Job 17
1
My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me.
2
Are there not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?
3
Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee; who is he that will strike hands with me?
4
For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt them.
5
He that speaketh flattery to his friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail.
6
He hath made me also a byword of the people; and aforetime I was as a tabret.
7
Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.
8
Upright men shall be astonied at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite.
9
The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.
10
But as for you all, do ye return, and come now: for I cannot find one wise man among you.
11
My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart.
12
They change the night into day: the light is short because of darkness.
13
If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.
14
I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou are my mother, and my sister.
15
And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?
16
They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.
Arcana Coelestia #3767
3767. 'And behold, three droves of a flock there, lying nearby it' means the holy things that constitute the Churches and their matters of doctrine. This is clear from the meaning of 'three' as that which is holy, dealt with in 720, 901, and from the meaning of 'droves of a flock' as the things that constitute a Church, and so as matters of doctrine. Specifically 'a flock' means people who are within the Church, and who are learning and being endued with forms of good which are the goods of charity and forms of truth which are the truths of faith. In this case 'a shepherd' means one who teaches those things. In general however 'a flock' means all people who are governed by good and so belong to the Lord's Church throughout the whole world. And since they are all led into what is good and true by means of matters of doctrine, therefore 'a flock' also means matters of doctrine. For the things which make a person such, and the person himself who is such, are both meant in the internal sense by the same expression. For one's understanding of the subject - which in this case is the human being - begins with knowing what makes anyone a human being.
[2] This is why it is stated many times that names mean real things and also the people with whom these real things exist. For example, 'Tyre and Sidon' means cognitions concerning what is good and true and also the people who possess those cognitions. 'Egypt' means knowledge and 'Asshur' reasoning, but these names are used at the same time to mean people with whom that knowledge or reasoning is present. And the same is so with every other name. But speech among angels in heaven is composed of real things that do not involve any concept of persons, and so is composed of universal ideas. The reason for this is that in this way they include countless things in what they say, and in particular for the reason that they attribute everything good and true to the Lord and nothing to themselves. Consequently the ideas which compose their kind of speech know no limits except insofar as those ideas involve the Lord. From these considerations it is now evident why 'a flock' is said to mean the Churches and also their matters of doctrine. 'Droves of a flock' are said to be 'lying nearby the well' because the Word is the source of matters of doctrine - 'a well' meaning the Word, as stated just above in 3765.
