1949. He shall be a wild-ass [onager] man. That this signifies rational truth, which is described, is evident from the signification of “a wild-ass,” as being rational truth. In the Word there is frequent mention of horses, horsemen, mules, and asses; and as yet no one has known that these signify things of the intellect, of the reason, and of memory-knowledge. That these animals and their riders have such a signification will of the Lord’s Divine mercy be fully confirmed in the proper places. Of the same class is the “onager,” for this is the mule of the wilderness or wild-ass, and it signifies man’s rational; not however the rational in its whole complex, but only rational truth. The rational consists of good and truth, that is, of things belonging to charity and of things belonging to faith, and it is rational truth that is signified by the “wild-ass.” This then is what is represented by Ishmael, and is what is described in this verse.

[2] It seems incredible that rational truth when separated from good should be of such a character, neither should I have known this to be the case unless I had been instructed by living experience. Whether you say rational truth; or the man whose rational is of this kind, amounts to the same. The man whose rational is of such a character that he is solely in truth-even though it be the truth of faith-and who is not at the same time in the good of charity, is altogether of such a character. He is a morose man, will bear nothing, is against all, regards everybody as being in falsity, is ready to rebuke, to chastise, and to punish; has no pity, and does not apply or adapt himself to others and study to bend their minds; for he looks at everything from truth, and at nothing from good. Hence it is that Ishmael was driven out, and afterwards dwelt in the wilderness, and his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt (Genesis 21:9-21); all of which things are representative of one who is endowed with such a rational.

[3] Mention is made of “wild-asses” in the prophetical parts of the Word, as in Isaiah:

The palace shall be forsaken, the multitude of the city shall be deserted; the high place and the watchtower shall be for dens, even forever a joy of wild-asses, a pasture of flocks (Isaiah 32:14); where the devastation of intellectual things is treated of, which, when laid waste as regards truths, are called “a joy of wild-asses;” and when as regards goods, “a pasture of flocks;” so that there is no rational.

In Jeremiah:

The wild-asses stood upon the hills, they snuffed up the wind like whales, their eyes perished because there was no herbage (Jeremiah 14:6); where the subject treated of is drought, that is, the absence of what is good and true. It is said of the wild-asses that they “snuff up the wind,” when empty things are seized on instead of real things, which are truths; “their eyes perished” means that there is no apprehension of what truth is.

[4] In Hosea:

For they have gone up to Assyria, a wild-ass alone by himself; Ephraim hath sought loves with a harlot’s hire (Hos. 8:9).

Here “Israel,” or the spiritual church, is treated of; “Ephraim” denotes its intellectual; “going up into Assyria,” reasoning about truth, as to whether it is truth; the “solitary wild-ass,” the rational thus destitute of truths. In the same:

For he shall be among his brethren as a wild-ass; an east wind shall come, the wind of Jehovah coming up from the wilderness; and his spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up; he shall make a spoil of the treasure of all vessels of desire (Hos. 13:15),

speaking of Ephraim, by whom is signified the intellectual of the spiritual church, whose rational is “as a wild-ass;” and the destruction of which is here treated of.

In David:

Jehovah God shall send forth springs into rivers, they shall run among the mountains; they shall supply drink to every beast of the fields; the wild-asses shall quench their thirst (Psalms 104:10-11).

“Springs” denote knowledges; the “beasts of the fields,” goods; the “wild-asses,” the truths of reason.