6419. 'Daughters, [each one] marches onto the wall' means going out to fight against falsity. This is clear from the meaning of 'a daughter' as the Church, dealt with in 2362, 3963, here the spiritual Church since that Church is the subject; and from the meaning of 'marching onto the wall' as going out to fight against falsity, as is evident from the words that immediately follow - 'they exasperate him and shoot at him and hate him, do the archers; and he will sit in the strength of his bow', meaning the fight put up by falsity against truth.

[2] The expression 'marches onto the wall' is used because the subject in the internal sense is the attack made by falsities on truth and the protection of truth against falsity; for the spiritual Church represented by 'Joseph' is constantly under attack, but the Lord is constantly protecting it. This explains why in the Word all that makes up that Church is compared to a city with a wall, rampart, gates, and bars; and attacks made on the city describe attacks made on truth by falsities. Hence it also is that 'a city' means matters of doctrine, 402, 2268, 2449, 2712, 2943, 3216, 4492, 4493, and 'a wall' the truths of faith that serve to defend, or in the contrary sense falsities that serve to destroy. The first meaning - the truths of faith that serve to defend - may be seen in Isaiah,

Ours is a strong city; He will establish salvation for walls and rampart. Open the gates, so that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in. Isaiah 26:1-2.

In the same prophet,

You will call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise. Isaiah 60:18.

In the same prophet,

Behold, I have engraved you upon [My] hands, your walls are continually before Me. Isaiah 49:16

'Walls' stands for the truths of faith. In the same prophet,

Upon your walls, O Jerusalem, I have placed watchmen, all day and night they will not be silent, calling Jehovah to mind. Isaiah 62:6.

Here the meaning is similar. In Jeremiah,

Thus said Jehovah, the God of Israel, ¹ I will convert the weapons of war with which you are fighting with the king of Babel, besieging you outside the wall; I Myself will fight with you with an outstretched hand. Jeremiah 21:4-5.

In the same prophet,

Jehovah thought to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion, He caused rampart and wall to mourn; they will languish together. Her gates have sunk into the earth, He has destroyed and broken in pieces her bars. Lamentations 2:8-9.

In Ezekiel,

The sons of Arvad, and your army, were on your walls round about, and the Gammadim were in your towers; they hung their shields on your walls round about and they made perfect your beauty. Ezekiel 27:11.

This refers to Tyre, which means cognitions of good and truth.

[3] The fact that such things are meant by a city and its walls becomes perfectly clear from the description of the holy Jerusalem coming down out of heaven, as seen by John. From every detail of the description it is evident that a new Church is meant by that city; and by its wall is meant Divine Truth going forth from the Lord. The city is depicted in John as follows,

The holy Jerusalem coming down from heaven, having a wall great and high, having twelve gates - the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. He who talked to me measured the city and its gates, and its wall. Its wall was a hundred and forty-four cubits, which is the measure of a man, that is, of an angel. The structure of the wall was jasper, and the city pure gold, like pure glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every precious stone. Revelation 21:10, 12, 14, 15, 17-19.

[4] The fact that 'the wall' means Divine Truth going forth from the Lord, and from this means the truth of faith coming out of the good of charity, is evident from the details regarding the wall that are mentioned in that description, such as the detail that the wall had twelve foundations, and in them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb; for 'twelve means all, 3272, 3858, 3913, and 'the wall and its foundations' the truths of faith - much the same as is meant by 'the twelve apostles', 3488, 3858 (end), 6397. Then there is the detail that the wall was a hundred and forty-four cubits high, much the same being meant by that number as by twelve, which is all, since it is the product of twelve multiplied by twelve. And since that number used in reference to the wall means all truths and goods of faith, the expression 'which is the measure of a man, that is, of an angel' is added. Other details that are given are that the structure of the wall was jasper, and that its foundations were adorned with every precious stone; for 'jasper' and 'precious stones' mean the truths of faith, 114.

[5] The meaning of 'wall' in the contrary sense - falsities that serve to destroy - is evident from the following places: In Isaiah,

A day of tumult in the valley of vision. The Lord Jehovih Zebaoth has destroyed the wall, so that there is a shout towards the mountain. For Elam bore the quiver with chariots of men (homo), [and] horsemen. The horsemen surely positioned themselves right at the gate. Isaiah 22:5-7.

In the same prophet,

The defence-work of your walls providing refuge ² He will pull down, cast down, lay flat on the ground, ³ right down into the dust. Isaiah 25:12.

In Jeremiah,

Go up onto its walls and throw down. Jeremiah 5:10.

In the same prophet,

I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, which will consume the palaces of Benhadad. Jeremiah 49:27.

In the same prophet,

Raise a standard against the walls of Babel, keep watch, post watchmen. Jeremiah 51:12.

