489. "And they will tread the holy city underfoot for forty-two months." This symbolically means that the church has dispelled every truth of the Word to the point that none remains.

The holy city means the Holy Jerusalem, and the Holy Jerusalem means the New Church which possesses doctrinal truths, as holiness is predicated of Divine truth (no. 173). A city, moreover, symbolizes doctrine (no. 194). Consequently to tread that city underfoot means, symbolically, to dispel its doctrinal truths. Forty-two months mean, symbolically, to the end when nothing remains.

Doctrinal truths mean truths from the Word, because that is the source of the church's doctrine and every particular of it.

People concerned with the internal elements of the church today have thus dispelled the Word's truths and the church's doctrine from it. All of this is described in the present chapter by the beast ascending from the bottomless pit, which killed the two witnesses (verse 7); and it may also be seen from the accounts from the spiritual world appended to each chapter.

[2] Forty-two months mean, symbolically, to the end when nothing of the church's truth and goodness remains, because the number forty-two has the same symbolic meaning as six weeks, inasmuch as forty-two is the product of six multiplied by seven, and six weeks symbolizes a period complete to the end. For that is the symbolic meaning of the number six, and a week symbolizes a state, and the seventh week a holy state, which is the new state of the church when the Lord begins His reign.

The number forty-two has the same symbolic meaning in the following verse:

(The beast rising up out of the sea) was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and it was given the power to do this for forty-two months. (Revelation 13:5, no. 583)

The number six symbolizes a period complete to the end because that is the symbolic meaning of the number three, six being that number doubled; and doubled or not, in the case of numbers the symbolism is the same.

Furthermore, this number has the same symbolic meaning as the number three and a half, because forty-two months is equivalent to three and a half years.

The period is expressed in terms of months because a month symbolizes a complete state, as in Isaiah 66:23, Revelation 22:1-2, Genesis 29:14, Numbers 11:18-20, Deuteronomy 21:11, 13.

193. "'And I will write on him the name of My God.'" This symbolically means that they will have Divine truth engraved on their hearts.

To engrave something on someone means, symbolically, to engrave it on him so that it is in him as something his own, and the name of My God symbolizes Divine truth.

Here we must say something about My God's being Divine truth. In countless places the Word of the Old Testament uses the name Jehovah God, and also the two terms separately, saying sometimes Jehovah, sometimes God; and Jehovah means the Lord in respect to Divine good, while God means the Lord in respect to Divine truth. Or to say the same thing, Jehovah means the Lord in respect to Divine love, and God means the Lord in respect to Divine wisdom. Both terms are used because of the heavenly marriage in every part of the Word, which is a marriage of love and wisdom or a marriage of goodness and truth. Concerning this marriage, see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture, nos. 80-90.

[2] The Word of the New Testament does not use the name Jehovah God, but instead Lord God, for like Jehovah, the term Lord symbolizes Divine good or Divine love.

It can be seen from this that the name of My God symbolizes the Lord's Divine truth.

A name, when used of the Lord, means everything by which He is worshiped, as may be seen no. 81 above, and everything by which He is worshiped has some relation to Divine good and Divine truth.

Because people do not know the meaning of these words of the Lord, "'Father, glorify Your name,' and a voice came from heaven, saying, 'I have both glorified it and will glorify it again,'" ¹ therefore we will say what they mean. When the Lord was in the world, He made His humanity the embodiment of Divine truth, which is also the Word, and when He departed from the world, He fully united the Divine truth to the Divine good that He had in Him from conception. For the Lord glorified His humanity, or made it Divine, in the same way that He makes a person spiritual. That is, He first instills in a person truths from the Word, and afterward unites these to goodness, and by that union makes the person spiritual.

Фусноти: