601. Verse 3. And cried out with a great voice, as a lion roareth, signifies the testification of grievous distress on account of the desolation of Divine truth in the church. This is evident from the signification of "crying out with a great voice," as being the testification of grievous distress (of which presently); and from the signification of "as a lion roareth," as being on account of the desolation of Divine truth in the church; for a "lion" signifies Divine truth in its power (See above, n. 278), and "to roar" signifies the result of distress because of the desolation of truth.

[2] That this is the signification of "crying out with a great voice, as a lion roareth," can be seen from what follows in this chapter, where the desolation of Divine truth in the church is treated of; for "a strong angel coming down out of heaven" means the Lord in relation to the Word, which is Divine truth, of whom it is said afterwards that "the angel lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by Him that liveth unto the ages of the ages, that there shall be time no longer," which signifies that there shall be no longer any understanding of Divine truth, and thence no state of the church.

[3] And afterwards it is said, "In the days of the voice of the seventh angel the mystery of God shall be finished," which signifies the Last Judgment that was to come when there should be no faith in Divine truth because there would be no good of charity. From this it can be seen that "He cried out with a great voice, as a lion roareth," signifies the testification of grievous distress on account of the desolation of Divine truth in the church.

[4] Moreover, a "lion" is often mentioned in the Word; and in the highest sense a "lion" signifies the Lord in relation to Divine truth, likewise heaven and the church in respect to Divine truth from the Lord; and from this a "lion" signifies Divine truth in respect to power (See above, n. 278). This makes evident what "to roar" or "the roaring of a lion" signifies, namely, an ardent affection for defending heaven and the church, and thus for saving the angels of heaven and the men of the church, which is done by destroying the falsities of evil by means of Divine truth and its power; but in the contrary sense "to roar" or "the roaring of a lion" signifies an ardent desire to destroy and devastate the church, which is done by destroying Divine truth by means of the falsities of evil. Such is the signification of a "lion's roaring," because when a lion is hungry and seeks its prey, and also when it is enraged with anger against its enemy, it is its habit to roar.

[5] That this is the signification of "to roar" and "roaring" in the Word can be seen from the following passages. In Isaiah:

Thus Jehovah said unto me, Like as the lion, and the young lion roareth over his prey, when a multitude of shepherds goeth out against him, and he is not dismayed at their voice nor affected by their tumult, so shall Jehovah of Hosts come down to wage war upon Mount Zion and upon the hill thereof (Isaiah 31:4).

Jehovah is compared to a lion roaring, because a "lion" signifies the Lord in relation to Divine truth and its power, and "to roar" signifies the eagerness to defend the church against evils and falsities; therefore it is said, "so shall Jehovah of Hosts come down to wage war upon Mount Zion, and upon the hill thereof," "Mount Zion" meaning the celestial church, and "the hill thereof" (or Jerusalem) the spiritual church; the "prey over which the lion roareth" signifies deliverance from hell.

[6] In Joel:

Jehovah shall roar out of Zion, and shall give forth His voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shall quake; but Jehovah shall be a shelter for His people, and a stronghold for the sons of Israel (Joel 3:16).

The protection of the faithful by the Lord by means of Divine truth is described by "Jehovah shall roar out of Zion, and shall give forth His voice from Jerusalem;" the vehement power of Divine truth, and consequent terror, are described by "the heavens and the earth shall quake;" and salvation and protection by "Jehovah shall be a shelter for His people, and a stronghold for the sons of Israel;" "the people of Jehovah" and "the sons of Israel" being the faithful who are of the church.

[7] In Hosea:

I will not return to destroy Ephraim. They shall go after Jehovah; He shall roar like a lion, for He shall roar, and sons from the sea shall draw near with honor, with honor shall they come as the bird out of Egypt and as the dove out of the land of Assyria; and I will make them to dwell upon their houses (Hosea 11:9-11).

