860. Whose number is as the sand of the sea. This symbolizes the multitude of such people.

The multitude of such people is likened to the sand of the sea, because the sea symbolizes the external component of the church (nos. 402-404, 470), and the sand is something which serves no use in the sea except to compose the bottom.

Because the number of such people is so great, therefore the valley of their burial is called "The Multitude of Gog," and the name of the city where they are, "The Multitude" (Ezekiel 39:15-16).

People inspired by evil desires and informed by false ideas want nothing more than to attack and destroy the things that are good and true in others. In an abstract sense, it is the nature of evil to attack good, and is the nature of falsity to attack truth. And since the most effective way to attack something is by surrounding it, coming at it from all sides and cutting off escape, the act of “surrounding” in the Bible is associated with attacks by evil and falsity. If as a child you ever faced a bully, this will make sense. Nothing a victim says or does do any good; everything gets turned against him; any word or action can be twisted into an excuse for a physical attack. You can in a way be "surrounded" by one person.