7418. And smite the dust of the land. That this signifies that he should remove the things in the natural that had been damned, is evident from the signification of “smiting,” as being to remove; from the signification of “dust,” as being that which is damned (of which in what follows); and from the signification of “the land,” here the land of Egypt, as being the natural mind (n. 7409). That “dust” denotes that which is damned is because the places where evil spirits are, at the sides beneath the soles of the feet, appear as land, and in fact as land untilled and dry, under which are certain hells. This land is called “damned land,” and the dust there signifies that which is damned. It has sometimes been granted me to see that the evil spirits shook off the dust there from their feet, when they desired to give anyone to damnation. This was seen to the right a little in front, in the border toward the hell of the magicians, where spirits are cast into their hell who during their life in the world have been in the knowledge of faith, and yet have led a life of evil. From this then it is that by “dust” is signified what is damned, and by “shaking off the dust” damnation.

[2] It was from this signification that the Lord commanded His disciples to shake off the dust of their feet if they were not received, as in Matthew:

Whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily I say to you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city (Matthew 10:14-15; Mark 6:11; Luke 9:5; 10:10-12);

by the “disciples” here are not meant disciples, but all things of the church, thus all things of faith and charity (n. 2089, 2129, 2130, 3354, 3858, 3913, 6397); by “not receiving, and not hearing,” is signified to reject the truths of faith and the goods of charity; and by “shaking off the dust of the feet,” damnation. That “it would be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than for that city,” is because by “Sodom and Gomorrah” are meant those who are in evil of life, but who have known nothing of the Lord and the Word, and thus could not receive. From this it can be seen that there is not meant a house or city which would not receive the disciples, but those who are within the church and do not live the life of faith. Everyone can see that a whole city could not be damned because they did not receive the disciples and at once acknowledge the new doctrine which they preached.

[3] By the “dust” also which was formerly put on the head when in grief and repentance, is signified that which is damned, as in these passages:

The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the earth, they keep silence; they have made dust come up upon their head; they have girded themselves with sackcloth; the virgins of Jerusalem have made their head come down to the earth (Lam. 2:10).

They shall cry bitterly, and shall make dust come up upon their heads, they shall roll themselves in the ashes (Ezekiel 27:30).

Weeping weep not in the house of Aphrah; roll thyself in the dust (Micah 1:10).

They cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing (Revelation 18:19);

and also in the historical parts of the Word throughout. By dust upon the heads, and also by the casting down of the body and of the head to the earth, and there rolling in the dust, was represented humiliation, which when genuine is such that the person acknowledges and perceives himself to be damned, but to be received from damnation by the the Lord, (n. 2327, 3994, 4347, 5420, 5957).

[4] By the “dust” into which the golden calf which they made in the wilderness was beaten and ground, is also signified what is damned, of which we read thus in Moses:

I took your sin, the calf which ye had made, and burnt it with fire and I beat it, grinding it well, even until it was reduced unto dust; and I cast the dust thereof into the brook that descended out of the mountain (Deuteronomy 9:21).

By “dust” is also signified what is damned in the following passages:

Jehovah God said unto the serpent, Upon thy belly shalt thou walk, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life (Genesis 3:14).

Feed Thy people as in the days of eternity, the nations shall see, and blush at all their power, they shall lick the dust like a serpent (Micah 7:14, 16-17).

Dust shall be the serpent’s meat (Isaiah 65:25).

Come down, and sit upon the dust, O virgin daughter of Babel (Isaiah 47:1).

Our soul is bowed down to the dust, our belly hath cleaved to the earth (Psalms 44:25).

My soul cleaveth to the dust, quicken Thou me (Psalms 119:25).

“Dust” in the Word signifies also the grave, likewise what is lowly, and what is numerous.

