4844. Remain a widow in thy father’s house. That this signifies alienation from itself, is evident from the fact that thereby he wanted her to go away and return no more to him. He indeed told her to remain there until Shelah his son was grown up; but still he thought that she would not be given to Shelah his son, for he said in himself, “Lest he also die, like his brethren.” This is proved also by his action in the matter, as appears from verse 14: “Tamar saw that Shelah was grown up, and she was not given unto him to wife.” From this it follows that by his words is signified that he alienated her away from himself; that is, in the internal sense, that the church representative of spiritual and celestial things, which is represented by Tamar (n. 4811, 4831), was alienated from the Jewish Church, which is represented by Judah. For they could not agree together, because Judaism was only a representative of a church, and not a representative church (n. 4307, 4500); because it acknowledged what is external, but not what is internal.

[2] A “widow” also signifies the truth of the church without its good, because a “wife” in the representative sense signifies truth, and a “husband” good (see n. 4823, 4843); wherefore a wife without a husband is the truth of the church without its good. And when it is said of her that she should “remain in her father’s house,” it signifies that the truth of the church would be alienated, and also that it would not be received in his house; neither could the Jewish nation receive it, because it was not in good, but in evil.

[3] A “widow” is often mentioned in the Word, and one unacquainted with the internal sense cannot but believe that by a “widow” is signified a widow. But a “widow” in the internal sense signifies the truth of the church without good, that is, those who are in truth without good and still desire to be in good, consequently who love to be led by good; and a “husband” is the good which should lead. In the Ancient Church such persons were understood in the good sense by widows, whether they were women or men. For the Ancient Church distinguished the neighbor toward whom they were to exercise charity into a number of classes, some of which they called poor, some miserable and afflicted, some bound and in prison, some blind and lame, and others strangers, orphans, and widows; and they dispensed works of charity to them according to their qualities. Their doctrinals taught them these things; and that church knew no other doctrinals. Wherefore they who lived at that time both taught and wrote according to their doctrinals, and consequently when they spoke of widows they had in mind no other than such as were in truth without good and yet desired to be led by good.

[4] From this it is also plain that the doctrinals of the Ancient Church taught those things which related to charity and the neighbor, and that their knowledges consisted in knowing what external things signified. For the church was representative of spiritual and celestial things, and therefore the spiritual and celestial things which were represented and signified were what they learned by means of doctrinals and knowledges. But these doctrinals and knowledges are at this day entirely obliterated, and indeed to such a degree that it is not known that they ever existed; for the doctrinals of faith succeeded in their place, which if widowed and separated from those of charity, teach almost nothing. For the doctrinals of charity teach what good is, but the doctrinals of faith what truth is, and to teach truth without good is to walk as one who is blind, because good is what teaches and leads, and truth is what is taught and led. There is as great a difference between these two doctrinals as between light and darkness; and unless the darkness be illumined by the light, that is, unless truth be illumined by good, or faith by charity, there is nothing but darkness. Hence it is that no one knows by looking at it, and consequently neither from perception, whether truth is truth, but only from doctrine imbibed in childhood and confirmed in adult age. Hence also it is that churches differ so widely that what one calls truth, another calls falsity, and they are never in agreement.

[5] That by “widows” in a good sense are signified those who are in truth without good, but still desire to be led by good, is evident from the passages in the Word in which “widows” are mentioned, as in David:

Jehovah, who executeth judgment for the oppressed, who giveth food to the hungry; Jehovah, who looseth the bound; Jehovah, who openeth [the eyes of] the blind; Jehovah, who raiseth up them that are bowed down; Jehovah, who loveth the just; Jehovah, who preserveth the sojourners; He upholdeth the orphan and the widow (Psalms 146:7-9);

here in the internal sense those are meant who are instructed in truths and led to good by the Lord; but some of these are called the “oppressed,” some the “hungry,” others the “bound,” the “blind,” those who are “bowed down,” the “sojourners,” the “orphan,” and the “widow,” and this according to their quality; but what this is, no one can know except from the internal sense. The doctrinals of the Ancient Church taught this. In this passage, as in several others, the sojourner, orphan, and widow are named jointly, because by the “sojourner” are signified those who wish to be instructed in the truths of faith (n. 1463, 4444), by the “orphan,” those who are in good without truth and desire to be led to good by means of truth, and by the “widow,” those who are in truth without good, and desire to be led to truth by means of good. These three are named jointly here and elsewhere in the Word for the reason that in the internal sense they constitute one class, inasmuch as by them, taken together, are signified those who wish to be instructed and to be led to good and truth.

