4779. And put sackcloth upon his loins. That this signifies mourning for destroyed good, is evident from the signification of “putting sackcloth upon the loins,” as being a representative of mourning for destroyed good. For the “loins” signify conjugial love, and hence all celestial and spiritual love (n. 3021, 3294, 4277, 4280, 4575), and this from correspondence; for as all the organs, members, and viscera of the human body correspond to the Grand Man—as has been shown at the end of the chapters—so also the loins correspond to those in the Grand Man, or heaven, who have been in genuine conjugial love; and as conjugial love is the fundamental of all loves, therefore by the “loins” is signified in general all celestial and spiritual love. From this came the rite of putting sackcloth on the loins when they mourned over good destroyed, for all good is of love.

[2] That they put sackcloth on the loins to testify to this mourning may be seen from the historic and prophetic parts of the Word, as in Amos:

I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; thus I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only-begotten, and the end thereof as a bitter day (Amos 8:10); where “bringing up sackcloth upon all loins” denotes mourning over destroyed goods; “all loins” denotes all the goods of love.

In Jonah:

The men of Nineveh believed in God, and therefore they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least. And when the word came unto the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, and laid his robe from upon him, and covered him with sackcloths, and sat on ashes. And he made proclamation, Let man and beast be covered with sackcloth (Jonah 3:5-8);

manifestly for a sign representative of mourning over the evil on account of which Nineveh was to perish; thus over destroyed good.

[3] In Ezekiel:

They shall utter a cry over thee with their voice, and shall cry bitterly, and shall cause dust to come up upon their heads, they shall roll themselves in ashes; and they shall make themselves bald for thee, and gird them with sackcloths (Ezekiel 27:30-31);

said of Tyre, the particulars being representative of mourning for falsities and evils, thus for destroyed truths and goods. “To utter a cry and to cry bitterly” denotes a lamentation over falsity or destroyed truth (n. 2240); “causing dust to come up upon the head” denotes being damned on account of evil (n. 278); “rolling themselves in ashes” denotes being damned on account of falsity; “making themselves bald” denotes mourning because the natural man had no truth (n. 3301); “girding them with sackcloths” denotes mourning because it had no good. Likewise in Jeremiah:

O daughter of My people gird thyself with sackcloth, and roll thyself in ashes; make thee the mourning of an only-begotten, the wailing of bitternesses; for the spoiler shall suddenly come upon us (Jeremiah 6:26).

Again:

The elders of the daughter of Zion shall sit in the earth, they shall keep silence, they shall cause dust to go up upon their head, they shall gird themselves with sackcloths, the virgins of Jerusalem shall cause their head to go down into the earth (Lam. 2:10);

here there are similar representatives according to the kinds of good and truth which were destroyed, as above.

[4] In Isaiah:

The prophecy concerning Moab; he shall go up to Bayith and Dibon, into the lofty places to weep; Moab shall howl over Nebo, and over Medeba; on all his heads is baldness, every beard is shaven. In his streets they have girded on sackcloth, on his housetops and in his streets he shall wholly howl, going down into weeping (Isaiah 15:2-3);

“Moab” denotes those who adulterate goods (n. 2468). The mourning over this adulteration which is signified by “Moab,” is described by such things as correspond to evil of this kind; and therefore almost the same occurs in Jeremiah:

Every head is baldness, and every beard shaven; upon all hands are cuttings, and upon the loins sackcloth. On all the housetops of Moab and in the streets thereof is wholly mourning (Jeremiah 48:37-38).

[5] When king Hezekiah heard the blasphemies which Rabshakeh spoke against Jerusalem, he rent his garments and covered himself with sackcloths (Isaiah 37:1; 2 Kings 19:1); because he spoke against Jehovah, the king, and Jerusalem, wherefore there was mourning; that it was against truth is signified by his rending his garments (n. 4763); and that it was against good, by his covering himself with sackcloth. For where truth is treated of in the Word, good also is treated of, on account of the heavenly marriage which is that of good and truth and of truth and good in every particular; as also in David:

Thou hast turned my mourning into dancing; Thou hast opened my sackcloth and girded me with joy (Psalms 30:11);

here “dancing” is predicated of truths, and “joy” of goods, as also in other passages in the Word; thus “to open sackcloth” denotes to take away mourning over destroyed good.

[6] In the second book of Samuel:

David said to Joab and to all the people that were with him, Rend your garments, and gird yourselves with sackcloth, and mourn before Abner (2 Samuel 3:31);

because a wicked deed had been committed against what is true and good, it was therefore commanded by David that they should rend their garments and gird themselves with sackcloth.

So likewise because Ahab had acted contrary to what was equitable and just (in the spiritual sense contrary to truth and good), when he heard the words of Elijah that he should be cut off, he rent his garments, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went slowly (1 Kings 21:27).

[7] That sackcloth is predicated of destroyed good, is also evident in Revelation:

When he opened the sixth seal, lo there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, and the whole moon became as blood (Revelation 6:12);

an “earthquake” denotes a change of the state of the church as to good and truth (n. 3355); the “sun” denotes the good of love (n. 1529, 1530, 2441, 2495, 4060, 4300, 4696), and therefore sackcloth is predicated of it when it is destroyed; the “moon” denotes the truth of faith (1529, 1530, 2120, 2495, 4060), of which blood is predicated, because “blood” is truth falsified and profaned (n. 4735).

