414. So that a third of the day did not shine, and likewise the night. This symbolically means that they no longer have in them any spiritual truth or natural truth from the Word serviceable for doctrine and life.

The day's not shining means that they had no light from the sun, and "likewise the night" means that they had no light from the moon and stars. Light in general symbolizes Divine truth, which is truth from the Word. The light of the sun symbolizes spiritual Divine truth, and the light of the moon and stars symbolizes natural Divine truth, both acquired from the Word. Divine truth in the spiritual sense of the Word is like the light of the sun during the day, and Divine truth in the natural sense of the Word is like the light of the moon and stars at night. The spiritual sense of the Word, moreover, flows into its natural sense, as the sun does with its light to the moon, and this reflects the light of the sun indirectly.

In this way also does the spiritual sense of the Word enlighten people, even people who know nothing of that sense, when they read the Word in its natural sense. However, it enlightens a spiritual person as light from the sun does his eye, but a natural person as light from the moon and stars does his eye. Everyone is enlightened in accordance with his spiritual affection for truth and goodness, and at the same time in accordance with the genuine truths by which he has opened his rational faculty.

[2] Day and night also have this meaning in the following places:

God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night...." Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule by day, and the lesser light to rule by night. He made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to rule by day and by night, and to divide the light from the darkness. (Genesis 1:14-19)

(Jehovah) made great lights..., the sun to rule by day..., the moon and stars to rule by night... (Psalms 136:7-9)

The day is Yours, (O Jehovah,) the night also is Yours; You have prepared the light and the sun. (Psalms 74:16)

...Jehovah... gives the sun for a light by day, the ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night... (Jeremiah 31:35)

If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that there will not be day and night in their season, then My covenant also may be broken with David My servant... If I have not appointed My covenant with day and night, the ordinances of heaven and earth, I also will reject the offspring of Jacob and David... (Jeremiah 33:20-21, 25-26)

I cite these passages to make known that the darkening of both kinds of light is meant.

689. 16:7 And I heard another from the altar saying, "Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and just are Your judgments." This symbolizes the Divine goodness in the Word supporting that Divine truth.

Another, namely another angel, symbolizes the Divine goodness in the Word. An angel symbolizes the Divinity emanating from the Lord (nos. 415, 631, 633), and an angel from the altar symbolizes the Divine goodness of love (no. 648), here the Divine goodness in the Word, because the Word continues to be the subject, and because the angel of the waters symbolizes the Word's Divine truth (no. 685).

Now because the Word's Divine goodness and the Word's Divine truth are united, therefore the symbolic meaning of what the angel of the waters said and the symbolic meaning of what the angel from the altar said are similar. For the angel of the waters said, "You are righteous, O Lord, the One who is and who was, and holy, because You have judged these things," while here the angel from the altar said, "Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and just are Your judgments." These two utterances have the same symbolic meaning, with the sole difference that one of the angels spoke from the prompting of truth, and the other from the prompting of goodness, and that one confirmed what the other said, but using different words, one using words that belong to the classification of truth, and the other using words that belong to the classification of good. For there is a marriage of truth and goodness in every part of the Word (no. 97), and some words are words having to do with goodness, and some are words having to do with truth. They appear to differ, but still they involve similar ideas.