1082. And shall eat her flesh. That this signifies rejection of the evils thereof, which are adulterated goods, and then manifestation that they were destitute of all good, is evident from the signification of flesh, as denoting the good of the Word and of the church, and, in the opposite sense, the evil thereof. In the present case flesh denotes evils, which are adulterated goods. And from the signification of eating, as denoting to consume, but, in this case, to reject altogether, because the Reformed are treated of, who have rejected the works or goods of Babylon, which chiefly consist in gifts to the idols of their saints, to their sepulchres, also to monasteries, and to the monks themselves, for various expiations.

[2] That by the same words is also meant manifestation that they were destitute of all good follows; for when spurious and meritorious goods are rejected, signified by the flesh which they should eat, then it is made evident that they are destitute of all good. Flesh, in the Word, signifies various things. It signifies man's proprium, thus, either his good or evil, and thence it signifies the whole man. But in the highest sense, it signifies the Lord's Divine Human, specifically the Divine Good of Divine Love proceeding from Him.

That flesh signifies the Divine Human as to the good of love is evident in John:

"Jesus said, I am the living bread, which came down from heaven; if any one eat of this bread, he shall live for ever. The bread which I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The Jews, therefore, strove amongst themselves, saying, How can this man give his flesh to eat? Jesus therefore said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, unless ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in yourselves. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day; for my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed; he that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me and I in him. This is the bread, which came down from heaven" (6:51-58).

That by flesh is here meant the proprium of the Lord's Divine Human, which is the Divine Good of Divine Love, is manifestly evident; and it is that which in the Holy Supper is called His body. That the body there or the flesh is the Divine good, and the blood is Divine truth, may be seen above (n. 329). And because bread and wine signify the same as flesh and blood - bread, Divine Good, and wine, Divine truth - therefore these were commanded in their place.

[3] Divine Good from the Lord was also signified by the flesh of the sacrifices, which Aaron, his sons, and those who sacrificed might eat, and others who were clean.

And that it was holy may be seen in Exodus (12:7, 8, 9; 29:31-34; Leviticus 7:15-21; 8:31; Deuteronomy 12:27; 16:4).

Wherefore if an unclean person ate of that flesh, he was to be cut off from his people (Leviticus 7:21).

That these things were called bread (Leviticus 22:6, 7).

That that flesh was called "the flesh of holiness" (Jeremiah 11:15; Hag. 2:12);

And "the flesh of the offering," which was to be upon the table in the Lord's kingdom (Ezekiel 40:43).

[4] The Lord's Divine Human is also called flesh in John:

"The Word was made flesh, and dwelt amongst us; and we saw his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father" (1:14).

That flesh also signified good with man, is evident from the following passages:

In Ezekiel:

"I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit in the midst of you, and I will remove the heart of stone out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh" (11:19; 36:26).

The heart of flesh is the will and love of God. In David:

"O God, Thou art my God, in the morning I seek Thee, my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh desireth thee, in a land of drought, and I am weary without waters" (Psalms 63:1).

Again:

"My soul longeth towards the courts of Jehovah; my heart and my flesh crieth out towards the living God" (Psalms 84:2).

By the flesh which longeth for Jehovah, and which crieth out towards the living God is signified man as to the good of the will. For the flesh of man corresponds to the good or evil of his will, and the blood to the truth or the falsity of his understanding; in the present case flesh denotes the good of the will, because it longeth for Jehovah, and crieth out unto God.

[5] In Job:

"I have known my Redeemer, he liveth, and at the last shall rise upon the dust, and afterwards these things shall be encompassed with my skin, and from my flesh I shall see God" (19:25-27).

To see God from his flesh signifies from his voluntary proprium made new by the Lord, thus from good.

In Ezekiel:

"I will put upon the bones, which were seen in the midst of the valley, nerves, and I will cause flesh to come up, upon them, and I will cover them with skin, and I will put spirit into them, that they may live" (37:6, 8).

Where also by flesh is signified the proprium of the will made new from the Lord, consequently good. What is there signified by bones and the rest may be seen above (n. 418, 419, 665).

In the Apocalypse:

"Come, and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God, that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of the mighty, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit upon them, and the flesh of all, free and bond, small and great" (Apoc. 19:17, 18; Ezekiel 39:17, 18, 19).

That flesh here does not mean flesh, but goods of every kind is quite clear.

[6] But, on the other hand, that by flesh is signified man's voluntary proprium, which, strictly considered, is evil, is evident from the following passages. Thus in Isaiah:

"A man shall eat the flesh of his own arm" (Isaiah 9:20).

