THE EXPLANATION of ISAIAH 50

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

1. THUS says Jehovah, Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away? or who is he among My creditors to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have you been sold; and for your transgressions is your mother put away.

VERSE 1. That the church is called a "mother", appears from the following passages:

"Jehovah said, Contend with your mother; she is not My wife , and I am not her Husband", etc. (Hosea 2:2, 5)

Again :

"You art your mother's daughter, that loaths her Husband." (Ezekiel 16:40)

Again,

"Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away?" etc. (Isaiah 50:1)

Again,

"Your mother was as a vine planted near waters, bearing fruit"; [Ezekiel 19:10) speaking of the Jewish church.

Again,

"Jesus stretching out His hand to the disciples, said, My mother and My brethren are they who hear the Word of God, and do it"; (Matthew 12:48, 49; Mark 3:33-35; Luke 8:21) by the Lord's "disciples" is meant the church. Again: There was standing by the cross of Jesus His mother; and Jesus seeing the mother and the disciple standing by whom He loved, says to His mother, Woman, behold your son! and He says to the disciple, Behold your mother! Wherefore from that hour the disciple took her into his own." (John 19:25-27)

By these words is implied that the Lord did not acknowledge Mary as a mother, but the church, wherefore He calls her "woman", and the "mother" of the disciple. The reason why the Lord called her the "mother." of this disciple, or of John, was, because "John" represented the church as to the Goods of charity, which Goods are the church in real effect; therefore it is said that "he took her into his own." That "Peter" represented Truth and Faith, "James" Charity, and "John" the works of Charity, may be seen in the Apocalypse Revealed 5, 6, 790, 798, 879; and that the "twelve disciples" together represented the church as to all its [principles], may be seen, Apocalypse Revealed 233, 790, 903, 915. Conjugial Love 119.

That the Jewish nation had not any conjugial principle, whether understood in a spiritual or in a natural sense, is very manifest from this consideration, that they were permitted to marry several wives; for where there is a conjugial principle, understood in a spiritual sense, that is, where the Good and the Truth of the church are, consequently where the church is, this is in no wise permitted; for a genuine conjugial principle is in no case given except with those with whom the church or kingdom of the Lord is, and with these only between two, Arcana Coelestia 1907, 2740.

Marriage between two who are in genuine conjugial love, corresponds to the heavenly marriage, that is, to the conjunction of Good and Truth, the "husband" corresponding to Good, and the "wife" to the Truth of that Good; also, when they are in genuine conjugial love, they are in that marriage. Therefore, where the church is, there it is never permitted to marry more wives than one; but whereas there was no church amongst the posterity of Jacob, but only the representative or type of a church, or the external of the church without its internal, Arcana Coelestia 4307, 4500, therefore with that posterity it was permitted.

And, moreover, the marriage of one husband with several wives would present in heaven the idea, or image, as if one Good might be conjoined with several Truths which are not in accord. with each other, and thus that Good was none; for Good becomes none in consequence of Truths not agreeing together, since Good derives its quality from Truths, and their agreement with each other. It would also present an image as if the church was not one, but several, and, these distinct among themselves, according to the Truths of faith, or according to doctrinals, when yet it is one where Good is its essential, and this essential is qualified, and, as it were, modified by Truths.

The church is an image of heaven, for it is the Lord's kingdom on earth; heaven is distinguished into many general societies, and into lesser ones subordinate to the general ones, but still they are one by virtue of Good, the Truths of faith being there according to Good congruously; for they regard Good, and are derived from it. If heaven was distinct according to the Truths of faith, and not according to Good, there would be no heaven, since there would be nothing of unanimity, for one principle of life, or one soul, could not be in its inhabitants from the Lord; this is only given in the principle of Good" that is, in love to the Lord; and in love towards the neighbour; for love conjoins all, and when the love of what is Good and True is in each, then there is a common principle which is from the Lord, thus the Lord, who conjoins all. The love of what is Good and True is what is called "love towards the neiqhbour", for the "neighbour" is one who is principled in Good and the Truth thence derived, and; in the abstract sense, Good itself and its Truth. From these considerations it may be manifest why marriage within the church must be between one husband and one wife; and why it was permitted to the posterity of Jacob to marry several wives; and that the reason of this was, because there was no church among them, and consequently the representative of a church could not be instituted by marriaqes, because they were in principles contrary to conjugial love. Arcana Coelestia 4837.

