243. The third living creature had a face like a human being. This symbolizes the Divine truth of the Word in respect to its wisdom.

A human being in the Word symbolizes wisdom, because the human being was born to receive wisdom from the Lord and become an angel. The wiser someone is, therefore, the more human he is. True human wisdom consists in perceiving the existence of God, the nature of God, and what pertains to God. This is what the Divine truth of the Word teaches.

That a human being symbolizes wisdom is apparent from the following passages:

I will make a man more rare than fine gold, and a human being more rare than the gold of Ophir. (Isaiah 13:12)

A man means intelligence, and a human being wisdom.

...the inhabitants of the earth shall be burned up, and rare will be the human being left. (Isaiah 24:6)

...I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of a human being and the seed of an animal. (Jeremiah 31:27)

You are My flock...; you are humankind, I am your God. (Ezekiel 34:31)

...the ruined cities shall be filled with a flock of humankind. (Ezekiel 36:38)

I looked upon the earth when, lo, it was empty and void, and to the heavens when they had not their light... I looked when, lo, there was no human being... (Jeremiah 4:23, 25)

They sacrifice a human being, they kiss the calves. (Hosea 13:2)

He measured the wall (of the Holy Jerusalem): one hundred and forty-four cubits, the measure of a human being, which is that of an angel. (Revelation 21:17)

So, too, in many other places, where a human being symbolizes someone who is wise, and in an abstract sense, wisdom itself.

1188. 'Nineveh' means falsities contained in those teachings, as do 'Rehoboth and Calah' though falsities from a different source. This is clear from the meaning of 'Nineveh' in the Word, dealt with below. Falsities of this kind arise from three sources. The first source is the illusions of the senses - when the understanding, being in obscurity, is unenlightened - and also ignorance. This is the source of the falsity meant by 'Nineveh'. The second source is the same, but with some predominating desire present, for innovation or pre-eminence. This is the source of the falsities meant by Rehoboth. And the third is that of the will, and so of evil desires. In this case people are unwilling to acknowledge anything as true except that which is favorable to evil desires. This is the source of the falsities called Calah. All of these falsities arise through Asshur, or reasonings concerning the truths and goods of faith.

[2] That 'Nineveh' means falsities arising from the illusions of the senses when the understanding, being in obscurity, is unenlightened, and also from ignorance, is clear in the case of Jonah, who was sent to Nineveh, a city that was pardoned because they were such. It is clear also from the facts recorded in the Book of Jonah regarding Nineveh, which will in the Lord's Divine mercy be discussed elsewhere. Though the details there are historical they are nevertheless prophetical, embodying and representing such arcana, in the way every other historical part of the Word does.

[3] Similarly in Isaiah, when the king of Asshur is referred to as remaining in Nineveh, and, when he bowed down in the house of Nisroch his god, is referred to as slain by his sons with a sword, Isaiah 37:37-38. Although these details are historical they are nevertheless prophetical, embodying and representing arcana of a like nature. 'Nineveh' in this case means external worship that has falsities within it which, being idolatrous, 'is slain by his sons with a sword', 'sons' meaning falsities, as shown already. 'A sword' is the punishment of falsity, as everywhere else in the Word. In Zephaniah also,

Jehovah will stretch out His hand over the north, and will destroy Asshur, and He will make Nineveh a desolation, a dry waste like a desert. Flocks will lie down in the midst of her, every wild beast of that nation. The spoonbill also and the duck will lodge in its pomegranates. ¹ A voice will sing in the window, vastation will be on the threshold, for her cedar has been laid bare. Zephaniah 2:13-14.

This describes Nineveh, though in the prophetical style, and falsity itself meant by 'Nineveh'. Because that falsity is worshipped it is called 'the north, a wild beast of the nation, the spoonbill and the duck in pomegranates' and is expressed as 'a voice singing in the window and a cedar laid bare', which is intellectual truth. Every one of these expressions is used to mean such falsity.

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