[6] Again:

A father of the orphans, and a judge of the widows, is God in the habitation of His holiness (Psalms 68:5).

The “orphans” denote those who, like little children, are in the good of innocence, but not yet in truth, whose father is said to be the Lord, because He leads them as a father, and this through truth into good, that is, into the good of life or of wisdom. “Widows” denote those who as adults are in truth, but not yet in good, whose judge is said to be the Lord, because He leads them, and this through good into truth, that is, into the truth of intelligence; for by a “judge” is signified one who leads. Good without truth, which is the “orphan,” becomes the good of wisdom through the doctrine of truth; and truth without good, which is the “widow,” becomes the truth of intelligence through a life of good.

[7] In Isaiah:

Woe unto them that decree statutes of iniquity to turn aside the poor from judgment, and to take away into judgment the miserable of My people, that widows may be their spoil, and that they may plunder the orphans (Isaiah 10:1-2);

here by the “miserable,” the “poor,” the “widows,” and the “orphans,” are signified not those who are naturally, but those who are spiritually such; and because in the Jewish church, as in the Ancient, all things were representative, it was also representative to do good to the orphans and the widows; for thus charity toward those who in the spiritual sense were such was represented in heaven.

[8] In Jeremiah:

Do ye judgment and justice, and rescue the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor; and defraud not the sojourner, the orphan, or the widow, neither do violence, neither shed innocent blood in this place (Jeremiah 22:3);

here also by the “sojourner, the orphan, and the widow” are signified those who are spiritually such; for in the spiritual world or heaven it is not known who the sojourner, the orphan, and the widow are, those who have been in this condition in the world not being so there; and therefore when these words are read by man, they are perceived by angels according to their spiritual or internal sense.

[9] Likewise in Ezekiel:

Behold, the princes of Israel, everyone according to his arm, have been in thee to shed blood. In thee have they set light by father and mother; in the midst of thee have they dealt by oppression with the sojourner; in thee have they defrauded the orphan and the widow (Ezekiel 22:6-7).

Also in Malachi:

I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the orphan, and that turn aside the sojourner, and fear not Me (Malachi 3:5).

And in Moses:

A sojourner shalt thou not wrong, neither shalt thou oppress him. Ye shall not afflict any widow or orphan. If thou shalt afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto Me, I will surely hear their cry; and My anger shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall be widows, and your sons orphans (Exodus 22:21-24).

[10] This, like all the rest of the precepts, judgments, and statutes in the Jewish Church, was representative; and in that church they were kept so to do in externals, and by such things to represent the internal things of charity, although they had nothing of charity, nor did them from internal affection. The internal was from affection to instruct in truths and to lead by truths to good those who were in ignorance, and to lead by good to truths those who had knowledge; whereby they would have done good in the spiritual sense to the sojourner, the orphan, and the widow. Yet that the external might remain for the sake of representation, it was among the curses pronounced on Mount Ebal, to turn aside the judgment of the sojourner, the orphan, and the widow (Deuteronomy 27:19). To “turn aside their judgment” means to do what is contrary, that is, by instruction and life to lead to what is false and evil. And because depriving others of goods and truths, and appropriating them to self for the sake of self-honor and gain was among those curses, the Lord said:

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees! For ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers; therefore ye shall receive more abundant judgment (Matthew 23:14; Luke 20:47);

“devouring widows’ houses” means taking away truths from those who desire them, and teaching falsities.