In the same:

"I will feed thine oppressors with their own flesh" (49:26).

In Jeremiah:

"I will feed you with the flesh of their sons, and with the flesh of their daughters; and they shall devour every man the flesh of his companion" (19:9).

In Zechariah:

"The rest shall eat every one the flesh of another" (11:9).

In Moses:

"I will chastise you seven times for your sins, and ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters" (Leviticus 26:28, 29).

[7] In Jeremiah:

"Cursed is the man who trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm" (17:5).

Here by flesh is signified a man's proprium, which in itself is evil, the appropriation of which is signified by eating and feeding upon it.

Similarly man's proprium is signified by flesh in Matthew:

"Jesus said, Blessed art thou, Simon, because flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee" (16:17).

In John:

"As many as received, to them gave he power to be the sons of God, who were born not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, but of God" (1:12, 13).

In Ezekiel:

"Jerusalem hath committed whoredom with the sons of Egypt her neighbours, great in flesh" (16:26).

In Isaiah:

"Egypt is man and not God, and his horses are flesh and not Spirit" (31:3).

In John:

"It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing" (6:63).

"That which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the spirit is spirit" (3:6).

In David:

"God remembered that they were flesh, a breath that passeth away and returneth not again" (Psalms 78:39).

The evil of man's will, which is his proprium from birth is signified in these passages by flesh; also by:

"The flesh, which the sons of Israel lusted after in the wilderness, and on account of which they were smitten with a great plague, and from which the place was called the grave of lust" (Numbers 11:4-33).

Moreover, in the Word throughout, mention is made of "all flesh," by which is meant every man.

As in Genesis (6:12, 13, 17, 19 Isaiah 40:5, 6; 49:26; 66:16, 23, 24; Jeremiah 25:31; 32:27; 45:5; Ezekiel 20:48; 21:4, 5), and elsewhere.

Continuation concerning the Word:-

[8] The reason why the Spiritual by influx presents what is correspondent to itself in the natural is, in order that the end may become the cause, and the cause become the effect; and thus that the end, by means of the cause, in the effect, may make itself visibly and sensibly evident. This trine, namely, end, cause, and effect, exists from creation in every heaven. The end is the good of love, the cause is truth from that good, and the effect is use. Thus love is that which produces, whence the product is of love from good by means of truth. The ultimate products in our world are various; as many as the subjects in its three kingdoms of nature, the animal, the vegetable, and the mineral.

[9] All products are correspondences. Since a trine - end, cause, and effect - exists in every heaven, therefore also in every heaven there are products; and there are correspondences, which, as to form and appearance, are like the subjects in the three kingdoms of our earth. From this it is evident that each heaven, as to outward appearance, is similar to our earth, but differing in excellence and beauty, according to degrees.

Now because the Word cannot be in its fulness, that is to say, consist of effects, in which are the cause and the end, or of uses, in which truth is the cause, and good is the end, except from correspondences - and love is that which produces - it follows that the Word in each heaven is like the Word in our world, but differing in excellence and beauty according to degrees. The nature of this difference shall be explained elsewhere.

9396. 'And he took the book of the covenant' means the Word in the letter to which the Word in heaven was joined. This is clear from the meaning of 'the book' as the Word in its entirety, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'the covenant' as a joining together, dealt with in 665, 666, 1023, 1038, 1864, 1996, 2003, 2021, 6804, 8767, 8778. 'The book of the covenant' is used here to mean everything the Lord spoke from Mount Sinai, for verse 4 just above says, And Moses wrote all Jehovah's words. In a restricted sense therefore 'the book of the covenant' is used to mean the Word revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai, and in a broad sense to mean the Word in its entirety since this is the Divine Truth revealed by the Lord. And since it is through this Truth that the Lord joins Himself to a member of the Church, that Truth too is meant by 'the book of the covenant'; for 'a covenant' is a joining together.

[2] But the nature of the Lord's being joined to a member of the Church through the Word is unknown at the present day because heaven at the present day is closed. Scarcely anyone today talks to angels or spirits and therefore knows the way in which they understand the Word. But this was well known to the ancients, and especially to the most ancients; for talking to spirits and angels was common among them. The reason for this was that people in ancient and especially in most ancient times were more internal, for they thought in the spirit virtually separated from the body, whereas people today are more external and think in the body virtually separated from the spirit. So it is that heaven has seemingly forsaken mankind, for heaven's contact is with the internal man when this can be unshackled from the body, but not directly with the external man. This explains why the nature of the Lord's being joined to a person through the Word is unknown at the present day.

[3] Those whose thought is based on what the body perceives with the senses and not on what the spirit perceives with the senses cannot possibly do other than think that the meaning the Word has in heaven is like the meaning it has in the world, that is, in the letter. If it were said that the meaning the Word has in heaven is like the thought of the internal man, which is free from material ideas, that is, from worldly, bodily, and earthly ideas, this would be considered an absurdity at the present day, especially if it were said that the meaning the Word has in heaven is as different from the meaning it has in the world or in the letter as a heavenly paradise is from an earthly paradise, or as heavenly food and drink are from earthly food and drink. How great that difference is may be seen from the consideration that the heavenly paradise consists in intelligence and wisdom, heavenly food in every good of love and charity, and heavenly drink in every truth of faith rooted in that good. Is there anyone at the present day who would not be astounded to hear that when a paradise, garden, or vineyard is mentioned in the Word those in heaven do not perceive a paradise, garden, or vineyard but instead such things as are attributes of intelligence and wisdom coming from the Lord? Or that when food and drink are mentioned, for instance bread, flesh, wine, or water, those in heaven perceive instead such things as are aspects of the good of love and the truth of faith received from the Lord? Or that this perception of the Word comes about not as a result of interpretations of its statements nor by seeing them as comparisons, but that it is due to correspondences and is their actual and real perception of it? For the heavenly virtues of wisdom, intelligence, the good of love, and the truth of faith correspond in actual reality to those worldly objects. In the same way the internal man has been created to correspond to the external man, and so therefore has heaven, which resides in the internal man, to correspond to the world, which resides in the external man. The same is so with everything generally. The truth that the Word is understood and perceived in heaven according to correspondences, and that this level of meaning is the internal sense, has been shown everywhere in the explanations prior to this.

[4] Anyone who grasps what has just been stated is capable of knowing and in some manner perceiving that a person is joined by means of the Word to heaven and through heaven to the Lord, and that without the Word no such joining together would be possible. See what has been shown many times about these matters, in 2143, 7153, 7381, 8920, 9094 (end), 9212 (end), 9216 (end), 9357, and elsewhere. From all this it is now clear why Moses took the book of the covenant and read it in front of the people, and then sprinkled the blood over the people and said, Behold, the blood of the covenant. And the reason why all this was done was that in heaven 'the blood of a sacrifice' is Divine Truth emanating from the Lord, which on our planet is the Word, see 9393. Since 'the covenant' means a joining together, and since Divine Truth emanating from the Lord, that is, the Word, is the means by which the joining together is accomplished, everything that belongs to Divine Truth from the Lord or belongs to the Word is called 'the covenant', such as the tablets on which the Ten Commandments were written, also the judgements, statutes, and all else that is contained in the Books of Moses, and in general that is contained both in the Old Testament Word and in the New.

[5] The Tablets on which the Ten Commandments were written [were called the Covenant].

This may be seen in Moses,

Jehovah wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten words. Exodus 34:28.

In the same author,

I went up into the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which Jehovah made with you. Jehovah gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant. I came down from the mountain, when the mountain was burning with fire; the two tablets of the covenant however were on my two hands. Deuteronomy 9:9, 11, 15.

And in the same author,

Jehovah declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, the ten words which He wrote on tablets of stone. Take care, lest you forget the covenant of Jehovah your God, which He made with you. Deuteronomy 4:13, 23.

Because the two tablets had been laid up in the ark, which was in the middle or inmost part of the tabernacle, the ark was called the ark of the covenant, Numbers 10:33; 14:44; Deuteronomy 10:8, 31:9, 25-26; Joshua 3:3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17; 4:7, 9, 18; 6:6, 8; 8:33; Judges 20:27; 1 Samuel 4:3-5; 2 Samuel 15:24; 1 Kings 3:15; 6:19; 8:1, 6; Jeremiah 3:16.

[6] The Books of Moses were called the Book of the Covenant

This is clear from the ones found in the temple by Hilkiah the [high] priest, about which the following things are said in the second Book of Kings,

Hilkiah the high priest found the book of the law in the house of Jehovah.

And they read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant found in the house of Jehovah. 2 Kings 22:8; 23:2.

[7] The Old Testament Word was called the Covenant

This may be seen in Isaiah,

To those holding fast to My covenant I will give in My house and within My walls a place and a name better than sons and daughters. Isaiah 56:4-5.

