9015. 'And anyone striking his father and his mother' means blaspheming the Lord and His kingdom. This is clear from the meaning of 'striking' as injuring by means of falsities, dealt with in 7136, 7146, 9007, but when used in reference to the Lord and His kingdom, blaspheming is meant by it; and from the meaning of 'father' as the Lord, and of 'mother' as His kingdom, dealt with in 8897, where the fourth commandment has been explained. That paragraph shows what 'honouring father and mother' is used to mean in the internal sense, namely loving the Lord and His kingdom, and therefore in the relative sense loving what is good and true. So also 'striking father and mother' in a relative sense means blaspheming what is good and true in the Church.

7136. 'And the officers of the children of Israel were beaten' means that those in the nearest position to receive molestations and pass them on suffered harm from the falsities that had been introduced. This is clear from the meaning of 'being beaten' - since the beating was done by 'the taskmasters', by whom those who molest are meant - as suffering harm from falsities (for 'being beaten' does not in the spiritual sense mean being beaten, but suffering harm in respect of truth and good, that is, in respect of the things that compose spiritual life, just as 'dying' does not in the spiritual sense mean dying but being deprived of truth and good, being governed by falsity and evil, and therefore being subject to damnation); from the meaning of 'the officers as those in the nearest position to receive molestations and pass them on, dealt with in 7111; and from the representation of 'the children of Israel' as those who belong to the spiritual Church, dealt with in 6426, 6637, to whom those meant by 'the officers' were to pass things on.