2567. And menservants and maidservants. That this signifies that it was enriched also with rational truths and natural truths, as well as with the affections of them, is evident from the signification of “menservants and maidservants.” These are frequently mentioned in the Word, and by them are signified in the internal sense things that are relatively lower and of less value, such as are rational and natural things in comparison with spiritual and celestial things. By natural truths are meant memory-knowledges of every kind, for these are natural. That in the Word these are signified by “menservants and maidservants,” is manifest from the internal sense of the words where they are mentioned, as in Isaiah:

Jehovah will have compassion on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and will set them upon their own ground; and the sojourner shall cleave unto them, and shall join themselves unto the house of Jacob; and the peoples shall take them, and shall bring them to their own place; and the house of Israel shall possess them for themselves upon the ground of Jehovah for menservants and for maidservants (Isaiah 14:1-2),

[2] where “Jacob” denotes the external church; “Israel,” the internal; “sojourners,” those who are being instructed in truths and goods (see n. 1463, 2025); “menservants and maidservants,” natural and rational truths together with the affections of them, which are to serve the church meant by “Jacob and Israel.” It is evident that Jacob and Israel are not meant here, nor the Jews and Israelites, for the latter when dispersed among the Gentiles became Gentiles. The Jews still cherish this prophecy and expect its fulfillment, even according to the letter, namely, that sojourners will cleave to them, that the people will bring them to their place, and will be to them for menservants and maidservants; when yet not even the smallest thing is to be understood of the Jews and Israelites in the prophecies of the Word where these are mentioned; as must be evident even to themselves from the fact that it is often said of Israel equally as of Judah that they shall be brought back.

[3] Again in the same Prophet:

Behold, Jehovah maketh the earth empty, and emptieth it out, and will disfigure the face of it, and scatter the inhabitants thereof; and it shall be, as the people, so the priest; as the servant, so his master; as the maidservant, so her mistress (Isaiah 24:1-2).

Here the “earth” denotes the church (n. 662, 1066, 1068, 1850), which is made empty and is emptied out, and its face is disfigured, and its inhabitants scattered, when there are no longer any interior truths and goods, which are the “people and the priest,” nor any exterior truths and goods, which are the “servant” and the “maidservant,” as comes to pass when external things rule over internal things.

[4] Again:

I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob and out of Judah an inheritor of My mountain, and My chosen shall possess it, and My servants shall dwell there (Isaiah 65:9),

where “Jacob” denotes the external church; “Judah,” the internal celestial church; the “chosen,” its goods; and the “servants,” its truths.

[5] In Joel:

I will pour out My spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy; also upon the servants and the maidservants will I pour out My spirit in those days (Joel 2:28-29); where the Lord’s kingdom is treated of; “to prophesy” denotes to teach (n. 2534); “sons,” truths themselves (n. 489, 491, 533, 1147) “daughters,” goods themselves (n. 489-491) “servants” and “maidservants,” lower truths and goods, upon which the spirit is said to be poured out when they accede and confirm. That such things are signified by “menservants and maidservants” here and elsewhere, does not so appear, by reason both of the common idea respecting menservants and maidservants, and of the apparent history.

[6] In John:

I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried with a loud voice, saying to the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, Eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses and of them that sit thereon, and the flesh of all, both of free and bond, both of small and great (Revelation 19:17-18). It is here evident that it is not the flesh of kings, of captains, of mighty men, of horses, of those who sit on them, of the free and of the bond, which they should eat; but that it is the truths of the church, both internal and external, that were made “flesh” for them.

