1327. 'Jehovah confounded the lip of the whole earth' means the state of this Ancient Church, that internal worship started to perish. This is clear from the fact that the phrase used is 'the lip of the whole earth' and not, as previously in verse 7, the lip of those who started to build a city and a tower. 'The face of the whole earth' means the state of the Church since 'the earth' is the Church, as shown already in 662, 1066. The story of the Churches after the Flood is as follows: There were three Churches which receive specific mention in the Word - the first Ancient Church which took its name from Noah, the second Ancient Church which took its name from Eber, and the third Ancient Church which took its name from Jacob, and subsequently from Judah and Israel.

[2] As regards the first Ancient Church, that called Noah, this was the parent so to speak of those that followed, and as is usually the case with Churches in their earliest phases, it was more untarnished and innocent, as is also clear from verse 1 of this chapter which says that it had one lip, that is, one doctrine. That is to say, everyone regarded charity as the essential. But in the course of time, as usually happens to Churches, that Church also started to decline, chiefly because many people started to divert worship to themselves so as to set themselves above others, as is clear from verse 4 above - 'they said, Let us build ourselves a city and a tower, and its head in heaven, and let us make a name for ourselves'. In the Church such people were inevitably like some fermenting agent, or like firebrands that start a fire. When the danger of profaning what is holy was consequently near at hand, referred to in 571, 582, the state of this Church was, in the Lord's Providence, altered. That is to say, its internal worship perished but its external worship remained, which here is meant by the statement that 'Jehovah confounded the lip of the whole earth'. From this it is also clear that the kind of worship called Babel was not prevalent in the first Ancient Church but in those that followed when people started to be worshipped in place of gods, especially after they had died. This was the origin of so many pagan deities.

[3] The reason internal worship was allowed to perish and external remain was to prevent what is holy being profaned. The profanation of what is holy carries eternal condemnation with it. Nobody is able to profane what is holy unless he possesses cognitions of faith and also acknowledges them. Anyone who does not possess them cannot acknowledge them, still less profane them. It is internal things which may be profaned, for it is in internal things, not external, that holiness resides. The situation is similar with someone who does evil but does not have evil in mind. The evil he does cannot be attributed to him any more than to someone who does not deliberately intend evil, or to anyone devoid of rationality. Thus anyone who does not believe in the existence of a life after death, but who nevertheless has external worship, cannot profane the things that belong to eternal life because he does not believe that they exist. The situation is different with those who do know and acknowledge them.

[4] This too is why a person is allowed rather to live engrossed in lusts and pleasures, and so to isolate himself from internal things, than to enter into a knowledge and acknowledgement of internal things and so profane them. The Jews of today therefore are allowed to immerse themselves in avarice so that in this way they may be removed from an acknowledgement of internal things, for they are the kind of people who, if they acknowledged them, would inevitably profane them. Nothing does more to isolate a person from internal things than avarice, for this is the lowest of all earthly desires. The same applies to many inside the Church, and to gentiles outside, though gentiles, least of all people, are able to profane anything. This then is the reason for the statement here that 'Jehovah confounded the lip of the whole earth', and the reason why these words mean that the state of the Church was altered, that is to say, its worship became external, having no internal worship within it.

[5] The same situation was represented and meant by the Babylonish captivity into which the Israelites, and later on the Jews, were carried away. This is spoken of in Jeremiah as follows,

And there will be a nation and a kingdom that will not serve the king of Babel, and who will not put its neck in the yoke of the king of Babel. With the sword and famine and pestilence I will visit this people, until I have consumed it by his hand. Jeremiah 27:8 and following verses.

'Serving the king of Babel and putting its neck in his yoke' is being utterly deprived of the knowledge and acknowledgement of the good and the truth of faith, and so of internal worship.

[6] The point is clearer still in the same prophet,

Thus said Jehovah to all the people in this city, your brethren who did not go out with you into captivity, thus said Jehovah Zebaoth, Behold, I am sending on them the sword, famine, and pestilence, and I will make them like rotten figs. Jeremiah 29:16-17.

'Remaining in the city and not going out to the king of Babel' represented and meant people who possessed the cognitions of internal things, that is, of the truths of faith, and who profaned them - people on whom, it is said, He was sending 'the sword, famine, and pestilence', which are forms of punishment for profanation, and whom He was making 'like rotten figs'.

[7] That 'Babel' means people who deprive others of all knowledge and acknowledgement of truth was also represented and meant by the following words in the same prophet,

I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babel, and he will carry them off to Babel, and will smite them with the sword. And I will give over all the wealth of this city, and all its labour, and all its precious things; and I will give all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hand of their enemies, and they will plunder them and seize them. Jeremiah 20:4-5.

Here 'all its wealth, all its lab our, all its precious things, all the treasures of the kings of Judah' means in the internal sense cognitions of faith.

[8] In the same prophet,

With the families of the north I will bring the king of Babel against this land and against its inhabitants, and against all those nations round about, and I will utterly destroy them and make them into a ruin, a hissing, and everlasting wastes. And this whole land will be a waste. Jeremiah 25:9, 11.

Here 'Babel' is used to describe the vastation of the interior things of faith, that is, of internal worship. Indeed, as shown already, anyone whose worship is worship of self possesses no truth of faith. He destroys and lays waste, and leads off into captivity, everything that is true. This is why Babel is also called 'a destroying mountain' in Jeremiah 51:25.

For more concerning Babel, see what has been stated already in 1182.

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.

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