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; Isaiah 1, Isaiah 49, 49:1)

9324. 'And I will remove sickness from the midst of you' means protection from falsifications of truth and adulterations of good. This is clear from the meaning of 'removing from the midst of you' - when it refers to falsified truths and adulterated forms of good, meant by 'sickness' - as protection, for when the Lord protects someone from them He removes them, 9313, [9316;] and from the meaning of 'sickness' as falsified truth and adulterated good. These are the sicknesses of spiritual life, for spiritual life receives its existence from and is kept in existence by the truths that belong to faith and the forms of good that belong to love. When these are falsified and perverted, a person is ill; and when they are completely rejected in the heart the person is dead spiritually. Regarding 'sicknesses', that they mean such things and correspond to them, see 4958, 5711-5727, 8364, 9031 (end).