[7] That “menservants” signify truths, and “maidservants” goods, which are subservient to and thus serve spiritual and celestial truths and goods, is more clearly evident from the laws enjoined in the Representative Church in regard to menservants and maidservants; which laws all have regard to the state of the church and of the Lord’s kingdom in general and in particular; and to the way in which lower truths and goods, or those which are natural and rational, are to serve those which are spiritual and celestial, and thereby those which are Divine. For example: The Hebrew manservant and the Hebrew maidservant were to be free in the seventh year, and were then to be endowed from the flock, the threshing-floor, and the wine-press (Exodus 21:2, 6; Deuteronomy 15:12-15; Jeremiah 34:9-14): The servant’s wife was to be free if she entered into service with him; but if the master gave him his wife, the wife and children were to be the master’s (Exodus 21:3-4): A poor brother who had been purchased was not to serve as a bondservant, but as a hired servant and a sojourner; at the jubilee he was to go out together with his children (Leviticus 25:39-43): If a brother were bought by a foreign sojourner, he might be redeemed, and was to go out in the year of the jubilee (Leviticus 25:47, etc.): Menservants and maidservants might be bought of the nations around, and of the sons of foreign sojourners, and they were to be their perpetual possession, whom they might rule absolutely, but not the sons of Israel (Leviticus 25:44-46): If a manservant did not desire to go out of service, his ear was to be pierced with an awl, at the door, and he was to be a perpetual servant; and the same with a maidservant (Exodus 21:6; Deuteronomy 15:16-17): If anyone smote his manservant or his maidservant with a rod, so that he died, vengeance was to be taken on him; but if he survived a day or more, he was to be free, because he was his money (Exodus 21:20-21): If he should smite a servant’s eye or tooth, he was to go forth free (Exodus 21:26-27): If an ox should gore a manservant or a maidservant so that he died, the owner was to pay thirty shekels to his master, and the ox was to be stoned (Exodus 21:32): A servant who had escaped from his master was not to be placed in confinement, but should dwell in the place where he chose, and was not to be afflicted (Deuteronomy 23:15-16): A servant bought with silver, and circumcised, was to eat of the Passover (Exodus 12:44): Anyone’s daughter that was bought was not to go out of service like the manservants; if she were evil, her master was not to sell her to a stranger; if she were betrothed to his son, she was to be as a daughter; if he took another, he was not to diminish her food, her raiment, nor her duty of marriage; if these things were not done, she was to go out of service without price (Exodus 21:7-12).

[8] All these laws have their origin from the laws of truth and good in heaven, and in the internal sense have reference to them; partly by correspondences, partly by representatives, and partly by significatives. But after the representatives and significatives of the church (which were the most external and lowest things of worship) had been abolished, the necessity for these laws ceased also. Now if these laws were to be unfolded from the laws of order of truth and good, and from representatives and significatives, it would be plain that nothing else was meant by “menservants” than rational and memory truths [vera rationalia et scientifica], which are lower truths, and therefore ought to serve spiritual truths; and that by “maidservants” were signified the goods of these, which being also lower, ought to serve indeed, but in another manner; and therefore certain of the laws laid down respecting maidservants differ from those laid down respecting menservants; for regarded in themselves truths are more fully servants than their goods are.

[9] By the “king’s right,” in Samuel, nothing else is signified in the internal sense than the “right” of truth, and likewise the “right” of falsity when it begins to rule over truth and over good; as is evident from the explication of the words by which this is described:

This will be the right of the king that shall reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to him over his chariots and for his horsemen, and they shall run before his chariots; he will take your daughters for perfumers, and for cooks, and for bakers; your menservants and your maidservants and your goodliest young men and your asses will he take and put them to his work; he will take the tenth of your flock; and ye shall be for servants. And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king whom ye have chosen for you, and Jehovah will not answer you in that day (1 Samuel 8:11, 13, 16-18).

[10] That by a “king” is signified truths, may be seen above (n. 1672, 2015, 2069); thus in the opposite sense things that are not true, that is, falsities. By the “sons whom he would appoint for himself over his chariots and for his horsemen,” are signified the truths of doctrine, which should be subservient to principles of falsity, which are the “chariots and horsemen.” By the “daughters whom he should take for perfumers, cooks, and bakers,” are signified the goods of doctrine, by which those falsities would be filled with delight; and which would be made to favor the falsities.

By the “menservants and maidservants, the young men, and the asses, by which he would do his work,” are signified the things of reason and of memory-knowledge, by which those falsities would be confirmed. By the “flock of which he will take a tenth” are signified the remains of good that he would do violence to. And by their “being servants” is signified that it would come to pass that the celestial and spiritual things of the Word and of doctrine, instead of ruling, would be subservient to the confirmation of the falsities of his principles, and the evils of his cupidities. For there is nothing that cannot be injected into principles of falsity as confirmatory of them, either by a false application, by a wrong interpretation, by perversion, or by a rejection of those things which do not favor; and therefore it is added: “if ye cry out in that day because of your king whom ye have chosen for you, Jehovah will not answer in that day.”