"Ephraim" signifies the church in respect to the understanding of truth, concerning which therefore what follows is said. "To go after Jehovah" signifies to worship the Lord and to live from Him; "He shall roar like a lion, for He shall roar," signifies the protection of such by the Divine truth; "the sons from the sea shall draw near with honor," signifies that those who are in natural good shall draw near to the church; "with honor shall they come as a bird out of Egypt," signifies their natural thought from true knowledges [scientifica]; the "bird" meaning thought, and "Egypt" knowledge, which is natural truth; "and as the dove out of the land of Assyria," signifies that they shall have rational good and truth, a "dove" meaning rational good, and "the land of Assyria" the church in respect to rational truth; for in man there are both natural and rational good and truth; the natural is lower or exterior, looking to the world, the rational is higher or interior, conjoining the natural with the spiritual; the natural is meant by "Egypt," the rational by "Assyria," and the spiritual by "Israel." "To make them to dwell upon their houses" signifies life from the will of good and from the understanding of truth; the human mind, which consists of these, is meant by a "house," and "to dwell" signifies to live.

[8] In Amos:

The Lord Jehovih will not do ¹ a word unless He shall reveal His secret unto His servants the prophets. The lion hath roared, who will not fear? The Lord Jehovih hath spoken, who will not prophesy? (Amos 3:7, 8).

"The Lord Jehovih will not do a word unless He hath revealed His secret to His servants the prophets" signifies that the Lord opens the interior things of the Word and of doctrine to those who are in truths from good; "to reveal a secret," signifies to enlighten and to open the interior things of the Word; "His servants the prophets" signify those who are in the truths of doctrine and who receive; "the lion hath roared, who will not fear?" signifies a powerful revelation and manifestation of Divine truth; "the Lord Jehovih hath spoken, who will not prophesy?" signifies its reception and manifestation. The Lord is called "Lord Jehovih" when good is treated of.

[9] In Zechariah:

The voice of the howling of the shepherds that their magnificence is devastated; the voice of the roaring of the young lions that the pride of Jordan is devastated (Zechariah 11:3).

"The voice of the howling of the shepherds that their magnificence is devastated" signifies the grief of those who teach, because the good of the church has perished; those are called "shepherds" who teach truth and by truth lead to the good of life, and "magnificence" means the good of the church; "the voice of the roaring of the young lions that the pride of Jordan is devastated" signifies grief, because of the desolation of Divine truth in the church. Those are called "lions" who are in Divine truths; "roaring" signifies grief; "the pride of Jordan, which is devastated," signifies the church in respect to Divine truth which introduces.

[10] In Job:

God roareth with His voice; He thundereth with the voice of His majesty; nor yet doth He overthrow when His voice is heard; God thundereth marvelously with His voice (Job 37:4, 5).

"To roar" and "to thunder with the voice" signify the power and efficacy of Divine truth or the Word.

[11] In the passages that have been cited, "to roar" signifies in a broad sense the ardent affection of protecting heaven and the church, or the angels of heaven and the men of the church, which is done by destroying the falsities of evil by means of Divine truth and its power. But in the contrary sense, "to roar" signifies an eager cupidity for ruining and destroying the church, which is done by destroying Divine truth by means of the falsities of evil. In this sense "to roar" is used in the following passages. In Jeremiah:

Babylon shall become heaps, the abode of dragons, an astonishment, and an hissing. They shall roar together like lions; they shall growl like lions' whelps; when they are heated I will set ² their feasts, and I will make them drunken that they may exult and may sleep the sleep of an age and not awake (Jeremiah 51:37-39).

The destruction of Babylon so that there may be in it no truth or good, is signified by "Babylon shall become heaps, the abode of dragons, an astonishment, and an hissing." "Babylon" signifies those who abuse holy things for the sake of dominion; their eager cupidity for destroying Divine truth by means of the falsities of evil is signified by "they shall roar together like lions, they shall growl like lions' whelps." The eagerness of those who unite in doing this crime is signified by "when they are heated I will set their feasts;" that such will become insane from the falsities of evil is signified by "I will make them drunken that they may exult." That they will never understand anything of truth, and therefore will not see life, is signified by "that they may sleep the sleep of an age and not awake."

[12] In the same:

Is Israel a servant? Is he one born of the house? Why has he become a prey? The young lions roar against him, they give forth their voice, they reduce his land to a waste; his cities are burned, even so that there is no inhabitant (Jeremiah 2:14, 15).

"Is Israel a servant? Is he one born of the house?" signifies the church that had been in truths and goods, but is so no longer. "Israel" signifies the church; a "servant" those who are in truths, and "one born of the house," those who are in goods; "why has he become a prey?" signifies its devastation; "the young lions roar against him, they give forth their voice" signifies the desolation of Divine truth in the church by the falsities of evil; "they reduce his land to a waste" signifies the destruction of the church itself by evils; "his cities are burned even so that there is no inhabitant" signifies the destruction of the doctrinals also of the church by evils, so that there is no good of the church left.

[13] In Ezekiel:

One of the whelps of the lioness grew up, it became a young lion, and it learned to tear the prey; it devoured men. It ravished widows and devastated their cities, and the land was devastated ³ and the fullness thereof by the voice of his roaring (Ezekiel 19:3, 7).

This is said of the Jewish Church, which is here meant by "the mother of lions." A "young lion" signifies the falsity of evil in eagerness to destroy the truth of the church; "to tear the prey" signifies the destruction of the truth and good of the church. "It devoured men, it ravished widows, and devastated cities," signifies the destruction of all the understanding of truth and of good desiring truth, likewise of doctrinals; "men" signifying the understanding of truth, "widows" good desiring truth, and "cities" doctrinals; "the land was laid waste and the fullness thereof by the voice of his roaring" signifies the devastation of the church and the extinction of all truth from the Word by the falsity of evil, "land" meaning the church, "fullness" its truths from the Word, and "the voice of roaring" the falsity of evil destroying.

[14] In Jeremiah:

I call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the land. Therefore say unto them, Jehovah shall roar from on high, and give forth His voice from the abode of His holiness; in roaring He shall roar against their habitations; a tumult cometh even to the end of the earth; for Jehovah hath a controversy against the nations. He shall enter judgment with all flesh, He shall give the wicked to the sword (25 Jeremiah 25:29-31).

The vastation of the church is attributed to Jehovah, although men are the cause of it. "I call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the land" signifies falsity destroying every truth in the universal church. "Jehovah shall roar from on high, and give forth His voice from the abode of His holiness," signifies the testification of grief in heaven on account of the vastation of Divine truth. "In roaring He shall roar against their habitations" signifies great grief and lamentation over all things of the church; "a tumult cometh even to the end of the earth" signifies the disturbance of all things of the church from first to last; "for Jehovah hath a controversy against the nations, He shall enter judgment with all flesh," signifies visitation and judgment upon all who are in evils; "He shall give the wicked to the sword" signifies their destruction by falsities.

[15] In Amos:

Jehovah shall roar from Zion, and give forth His voice from Jerusalem; that the habitations of the shepherds may mourn, and the head of Carmel dry up (Amos 1:2).

"Roaring from Zion" signifies grievous distress, and "the voice from Jerusalem" lamentation; "the mourning of the habitations of the shepherds, and the drying up of the head of Carmel," signifies because of the vastation of all the goods and truths of the church; "the habitations of shepherds" signifying all the goods of the church; "the head of Carmel" all its truths, and "mourning" and "drying up" vastation. "The head of Carmel" signifies the truths of the church, because in Carmel there were vineyards, and "wine" signifies the truth of the church.

[16] In Isaiah:

The anger of Jehovah is kindled against His people. He hath lifted up an ensign to the nations from far, and hath hissed to him from the end of the earth. His roaring is like that of a lion, He roareth like young lions; He growleth and seizeth the prey, he shall snatch and none shall deliver, and he growleth against him like the growling of the sea; and if He shall look unto the earth, behold darkness and distress, and the light is darkened in the ruins thereof (5 Isaiah 5:25-30).

