315. "A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius." This symbolically means, because the value these people placed on goodness and truth was so little as to be scarcely anything.

This is the symbolic meaning because a quart, which is a measure and its contents, symbolizes the character of a thing, as shown in no. 313 above. Wheat and barley symbolize goodness and truth, and a denarius, being a very small coin, symbolizes a value so little as to be scarcely anything.

Three quarts of barley are specified because the number three symbolizes all and is predicated of truths (no. 400).

Wheat and barley symbolizes goodness and truth, here the goodness and truth of the church acquired from the Word, because everything connected with a field or vineyard symbolizes something having to do with the church - a field symbolizing the church in respect to its goodness and consequent truth, and a vineyard symbolizing the church in respect to its truth and consequent goodness. Therefore, where these are mentioned in the Word, angels, who perceive everything spiritually, have no other understanding of them - as for example in Joel:

The field is wasted, the land mourns, because the grain is wasted, the new wine is dried up, the oil fails. Ashamed are the farmers, the vinedressers wail, over the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field has perished. (Joel 1:10-12)

All of these things symbolize things having to do with the church.

[2] That wheat and barley symbolize the goodness and truth of the church can be seen from the following passages:

(John said of Jesus that He would) gather his wheat into the granary and burn the chaff with fire... (Matthew 3:11-12)

(Jesus said,) "Let (weed and wheat) grow together..., and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, 'First gather together the weeds... to burn them, but gather the wheat into my granary.'" (Matthew 23:24-30)

...I have heard from Jehovah God... a consummation and determination... Plant the measured wheat, and the appointed barley... (Thus) He instructs him for judgment; His God teaches him. (Isaiah 28:21-26)

...Jehovah... will bring you into... a land of wheat and barley... (Deuteronomy 8:7-8)

The land of wheat and barley here is the land of Canaan, which symbolizes the church.

They shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of Jehovah, for wheat and new wine... (Jeremiah 31:12)

(Jehovah) will fill you with the finest wheat. (Psalms 147:12-14, cf. Deuteronomy 32:13-14, Psalms 81:13, 16)

Jehovah told the prophet Ezekiel to make himself a cake of barleycorn mixed with dung and eat it (Ezekiel 4:12, 15). And He told the prophet Hosea to take to himself an adulterous woman, whom he bought for one and a half omers of barleycorn (Hosea 3:1-2). The prophets did these things to represent the falsifications of truth in the church, for barleycorns are truths, and barleycorns mixed with dung are truths falsified and profaned. An adulterous woman also symbolizes truth falsified (no. 134).

313. And he who sat on it had a scale in his hand. This symbolizes their valuation of goodness and truth, what it was like among them.

A scale in the hand symbolizes a valuation of goodness and truth, for all measures in the Word, including weights, symbolize a valuation of the subject which they describe.

That measures and weights have such symbolic meanings is apparent from the following account in Daniel: When Belshazzar, king of Babylon, was drinking wine from the vessels of gold and silver taken from the Temple in Jerusalem, writing appeared before him, saying, "MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN," meaning, "numbered, numbered, weighed, and divided." (Daniel 5:1-5) And this was the interpretation of it:

MENE: God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it. TEKEL: You have been weighed in the balance and found wanting. PERES: Your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians. (Daniel 5:25-28)

Drinking from vessels of gold and silver from the Temple in Jerusalem, and at the same time worshiping other gods, symbolizes the profanation of goodness and truth, which is also the symbolism of Babylon. Mene, or to number. This symbolically means to know its character in respect to truth. Tekel, or to weigh. This symbolically means to know its character in respect to goodness. And peres, or to divide. This symbolically means to disperse.

That measures and scales in the Word symbolize the character of truth and goodness is apparent in Isaiah:

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, measured the heavens with the span of His hand, comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, weighed the mountains in a balance, and the hills in scales? (Isaiah 40:12)

And in the book of Revelation:

(The angel) measured the wall (of the Holy Jerusalem): one hundred and forty-four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of an angel. (Revelation 21:17)