[11] In like manner it was representative that what was left in the fields, oliveyards, and vineyards, should be for the sojourner, the orphan, and the widow (Deuteronomy 24:19-22); and also that when they had made an end of tithing the tithes of their increase in the third year, they should give it to the sojourner, the orphan, and the widow, that they might eat within their gates, and be filled (Deuteronomy 26:12). Because it is the Lord alone who instructs, and leads to good and truth, it is said in Jeremiah:

Leave thy orphans, I will make them alive; and the widows shall confide upon Me (Jeremiah 49:11);

and in Moses:

Jehovah doth execute the judgment of the orphan and widow, and loveth the sojourner, in giving him bread and raiment (Deuteronomy 10:18);

“bread” denotes the good of love (n. 2165, 2177, 3478, 3735, 3813, 4211, 4217, 4735); “raiment,” the truth of faith (n. 4545, 4763).

[12] What is related of Elijah, that when there was a famine for want of rain in the land he was sent to Zarephath to a widow, and that he asked of her a little cake, which she was first to make and to give to him, and was afterwards to make for herself and her son, and that then the barrel of meal with her was not consumed, and the cruse of oil did not fail (1 Kings 17:1-16), was representative, like all the other things related of Elijah, and in general all that are in the Word. The famine that was in the land because there was no rain, represented the vastation of truth in the church (see n. 1460, 3364); the widow in Zarephath represented those outside of the church who desire truth; the cake which she was to make for him first, represented the good of love to the the Lord, (n. 2177), whom, out of the little she had, she was to love above herself and her son; the barrel of meal signifies truth from good (n. 2177), and the cruse of oil charity and love (n. 886, 3728, 4582); Elijah represents the Word, by means of which such things are done (see n. 2762).

[13] This is meant also, in the internal sense, by the Lord’s words in Luke:

No prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when there was a great famine over all the land; but unto none of them was Elijah sent, except to Zarephath of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow (Luke 4:24-26).

That is, to those without the church who desire truth. But the widows within the vastated church, to whom Elijah was not sent, are they who are not in truth, because not in good, for wherever there is no good there is also no truth, however much truth may appear with them in outer form like truth, and yet be as a shell without a kernel.

[14] They who are in such truth, and also they who are in falsity, are signified by “widows” in the opposite sense-as in Isaiah:

Jehovah will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day. The elder and the honored in faces is the head, and the prophet the teacher of a lie is the tail. Therefore the Lord will not be glad over their young men, neither will He have compassion on their orphans and widows (Isaiah 9:14-15, 9:16-17).

In Jeremiah:

I will fan them with a winnowing fan in the gates of the land; I will bereave them of children, I will destroy My people; they have not turned from their ways. Their widows are increased to Me above the sand of the seas; I will bring to them, upon the mother a young man, a waster at noonday. She that hath borne seven languisheth; she hath breathed out her soul, her sun is gone down while it is yet day (Jeremiah 15:7-9).

Again:

Our inheritance is turned unto strangers, our houses unto aliens. We have become fatherless orphans, our mothers are as widows (Lam. 5:2-3).

[15] As by “widows” were signified those who are not in truth because not in good, it was reproachful for churches, even such as were in falsities from evil, to be called widows-as in Revelation:

She hath said in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and I shall not see mourning. Therefore in one day shall her plagues come, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be burned with fire (Revelation 18:7-8

speaking of Babylon. In like manner of the same in Isaiah:

Hear this, thou delicate one, that sitteth securely, that sayest in thy heart, I am, and there is none else like me; I shall not sit a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children. But these two evils shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood (Isaiah 47:8-9).

[16] From all this it is now evident what is meant by a “widow” in the internal sense of the Word; and as a widow represented and thence signified the truth of the church without its good-because a wife signifies truth and a husband good-therefore, in the ancient churches, where all things in general and particular were representative, it was forbidden the priests to marry a widow who was not the widow of a priest, as is written in Moses:

The high priest shall take a wife in her virginity. A widow, or one divorced, or a polluted woman, or a harlot, these shall he not take; but a virgin of his own people shall he take to wife (Leviticus 21:13-14);

and concerning the new temple and the new priesthood in Ezekiel:

The priests, the Levites, shall not take for their wives a widow, nor one divorced; but they shall take virgins of the seed of the house of Israel; yet a widow that is the widow of a priest they may take (Ezekiel 44:22).

For the virgins whom they were to marry represented and thence signified the affection of truth, and the widow of a priest the affection of truth from good; for a “priest” in the representative sense is the good of the church. For this reason it was also allowed the widows who were daughters of a priest, who were childless, to eat of the offerings or holy things (Leviticus 22:12-13).

[17] That this is the signification of a “widow,” was known from their doctrinals to those who were of the Ancient Church; for their doctrinals were doctrinals of love and charity, which contained innumerable things that at this day are wholly obliterated. From these doctrinals they knew what charity to exercise, or what duty they owed the neighbor, thus who were called widows, who orphans, who sojourners, and so on. Their knowledges of truth and memory-knowledges were to know what the rituals of their church represented and signified; and those who were learned among them knew what the things on the earth and in the world represented; for they knew that universal nature was a theater representative of the heavenly kingdom (n. 2758, 2989, 2999, 3483). Such things elevated their minds to heavenly things, and their doctrinals led to life. But after the church turned aside from charity to faith, and still more after it separated faith from charity, and made faith saving without charity and its works, men’s minds could no longer be elevated by knowledges to heavenly things, nor by doctrinals be led to life; and this to such a degree that at last scarcely anyone believes that there is any life after death, and scarcely anyone knows what the heavenly is. That there is any spiritual sense in the Word which does not appear in the letter, cannot be believed. In this way men’s minds have been closed.

3813. As regards “flesh,” in the supreme sense it signifies the own of the Lord’s Divine Human, which is Divine good, and in the relative sense it signifies the own of man’s will made alive by the own of the Divine Human, that is, by His Divine good. This own is what is called the heavenly own, which in itself is the Lord’s alone appropriated to those who are in good, and thence in truth. Such an own have the angels who are in the heavens, and men who as to their interiors or as to the spirit are in the Lord’s kingdom. But in the opposite sense, “flesh” signifies the own of man’s will, which in itself is nothing but evil, and not being vivified by the Lord is called “dead,” and thus the man himself is said to be dead.

[2] That in the supreme sense “flesh” is the own of the Lord’s Divine Human, thus His Divine good, is evident from the Lord’s words in John:

Jesus said, I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if anyone eat of this bread he shall live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world. The Jews therefore strove one with another, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat ? Jesus therefore said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you; he that eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day; for My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed; he that eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, dwelleth in Me, and I in him. This is the bread which came down from heaven (John 6:51-56, 58).

That here “flesh” is the own of the Lord’s Divine Human, thus the Divine good, is very evident; and this is what in the Holy Supper is called the “body.” That in the Holy Supper the “body” or “flesh” signifies the Divine good; and the “blood” the Divine truth, may be seen above (n. 1798, 2165, 2177, 3464, 3735); and because “bread and wine” signify the same as “flesh and blood,” namely, “bread,” the Lord’s Divine good, and “wine,” His Divine truth, therefore the latter were enjoined instead of the former. This is the reason why the Lord said, “I am the living bread; the bread which I shall give is My flesh; he that eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, abideth in Me, and I in him; this is the bread which came down from heaven.” (That “to eat” signifies to be communicated, to be conjoined, and to be appropriated, see above, n. 2187, 2343, 3168, 3513, 3596)

[3] The same was represented in the Jewish Church by the ordinance that Aaron, his sons, and they who sacrificed, and others who were clean, might eat the flesh of the sacrifices, and that this was holy (Exodus 12:7-9; 29:30-34; Leviticus 7:15-21; 8:31; Deuteronomy 12:27; 16:4). If therefore an unclean person ate of that flesh, he was to be cut off from his people (Leviticus 7:21). (That these sacrifices were called “bread,” may be seen above, n. 2165.) That “flesh” was called the “flesh of holiness” (Jeremiah 11:15; Haggai 2:12), and the “flesh of the offering which was on the tables in the Lord’s kingdom,” see Ezekiel 40:43, where the new temple is described, by which there is evidently signified the worship of the Lord in His kingdom.

[4] That in the relative sense “flesh” signifies the own of man’s will made alive by the Lord’s Divine good, is evident also from the following passages.