Here, too, "the roaring like that of a lion, and like that of young lions," signifies grief and lamentation over the vastation of Divine truth in the church by the falsities of evil. "He seizeth the prey and none shall deliver" signifies the deliverance and salvation of those who are in truths from good. The vastation itself is described by "behold darkness, distress, and the light is darkened in the ruins thereof;" "darkness" meaning falsities; "distress" evil; "the darkening of the light" the disappearance of Divine truth, and "ruins" total overthrow.

[17] In David:

The enemy hath destroyed all things in the sanctuary; the adversaries have roared in the midst of thy feast (Psalms 74:3, 4).

"The enemy" signifies evil from hell; "the sanctuary" the church, and "feast" worship. This makes clear what is signified by these words in series. That roaring signifies grievous lamentation from grief of heart can be seen from these passages. In David:

When I kept silence my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day (Psalms 32:3).

In the same:

I am weakened and crushed exceedingly; I have roared by reason of the roaring of my heart (Psalms 38:8).

And in Job:

My sighing cometh before bread, and my roarings are poured out like the waters (Job 3:24).

Bilješke:

4728. 'And let us throw him into one of the pits' means among falsities. This is clear from the meaning of 'pits' as falsities. The reason 'pits' means falsities is that people who are immersed in false assumptions are kept for a considerable time after death beneath the lower earth, until falsities have been removed from them and so to speak cast away to the sidelines. The places situated there are called pits. Those who go there are people who have to undergo vastation, dealt with in 1106-1113, 2699, 2701, 2704. ¹ This is why by 'pits' in the abstract sense falsities are meant. The lower earth is directly below the feet, and is a region that does not extend to any great distance all around. There the majority stay after death before being raised up into heaven. Mention is also made of this lower earth in various places in the Word. Below it are places where vastation takes place, and they are called pits. Beneath these places and extending to quite a distance all around are the hells.

[2] From this one may have some idea of what is meant by hell, the lower earth, or the pit, when these are mentioned in the Word, as in Isaiah,

You have been sent down to hell, to the sides of the pit; you are cast out from your sepulchre like an abominable branch, a garment of the slain, those pierced by the sword, who go down to the stones of the pit. Isaiah 14:15, 19.

This refers to the king of Babel, who represents the profanation of truth, for 'a king' represents truth, 1672, 2015, 2069, 3009, 4581, and 'Babel' profanation, 1182, 1326. 'Hell' is the place where the condemned are, and their state of condemnation is compared to 'an abominable branch' and 'a garment of the slain and of those pierced by the sword, who go down to the stones of the pit'. 'A garment of the slain' means truth that has been made profane; 'those pierced by the sword' means people among whom truth has been annihilated; 'the pit' means falsity that is to be laid waste, 'stones' the limits of that falsity, which are also therefore called 'the sides', for surrounding the pits there are the hells. 'A garment' means truth, 2576, and therefore 'a garment of the slain' means truth that has been made profane, for 'the blood' with which it has been stained means that which has been made profane, 1003. 'Those pierced by the sword' means those among whom truth has been annihilated, 4503. From all this it is also evident that without the internal sense one cannot by any means know what these things mean.

[3] In Ezekiel,

When I cause you to go down with those going down to the pit, to the people of old, and I cause you to dwell in the land of the lower ones, in the desolations from of old, so that you do not dwell with those going down to the pit, I will give beauty in the land of the living. Ezekiel 26:20.

'Those going down to the pit' stands for those who are made to undergo vastation. 'Not dwelling with those who go down to the pit' stands for being delivered from falsities.

[4] In the same prophet,

That none of all the trees by the waters may become arrogant because of their height nor send their trunk up among entangled boughs, and that none of all [the trees] that drink water may reach above them because of their height - all will be given over to death, to the lower earth in the midst of the sons of men, to those going down to the pit. At the sound of its crashing down I will make the nations tremble, when I cause him to go down into hell with those going down to the pit. And all the trees of Eden, the choicest and the most excellent of Lebanon, all those drinking water, will comfort themselves on the lower earth. Ezekiel 31:14, 16.