[8] As being clothed in sackcloth and rolling in ashes represented mourning over evils and falsities, it also represented humiliation, and likewise repentance; for the primary thing in humiliation is to acknowledge that of himself one is nothing but evil and falsity. The same is true of repentance, which is effected solely through humiliation, and this through the confession of the heart that of himself one is of such a nature. That putting on sackcloth was a token of humiliation can be seen in 1 Kings 21:27-29; and that it was of repentance, in Matthew 11:21; Luke 10:13; but that it was nothing but a representative, thus only an external thing of the body, and not an internal thing of the heart, is plain from Isaiah:

Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to lie in sackcloth and ashes? Wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to Jehovah? Is not this the fast that I choose, to open the bonds of wickedness, to break bread to the hungry? etc. (Isaiah 58:5-7).

3301. That a “hairy garment” [tunica] signifies the truth of the natural, is evident from the signification of a “garment” [tunica] as being that which invests something else, and here therefore it signifies truth, because this invests good; for truth is as a vesture (n. 1073, 2576); or what is nearly the same, truth is a vessel receiving good (n. 1469, 1496, 1832, 1900, 2063, 2261, 2269); and also from the signification of “hairy,” as being the natural in respect to truth. “Hair,” or the “hair of the head,” is frequently mentioned in the Word, and there signifies the natural; the reason is that hair is an excrescence in the outermost parts of man, just as is the natural also relatively to his rational and to the interior things thereof. It appears to man, while he lives in the body, that the natural is his all, but this is so far from being true that the natural is rather an excrescence from his internals, as hair is from the things of the body. The two also proceed from the internals in almost the same way. Hence it is that men who in the life of the body have been merely natural, in the other life, when presented to view in accordance with that state, appear as if covered with hair over almost the whole face. Moreover man’s natural is represented by the hair of the head; when it is from good, it is represented by becoming and carefully arranged hair; but when not from good, by unbecoming and disheveled hair.

[2] It is from this representative that in the Word “hair” signifies the natural, especially as to truth; as in Zechariah:

And it shall come to pass in that day that the prophets shall be ashamed, a man by reason of his vision, when he hath prophesied, neither shall they wear a hairy tunic to deceive (Zech. 13:4).

“Prophets” denote those who teach truths, here those who teach falsities (n. 2534); “vision” denotes truths, here falsities; a “hairy tunic” denotes the natural as to truth; and because there was no truth, but rather falsity, it is said, “to deceive.” Prophets were clothed with such raiment in order to represent that truth, because it is external. Therefore also Elijah the Tishbite from such clothing is called a “hairy man” (2 Kings 1:8); and John, who was the last of the prophets, had “raiment of camel’s hair” (Matthew 3:4). (That “camels” are memory-knowledges in the natural man, may be seen above, n. 3048, 3071, 3143, 3145; and also that memory-knowledges are the truths of the natural, n. 3293)

[3] That the “hair of the head” signified the natural as to truth is plainly evident from the Nazirites, to whom it was commanded that during all the days of their Naziriteship no razor should pass upon their head, until the days were fulfilled during which they separated themselves to Jehovah, and then they should let down the locks of their head, and that then they should shave the head of their Naziriteship at the door of the tent of meeting, and should put the hair upon the fire which was under the eucharistic sacrifice (Numbers 6:5, 18). The Nazirites represented the Lord as to the Divine Human; and thence the man of the celestial church, who is a likeness of the the Lord, (n. 51); and the natural of this man is represented by the hair; and therefore, when the Nazirites were sanctified they were to put off their old or former natural man, into which they were born, and were to put on a new man; which was signified by the command that when the days had been fulfilled during which they were to separate themselves to Jehovah, they were to let down the locks of their head, and put them upon the fire under the sacrifice. For the state of the celestial man is such that he is in good, and from good knows all truths, and never thinks and speaks from truths about good, still less does he think and speak about good from memory-knowledges (see n. 202, 337, 2715, 2718, 3246). Moreover celestial men are such that before they put off that state they are in a natural so strong as to truth that they are able to battle with the hells; for it is truth that fights, and never good, as the hells cannot make even a distant approach to good. (That such is the case with truth and good may be seen above, n. 1950, 1951.)

[4] From this it is evident whence Samson had strength from his hair; concerning whom it is said:

The angel of Jehovah appeared to the woman saying, Behold thou shalt conceive, and bear a son, and no razor shall come upon his head; for the child shall be a Nazirite unto God from the womb (Judg. 13:3, 5);

and afterwards it is related that he told Delilah that if he should be shaven, his strength would depart from him, and he would be rendered weak; and after he had been shaven his strength departed, and the Philistines seized him; and afterwards, when the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaven, his strength returned, so that he pulled down the pillars of the house (Judges 16). Who does not see that in these things there is a heavenly arcanum, which no one knows unless he has been instructed concerning representatives; namely, that the Nazirite represents the celestial man, and that so long as he had hair he represented the natural of this man, which as before said is in truth thus powerful and strong. And as at that time all representatives that were commanded by the Lord had such force and effect, this was the source of Samson’s strength. But Samson was not a sanctified Nazirite like those described above, namely, as having put on a state of good instead of truth. The effect of his strength by reason of his hair was principally from his representing the Lord, who from the natural man as to truth fought with the hells and subdued them, and this before he put on the Divine good and truth even as to the natural man.