In Ezekiel:

I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit in the midst of you; and I will remove the heart of stone out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 11:19; 36:26); where the “heart of stone out of their flesh” denotes the will and the own not vivified; and the “heart of flesh,” the will and the own vivified. (That the “heart” is a representative of the good of the will, may be seen above, n. 2930, 3313, 3635) In David:

O God Thou art my God; in the morning I seek Thee; my-soul thirsteth for Thee, my flesh longeth for Thee in a dry land; and I am weary without waters (Psalms 63:1).

Again:

My soul longeth for the courts of Jehovah; my heart and my flesh cry out for joy unto the living God (Psalms 84:2).

[5] In Job:

I have known my Redeemer, He liveth, and at the last He shall rise upon the dust; and afterwards these things shall be encompassed with my skin, and from my flesh I shall see God; whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold; and not another (Job 19:25-27);

to be “encompassed with skin” denotes with the natural, such as man has with him after death (n. 3539); “from the flesh to see God” denotes the own vivified; therefore he says, “whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another.” As it was known to the ancient ¹ churches that flesh signified man’s own, and as the book of Job is a book of the Ancient Church (see n. 3540), he therefore spoke concerning these things from what is significative, as concerning many other things, in accordance with the custom of that time; so that those who deduce from this passage that the dead body itself shall be collected from the four winds, and shall rise again, are not acquainted with the internal sense of the Word. They who know the internal sense, know that they shall come into the other life with a body, but a purer one; for in the other life there are purer bodies; for they see each other, converse together, and enjoy every sense as in the present body, but in a more exquisite degree. The body which man carries about here on earth is for uses on earth, and therefore consists of bones and flesh; and the body which the spirit carries about in the other life is designed for uses in that life, and does not consist of bones and flesh, but of things which correspond to them (n. 3726).

[6] That in the opposite sense “flesh” signifies the own of man’s will, which in itself is nothing but evil, is evident from the following passages.

In Isaiah:

They shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm (Isaiah 9:20).

I will feed their oppressors with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with new wine (Isaiah 49:26).

In Jeremiah:

I will feed them with the flesh of their sons, and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat everyone the flesh of his companion (Jeremiah 19:9).

In Zechariah:

Let those who are left eat everyone the flesh of another (Zech. 11:9).

In Moses:

I will chastise you seven ² times for your sins; and ye shall eat the flesh of your sons; and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat (Leviticus 26:28-29).

The own of man’s will, that is, the nature of man, is thus described, for this is nothing else than evil and the derivative falsity; thus is hatred against truths and goods, which is signified by “eating the flesh of his arm, the flesh of sons and daughters, and the flesh of a companion.”

[7] In John:

I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a great voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together to the supper of the great God, that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses and of them that sit thereon, and the flesh of all both free and bond, both small and great (Revelation 19:17-18Ezekiel 39:17-20).

That here by the “flesh of kings, of captains, of mighty men, of horses and of those that sit upon them, of all, both free and bond,” are not signified such things as these, must be evident to everyone; thus that by “flesh” are signified other things which have hitherto been unknown. That evils which are from falsities, and evils from which are falsities, both from the own of man’s will, are signified, is manifest from the several expressions.

[8] As in the internal sense the falsity which results from the own of man’s understanding is “blood”; and as the evil which results from the own of his will is “flesh,” therefore the Lord speaks as follows concerning the man who is to be regenerated:

As many as received, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe in His name; who were born, not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:12-13).

Hence it is that by “flesh” in general is meant every man (see n. 574, 1050); for whether you say man, or man’s own, it is the same thing.

[9] That by “flesh” in the supreme sense is signified the Lord’s Divine Human is manifest from the passage above quoted, and also from this in John:

The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we held His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father (John 1:14).

From this “flesh” all flesh is vivified, that is to say, every man is vivified from the Lord’s Divine Human by the appropriation of His love, which appropriation is signified by “eating the flesh of the Son of man” (John 6:51-58), and by “eating the bread” in the Holy Supper; for the “bread” is the “body” or “flesh” (Matthew 26:26-27).

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