640. Verses 5, 6. "And if any one shall desire to hurt them, fire shall go forth out of their mouth, and shall devour their enemies; and if any one shall desire to hurt them, he must thus be killed. These have power to shut heaven, that the rain rain not in the days of their prophecy; and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with every plague as often as they shall desire."

"And if any one shall desire to hurt them," signifies the protection of them by the Lord, lest they should be in any way injured; "fire shall go forth out of their mouth, and shall devour their enemies," signifies that those who should inflict injury upon them should fall into evils and falsities which are from hell, and which destroy them; "and if any one shall desire to hurt them, he must thus be killed," signifies that according to their attempt to inflict evil they perish. "These have power to shut heaven, that the rain rain not in the days of their prophecy," signifies that those who reject the goods and truths of heaven and the church, which proceed from the Lord, receive no influx from heaven; "and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood," signifies that truths with them are turned into falsities of evil; "and to smite the earth with every plague," signifies that the church with them perishes through the lusts (concupiscentiae) of evil; "as often as they shall desire," signifies to inflict evil upon them as often as man assaults the goods of love and the truths of doctrine, which bear witness of the Lord and from which he acknowledges and confesses the Lord.