[5] From this also it is evident why it was commanded that the high priest, upon whose head was poured the oil of anointing, and whose hand was consecrated to put on the garments, should not shave his head, nor rend his clothes (Leviticus 21:10); and similarly that the priests the Levites (where the new temple is treated of) were not to shave their heads, nor let down their hair (Ezekiel 44:20); namely, that they might represent the Lord’s Divine natural as to the truth which is from good, and which is called the truth of good. That “hair,” or a “head of hair” signifies the natural as to truth is evident also from the prophecies of the Word, as in Ezekiel:

I set thee as the bud of the field, whence thou didst grow, and didst grow up into beauties of beauties; the breasts have become firm, and thine hair was grown (Ezekiel 16:7); where Jerusalem is treated of, which here signifies the Ancient Church, which in process of time had become perverted. The “breasts become firm” denote natural good; the “hair that was grown,” natural truth.

[6] In Daniel:

I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of Days did sit. His raiment was white as snow, and the hair of His head like the pure wool; His throne was fiery flames (Daniel 7:9).

And in John:

In the midst of the lampstands one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about at the paps with a golden girdle. And His head and His hair were white as white wool, as snow; and His eyes were as a flame of fire (Revelation 1:13-14);

“hair white like pure wool” denotes the Divine natural as to truth. In the Word, and in the rituals of the Jewish Church, truth itself was represented by white, which being from good, is called “pure wool.” The reason why the representation of truth is by white, and the representation of good by red, is that truth is of light, and good is of the fire from which the light proceeds.

[7] Like other expressions in the Word, “hair” has also an opposite sense, and signifies the natural as to truth perverted, as in Isaiah:

In that day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is hired, in the passages of the river, with the King of Assyria, the head and the hair of the feet; and it shall also consume the beard (Isaiah 7:20).

In Ezekiel:

Son of man, take thee a sharp sword, a barber’s razor shalt thou take unto thee, and shalt cause it to pass upon thine head, and upon thy beard; and take thee balances to weigh, and divide the hairs. A third part shalt thou burn with fire in the midst of the city; thou shalt take a third part and smite with the sword round about the city; and a third part thou shalt scatter to the wind; and thou shalt take thereof a few in number, and bind them in thy skirts; and of these again shalt thou take, and cast them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire; therefrom shall a fire come forth unto all the house of Israel (Ezekiel 5:1-4).

In this manner it is representatively described that there is no longer any interior and exterior natural truth, which is signified by the “hair” and the “beard.” That lusts have destroyed it is signified by its being “burned with fire”; that reasonings have destroyed it is signified by “smiting with the sword round about the city”; that false principles have destroyed it, is signified by “scattering it to the wind.” The meaning of this passage is similar to what the Lord teaches in Matthew, that of the seed, which is truth, some fell among thorns, some on the rock, and some upon the way (Matthew 13:1-9).

[8] That the “hair of the head” signifies the unclean truths and falsities which are of the natural man, was represented also by the command that when a woman that had been taken captive from the enemy was to be married, she was to be brought into the house, the hair of her head was to be shaved, her nails were to be pared, and the raiment of her captivity was to be put off (Deuteronomy 21:12-13); also that when the Levites were consecrated, the water of expiation was to be sprinkled upon them, they were to cause a razor to pass over all their flesh, and their clothes were to be washed, and thus they were to be cleansed (Numbers 8:7); and also that Nebuchadnezzar was driven out from men to eat grass like oxen, and his body to be wet with the dew of heaven, until his hair grew like eagles’ feathers, and his nails like birds’ claws (Daniel 4:33). That in leprosy the colors of the hair and beard were to be observed, as to whether they were white, reddish, yellow, black, and also those of the garments; and that he who was cleansed from leprosy should shave off all the hair of the head, beard, and eyebrows (Leviticus 13,14:8-9), signified unclean falsities from what is profane, which in the internal sense is “leprosy.”

[9] “Baldness” however signified the natural in which there was nothing of truth, as in Isaiah:

He is gone up to Bayith, and to Dibon, to the high places, to weep over Nebo, and Moab shall howl over Medeba; on all their heads is baldness, every beard is shaved (Isaiah 15:2).

In the same:

It shall come to pass that instead of braided work there shall be baldness, and branding instead of beauty (Isaiah 3:24).

That the children who said to Elisha, “Go up, thou bald-head; go up, thou bald-head,” were torn in pieces by bears from the wood (2 Kings 2:23-24) represented those who blaspheme the Word, speaking as if there were no truth in it; for Elisha represented the Lord as to the Word (n. 2762). From this it is now manifest how much power there was at that time in representatives.