The bill of divorcement. - "But the Jews said, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away; and Jesus answering, said unto them, For the hardness of your heart, he wrote you this precept." (Matthew 19:7, 8)

It appears from this passage, and especially from the divine command to Moses, to "hew him out two tables like unto the former", (Exodus 34:1) that the external of the Word, of the church, and of worship, was accommodated to the Jewish nation, and would therefore have been different if that nation had been of a different quality. For the sake of that nation, therefore, it was permitted to marry several wives, which was a thing altogether unknown in ancient times; and also to put away their wives for various causes; hence laws were enacted concerning such marriages and divorces which otherwise would not have entered the external of the Word. Therefore this external is called by the Lord [the external] of Moses, and is said to be granted on account of "the hardness of their heart." Arcana Coelestia 10603 Arcana Coelestia 10603[1-6].

Behold, for your iniquities have you been sold; and for your transgressions is your mother put away. - "Mother" is the church; to "sell" is to alienate. That to "sell", in the internal sense, is [when mentioned in a bad sense] to alienate those things which are of faith and charity, consequently those things which make the man of the internal church, is evident from this circumstance, that in the spiritual world there is no buying and selling such as there is upon earth; but it is the appropriation of what is Good and True which is understood by "buying", and the alienation [or removal] of them by "selling."

By "selling" is also signified the communication of the knowledges of what is Good and True, because by " merchandising" is signified the procuring and the communication of those knowledges, but then it is said, "selling, but not by silver." Arcana Coelestia 5886. See also Apocalypse Explained 840.

As to "merchandising", when mentioned in the Word, see above Chapter 23:18, the Exposition.

Your iniquities; - your transgressions. - In the Word evils are sometimes called "sins", sometimes "iniquities", and sometimes "transgressions"; but what is understood in particular by the one and by the other is only evident from the internal sense. "Transgressions" are evils against the Truths of faith; "iniquities", against the Goods of faith; and "sins" are evils against the Goods of charity and love; - the two former proceed from a perverse understanding, but the latter from a depraved will. The "mother" is the church, which is said to be "put away" when she recedes from faith. Arcana Coelestia 9156.

2. Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? and when I called, none answered? Is My hand so greatly shortened, that it cannot redeem? and is there no power in Me to deliver? Behold, at My rebuke I dry up the sea; I make the rivers a desert; so that their fish putrefy, because there is no water; and they die for thirst.

Verse 2. See above, Chapter 41:28, the Exposition.

None answered. - That "not to answer" signifies not to receive and not to reciprocate, Arcana Coelestia 2941. See also the Exposition of Isaiah 36:21.

Behold, at My rebuke I dry up the sea, etc. - To "dry up the sea" signifies a plenary defect of the common [or general] knowledges of Truth; to "make the rivers a desert", signifies the deprivation of all Truth, and thence of intelligence; "their fish will putrefy", denotes that the scientifics of the natural man shall be without any spiritual life, which is when they are applied to confirm falsities against the Truths of the church; "because there is no water", signifies because there is not any Truth; and to "die of thirst", means the extinction of Truth. That "rivers" signify such things as appertain to intelligence, may be seen in Chapter 30:25, 26; 33:20, 21; 41:17, 18, the Exposition; that "desert" signifies where there is no Good, because there is no Truth, see Chapter 35:4-6; 43:19, 20, the Exposition; that "fish" signifies the scientific [principle] which is of the natural man, see Chapter 19:8, the Exposition; that "water" denotes Truth, has been frequently shown above. To "die of thirst" signifies the deprivation of spiritual life from defect of Truth. Apocalypse Explained 270.

By "rebuke" is signified the desolation of all Truth; by the "sea" is denoted where Truth is in its ultimates; by "water" is meant Truth from a spiritual origin; by "dying of thirst" is signified desolation for the want of that Truth; by the "fishes of the sea becoming putrid" are understood those who are in the ultimates of Truth in whom there is not any life from a spiritual origin. Apocalypse Explained 342.

By the "rebuke of Jehovah" is understood the destruction of the church, which is when there is not any knowledge of Truth and of Good, or when there is not any living knowledge, because no perception; by "drying up the sea" is signified to deprive the natural man of true scientifics, and hence of natural life derived from spiritual; by "making the rivers a desert" is meant to deprive the rational man in like manner, whence he has no longer any intelligence; by "their fish putrifying because there is no water, and they die for thirst", signifies that there IS no longer any living scientific, because there is no Truth. "Fish" is the scientific; "water" is Truth' to "putrefy" is to die as to the spiritual life. Apocalypse Explained 513.

3. I clothe the heavens with blackness; and sackcloth I make their covering.

Verse 3. "Blackness" is the false of evil. Infernals who are in falsities from evil appear black in the light of heaven. Apocalypse Explained 412.

[The heavens in the spiritual world, as seen by those who are in the falsities of evil, appear black, or as covered with blackness.]