In Jeremiah,

Hear the words of this covenant. Cursed is the man who will not hear the words of this covenant which I commanded your fathers. Obey My voice, and do those things, according to all that I command you. Jeremiah 11:2-4.

In David,

All the ways of Jehovah are mercy and truth to those keeping His covenant and His testimonies. Psalms 25:10.

In the same author,

The mercy of Jehovah is from eternity to eternity on those who fear Him, and His righteousness to children's children, to those keeping His covenant, and to those remembering His commandments. Psalms 103:17-18.

And in the same author,

They did not keep God's covenant and refused to walk in His law. Psalms 78:10.

Here 'God's covenant' is called God's law. 'The law' is used in a broad sense to mean the whole Word, in a narrower sense to mean the historical section of the Word, in a restricted sense the Word that was written through Moses, and in a very restricted sense the Ten Commandments, see 6752.

[8] The New Testament Word too is the Covenant

This may be seen in Jeremiah,

Behold, the days are coming in which I will make with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah a new covenant. This is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days: I will put My law in the midst of them, and will write it on their heart. Jeremiah 31:31-33.

'The house of Israel' stands for the spiritual Church, and 'the house of Judah' for the celestial Church. And in David,

I will also make Him the Firstborn, supreme over the kings of the earth; and My covenant will stand fast with Him. I will not profane ¹ My covenant, and the utterance of My lips I will not alter. Psalms 89:27-28, 34.

This refers to the Lord. 'My covenant will stand fast with Him' stands for the union of the Divine Himself and the Divine Human, thus also for the Word since the Lord's Divine Human was the Word made flesh, that is, made man (homo), John 1:1-3, 14.

[9] The reason why Divine Truth or the Word is a covenant or joining together is that the Word is the Divine from the Lord, thus is the Lord Himself; and this being so, when the Word is received by a person the Lord Himself is received. From this it is evident that it is through the Word that the Lord is joined to a person; and since the Lord is joined to the person, so too is heaven joined to that person. For heaven is called heaven by virtue of the Divine Truth emanating from the Lord and therefore from the Divine. This explains why those in heaven are said to be 'in the Lord'. Regarding the truth that the Divine joins Himself to those who love the Lord and keep His Word, see John 14:23.

[10] From all this it becomes clear that 'the blood of the covenant' means the Lord joined through heaven to a person by means of the Word, as also in Zechariah,

I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be cut off; on the other hand He will speak peace to the nations; His dominion will be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth. As for you also, through the blood of your covenant I will let out your bound ones from the pit in which there is no water. Zechariah 9:10-11.

[11] A person with no knowledge at all of the internal sense cannot see in these verses anything other than such things as are implied in their literal meaning, that is to say, that the chariot from Ephraim, horse from Jerusalem, and battle bow were going to be cut off, and in the final words that through 'the blood of the covenant' - meaning the Lord's blood - those buried in sins were going to be delivered, various ways being used to explain who exactly are meant by 'bound ones in the pit in which there is no water'. But a person who knows the internal sense of the Word sees that these verses refer to Divine Truth, and that after it has been laid waste, that is, is no longer received in belief and heart by anyone, it will be restored through God's truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Human, and that those who believe and do it will be joined by means of it to the Lord Himself. All this becomes clearer still from the inner meaning of individual words in these verses, for example from the meaning of 'chariot' as doctrine taught by the Church, 2760, 5321, 5945, 8215, and of 'Ephraim' as the Church's enlightened understanding, 5354, 6222, 6238; from the meaning of 'horse' as an understanding of the Word, 2760-2762, 3217, 5321, 6125, 6534, 8029, 8146, 8148, ² and of 'Jerusalem' as the spiritual Church, 2117, 3654, 9166; from the meaning of 'bow' as the doctrine of truth, 2686, 2709, and of 'battle' or 'war' as conflict involving truths, 1664, 2686, 8295.

[12] From these meanings it is evident that 'cutting off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow' means God's truth laid waste so far as any understanding of it in the Church is concerned, and that 'through the blood of the covenant those bound in the pit in which there is no water were going to be let out' means a restoration effected through Divine Truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Human. The meaning of 'blood' as Divine Truth and of 'the covenant' as a joining together has been shown above; and for the meaning of 'those bound in the pit' as members of the spiritual Church who were saved by the Lord's Coming into the world, see 6854. The description 'pit where there is no water' is used because 'water' means truth, 2702, 3058, 3424, 4976, 5668, 7307, 8137, 8138, 8568, 9323.

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