84. It can seem to readers who pay attention to such things that there are paired expressions in the Word that seem to be repetitions of the same thing - brother and companion, for example, poor and needy, waste and desolation, emptiness and void, enemy and foe, sin and iniquity, wrath and rage, nation and people, joy and gladness, grief and tears, justice and judgment, and the like. They do seem to be synonyms, but they are not, since brother, poor, waste, [emptiness,] enemy, sin, wrath, nation, joy, grief, and justice describe what is good (or in an opposite sense, what is evil), while companion, needy, desolation, void, foe, iniquity, rage, people, gladness, tears, and judgment describe what is true (or in an opposite sense, what is false). It seems to a reader who is unfamiliar with this mystery that poor and needy, waste and desolation, emptiness and void, enemy and foe are the same thing, as are sin and iniquity, wrath and rage, nation and people, joy and gladness, grief and tears, justice and judgment; yet they are not the same thing. Rather they become one thing by being brought together.

[2] Many other things are paired in the Word, like fire and flame, gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone, bread and water, bread and wine, purple and linen, and so on, and this is because fire, gold, bronze, wood, bread, and purple mean something good, while flame, silver, iron, stone, water, wine, and linen mean something true. In the same vein, it says that we are to love God with our whole heart and our whole soul and that God is going to create in us a new heart and a new spirit, “heart” describing the good that comes from love and “soul” the truth that comes from that good.

There are also expressions that occur alone with nothing appended because they designate both goodness and truth. These and many other expressions, though, are evident only to angels and to people who are aware of the spiritual meaning even while they are focused on the earthly meaning.