This refers to Egypt, meaning knowledge, which enters by itself into the mysteries of faith, that is, people who enter into them, 1164, 1165, 1186. What has been stated above makes plain the meaning of hell, the pit, and the lower earth mentioned at this point in the prophet. Nor from anywhere else than the internal sense can anyone see what is meant by 'the trees by the waters', 'the trees of Eden', 'the trunk sent up among entangled boughs', 'the choicest and the most excellent of Lebanon', and 'those drinking water'.

[5] In the same prophet,

Son of man, wail over the multitude of Egypt, and cause it and the daughters of magnificent nations to go down to the lower earth. with those going down into the pit. Asshur is there to whom graves have been given in the sides of the pit, all of them slain with the sword. Ezekiel 32:18, 22-23.

What these words mean may be seen from the explanations given above. In David,

Jehovah, You have caused my soul to come up out of hell; You have caused me to live, out of those going down to the pit. Psalms 30:3.

In the same author,

I have been reckoned with them going down to the pit; I have become as a man with no strength. You have put me in the pit of the lower ones, in darkness, in the depths. Psalms 88:4, 6.

In Jonah,

I had gone down to the bottoms of the mountains; the bars of the land were upon me for ever. Nonetheless You brought up my life from the pit. Jonah 2:6.

This refers to the Lord's temptations, and to deliverance from them. 'The bottoms of the mountains' means where the most condemned are, for the gloomy dark clouds which seemingly surround them are mountains.

[6] As regards 'the pit' meaning falsity laid waste, and in the abstract sense falsity itself, this is clear in addition in Isaiah,

They will be gathered together, in a gathering as the bound for the pit, and they will be shut up in the dungeon; but after a multitude of days they will be visited. Isaiah 24:22.

In the same prophet,

Where is the anger of the oppressor? He that leads out will hasten to open, and he will not die at the pit; nor will bread fail. Isaiah 51:13-14.

In Ezekiel,

Behold, I am bringing strangers upon you, the violent of the nations, who will draw their swords against the loveliness of your wisdom, and they will profane your splendour. They will bring you down into the pit, and you will die the deaths of those slain in the heart of the seas. Ezekiel 28:7-8.

This refers to the prince of Tyre, who means people under the influence of false assumptions.

[7] In Zechariah,

Exult greatly, O daughter of Zion! Make a noise, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King comes to you, just, meek, and riding on an ass, and on a colt, the young of she-asses. Through the blood of the covenant I will let out your bound ones from the pit in which there is no water. Zechariah 9:9, 11.

'The pit in which there is no water' stands for falsity that has no truth at all within it, as also in verse 24 below where it is said that they cast Joseph into the pit and the pit was empty, having no water in it. In David,

To You, O Jehovah, do I call; my rock, do not be silent to me, lest if You are silent to me I seem like those going down into the pit. Psalms 28:1.

In the same author,

Jehovah caused me to come up out of the pit of VASTATION, out of the miry clay, and He set my feet upon a rock. Psalms 40:2.

[8] In the same author,

Do not let the flow of waters rush over me, nor the deep swallow me up, nor the pit close its mouth over me. Psalms 69:15.

In the same author,

He sent His word and healed them, and rescued them from their pits. Psalms 107:20.

'From pits' stands for from falsities. In the same author,

Make haste, answer me, O Jehovah. My spirit is consumed. Do not hide Your face from me, lest I become like those going down into the pit. Psalms 143:7.

Because 'a pit' means falsity, and 'the blind' those who are immersed in falsities, 2383, the Lord therefore says,

Let them alone; they are blind leaders of the blind. For if the blind leads the blind both will fall into a pit. Matthew 15:13, 14; Luke 6:39.

Something similar to what was represented by Joseph was also represented by the prophet Jeremiah, who describes what happened to him as follows,

They took Jeremiah and cast him into the pit which was in the court of the guard, and let Jeremiah down by ropes into the pit where there was no water. Jeremiah 38:6.

That is, they cast Divine Truths away among falsities that had no truth at all within them.

Bilješke: