2242. I will go down, I pray, and I will see. That this signifies visitation, is evident from the signification of “going down to see,” as being Judgment (explained in Part First,n. 1311), consequently that it is visitation. The last time of the church in general, and that of everyone in particular, is called in the Word “visitation,” which precedes Judgment; thus a “visitation” is simply an exploration as to quality, that is, as to the quality of the church in general, or of a man in particular; and this exploration is expressed in the sense of the letter by Jehovah “going down and seeing.”

[2] This shows what is the nature of the sense of the letter, for Jehovah does not go down, since going down cannot be predicated of the Lord, because He is always in the highest; nor does Jehovah see whether a thing be so, for seeing whether it be so cannot be predicated of the Lord, because He knows all things from eternity both in general and in particular. Nevertheless it is so expressed because it appears to man as if it were so, for man is in things that are below, and when anything appears there, he does not think or even know how the case is with things that are above, thus neither how they flow in, for his thought goes no further than to what is nearest to him, and hence he cannot perceive otherwise than that there is some such thing as going down and seeing, and this the more because he imagines that no one knows what he is thinking; besides that he has no other idea than that there is a coming down from on high, and, when said of God, from the highest; whereas it is not from the highest, but from the inmost.

[3] This shows what is the nature of the sense of the letter, namely, that it is according to appearances and if it were not according to appearances, no one would understand and acknowledge the Word; thus no one would receive it. But the angels are not in appearances in the way that man is, and therefore while the Word as to the sense of the letter is for man, as to the internal sense it is for the angels, as also for those men to whom of the Lord’s Divine mercy it is given, while living in the world, to be like the angels.

[4] “Visitation” is mentioned in various places in the Word, and by it is signified either vastation-whether of the church or of each man-or deliverance, and thus exploration as to quality. It denotes vastation in Isaiah:

What will ye do in the day of visitation? it shall come from far. To whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory? (Isaiah 10:3).

And again:

The stars of the heavens and the constellations thereof shall not shine with their light, the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine, and I will visit evil upon the world, and upon the wicked their iniquity (Isaiah 13:10-11).

That by the stars and constellations which shall not shine, and the sun which shall be darkened, and the moon which shall not make her light to shine, is signified that there will be no love and no charity, may be seen above (n. 2120); and as this is vastation, it is the “day of visitation.”

[5] In Jeremiah:

They shall fall among them that fall, and in the time of their visitation they shall stumble (Jeremiah 8:12);

meaning the time when they have been vastated, or when there is no charity and faith.

In Ezekiel:

The visitations of the city have come near, and every man with his instrument of destruction in his hand (Ezekiel 9:1).

Here also vastation is treated of; hence every man has an instrument of destruction.

In Hosea:

The days of visitation are come, the days of retribution are come (Hos. 9:7).

In Micah:

The day of thy watchmen, thy visitation, is come; now shall be their perplexity (Micah 7:4),

also denoting vastated charity.

In Moses:

In the day of My visiting, and I will visit upon them their sin (Exodus 32:34),

where the people in the wilderness are treated of, after they had made for themselves the golden calf. That deliverance is signified by “visitation” is plain from many passages (as Exodus 3:16; 4:31; Jeremiah 27:22; 29:10; Luke 1:68, 78; 19:41-42).

2240. That a “cry” denotes falsity, and “sin” evil, is evident from the signification in the Word of a “cry.” That a “cry” signifies falsity, can be evident to no one unless he knows the internal sense of the Word. The word sometimes occurs in the Prophets, and when vastation and desolation are there treated of, it is said that men “howl and cry,” by which is signified that goods and truths have been vastated; and a term is there made use of by which in the internal sense falsity is described; as in Jeremiah:

A voice of the cry of the shepherds, and the howling of the powerful ones of the flock because Jehovah layeth waste their pasture (Jeremiah 25:36),

where the “cry of the shepherds” denotes that they are in falsity, from which there comes vastation.

[2] In the same:

Behold, waters rise up from the north, and shall become an overflowing stream, and shall overflow the land and the fullness thereof, the city and them that dwell therein and the men shall cry, and every inhabitant of the land shall howl, because of the day that cometh to lay waste (Jeremiah 47:2, 4),

where the desolation of faith is treated of, which is brought about by falsities; the “overflowing stream” is falsity (as shown in Part First, n. 705, 790

[3] In Zephaniah:

The voice of a cry from the fish gate, and a howling from the second, and a great shattering from the hills, and their wealth shall become a spoil, and their houses a desolation (Zeph. 1:10, 13),

where also a “cry” is predicated of the falsities which lay waste.

[4] In Isaiah:

In the way of Horonaim they shall rouse up a cry of shattering, for the waters of Nimrim shall be desolations, for the grass has dried up, the herb is consumed, there is no green thing (Isaiah 15:5-6; Jeremiah 48:3), where the desolation of faith and its consummation is described by a “cry.”

[5] In Jeremiah:

Judah hath mourned, and her gates languish, they have been blackened upon the earth, and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up; and their illustrious ones have sent their younger ones to the waters; they came to the pits, they found no waters, they returned with their vessels empty (Jeremiah 14:2-3),

where the “cry of Jerusalem” denotes falsities; for by their “finding no waters” is signified that there were no knowledges of truth, which are “waters” (as shown in Part First,n. 28, 680, 739).

[6] In Isaiah:

I will exult in Jerusalem and be glad in My people, and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying (Isaiah 65:19),

where there “not being heard the voice of weeping” denotes that there shall not be evil; “nor the voice of crying” denotes that there shall not be falsity. Very many of these things cannot be understood from the sense of the letter, but only from the internal sense, and this is the case with a “cry.”

[7] In the same:

Jehovah looked for judgment, but behold a scab; for righteousness, but behold a cry (Jeremiah 5:7),

where also the vastation of good and truth is treated of. There is in this passage a kind of reciprocation, such as is occasionally found in the Prophets, and which is of such a nature that in the place of truth there is found evil, which is meant by there being “a scab instead of judgment;” and falsity in place of good, which is meant by there being “a cry instead of righteousness” (for that “judgment” is truth, and “righteousness” good, was shown above, n. 2235).

[8] There is a like reciprocation in Moses, where Sodom and Gomorrah are treated of:

Of the vine of Sodom is their vine, and of the fields of Gomorrah are their grapes; they have grapes of gall, clusters of bitternesses. (Deuteronomy 32:32),

where there is a similar mode of speaking; for the “vine” is predicated of truths and falsities, and the “fields” and “grapes,” of goods and evils; so that “the vine of Sodom” is falsity from evil, and “the fields and grapes of Gomorrah” are evils from falsities; for there are two kinds of falsity (see Part First,n. 1212); and so also there are two kinds of evil. Both kinds of falsity and evil are signified in this verse by the “cry of Sodom and Gomorrah having become great, and their sin having become exceeding grievous;” as is evident from the fact that “cry” is named in the first place, and “sin” in the second; and yet “Sodom,” which is evil from the love of self, is mentioned first; and “Gomorrah,” which is the derivative falsity, second.