7668. 'Go now, you young men, and serve Jehovah' means that those guided by truths that have been corroborated will be left alone, in order that they may worship the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of the command 'go' as the intimation that they will be left alone, as above in 7658; from the meaning of 'young men' as corroborated truths, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'serving Jehovah' as worshipping the Lord, as above in 7654, 7664. The reason why 'young men' means those guided by truths that have been corroborated is that by sons, boys, young men, men, and old men' are meant aspects of intelligence and wisdom in their true order. Such aspects instead of those male persons are understood in heaven; for those in heaven possess spiritual ideas which are such that images from the purely natural order or the world cannot enter them without being instantly sloughed off and transformed into the kinds of images that are more in keeping with the wisdom of heaven and with angelic thought. This is why 'sons, boys, young men, men, and old men' cannot in the spiritual sense mean those male persons, only corresponding spiritual realities, which are aspects of intelligence and wisdom. The fact that these are meant is plainly evident from the internal sense of the places in the Word where they are mentioned.

[2] In the Word 'young men' is used to mean those who have intelligence, or - on the level of abstract ideas on which angels think - intelligence itself. And since intelligence is meant by them, so is firmly established truth since this belongs to intelligence. Also the expression which is used here in the original language to denote young men is derived from strength and power, which truth receives from good, and so which firmly established truth receives. And this name is therefore applied to the Lord in Zechariah,

O sword, rise up against My shepherd, and against the (young) man, My neighbour. Strike the shepherd, and the sheep are scattered. Zechariah 13:7.

These words were spoken in reference to the Lord, see Matthew 26:31. And also in Jeremiah,

How long do you wander around, O estranged daughter? Jehovah has created a new thing on the earth, a woman has surrounded a (young) man. Jeremiah 31:22.

[3] Another word for 'young men in the original language stands for intelligence, and so for the truth that belongs to it, in Amos,

I have sent the pestilence upon you in the way of Egypt, I have killed your young men with the sword, along with captured horses. ¹ Amos 4:10.

'The way of Egypt' stands for perverted factual knowledge, young men who have been killed' for truths which have as a result been destroyed, and 'captured horses' for an understanding that has been led into error.

[4] In the same prophet,

They will wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they will run to and fro to seek the Word of Jehovah, and will not find it. On that day the beautiful virgins and the young men will faint from thirst. Amos 8:12-13.

'The beautiful virgins' stands for the affection for truth, 'the young men' for intelligence, and 'fainting from thirst' for being deprived of truth; and this is why it says 'they will run to and fro to seek the Word of Jehovah, and will not find it'. The fact that neither beautiful virgins, nor young men, nor fainting because of thirst are meant here is self-evident.

In Jeremiah,

Death has come up through our windows, it has entered our palaces, cutting off the young child from the street, young men from the lanes. Jeremiah 9:11.

In the same prophet,

How is the city of glory not forsaken, the city of My joy? Therefore her young men will fall in her streets. Jeremiah 49:25-26; 50:30.

In the same prophet,

Hear now, all peoples, see my sorrow; my virgins and my young men have gone into captivity. Lamentations 1:18.

In these places 'young men' stands for the truths that belong to intelligence.

각주:

7161. 'Because you have caused our odour to stink in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of his servants' means that because of them ¹ all those who are steeped in falsities feel such a strong aversion to our spirit of obedience. This is clear from the meaning of 'causing to stink' as an aversion, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'odour' as an ability to perceive what is pleasing, dealt with in 925, 1514, 1517-1519, 3577, 4626, 4628, 4748. And meaning an ability to perceive what is pleasing, 'odour' also means an ability to perceive faith and charity since these are pleasing, 1519, 4628, 4748. And since they are pleasing, a spirit of obedience is most pleasing, for a spirit of obedience is the genuine good of faith and charity. This is why 'odour' here means a spirit of obedience.

[2] Just as 'odour' implies everything that is pleasing to the Lord, so 'stink' implies that which is unpleasing to the Lord. Consequently 'stink' means an aversion as well as abomination, and also in actual fact corresponds to an aversion and abomination - an aversion to and abomination on the part of falsity and evil. Since 'stink' is associated with aversion it is therefore also used in the Word to express aversion, as in Samuel,

Israel became stinking to the Philistines. 1 Samuel 13:4.

In the same author,

Achish said of David, He has made himself utterly stinking among his people, in Israel. 1 Samuel 17:12.

In the same author,

When the children of Ammon saw that they had become stinking to David... 2 Samuel 10:6.

In the same author,

Ahitophel said to Absalom, So that the whole of Israel may hear that you have become stinking to your father. 2 Samuel 16:21.

In these places 'stinking' stands for aversion. In Isaiah,

Let the slain of the gentiles be cast out, and the stink of their dead bodies rise up, and the mountains be melted with [their] blood. Isaiah 34:3.

'The stink' stands for abominable evil, as it likewise does in Amos 4:10, and in David, Psalms 38:4-5.

[3] 'In the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of his servants' means in the perception of all those who are steeped in falsities. This is clear from the meaning of 'the eyes' as perception, 4339; and from the representation of 'Pharaoh' as those who are steeped in falsities, dealt with in 6651, 6679, 6683, 7107, 7110, 7126, 7142. The reason why in their eyes their odour is said to stink is that all who are steeped in falsities and evils feel an aversion to all kinds of good; and to them truths stink.

[4] The fact that a stink emanates from those who are governed by evils and are consequently steeped in falsities is plainly evident from the hells that are called the dead-body hells, where assassins are and those ferociously bent on revenge, and from the hells which are called excrementitious, where adulterers are and those who have held foul pleasures as the end in view. When those hells are opened up insufferable stenches emanate from them, 4671; yet they are not detected except by those in whom inner powers on the level of their spirit have been opened. But the inhabitants of those hells find those disgusting smells pleasing and therefore like to live among those stenches, 4628. For they are like those animals which spend their time among dead bodies and excrement, finding the delight of their lives among them. When they come away from the atmosphere filled with those stenches, they find sweet and pleasing odours offensive and extremely displeasing. From all this one may now see how to understand the explanation that those steeped in falsities feel such a strong aversion to anything connected with the law of God and doctrinal teachings derived from it, represented by Moses and Aaron, in reference to whom it says that they made [the people's] odour stink in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of his servants.

각주: