jehovah is near, the sun and the moon have been darkened, and the stars have withdrawn their shining (Joel 3:14-15).

In Ezekiel:

When I shall extinguish thee, I will cover the heavens, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not make her light to shine; all the luminaries of light in the heavens will I make dark, and will set darkness upon thy land (Ezekiel 32:7-8).

So too in John:

I saw when he opened the sixth seal, and behold there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood, and the stars fell unto the earth (Revelation 6:12-13).

The fourth angel sounded, so that the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars, and the third part of them was darkened (Revelation 8:12).

[4] From these passages it is evident that the Lord’s words in the Evangelists involve much the same as His words in the Prophets, namely, that in the last times there will be neither charity, nor faith; and that this is the internal sense; as also is still further evident in Isaiah:

The moon shall blush, and the sun shall be ashamed, for Jehovah Zebaoth shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem (Isaiah 24:23).

That is to say, faith, which is the “moon,” shall blush; and charity, which is the “sun,” shall be ashamed, because they are such; for it cannot be said of the moon and the sun that they shall blush and be ashamed. And in Daniel:

The goat’s horn grew toward the south, and toward the east, and grew even to the army of the heavens, and some of the army and of the stars it cast down to the earth and trampled upon them (Daniel 8:9-10); where it is plain to everyone that the “army of the heavens” does not signify an “army,” nor the “stars” stars.