In Ezekiel,

They will overturn the walls of Tyre, and destroy her towers, and I will scrape her dust from her and make her a bare rock. Ezekiel 16:4, 8-9, 11.

Footnotes:

3913. 'She said, Behold, my maidservant Bilhah' means the affirming means, which has its place between natural truth and interior truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'a maidservant', and also of 'a servant-girl' as the affection for the cognitions which belong to the exterior man, dealt with in 1895, 2567, 3835, 3849, and in this particular case since that affection is the means by which interior truths become joined to natural or external truths, 'a maidservant' therefore describes the affirming means that has its place between these; and from the representation of 'Bilhah' as the nature of that means. The two servant-girls which Rachel and Leah gave to Jacob as wives for producing offspring represented and meant in the internal sense nothing else than something which is of service, in this case something serving as the means by which those two things are joined together, namely interior truth with external truth, for 'Rachel' represents interior truth, 'Leah' external, 3793, 3819. Indeed by means of the twelve sons of Jacob twelve general or principal requisites are described here by which a person is introduced into spiritual and celestial things while he is being regenerated or becoming the Church.

[2] Actually when a person is being regenerated or becoming the Church, that is, when from being a dead man he is becoming a living one, or from being a bodily-minded man is becoming a heavenly-minded one, he is led by the Lord through many states. These general states are specified by those twelve sons, and later by the twelve tribes, so that the twelve tribes mean all aspects of faith and love - see what has been shown in 3858. For any general whole includes every particular and individual detail, and each detail exists in relation to the general whole. When a person is being regenerated the internal man is to be joined to the external man, and therefore the goods and truths which belong to the internal man are to be joined to those which belong to the external man, for it is truths and goods that make a person a human being. These cannot be joined together without means. These means consist in such things as take something from one side and something from the other, and act in such a way that insofar as a person moves closer to one the other plays a subordinate role. These means are meant by the servant-girls - Rachel's servant-girls being the means available from the internal man, Leah's the means available from the external man.

[3] The necessity for means by which the joining together is effected may be recognized from the consideration that of himself the natural man does not agree at all with the spiritual but disagrees so much as to be utterly opposed to the spiritual. For the natural man regards and loves self and the world, whereas the spiritual man does not, except insofar as to do so leads to the rendering of services in the spiritual world, and so he regards service to it and loves this service because of the use that is served and the end in view. The natural man seems to himself to have life when he is promoted to high positions and so to pre-eminence over others, but the spiritual man seems to himself to have life in self-abasement and in being the least. Not that he despises high positions, provided they are means by which he is enabled to serve the neighbour, society as a whole, and the Church. Neither does the spiritual man view the important positions to which he is promoted in any selfish way but on account of the services rendered which are his ends in view. Bliss for the natural man consists in his being wealthier than others and in his possessing worldly riches, whereas bliss for the spiritual man consists in his having cognitions of truth and good which are the riches he possesses, and even more so in the practice of good in accordance with truths. Not however that he despises riches, because these enable him to render a service in the world.

[4] These few considerations show that on account of their different ends in view the state of the natural man and the state of the spiritual are the reverse of each other, but that the two can be joined one to the other. That conjunction is effected when things which belong to the external man become subordinate and are subservient to the ends which the internal man has in view. In order that a person may become spiritual therefore it is necessary for the things belonging to the external man to be brought into a position of subservience, and so for ends that have self and the world in view to be cast aside and those that have the neighbour and the Lord's kingdom to be adopted. The former cannot possibly be cast aside or the latter adopted, and so the two cannot be joined, except through means. It is these means that are meant by the servant-girls, and specifically by the four sons born to the servant-girls.

[5] The first means is one that affirms, or is affirmative towards, internal truth; that is to say, it affirms that it really is internal truth. Once this affirmative attitude is present, a person is in the first stage of regeneration, good from within being at work and leading to that spirit of affirmation. That good cannot pass into a negative attitude, nor even into one of doubt, until this becomes affirmative. After this, that good manifests itself in affection; that is to say, it causes the person to feel an affection for, and delight in, truth - first through his coming to know this truth, then through his acting in accordance with it. Take for example the truth that the Lord is the human race's salvation. If the person does not develop an affirmative attitude towards this truth, none of the things which he has learned about the Lord from the Word or in the Church and which are included among the facts in his natural memory can be joined to his internal man, that is, to the truths that are able to be truths of faith there. Nor can affection accordingly enter in, not even into the general aspects of this truth which contribute to the person's salvation. But once he develops an affirmative attitude countless things are added and are filled with the good that is flowing in. For good is flowing in constantly from the Lord, but where no affirmative attitude exists it is not accepted. An affirmative attitude is therefore the first means and so to speak first dwelling-place of the good flowing in from the Lord. And the same is so with all other truths called the truths of faith.