Sackcloth I make their covering. - In respect to "sackcloth" and its signification, see Chapter 15:3, the Exposition.

4. The Lord Jehovih has given me the tongue of the learned, that I might know how to speak in season a word to the weary: He wakens, morning by morning, He wakens mine ear, to hearken as the learned.

5. The Lord Jehovih has opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious; neither did I turn away backward.

6. I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: my face I hid not from calumnies and spitting.

7. For the Lord Jehovih will help me; therefore I am not ashamed: therefore have I set my face as a flint; and I know that I shall not be confounded.

8. He that justifies me is near: who will contend with me? let us stand up together: who is mine adversary? let him come near to me.

9. Behold, the Lord Jehovih will help me: who is he that shall condemn me? Lo! all of them shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall devour them,

Verse 4. [The tongue of the learned signifies those who are instructed in divine Truths.]

To speak in season a word to the weary. - To be "weary" denotes a state of temptation-combat. Arcana Coelestia 3318. See also 3321.

He wakens, morning by morning, He wakens. mine ear etc. - Inasmuch as "morning" signifies the Lord, His coming, likewise His kingdom and church, as also the Good of love which is from Him hence it may appear what is understood by "morning" in the above passage. Apocalypse Explained 179.

Verses 4, 5, 7, 9. The Lord Jehovih. - The Lord is called "Lord [Adonai] Jehovih" especially, when the help of His Omnipotence is sought for, and supplicated. Arcana Coelestia 2921. See also Arcana Coelestia 1793; and above, Chapter 3:15, note and Exposition.

10. Who is there among you that fears Jehovah, that hearkens unto the voice of His Servant; that walks in darkness, and has no light? Let him trust in the name of Jehovah, and stay himself upon his God.

Verse 10. To "fear Jehovah" is to worship Him from love; to "hearken unto the voice of His Servant" is to worship Him from faith; - when one is of the other then there is the celestial marriage. (Arcana Coelestia 2826 Arcana Coelestia 2826[1-14])

His "Servant" is the Divine Human. See above, Chapter 42:19, the Exposition.

As to the "fear of Jehovah", and as to "fear" as an element of worship, see Chapter 11:3, the Exposition.

Who is there among you that fears Jehovah, - that walks in darkness, and has no light! etc. - From this passage it may appear that by walking, in a spiritual sense, is signified to live, and because it signifies to live, therefore, when predicated of the Lord, Life itself is understood; for the Lord is Life itself, and all others are recipients of life from Him, as may be seen above, Apocalypse Explained 82, 84. Apocalypse Explained 97.

11. Behold, all you who kindle a fire; who encompass yourselves with sparks: walk you in the light of your fire, and in the sparks which you have kindled. This you shall have at My hand; you shall lie down in sorrow.

Verse 11. All you who kindle a fire, etc. - In respect to "fire" in a bad sense, as signifying the evil of lusts and cupidities arising from the love of self and of the world, see Chapter 9:17-19, 33:11, 12, 14, the Exposition.

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Isaiah Chapter 50.

1. THUS says Jehovah, Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away? or who is he among My creditors to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have you been sold; and for your transgressions is your mother put away.

2. Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? and when I called, none answered? Is My hand so greatly shortened, that it cannot redeem? and is there no power in Me to deliver? Behold, at My rebuke I dry up the sea; I make the rivers a desert; so that their fish putrefy, because there is no water; and they die for thirst.

3. I clothe the heavens with blackness; and sackcloth I make their covering.

4. The Lord Jehovih has given me the tongue of the learned, that I might know how to speak in season a word to the weary: He wakens, morning by morning, He wakens mine ear, to hearken as the learned.

5. The Lord Jehovih has opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious; neither did I turn away backward.

6. I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: my face I hid not from calumnies and spitting.

7. For the Lord Jehovih will help me; therefore I am not ashamed: therefore have I set my face as a flint; and I know that I shall not be confounded.

8. He that justifies me is near: who will contend with me? let us stand up together: who is mine adversary? let him come near to me.

9. Behold, the Lord Jehovih will help me: who is he that shall condemn me? Lo! all of them shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall devour them,

10. Who is there among you that fears Jehovah, that hearkens unto the voice of His Servant; that walks in darkness, and has no light? Let him trust in the name of Jehovah, and stay himself upon his God.

11. Behold, all you who kindle a fire; who encompass yourselves with sparks: walk you in the light of your fire, and in the sparks which you have kindled. This you shall have at My hand; you shall lie down in sorrow.

