10416. 'And rose up to play' means the resulting desire of their interiors to celebrate, and concord. This is clear from the meaning of 'playing' as the desire of a person's interiors to celebrate, for play is the outcome of that desire, being a bodily activity brought about by gladness of mind; and all desire for celebration and all gladness of mind come from the delights belonging to the loves that govern a person. The reason why concord as well is meant is that every desire to celebrate has concord residing inwardly within it; for if any disagreement or disapproval enters in, that desire perishes. The desire to celebrate resides inwardly in a person's feeling of freedom, and all feeling of freedom comes as a result of love, when nothing exists to frustrate it.
[2] Since outward things are used in the Word to describe inward ones, times of play and dancing are used to describe those of joy and gladness present in a person inwardly, as in the following places: In Jeremiah,
The city will be built upon its mound. Then there will come out of these thanksgiving (confessio) and the voice of those who are playing 1
. Jeremiah 30:18-19.
In the same prophet,
Again I will build you, that you may be built, O virgin of Israel! Again you will adorn your timbrels 2
, and will go forth in the dance of those who are playing 1
. Their life 3
will become like a watered garden, and they will not sorrow any more. And the virgin will rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old together. I will turn their mourning into joy. Jeremiah 31:4, 12-13.
In Zechariah,
The streets of the city will be full of boys and girls playing in its streets. Zechariah 8:5.
In David,
Praise the name of Jehovah with timbrel and dance. Psalms 149:3; 150:4.
In the same author,
You have turned for me my mourning into dancing. Psalms 30:11.
In Jeremiah,
The joy of our heart has ceased, our dance has been turned into mourning. Lamentations 5:15.
[3] Since times of play and dancing were the signs of feelings of joy and gladness inwardly present and springing from love, Miriam and the women went out, with timbrels after the Egyptians had been drowned in the Sea Suph and started dancing, Exodus 15:20. For the same reason, when the ark was being brought up from the house of Obed-Edom to the city of David, David leapt and danced before Jehovah, 2 Samuel 6:12, 16.
[4] The fact that inner things are presented and described in the Word by means of outward ones is clear from the following words in David,
You have made the sea, great and wide on both hands 4
- there the ships sail, the Leviathan whom You have formed to play in it. Psalms 104:25-26.
Anyone without knowledge of the fact that the spiritual sense exists within each detail of the Word knows nothing else here than that 'the sea' and 'ships' are used to mean sea and ships, 'the Leviathan' to mean the monsters there, and 'playing' to mean their swimming around together there. Such things however are not what constitute the Word, every jot of which is Divine; but when the spiritual matters meant by those things are understood instead, it becomes Divine. In the internal sense 'the sea' is a gathering together of factual knowledge of truths, thus it is that which constitutes what is external with a person and in the Church; 'ships' are cognitions or knowledge and matters of doctrine drawn from the Word; 'the Leviathan' is factual knowledge in general; and 'playing' is the delight derived from those things.
'The sea' is a gathering together of factual truths, see 28, 2850, 8184, 9340.
'Ships' are cognitions and matters of doctrine drawn from the Word, 1977, 6385.
'The Leviathan' is factual knowledge in general, 7293.
Thus 'playing' is the delight and the desire to celebrate derived from those things, which occurs when known facts add strength to spiritual matters and accord with them.
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