414. So that a third of the day did not shine, and likewise the night. This symbolically means that they no longer have in them any spiritual truth or natural truth from the Word serviceable for doctrine and life.

The day's not shining means that they had no light from the sun, and "likewise the night" means that they had no light from the moon and stars. Light in general symbolizes Divine truth, which is truth from the Word. The light of the sun symbolizes spiritual Divine truth, and the light of the moon and stars symbolizes natural Divine truth, both acquired from the Word. Divine truth in the spiritual sense of the Word is like the light of the sun during the day, and Divine truth in the natural sense of the Word is like the light of the moon and stars at night. The spiritual sense of the Word, moreover, flows into its natural sense, as the sun does with its light to the moon, and this reflects the light of the sun indirectly.

In this way also does the spiritual sense of the Word enlighten people, even people who know nothing of that sense, when they read the Word in its natural sense. However, it enlightens a spiritual person as light from the sun does his eye, but a natural person as light from the moon and stars does his eye. Everyone is enlightened in accordance with his spiritual affection for truth and goodness, and at the same time in accordance with the genuine truths by which he has opened his rational faculty.

[2] Day and night also have this meaning in the following places:

God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night...." Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule by day, and the lesser light to rule by night. He made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to rule by day and by night, and to divide the light from the darkness. (Genesis 1:14-19)

(Jehovah) made great lights..., the sun to rule by day..., the moon and stars to rule by night... (Psalms 136:7-9)

The day is Yours, (O Jehovah,) the night also is Yours; You have prepared the light and the sun. (Psalms 74:16)

...Jehovah... gives the sun for a light by day, the ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night... (Jeremiah 31:35)

If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that there will not be day and night in their season, then My covenant also may be broken with David My servant... If I have not appointed My covenant with day and night, the ordinances of heaven and earth, I also will reject the offspring of Jacob and David... (Jeremiah 33:20-21, 25-26)

I cite these passages to make known that the darkening of both kinds of light is meant.

7443. 'And I will set apart on that day the land of Goshen, on which My people stand, so that the noxious flying insects are not there' means that they will not be able to use malevolent falsities to molest those who belong to the spiritual Church even though they are near them. This is clear from the meaning of 'setting apart' as separating to prevent communication; from the meaning of 'day' as state, dealt with in 23, 487, 488, 493, 893, 2788, 3462, 3785, 4850, so that 'setting apart on that day' is separating during that state; from the meaning of 'the land of Goshen' as the middle or inmost part in the natural, dealt with in 5910, 6028, 6031, 6068, and also, since the children of Israel were in the land of Goshen, as the Church, 6649; from the representation of the children of Israel, to whom 'Jehovah's people' refers here, as those who belong to the spiritual Church, dealt with above in 7439; and from the meaning of 'noxious flying insects' as malevolent falsity, dealt with above in 7441, so that 'the noxious flying insects are not there' means that they will not be able to flow in, and therefore not be able to use those falsities for molesting others. The reason why they would be unable to use those falsities to molest with is this: Those falsities are falsities arising from the evils present in the outermost parts of the natural mind which form the level of the senses, and those who have what is good and true within them can be raised above that level, and so above the falsities there, as accords with what has been stated immediately above in 7442. And when they are raised above it they are also separated from those who are steeped in the falsities there.