35. 28 shows that the Old Testament prophets represented the Lord in respect to the Word and therefore meant the teaching of the church drawn from the Word, and that because of this they were addressed as “children of humanity.” It follows from this that by the various things they suffered and endured they represented the violence done to the literal meaning of the Word by Jews. Isaiah, for example, took the sackcloth off his waist and the sandals off his feet and went naked and barefoot for three years (Isaiah 20:2-3). Similarly, Ezekiel the prophet took a barber’s razor to his head and his beard, burned a third of the hair in the middle of the city, struck a third with a sword, and scattered a third to the wind; also, he bound a few hairs in his hems and eventually threw a few into the midst of a fire and burned them (Ezekiel 5:1-4).

Since the prophets represented the Word and therefore meant the teaching of the church drawn from the Word (as just noted), and since the head means wisdom from the Word, the hair and the beard mean the outermost form of truth. It is because of this meaning that inflicting baldness on yourself was a sign of immense grief and being discovered to be bald was an immense disgrace. This and this alone is why the prophet shaved off his hair and his beard - to represent the state of the Jewish church in regard to the Word. This and this alone is why two she-bears tore apart forty-two boys who called Elisha bald (2 Kings 2:23-25)-because as just noted the prophet represented the Word, and his baldness signified the Word without an outermost meaning.

We shall see in §49 below that the Nazirites represented the Lord’s Word in its outermost forms, which is why they were commanded to let their hair grow and not to shave any of it. In Hebrew, “Nazirite” actually means “hair.” It was commanded also that the high priest was not to shave his head (Leviticus 21:10) and that the fathers of their families as well were not to do so (Leviticus 21:5).

That is why they regarded baldness as such an immense disgrace, as we can tell from the following passages:

There will be baldness upon all heads, and every beard will be cut off. (Isaiah 15:2; Jeremiah 48:37)

There will be shame upon all faces and baldness on all heads. (Ezekiel 7:18)

Every head was made bald and every shoulder hairless. (Ezekiel 29:18)

I will put sackcloth around all waists and baldness upon every head. (Amos 8:10)

Make yourself bald and cut off your hair because of your precious children; make yourself still more bald, because they have left you and gone into exile. (Micah 1:16)

Here making yourself bald and making yourself still more bald means distorting truths of the Word in its outermost forms. Once they have been distorted, as was done by Jews, the whole Word is ruined, because the outermost forms of the Word are what it rests on and what holds it up. In fact, every word in it is a base and support for the Word’s heavenly and spiritual truths.

Since a head of hair means truth in its outermost forms, in the spiritual world everyone who trivializes the Word and distorts its literal meaning looks bald; but those who respect and love it have good-looking hair. On this, see §49 below.

16. For the time is near, signifies such an interior state. This is evident from the signification of "time," as meaning state (See the work on Heaven and Hell 162-169, where Time in Heaven is treated of); and from the signification of "near," as being the internal; thus here, because it refers to state, the interior state such as is described above is meant. By state is meant a state of affection and of thought therefrom. He who reads this, and knows nothing of the internal sense, supposes that by "the time being near" is meant that the time was near when the things contained in Revelation would be fulfilled. But that this is not meant can be seen from the fact that seventeen centuries elapsed before they were fulfilled. But because the Word in the letter is natural and within is spiritual, it is said that "the time is near," in order that in heaven the interior state might be understood; for if the expression "the interior state," which is the spiritual sense, had here been used, it would not have been understood by the angels; for they perceive all things of the Word according to correspondences. "Near" signifies interior, because distances in heaven are entirely in accord with the differences of the good of love; for which reason those who are in kindred good are also near one another; and it is from this that on earth kinships are called near relationships [propinquitates], because they relate to spiritual affinities, which in heaven are really such. In heaven this is so because the good of love conjoins, and the more interior the good, the nearer is the conjunction. From this it is, that heaven is nearer to man, the more interiorly he is in the good of love; and the origin of this is that the Lord is nearer to an angel, to a spirit, and to man, the more interiorly they love Him. To love Him interiorly is to love His precepts interiorly; that is, to perceive, to will, and to do them from the delight of love. It is from this that "nearness," in the Word, signifies presence and conjunction (as may be seen in Arcana Coelestia 5911, 9378, 9997, 10001). This nearness is thus described in John:

Jesus said, He that loveth Me keepeth My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him (John 14:23);

and in the same:

Ye know the Comforter, the Spirit of truth; for He abideth with you, and shall be in you (John 14:17);

"the Comforter, the Spirit of truth" is Divine truth going forth from the Lord; therefore it is said, "He shall be in you."