THE EXPLANATION of Isaiah Chapter 47

(Note: Rev. Smithson's translation of the Isaiah text is appended below the explanation.)

1. COME down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground; there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for you shalt no longer be called the tender and the delicate.

VERSES 1, 5, 8. The subject here treated of is concerning the profanation of Good and of Truth; for by the "daughter of Babylon" is signified the profanation of Good, and by the "daughter of the Chaldeans" the profanation of Truth. The reason why such things are signified by them is, because they employ the divine Goods and Truths which are in the Word and from the Word as means of bearing rule, whence the Babylonians and Chaldeans regard themselves, or their own dominion, as ends, and the holy things of the church from the Word as means; thus they do not regard the Lord and His dominion as an end, nor their neighbour, and love towards him.

To "come down and sit in the dust, and on the ground", signifies to be in evils and thence in damnation; to "sit in silence" and to "enter into darkness" signifies to be in falsities 'and thence in damnation.

To "sit or dwell in security", denotes to be in confidence that their rule or dominion will remain, and that they shall not perish; "not to sit a widow" and "not to know bereaving or loss of children", signifies not to be in want of attendants, clients, and worshippers.

"There is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans; for you shalt no longer be called the mistress of kingdoms", signifies that they shall bear rule no longer, because of their subversion and damnation in the day of the Last Judgment, which is treated of in this chapter. Arcana Coelestia 687.

Verses 1, 2. That by those who "grind meal", when mentioned in the Word, are signified those who within the church are in Truth from the affection of Good, and, in the opposite sense, those who within the church are in Truth from the affection of evil, is evident from Isaiah 47:1, 2:

"Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon", etc.

The "daughter of Babylon" stands for those, with whom the externals appear holy and good, but the interiors profane and evil. (See above, Isaiah 13 and 14, the Exposition.)

The "daughter of the Chaldeans" means those with whom the externals appear holy and true, but the interiors are profane and false.

To "take a millstone" and to "grind meal" signifies to conclude doctrines from Truths which they pervert; for "meal", which is either from wheat or from barley, signifies Truths from Good, and, in the opposite sense, Truths which they pervert for the purpose of seducing others. Arcana Coelestia 4335.

[The correspondence of "grinding meal" may be readily seen, when it is considered that the act of grinding meal is to prepare food for the nourishment of the body; which corresponds to the act of preparing food for the nourishment of the soul, which is done by instructing the mind in the Truths of the Word, and by deriving doctrine therefrom for its spiritual nourishment.]

Verses 1-3. The "daughter of Babylon" is the church, or what professes to be a church, where what is holy is in externals, but what is profane is in the internals. This profanity in the internals consists in this, that they regard themselves and the world as an end, thus dominion and abundance of riches, and the holy things [of the Word and of the church] as means to that end. To "take millstones and grind meal", is to concoct doctrine from such things as can serve, as means, to that end; to "uncover the hair, make bare the leg [or feet], and to "uncover the thigh", is, without shame and fear, to prostitute holy externals and internals; thus" your nakedness shall be revealed", is to cause what is filthy and infernal, which are the ends, to appear. Arcana Coelestia 9960.

2. Take the millstones, and grind meal: uncover your locks; make bare the leg; uncover the thigh; pass through the rivers.

Verse 2. Uncover the thigh; pass through the rivers. - These things are said of "Babylon" and of "Chaldea." By "taking the millstones and grinding meal" is signified to produce falsities from evil, and to confirm them by the Word; and by "uncovering the thigh" and by "passing through the rivers" is signified to adulterate Goods by reasonings. Apocalypse Explained 1182.

That the "rivers of Chaldea" signify, in a bad sense, reasonings from fallacies and from false doctrines, also from negative principles respecting the Truths of the Word and of the church, see above, Chapter 8:7, 8, the Exposition.

3. Your nakedness shall be uncovered; even your shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance; and I will not suffer man to intercede.

Verse 3. To be "naked", in a bad sense, signifies to be deprived of the knowledges of Truth and of Good, and to "walk naked" denotes a life without such knowledges as the means [of living], thus a life not spiritual, but merely natural; hence to be "naked" signifies a life without the understanding of Truth, because without the will of Good. Thus when it is said, "Blessed is he that watches, and keeps his garments, lest he, walk naked, and they see his shame" (Revelation 16:15), "not to walk naked" signifies not to be without Truths, and hence without Goods; for they who are without Truths are also without Goods, since all Good is acquired by Truths.

Besides, Good without Truth is not Good, nor is Truth without Good, Truth; in order that it be Truth, it must be conjoined with Good, and in order that Good may be Good, it must be conjoined with Truth. There is indeed a Truth without Good, and a Good without Truth; but Truth without Good is dead, and also Good without Truth, for Truth has its esse from Good, and Good has its existere by Truth.

From this it is evident that by "walking naked" is signified to be without Truths, and hence without Goods.

That to "walk" signifies to be and to live, may be seen in Apocalypse Explained 787. By the "shame of nakedness", (Revelation 16:15) are signified filthy loves. But, in a good sense; to be "naked " signifies to be in innocence and in celestial love, [as was the case with Adam and Eve before the fall, Genesis 2:25.]

To "cover" or to "clothe the naked" signifies to remove, the evils of the will and the falsities of the uuderstanding, thus to instruct those who are in ignorance of Truths, and nevertheless desire them. (See the Exposition of Isaiah Chapter 58:7.) Apocalypse Explained 187, 224, 238, 1008. See also Chapter 20:2-4, the Exposition.

4. Our Redeemer, Jehovah of Hosts is His name! the Holy One of Israel!

Verse 4. Jehovah of Hosts. - See Chapter 1:9, 24, the Exposition.

5. Sit you in silence, go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans; for you shalt no longer be called the mistress of kingdoms,

Verse 5. By the "daughter of the Chaldeans" is signified the falsification of Truth; and hence by "darkness" are meant the falsities of evil, inasmuch as evil falsifies Truth. Apocalypse Explained 526.

6. I was angry with My people; I profaned My heritage; and I gave them up in to your hand: you didst not show mercy unto them; even upon the aged didst you lay very heavily your yoke.

7. And you said, I shall be a mistress for ever: so that you didst not lay these things to your heart, neither didst you remember the end thereof.

Verse 6. As to "anger", when said of the Lord, see Chapter 1:24, 9:12, 17, 21, the Exposition.

8. But hear now this, O you voluptuary, that dwells in security; that says in your heart, I am, and there is none else beside me; I shall not sit a widow; I shall not know the loss of children:

Verses 8, 9. These things also are said concerning " Babylon", and thereby are signIfied the same things as by these words in the Apocalypse:

"I am not a widow, and shall not see mourning; wherefore in one day shall her plagues come to you, death, and mourning, and famine." By "widows", in other parts of the Word, are also signified such of both sexes as are in Good but not in Truth, and yet desire Truth, thus such as are without defence against the false and evil whom however, the Lord defends. They are also understood in the opposite sense, as may be evident from Isaiah 9:17, 10:1, 2; (Jeremiah 15:7-9, 22:3. Apocalypse Explained 1121.

Verses 8-14. I shall not sit a widow; I shall not know the loss of children, etc. - That "sorcerers" [or witches] are those who conjoin the false of .the evil of self-love to the Truths of faith, and thereby perish, is evident from every particular in the above passage, viewed in the internal sense, for they are there described. The extinction of their spiritual life is described by "widowhood " and by "bereavement" [or loss of children]. "Widowhood" is the deprivation of Truth, and thence of Good; "bereavement" is the deprivation of Truth and of Good. The origin of the false, as derived from the evil of self-love is described by these words:

"Your wisdom and your knowledge have seduced you; whilst you have said in thine heart, I am, and there is none beside me"; and the evil itself of self-love is described by these words:

"Behold, they shall be like stubble; the fire shall burn them up: they shall not deliver their soul from the hand of the flame;"fire" and "flame" denote self-love. That the all of spiritual life is extinct, is described by these words:

"Therefore shall evil come upon you, which you shalt not know how to deprecate; and calamity shall fall upon you, which you shalt not be able to expiate." They are called "observers of the heavens, and gazers on the stars, and who know the new moons", [or "prognosticate concerning the months, see note] from being in external things, without an internal principle; for such see from the external man, and nothing from the internal, thus from natural lumen; and nothing from spiritual light; for "heaven", the "stars", and "new moons", in the internal sense are knowledges and scientifics, - in this case, such as are viewed from the world, and not from heaven. Arcana Coelestia 9188.

9. Yet shall these two things come upon you in a moment, in one day; loss of children and widowhood: in their perfection shall they, come upon you; because of the multitude of your sorceries, and of the great abundance of thine enchantments.

Verses 9, 12. Because of the multitude of your sorceries, and of the great abundance of thine enchantments, etc. - In the Revelation 18:23: "By your sorceries were all nations deceived." By "your sorceries" [veneficium, poisoning] are meant the abominable arts and schemes by which they have deluded and persuaded the people to worship and adore themselves instead of the Lord, therefore as the Lord; and inasmuch as the Lord is the God of heaven and earth, as He Himself teaches in Matthew 28:18, consequently as gods. That they have transferred the Lord's divine power to themselves, may be seen above, [Chapter 14, the Exposition], and since this is signified by these words, they also signify that by their abominable arts and contrivances they have turned the minds of men from the holy worship of the Lord, to the profane worship of living and dead men and of idols. That nevertheless there will be an end of these things, and that there is already an end of them in the spiritual world, has been shown in the work on the Last Judgment. This is described in the following words of Isaiah:

"Persist in thine enchantments, O Babylon, and in the multitude of your sorceries", etc. (Isaiah 47:9, 12, 14, 15.) Apocalypse Revealed 800.

By "sorcery", when mentioned in the Word, a similar thing is signified as by incantation [or enchantment], and by "incantation" is understood such a persuasion that a man does not perceive otherwise than that it is so. Such a kind of persuasion exists amongst certain spirits as closes up, as it were, the understanding of another, and suffocates the faculty of perception; and as well-disposed men among the Babylonish nation [Roman Catholics] are induced and persuaded to believe and to do what the monks say, therefore it is here said that they are seduced by "sorcery." Apocalypse Explained 1191.

10. For you have trusted in your wickedness: you have said, None sees me. Your wisdom and your knowledge have Reduced you; whilst you have said in your heart, I run, and there is none beside me.

11. Therefore shall, evil come upon you, which you shalt not know how to deprecate; and calamity shall fall upon you, which you shalt not be able to expiate; and destruction shall come upon you suddenly, which you shalt not know.

Verses 10, 11. Your wisdom and your knowledge have seduced you; whilst you have said in your heart, I am, and there is none beside me, etc. - Here also they are described who believe themselves to know all things, and to be intelligent above all others, when yet they know and understand nothing of Truth; wherefore it follows that the understanding of Truth is taken away from them. Their belief that they are more intelligent than all others is understood by these words:

"Your wisdom and your knowledge have seduced you; whilst you have said in your heart, I am, and there is none beside me; and the loss of all understanding of Truth is understood by these words:

"Calamity shall fall upon you, and destruction shall come upon you." Apocalypse Explained 237.

12. Persist now in thine enchantments; and in the multitude of your sorceries, in which you have laboured from your youth; if peradventure you mayest be profited; if you mayest become terrible.

13. You art wearied in the multitude of your counsels. Let them stand up now, and let them save you, - the observers of the heavens, the gazers on the stars, they that prognosticate concerning the months, - from the things that shall come upon you.

Verse 12. As to "enchantments" or "incantations", and the modes in which they were practised in ancient times, see Chapter 3:2, the Exposition.

14. Behold, they shall be like stubble; the fire shall burn them up: they shall not deliver their soul from the hand of the flame; not a coal to warm at, not a fire to sit before it.

Verses 14, 15. By "merchandising" and "trading", in the Word, is signified to procure for one's self spiritual riches, which are the knowledges of Truth and of Goodness; and, in the opposite, the knowledges of what is false and evil, and by these to gain the world, and by the former to gain heaven; wherefore the Lord compared the kingdom of the heavens to "a merchantman seeking goodly pearls." (Matthew 13:45, 46)

By the "merchants of Babylon" no others can be meant than those of the superior and inferior orders in their ecclesiastical hierarchy, because, in Revelation 18:23, it is said that they are "the great men of the earth"; and by the means of her delicacies, through which they have become rich, no other things can be meant than dogmatic tenets, through which, as means, they procure for themselves dominion over the souls of men, and thereby also over their possessions and wealth; that they collect these without any proposed end, and fill their treasuries with them, is a known fact; also that they make a traffic with the holy things of the church, as that by means of offerings and gifts presented to monasteries and to their saints and images, and by means of masses, indulgences, and various dispensations they sell salvation, that is, heaven. Who cannot see that if the Popish dominion had not received a check at the time of the Reformation, they would have amassed together the possessions and riches of all the kingdoms of Europe, and in this case would have been sole lords, and all the rest servants? Have they not derived from former ages, when they had power over emperors and kings, whom they could excommunicate and dethrone if they did not obey them, their principal opulence and annual revenues, which are still immense, together with treasuries full of gold, silver, and jewels? The like barbarous dominion many or them have still at heart, and it is kept within bounds solely by the fear of losing what power they have, if they were to attempt to extend it beyond certain limits. But what use do they make of these vast revenues, treasures, and possessions, except to pamper themselves and gratify their pride, and to confirm their power and dominion to all eternity? From these considerations it may appear what is here signified by the "merchants of the earth", who have become rich through the means of the delicacies of Babylon. Apocalypse Revealed 759.

Verse 14. The fire shall burn them up, etc. - That "fire", in a bad sense, signifies lusts of evil which consume everything Good and True in the mind and in the church, see Chapter 9:17-19, and Chapter 50:11, the Exposition.

Not a coal to warm at, etc. [implies that their lusts of evil will remain ungratified; hence their torment.]

15. Thus shall they be unto you, with whom you have laboured; your merchants, [with whom you have dealt] from your youth: they shall wander everyone to his own quarter; none shall save you.

Verse 15. Every one to his own quarter [or his own way] , denotes that everyone, at the time of judgment, will be reduced to his final state. See the Exposition of Isaiah Chapter 13:14.

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Isaiah Chapter 47

1. COME down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground; there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for you shalt no longer be called the tender and the delicate.

2. Take the millstones, and grind meal: uncover your locks; make bare the leg; uncover the thigh; pass through the rivers.

3. Your nakedness shall be uncovered; even your shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance; and I will not suffer man to intercede.

4. Our Redeemer, Jehovah of Hosts is His name! the Holy One of Israel!

5. Sit you in silence, go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans; for you shalt no longer be called the mistress of kingdoms,

6. I was angry with My people; I profaned My heritage; and I gave them up in to your hand: you didst not show mercy unto them; even upon the aged didst you lay very heavily your yoke.

7. And you said, I shall be a mistress for ever: so that you didst not lay these things to your heart, neither didst you remember the end thereof.

8. But hear now this, O you voluptuary, that dwells in security; that sayest in your heart, I am, and there is none else beside me; I shall not sit a widow; I shall not know the loss of children:

9. Yet shall these two things come upon you in a moment, in one day; loss of children and widowhood: in their perfection shall they, come upon you; because of the multitude of your sorceries, and of the great abundance of thine enchantments.

10. For you have trusted in your wickedness: you have said, None sees me. Your wisdom and your knowledge have Reduced you; whilst you have said in your heart, I run, and there is none beside me.

11. Therefore shall, evil come upon you, which you shalt not know how to deprecate; and calamity shall fall upon you, which you shalt not be able to expiate; and destruction shall come upon you suddenly, which you shalt not know.

12. Persist now in thine enchantments; and in the multitude of your sorceries, in which you have laboured from your youth; if peradventure you mayest be profited; if you mayest become terrible.

13. You art wearied in the multitude of your counsels. Let them stand up now, and let them save you, - the observers of the heavens, the gazers on the stars, they that prognosticate concerning the months, - from the things that shall come upon you.

14. Behold, they shall be like stubble; the fire shall burn them up: they shall not deliver their soul from the hand of the flame; not a coal to warm at, not a fire to sit before it.

15. Thus shall they be unto you, with whom you have laboured; your merchants, [with whom you have dealt] from your youth: they shall wander everyone to his own quarter; none shall save you.

3301. 'A hairy garment' means the truth of the natural. This is clear from the meaning of 'a tunic' as something that clothes another thing - that something being in this case truth because this serves to clothe good (for truth is like a garment, 1073, 2576, or what amounts almost to the same, truth is the recipient vessel for good, 1469, 1496, 1832, 1900, 2063, 2261, 2269); and also from the meaning of 'hairy' as the natural as regards truth. Hair, or the hair on the head, is mentioned several times in the Word, and in those places means that which is natural, the reason being that hairs are outgrowths on the most exterior parts of a person, as also is the natural in relation to its rational and to the interior parts of the rational. During his lifetime it seems to everyone as though the natural within him is all there is to him, but this is so far from being true, that the natural is rather an outgrowth from the internal parts of him, like hairs from the parts of the body. They also stem from internal parts in almost the same way. This also is why people who have been wholly natural during their lifetime are seen in the next life to have faces covered almost entirely with hair when a visual presentation is made of that state. What is more, man's natural is represented by 'the hair'. When it is an outgrowth from good it is represented by attractive and neatly arranged hair, but when it is not the outgrowth from good by unattractive and dishevelled hair.

[2] It is from this representation that in the Word 'hair', or 'the hair on the head' is used to mean the natural, especially as regards truth, as in Zechariah,

It will happen on that day, that the prophets will be ashamed, [every] man on account of his vision when he has prophesied. And he will not put on a hairy garment in order to deceive. Zechariah 13:4.

'The prophets' stands for people who teach truths, here for those who teach falsities, 2534. 'Vision' stands for truths, here for falsities, 'hairy garment' for the natural as regards truth. But because it was not truth but falsity the phrase 'in order to deceive' is used. Such clothing was worn by the prophets so that truth, being external, might be represented by them. This also was why, dressed in a similar way, Elijah the Tishbite is called a hairy man, 2 Kings 1:8, and why John, the last of the prophets, had a garment of camel hair, Matthew 3:4 - 'camels' being facts in the natural man, see 3048, 3071, 3143, 3145, and facts being the truths of the natural man, 3293.

[3] That 'the hair' meant the natural as regards truth is quite clear from the Nazirites who were commanded not to shave their heads with a razor all the days of their Nazirite vow, not until their days of abstinence to Jehovah had been completed. Then they were to let down the hair on their heads and at the door of the Tent of Meeting were to shave the head of their Naziriteship and put the hair on to the fire which was beneath the eucharistic sacrifice, Numbers 6:5, 18-19. They represented the Lord's Divine Human, and from this the person belonging to the celestial Church, who was a likeness of the Lord, 51 - representing that person's natural man by 'the hair'. When they were being sanctified therefore they were to lay aside their old or previous natural man into which they had been born and were to assume the new. This was meant by the requirement, when the days of abstinence to Jehovah had been completed, to let down the hair on their heads and to put it on to the fire beneath the sacrifice. For the state of the celestial man is a state in which good is present in him and from that good he has a knowledge of all truths. He never thinks and talks from truths about good, still less from facts about good, see 202, 337, 2715, 2718, 3246. Furthermore those who are celestial are of such a nature that before they lay aside that state into which they were born their natural has become so powerfully equipped with truth that they are capable of fighting with the hells; for it is truth, never good, that goes into battle. The hells cannot make even the remotest approach towards good. That truth is of such a nature, and good of such a nature, see 1950, 1951.

[4] From this it is evident how it was that Samson had strength from his hair, referred to as follows,

The angel of Jehovah appeared to Samson's mother, saying, Behold, you will conceive and bear a son. And no razor shall come up over his head; the boy shall be a Nazirite of God from the womb. Judges 13:3, 5.

Later on he revealed to Delilah that if he were shaved his strength would leave him and he would be rendered powerless. And immediately he had been shaved, his strength did leave him and the Philistines seized him. And when subsequently the hair on his head started to grow again, where he had been shaved, his strength returned to him, enabling him to dislodge the pillars of the house, Judges 16:1-end. Who does not see that this description holds a heavenly arcanum within it, and that nobody knows what that arcanum is unless he has been taught regarding representatives, that is to say, that a Nazirite portrayed the celestial man, and as long as he had his hair he portrayed the natural part of that man, with whom, as has been stated, such strong and powerful truth was present? And Samson had such strength because at that period of time all representatives which the Lord had commanded had such force and effect. But he was not a consecrated Nazirite like those mentioned above, that is to say, someone who had put on a state of good instead of truth. The chief reason why the ultimate existence of his strength lay in his hair was so that he might represent the Lord who from the natural man as regards truth was to fight the hells and overcome them. This He did before putting on Divine Good and Truth even as regards the natural man.

[5] From this it is also evident why the high priest, on whose head the anointing oil had been poured and who had been consecrated ¹ to wear the garments, was commanded not to shave his head or to rend his garments, Leviticus 21:10. And in a similar way where the new Temple is referred to the Levitical priests were commanded not to shave their head or to let their hair grow long, Ezekiel 44:20; that is to say, they represented the Lord's Divine Natural as regards truth that is derived from good and is called truth grounded in good. That 'hair' or the hair on the head means the natural as regards truth is clear also from the prophetical parts of the Word, as in Ezekiel,

I gave you to be like the seed of the field, from which you grew up and became tall to full beauty; your breasts were formed and your hair had grown. Ezekiel 16:7.

This refers to Jerusalem, which is the Ancient Church here and which in process of time became perverted. 'Breasts were formed' stands for natural good, 'hair which has grown' for natural truth.

[6] In Daniel,

I saw, until thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days was seated. His clothing was white as snow, and the hair of His head like pure wool. His throne was a flame of fire. Daniel 7:9.

And in John,

In the midst of the seven lampstands one like the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe and surrounded by a golden girdle around the breasts. His head however and hair were white, like white wool, like snow; but His eyes were like a flame of fire. Revelation 1:13-14.

'Hair white like pure wool' stands for the Divine Natural as regards truth. In the Word, and in the religious observances of the Jewish Church, truth itself was represented by 'white', and because truth is derived from good is called 'pure wool'. The reason why truth was represented by 'white' and good by 'red' was that truth is akin to light and good to fire, the source of the light.

[7] As with everything else in the Word 'the hair' also has a contrary sense and means the natural as regards truth when perverted, as in Isaiah,

On that day the Lord will shave by means of a razor hired at the crossing-places of the River - by means of the King of Asshur - the head and the hair of the feet; and it will consume the beard also. Isaiah 7:20.

In Ezekiel,

Son of man, take for yourself a sharp sword, use it as a barber's razor which you shall run over your head and over your beard. Then you are to take balances and you are to divide it. A third you are to burn with fire in the midst of the city; a third you are to strike with the sword round about it; and a third you are to scatter to the wind. You shall take from it a small number, and bind it in your skirts. Finally you are to take from these again and cast them into the midst of the fire, and burn them with fire, and from this, fire will come forth to the whole house of Israel. Ezekiel 5:1-4.

All this, by the use of representatives, describes how natural truth, interior and exterior, meant by 'the hair' and 'the beard', ceased to exist any longer. Its destruction by lusts is meant by its being burned with fire, by reasonings by its being struck with the sword round about the city, by false assumptions by its being scattered to the wind. These statements are similar in content to what the Lord teaches in Matthew about some seed, which is the truth, falling among thorns, some on stony ground, and some along the path, Matthew 13:1-9.

[8] That 'the heir' means the unclean truths and the falsities belonging to the natural man was also represented by the requirement that when a woman from among enemies who had been taken captive was to be married to [an Israelite], she was to be brought to his home, the hair on her head was to be shaved off, her nails were to be pared, and the garments of her captivity were to be removed, Deuteronomy 21:12-13. Also when Levites were consecrated, the water of expiation was to be sprinkled over them, they were to pass a razor over their entire flesh, and to wash their clothes, and so be pure, Numbers 8:7. Also, Nebuchadnezzar was driven from among men so that he ate grass like oxen, and his body was wet from the dew of heaven, till his hair grew to be like eagles' feathers and his nails like birds' claws, Daniel 4:33. In the case of leprosy they were required to note the colours of hair and beard, whether these were white, reddening, yellow, or black. They were to look for the same in garments. And the person who was cleansed from leprosy was required to shave all the hair on his head, his beard, and his eyebrows, Leviticus 13:1-59; 14:8-9. The latter meant the unclean falsities that result from unholiness, which is leprosy in the internal sense.

[9] 'Baldness' however meant the natural when no truth at all is present in it, as in Isaiah,

He is going up to Bayith, and to Dibon, the high places, to weep over Nebo; and Moab will howl over Medeba. On all their heads is baldness; every beard is shaved off. Isaiah 15:2.

In the same prophet, Instead of well-set hair there will be baldness, branding instead of beauty. Isaiah 3:24

The children who said to Elisha, Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead! and who were torn apart by the bears out of the forest, 2 Kings 2:23-24, represent people who blaspheme the Word as though it had no truth within it; for Elisha represented the Lord as regards the Word, 2762. From this it is also evident how prevalent representatives were at that period of time.

Footnotes: