When 'islands' are contrasted to 'earth' or 'mountains,' they signify the truths of faith, because they are in the sea. They signify doctrinal things which are rituals. 'Islands' signify peoples who are more remote from the worship of God. People who are steeped in the internal sense of the Word, such as angels, do not know what islands are, because they no longer have any concept of such places. Instead they have a perception of more remote worship, like the gentiles outside the church.

'Islands,' in Ezekiel 27:6, signify people in the church in a natural, materially-oriented state but still rational.

(참조: Apocalypse Explained 406; Ezekiel 6, 27; Isaiah 1, Isaiah 49, 49:1)

838. That there be given them a mark upon their right hand and upon their foreheads, signifies an attestation of the acknowledgment that they are of the church, and are in the so-called truths and goods of that faith. This is evident from the signification of a "mark," as being a sign or attestation of acknowledgment, here that they are of that church; also from the signification of "right hand," as being the truth of faith in its power (See above, n. 298); also from the signification of "forehead," as being the good of love (See also above, n. 427. So here "the right hand and the forehead" signify the so-called truths and goods of that faith, which, nevertheless, are either not truths and goods or are falsities and evils. The acknowledgment of these as truths and goods however is signified by "giving and receiving a mark upon their right hand and upon their foreheads." A "mark" signifies a sign of acknowledgment also in the following passages in Revelation, 14:9, 11; 15:2; 16:2; 19:20; 20:4. Moreover, a "mark" has a similar meaning as:

The sign set by Jehovah upon Cain (Genesis 4:15);

Likewise the sign that the prophet was commanded to set upon the foreheads of the men in the city of Jerusalem (Ezekiel 9:4);

as also the "sign" in Moses:

Thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might. Thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be for frontlets before thine eyes (Deuteronomy 6:5, 8; 11:18).