Apocalypse Revealed #620
620. 14:4 These are the ones who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. This symbolically means that they did not adulterate the church's truths or defile them with the falsities of their faith, but loved the truths because they are true.
A woman symbolizes the church from an affection for truth, and so in an opposite sense the church from an affection for falsity, as may be seen in nos. 434, 533 above - here the church from an affection for truth, because we are told that they were not defiled with women. Being defiled with women has the same symbolic meaning as committing adultery and behaving licentiously. To commit adultery and behave licentiously means, symbolically, to adulterate and falsify the Word, as may be seen in no. 134 above.
For they are virgins means, symbolically, because they have loved truths because they are true, thus loving them from a spiritual affection. These are meant by virgins because a virgin symbolizes the church as a bride who desires to be conjoined with the Lord and to become a wife; and a church that desires to be conjoined with the Lord loves truths because they are true. For truths bring about conjunction when people live in accordance with them.
That is why Israel, Zion and Jerusalem are called in the Word virgins and daughters; for Israel, Zion and Jerusalem symbolize the church.
[2] People in the Lord's church who are of such a character are all meant by virgins, whether they are maidens or youths, wives or husbands, boys or old men, girls or old ladies, and this can be seen from places in the Word where virgins are mentioned, such as the virgin of Israel (Jeremiah 18:13; 31:4, 21, Amos 5:2, Joel 1:8); the virgin daughter of Judah (Lamentations 1:15); the virgin daughter of Zion (2 Kings 19:21, Isaiah 37:22, Lamentations 1:4; 2:13); the virgins of Jerusalem (Lamentations 2:10); the virgin of My people (Jeremiah 14:17).
For that reason the Lord likened the church to ten virgins (Matthew 25:1-13), and we read in Jeremiah:
...I will build you, that you may be rebuilt, O virgin of Israel! You shall again... go forth in the dances of those who rejoice. (Jeremiah 31:4, 13)
And in the book of Psalms:
They have seen Your goings, O God, the goings of my God, my King, in the sanctuary..., in the midst of maidens playing timbrels. (Psalms 68:24-25)
And elsewhere:
Kings' daughters are among Your precious ones; at Your right hand stands the queen in pure gold from Ophir.
Listen, O daughter, and see... The King will delight in your beauty... The daughter of Tyre also will bring a gift; the rich among the people will appease Your face.
The King's daughter is all precious within; her clothing is woven with gold. She shall be brought to the King in embroidered garments. The virgins after her, her companions, shall come... into the palace of the King. (Psalms 45:9-15)
The King there means the Lord; the queen the church as a wife; and the daughters and virgins affections for goodness and truth.
[3] Similar affections are symbolically meant by virgins elsewhere in the Word in places where young men are mentioned at the same time, because young men symbolize truths, and virgins affections for those truths. For instance, in the following places:
Behold, the days are coming... that I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of Jehovah... In that day the fair virgins and young men shall faint from thirst. (Amos 8:11, 13)
Be ashamed, O Sidon; ...the sea has said..., "I have not travailed or given birth; neither have I reared young men or brought up virgins." (Isaiah 33:4)
The Lord trampled a winepress for the virgin daughter of Zion... Behold my sorrow; the virgins and the young men have gone into captivity. (Lamentations 1:4, 15, 18)
...how great is His goodness, and how great His beauty! Grain shall make the young men grow up, and new wine the young women. (Zechariah 9:17)
The streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in My streets. (Zechariah 8:5)
They sit on the ground..., the virgins of Jerusalem... To what shall I liken you..., O virgin daughter of Zion... ...They lay... in the streets..., My virgins and My young men... (Lamentations 2:10, 13, 21)
And so on elsewhere, as in Jeremiah 51:20-23, Lamentations 5:11, 13, 14, Ezekiel 9:4, 6, Psalms 78:62-64, Deuteronomy 32:25.
Psalms 69
1
Save me, God, for the waters have come up to my neck!
2
I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold. I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.
3
I am weary with my crying. My throat is dry. My eyes fail, looking for my God.
4
Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head. Those who want to cut me off, being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty. I have to restore what I didn't take away.
5
God, you know my foolishness. My sins aren't hidden from you.
6
Don't let those who wait for you be shamed through me, Lord Yahweh of Armies. Don't let those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me, God of Israel.
7
Because for your sake, I have borne reproach. Shame has covered my face.
8
I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother's children.
9
For the zeal of your house consumes me. The reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.
10
When I wept and I fasted, that was to my reproach.
11
When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword to them.
12
Those who sit in the gate talk about me. I am the song of the drunkards.
13
But as for me, my prayer is to you, Yahweh, in an acceptable time. God, in the abundance of your loving kindness, answer me in the truth of your salvation.
14
Deliver me out of the mire, and don't let me sink. Let me be delivered from those who hate me, and out of the deep waters.
15
Don't let the flood waters overwhelm me, neither let the deep swallow me up. Don't let the pit shut its mouth on me.
16
Answer me, Yahweh, for your loving kindness is good. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, turn to me.
17
Don't hide your face from your servant, for I am in distress. Answer me speedily!
18
Draw near to my soul, and redeem it. Ransom me because of my enemies.
19
You know my reproach, my shame, and my dishonor. My adversaries are all before you.
20
Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness. I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; for comforters, but I found none.
21
They also gave me gall for my food. In my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink.
22
Let their table before them become a snare. May it become a retribution and a trap.
23
Let their eyes be darkened, so that they can't see. Let their backs be continually bent.
24
Pour out your indignation on them. Let the fierceness of your anger overtake them.
25
Let their habitation be desolate. Let no one dwell in their tents.
26
For they persecute him whom you have wounded. They tell of the sorrow of those whom you have hurt.
27
Charge them with crime upon crime. Don't let them come into your righteousness.
28
Let them be blotted out of the book of life, and not be written with the righteous.
29
But I am in pain and distress. Let your salvation, God, protect me.
30
I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving.
31
It will please Yahweh better than an ox, or a bull that has horns and hoofs.
32
The humble have seen it, and are glad. You who seek after God, let your heart live.
33
For Yahweh hears the needy, and doesn't despise his captive people.
34
Let heaven and earth praise him; the seas, and everything that moves therein!
35
For God will save Zion, and build the cities of Judah. They shall settle there, and own it.
36
The children also of his servants shall inherit it. Those who love his name shall dwell therein. For the Chief Musician. By David. A reminder.