2015. That 'kings will come out of you' means that all truth comes from Him is clear from the meaning of 'a king' as truth in both the historical and the prophetical sections of the Word, as stated in 1672 but not yet shown to be so. From the meaning of 'nations' as goods, and from the meaning of 'kings' as truths, the nature of the internal sense of the Word becomes clear, and also how remote it is from the sense of the letter. No one reading the Word, especially the historical section, believes anything other than that 'nations' referred to there means nations, or that 'kings' there means kings, and therefore that the nations mentioned there, or the kings, are the real subject of the very Word itself. But when the idea of nations and also of kings reaches angels it perishes altogether, and good and truth take their place instead. This is bound to seem strange and indeed a paradox, but it is nevertheless the truth. The matter may also become clear to anyone from the fact that if nations were meant in the Word by 'nations' and kings by 'kings', the Word of the Lord would hardly embody anything more than some historical or other piece of writing and so would be something of a worldly nature, when in fact everything in the Word is Divine and so is celestial and spiritual.

[2] Take merely the statement in the present verse about Abraham's being made fruitful, nations being made of him, and kings coming out of him. What else is this but something purely worldly and nothing at all heavenly? Indeed these assertions entail no more than the glory of this world, a glory which is absolutely nothing in heaven. But if this is the Word of the Lord then its glory must be that of heaven, not that of the world. This also is why the sense of the letter is completely erased and disappears when it passes into heaven, and is purified in such a way that nothing worldly at all is intermingled. For 'Abraham' is not used to mean Abraham but the Lord; nor is 'being fruitful' used to mean his descendants who would increase more and more but the endless growth of good belonging to the Lord's Human Essence. 'Nations' do not mean nations but goods, and 'kings' do not mean kings but truths. Nevertheless the narrative in the sense of the letter remains historically true, for Abraham was indeed spoken to in this way; and he was indeed made fruitful in this way, with nations as well as kings descending from him.

[3] That 'kings' means truths becomes clear from the following places: In Isaiah,

The sons of the foreigner will build up your walls, and their kings will minister to you. You will suck the milk of nations, and the breast of kings will you suck. Isaiah 60:10, 16.

What 'sucking the milk of nations and the breast of kings' means is not at all evident from the letter but from the internal sense, in which being endowed with goods and instructed in truths is meant. In Jeremiah,

There will enter through the gates of this city kings and princes seated on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses. Jeremiah 17:25; 22:4.

'Riding in chariots and on horses' is a prophecy meaning the abundance of things of the understanding, as becomes clear from very many places in the Prophets. Thus the prophecy that 'kings will enter through the gates of the city' means in the internal sense that they were to be endowed with truths of faith. This sense of the Word is the heavenly sense into which the worldly sense of the letter passes.

[4] In the same prophet,

Jehovah has spurned in His fierce indignation king and priest. The gates of Zion have sunk into the ground, He has destroyed and broken in pieces her bars. King and princes are among the nations; the law is no more. Lamentations 2:6, 9.

Here 'king' stands for the truth of faith, 'priest' for the good of charity, 'Zion' for the Church, which is destroyed and its bars broken in pieces. Consequently 'king and princes among the nations', that is, truth and what belongs to truth, will be so completely banished that 'the law is no more', that is, nothing of the doctrine of faith will exist any more. In Isaiah,

Before the boy knows to refuse evil and to choose good, the ground will be abandoned which you loathe in the presence of its two kings. Isaiah 7:16.

This refers to the Lord's Coming. 'The land that will be abandoned' stands for faith which at that time would not exist. 'The kings' are the truths of faith which would be loathed.

[5] In the same prophet,

I will lift up My hand to the nations and raise My ensign to the peoples; and they will bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters will be carried on their shoulder. Kings will be your foster fathers and their queens your wet-nurses. Isaiah 49:22-23.

'Nations' and 'daughters' stand for goods, 'peoples' and 'sons' for truths, as shown in Volume One. That 'nations' stands for goods, 1259, 1260, 1416, 1849, as does 'daughters', 489-491, while 'peoples' stands for truths, 1259, 1260, as does 'sons', 489, 491, 533, 1147. 'Kings' therefore stands for truths, in general by which they will be nourished, and 'queens' for goods by which they will be suckled. Whether you speak of goods and truths or of those who are governed by goods and truths it amounts to the same.

[6] In the same prophet,

He will spatter many nations, kings will shut their mouths because of him, ¹ for that which has [not] been told them they have seen, and that which they have not heard they have understood. Isaiah 52:15.

This refers to the Lord's Coming. 'Nations' stands for those who are stirred by an affection for goods, 'kings' those who are stirred by an affection for truths. In David,

Now, O kings, be intelligent; be instructed, O judges of the earth. Serve Jehovah with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son lest He perhaps be angry and you perish in the way. Psalms 2:10-12.

