1172. “底但” 表对存在于仪式中的低级属天事物的认知. 这从以下圣言经文明显可知, 以西结书:

底但人与你交易, 许多海岛作你手下的商人; 以象牙角和乌木作送给你的贡物. (以西结书 27:15)

“象牙角和乌木” 表构成敬拜形式或仪式的外在良善. 同一先知书:

底但人用马车的斗篷与你交易. 亚拉伯人和基达的一切首领都作你的客商. (以西结书 27:20, 21)

此处 “马车的斗篷” 同样表外在良善, 或仪式的良善. 耶利米书:

他们的智慧变得腐朽不堪. 底但的居民哪, 要转身逃跑, 住在深密处. (耶利米书 49:7, 8)

此处, “底但” 的准确意义表没有发自内心对主的内在敬拜或爱慕的仪式, 论到这仪式, 经上说他们 “要转身逃跑, 住在深密处”. 从上述经文明显可知: “古实的儿子” 表对属灵事物的认知; “拉玛的儿子” 表对属天事物的认知.

1613. 'The length of it and the breadth of it' means the celestial dimension and the spiritual dimension, or what amounts to the same, good and truth. 'length' means good and 'breadth' truth; see what has been stated already in 650. The reason is that 'land' means the heavenly kingdom, or Church, to which length and breadth are not attributable, only those things that match them and correspond to them, that is to say, goods and truths. The celestial dimension, or good, being primary, is compared to length, while the spiritual dimension, or truth, being secondary, is compared to breadth.

[2] That 'breadth' is truth is quite clear from the Prophetical part of the Word, as in Habakkuk,

I am rousing the Chaldeans, a bitter and hasty nation, marching' into the breadths of the earth. Habakkuk 1:6.

'Chaldeans' stands for people under the influence of falsity, 'marching ¹ into the breadths of the earth' for the destruction of truths, for these words are used in reference to the Chaldeans. In David,

O Jehovah, You have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy. You have made my feet stand in a broad place. Psalms 31:8.

'Standing in a broad place' stands for abiding in the truth. In the same author,

Out of my distress I called on Jah; He answered me in a broad place. Psalms 118:5.

'Answering in a broad place' stands for answering with the truth. In Hosea,

Jehovah will pasture them like a lamb in a broad place. Hosea 4:16.

'Pasturing in a broad place' stands for teaching the truth.

[3] In Isaiah,

Asshur will go through Judah, it will deluge it and pass through and will reach even to the neck; and the outstretching of its wings will fill the breadth of the land. Isaiah 8:8.

'Asshur' stands for reasoning which would 'deluge the land', or the Church; 'wings' stands for reasonings from which falsities result; 'filling the breadth of the land' stands for its being full of falsities, or things contrary to the truth. Because the length of the land meant good and its breadth truth it is said that the New Jerusalem when measured lies four-square, its length being the same as its breadth, Revelation 21:16. From this anyone may see that length and breadth have no other meaning, since the New Jerusalem is nothing else than the Lord's kingdom in heaven and on earth. Because of the meaning things have in the internal sense it became commonplace in former times to refer to celestial and spiritual things by means of things on earth, such as length and breadth, just as height and depth are used nowadays in everyday speech when people are referring to wisdom.

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