'Kings' stands for people who are governed by truths, and who by virtue of truths are also in many places called 'king's sons'. 'The Son' here stands for the Lord, and he is called the Son here because he is Truth itself, and the source of all truth.

[7] In John,

They will sing a new song, You are worthy to take the Book and to open its seals. You have made us kings and priests to our God so that we shall reign on the earth. Revelation 5:9-10.

Here people who are governed by truths are called 'kings'. The Lord also calls them 'the sons of the kingdom' in Matthew,

He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, the field is the world, the seed are the sons of the kingdom, and the tares are the sons of the evil one. Matthew 13:37-38.

In John,

The sixth angel poured out his bowl over the great river Euphrates and its water was dried up to prepare the way of the kings who were from the east. Revelation 16:12.

'Euphrates' clearly does not mean the Euphrates, nor does 'kings from the east' mean kings from that quarter. What 'Euphrates' does mean may be seen in 120, 1585, 1866, from which it is evident that 'the way of the kings who were from the cast' means truths of faith that derive from goods of love.

[8] In the same book,

The nations that are saved will walk in its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory and honour into it. Revelation 21:24.

Here 'nations' stands for people who are governed by goods, 'kings of the earth' for those who are governed by truths, which is also evident from the fact that the details here are prophetical, not historical. In the same book,

With the great harlot seated on many waters the kings of the earth have committed whoredom and have become drunk with the wine of her whoredom. Revelation 17:2.

And elsewhere in the same book,

Babylon has given all nations drink from the wine of the fury of her whoredom; and the kings of the earth have committed whoredom with her. Revelation 18:1, 3, 9.

Here similarly it is clear that 'the kings of the earth' does not mean kings, for the subject is the falsification and adulteration of the doctrine of faith, that is, of truth, which are 'whoredom'. 'Kings of the earth' stands for truths that have been falsified and adulterated.

[9] In the same book,

The ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom but are receiving authority as kings for one hour, together with the beast. These will be of one mind, and they will hand over power and authority to the beast. Revelation 17:12-13.

That 'kings' here does not mean kings may also be evident to anyone. If kings were meant, then 'ten kings receiving authority as kings for one hour' would be quite unintelligible, as similarly with the following words in the same book,

I saw the beast and the kings of the earth, and their armies gathered to make war with Him who was sitting on the horse, and with His army. Revelation 19:19

In verse 13 of the same chapter it is stated explicitly that the One who was sitting on the horse was The Word of God, against which the kings of the earth are said to have been gathered. 'The beast' stands for goods of love that have been profaned, 'kings' for truths of faith that have been adulterated; these are called 'kings of the earth' because they exist within the Church - 'earth' meaning the Church, see 662, 1066, 1067, 1262. 'The white horse' stands for the understanding of truth, 'He who was sitting on the horse' for the Word. This matter is plainer still in Daniel 11, describing the war between the king of the south and the king of the north, by which is meant the conflict of truths with falsities. Here such conflicts are described as a war that took place in history.

[10] Since 'a king' means truth, what is meant in the internal sense when the Lord is called King, and also a Priest, is made clear; and what essential quality of the Lord was represented by kings, and what by priests, is also made clear. 'Kings' represented His Divine Truth, and 'priests' His Divine Good. All the laws of order by which the Lord governs the universe as King are truths, while all the laws by which He governs the universe as Priest and by which He rules even over truths themselves are goods. For government from truths alone condemns everyone to hell, but government from goods lifts them out of that place and raises them up into heaven; see 1728. Because, in the Lord's case, these two - truths and goods - are joined together, they were also represented in ancient times by kingship and priesthood combined, as with Melchizedek who was at one and the same time king of Salem and priest to God Most High, Genesis 14:18. And at a later time among the Jews where the representative Church was established in a form of its own He was represented by judges and priests, and after that by kings.

[11] But because 'kings' represented truths which ought not to be paramount for the reason, already stated, that they condemn, the very idea was so objectionable that the Jews were reproached for it. The nature of truth regarded in itself has been described in 1 Samuel 8:11-18, as the rights of a king; and previous to that, in Moses, in Deuteronomy 17:14-18, they had been commanded through Moses to choose genuine truth deriving from good, not spurious truth, and not to pollute it with reasonings and factual knowledge. These are the considerations which the directive concerning a king given in the place in Moses referred to above embodies within itself. No one can possibly see this from the sense of the letter, but it is nevertheless evident from the details within the internal sense. This shows why 'a king' and 'kingship' represented and meant nothing other than truth.

Footnotes: