THE EXPLANATION of Isaiah Chapter 59

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

1. BEHOLD, the hand of Jehovah is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither is His ear heavy, that it cannot hear:

VERSE 1. As to the meaning of "hand" and "arm", see Chapter 5:25; and what is meant by being "short of hand", see Chapter 25:11, the Exposition.

2. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God; and your sins have hidden His faces from you, that He doth not hear.

Verse 2. Your sins have hidden His faces front you, etc. - For what is involved in these words, see Chap. 8:17; 54:8, the Exposition.

3. For your hands are polluted with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken falsehood, and your tongue has meditated perverseness.

Verses 3, 7. "The hands polluted with blood, and the fingers with iniquity", signifies that in everything belonging to them there is the false and the evil of the false; the "hands" and the "fingers" signify power, and hence all things appertaining to them wherein there is any ability.

Inasmuch as these things are signified, therefore, it is also said, "Your lips have spoken falsehood, and your tongue has meditated perverseness"; "falsehood" [or lies] denoting falsities, and "perverseness" the evil of the false.

By "their feet hastening to shed innocent blood", is signified to destroy the Good of love and of charity, this being meant by "shedding innocent blood"; the Good of innocence is that from which is derived every Good and Truth of heaven and the church, as may be seen in the work concerning Heaven and Hell 276-283.

From these considerations it may appear what is signified, in the general sense, by "bloods" in the plural, namely, violence offered as well to the Truths of the Word and of the church as to the Goods thereof. Inasmuch as by "shedding innocent blood" is signified to destroy the Good of love and of charity, therefore every precaution was taken that "innocent blood" might not be shed", and if it was shed, that "the land might be expiated; " (see Deuteronomy 19:10, 13; 21:1-9) for the "land" signifies the church. Apocalypse Explained 329. That the "land", or the "earth", signifies the church, see above, Chapter 24, the Exposition.

4. No one calls in justice, and no one pleads in truth: trusting in vanity, and speaking lies; conceiving mischief; and bringing forth iniquity.

Verse 4. Trusting in vanity, etc. - "Vanity" signifies the falsity of doctrine and of religion, as may appear from the following passages:

"There shall be no more any vision of vanity, nor flattering divination in the midst of the house of Israel"; (Ezekiel 12:24) a "vision of vanity" means a false revelation, See also Ezekiel 13:6-9. Arcana Coelestia 9248.

5. They hatch the eggs of the asp, and weave the web of the spider: he that eats of their eggs dieth; and when it is pressed, a viper breaks forth.

Verse 5. Speaking of evil men, who by treachery and craft seduce in things spiritual. The clandestine evils to which they craftily allure, are meant by "the eggs of the asp which they hatch"; the treacherous falsities are understood by "the web of the spider which they weave." The deadly hurt which they cause if they are received, is signified by "he that eats of their eggs dieth; and when it is pressed, a viper breaks forth." Inasmuch as the Pharisees were of such a quality, therefore they are called by the Lord, "serpents, a generation of vipers." (Matthew 23:33)

That the subtlety and malice of such could do no hurt to those whom the Lord protects, is signified by "The suckling shall play upon the hole of the viper; and upon the den of the basilisk shall the weaned child lay his hand." (Isaiah 11:8) Apocalypse Explained 581. See also Chapter 14:29, 30, the Exposition.

6. Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the deed of violence is in their hands.

7. Their feet run to evil, and they hasten to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; devastation and destruction are in their paths.

Verses 6, 7. Their works are works of iniquity, and the deed of violence is in their hands; their feet run to evil, and they hasten to shed innocent blood, etc. - "Violence" means violence against charity, as may appear from many passages; the same is also signified by "shedding innocent blood." See Chapter 60:17, 18, the Exposition.

8. The Way of peace they know not; neither is there any judgment in their goings: they have perverted to themselves their paths; one that goes therein shall not know peace.

Verse 8. In this and in many other passages "peace" signifies, in the supreme sense, the Lord; in the representative sense, His kingdom and Good from the Lord therein, thus the Divine Principle which flows into Good, or into the affections of Good, and which causes, from an inmost principle, joys and happiness. Arcana Coelestia 3780.

As to "peace", see above, Chapter 9:6; 48:18, 22, the Exposition.

9. Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we look for light, but behold darkness! for brightness, but we walk in thick darkness.

Verse 9. "Judgment is far from us", signifies that there is no understanding of Truth; "justice doth not overtake us", means that there is no Good of life; "we look for light, but behold darkness", signifies expectation of Truth, but behold the false; and "for brightness, but we walk in thick darkness", denotes the expectation of Goods by Truths, but behold the life of the false from evils; for "brightness" or "splendours " signify the Goods of Truth, because "light" signifies Truth, and Truth is resplendent from Good; "thick darkness" denotes the falsities of evil, and to "walk" signifies to live. Apocalypse Explained 526.

Verses 9, 10. We look for light, but behold darkness! for brightness, but we walk in thick darkness. We grope for the wall like the blind; we stumble at mid-day as in the twilight, etc. - In the Word "darkness" [tenebrae] and "thick darkness" [caligo] are named together. That "darkness" signifies the deprivation of Truth, and "thick darkness" the deprivation both of Truth and of Good, is evident from Isaiah 59:9, 10. "Judgment is far from us, neither doth justice overtake us", signifies that there is neither Truth nor Good; that "judgment" is predicated of Truth, and "justice" of Good, may be seen, Arcana Coelestia 2235. To "look for light" means Truth, and "for brightness or splendours" means the Good of Truth; for the splendour of "light" [or Truth] is from Good. That "darkness" is there opposed to "light", and to "judgment", thus to Truth; and "thick darkness" to "brightness" and to "justice", thus to Good, is evident; wherefore "darkness" is the deprivation of Truth, and "thick darkness" is the deprivation both of Truth and of Good. (See also Amos 5:20; Joel 2:2) Arcana Coelestia 7111.

Here the "blind" denote those who are not in the understanding of Truths; "darkness" and "thick darkness" mean falsities. To "stumble at mid-day, as in the twilight", denotes to err in falsities, although they may be in the light from the Word. Apocalypse Explained 239.

10. We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as those that have no eyes: we stumble at mid-day as in the twilight; we are among the living as dead.

11. We groan all of us like bears; and like doves we make a constant moan: we look judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us.

12. For our transgressions are multiplied before You; and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us, and our iniquities we acknowledge;

13. By transgressing and lying against Jehovah, and by turning backward from our God; by speaking oppression and revolt, and by conceiving and meditating from the heart words of falsehood.

Verses 10-12. "We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as those that have no eyes", signifies that there is not any understanding of Truth; "we stumble at mid-day as in the twilight", signifies the lapsing into errors, although they are in the church where the Word is, from which they might come into the light of Truth; "we are among the living as dead", denotes that they might be in spiritual life by the Word, and yet are not, because they are in falsities. "We groan all of us like bears, and like doves we make a constant moan", signifies the grief of the natural man, and thence of the spiritual man; "we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us", denotes the hope of illustration of the understanding, and thence of salvation, but in vain. "For our transgressions are multiplied before You; and our sins testify against us", signifies by reason of falsities from evil. Apocalypse Explained 781.

14. And judgment is turned away backwards, and justice stands afar off: for truth has stumbled in the street, and rectitude cannot enter.

15. And truth is taken away; and he that shuns evil is accounted mad: and Jehovah saw it, and it was evil in His eyes that there was no judgment.

Verse 14. By "judgment" and "justice", in the Word, are meant Truth and Good. That these no longer exist, is signified by "judgment being turned away backwards, and justice standing afar off." The wandering from the Truths of doctrine, and there being thence no Truth in the life, which is Good of life, is understood by Truth has stumbled in the street, and rectitude cannot enter"; for all the Good of life is procured by Truths of doctrine, as man thereby learns how he ought to live; whereas "street" signifies where Truth leads, therefore it is said "Truth stumbles in the street." Apocalypse Explained 652.

Verses 14-16. Truth has stumbled in the street, and rectitude cannot enter, etc. - "No man" manifestly means no one intelligent, thus, in the universal sense, for no Truth; for this passage treats of the last time of the church, when there is no longer anything of Truth; wherefore it is said, "Truth has stumbled in the street; rectitude cannot enter; and Truth is taken away. That "street" is also predicated of the Truth, may be seen, Arcana Coelestia 2336; in like manner "judgment", Arcana Coelestia 2335. Arcana Coelestia 3134. See also above, Chapter 41:28, the Exposition; and Arcana Coelestia 8273.

16. And He saw that there was no man; and He wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore His own arm wrought salvation for Him; and His justice, it sustained Him.

Verse 16. That the Lord made His Human Divine from His own proper power, thus without the aid of any one, is evident from this, that because He was conceived of Jehovah, the Divine was in Him, and thus that the Divine was His; wherefore, when He was in the world, and made the Human in Himself Divine. He did it out of His own Divine, or out of Himself, which is described in the above words in Isaiah. The "arm" which wrought salvation for Him, is His own proper power, by which He subjugated the hells. Arcana Coelestia 5005, 9715.

How the Lord, when He was in the world, bore the iniquities of the human race, that is, fought with the hells and subjugated them, and thus acquired to Himself the Divine Power of removing them with all who are in Good, and that He thus became Merit and Justice, is described in Isaiah 59:10-20. Arcana Coelestia 9937.

He saw that there was no man. - See the Exposition of Isaiah Chapter 41:28.

There was no intercessor. - As to the meaning of "intercession", see Chapter 53:12, the Exposition.

17. And He put on justice as a breast-plate, and a helmet of salvation upon His head: and He put on the garments of vengeance for His clothing; and He clad Himself with zeal as with a mantle.

Verse 17. These words treat of the subjugation of the hells by the Lord. By "righteousness [or justice] as a breast-plate", is denoted His zeal of delivering the faithful from hell, and His divine love of saving the human race; and because it was zeal from Divine Love, and hence the power from which Ho fought and conquered, therefore justice is called a "breast-plate"; but by the "helmet of salvation" is signified Divine Truth from Divine Good, by which is salvation, for a "helmet" has a similar signification to the "head" with which it is clothed; and the "head", when said of the Lord, signifies the Divine Truth and the Divine Wisdom. Apocalypse Explained 557.

These things are said of the Lord, and of His combats with the hells; for when He was in the world He reduced all things in the hells and in the heavens to order, and this by Divine Truth from Divine Love. The "garments of vengeance" signify the Truths by which He fought; "zeal as a mantle" is the Divine Love from which He fought. Hence it may appear why the "mantle" is mentioned, namely, to signify the Lord's combating by Divine Truths from Divine Love. The "cloak of the ephod, with which Aaron was clothed, upon the borders whereof were pomegranates and bells", mentioned in Exodus 28:31-35, and in Leviticus 8:7-13, had a similar signification, as may be seen in the Arcana Coelestia 9911-9929. Apocalypse Explained 395.

18. According to their deserts, accordingly will He repay: fury to His adversaries, recompense to His enemies; to the islands a recompense will He repay.

Verse 18. To the islands a recompense will He repay. - Concerning the signification of "islands", both in a good and in a bad sense, see Chapter 42:15, the Exposition.

19. And they from the west shall fear the name of Jehovah; and they from the rising of the sun, His glory: when he [the adversary] cometh in like a rushing river, the Spirit of Jehovah shall raise up a standard against him,

Verse 19. In this passage, "from the rising and from the setting of the sun" signifies all who are in the Goods and Truths of heaven and the church. Apocalypse Explained 422.

What is signified by a "name", see Chapter 4:1; 26:8, the Exposition.

That the Lord is the "Sun" of heaven, see Chapter 30:26, the Exposition.

When he [the adversary] cometh in like a rushing river, the Spirit of Jehovah shall raise up a standard against him. - The Divine Truth which was in the Lord when He was in the world, and which then was Himself, is "the Spirit of Jehovah." Arcana Coelestia 9818.

20. And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and to them that turn away from transgression in Jacob; says Jehovah.

Verse 20. By "Zion" is understood heaven and the church, in which the Lord rules by His Divine Truth. Apocalypse Explained 850

21. And as for Me, this is My covenant with them, says Jehovah: My spirit, which is upon you, and My words, which I have put in your mouth; they shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your seed, nor from the mouth of your seed's seed, says Jehovah; from this time forth for ever.

Verse 21. As to "covenant", see Chapter 42:6, the Exposition.

My spirit, which is upon you. - As to "the Spirit of Jehovah", see Chapter 11:2, the Exposition.

My words, which I have put in your mouth; shall not depart out of your mouth, etc. - See Chapter 51:16, 17, the Exposition.

---

Isaiah Chapter 59.

1. BEHOLD, the hand of Jehovah is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither is His ear heavy, that it cannot hear:

2. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God; and your sins have hidden His faces from you, that He doth not hear.

3. For your hands are polluted with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken falsehood, and your tongue has meditated perverseness.

4. No one calls in justice, and no one pleads in truth: trusting in vanity, and speaking lies; conceiving mischief; and bringing forth iniquity.

5. They hatch the eggs of the asp, and weave the web of the spider: he that eats of their eggs dieth; and when it is pressed, a viper breaks forth.

6. Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the deed of violence is in their hands.

7. Their feet run to evil, and they hasten to shed. innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; devastation and destruction are in their paths.

8. The Way of peace they know not; neither is there any judgment in their goings: they have perverted to themselves their paths; one that goes therein shall not know peace.

9. Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we look for light, but behold darkness! for brightness, but we walk in thick darkness.

10. We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as those that have no eyes: we stumble at mid-day as in the twilight; we are among the living as dead.

11. We groan all of us like bears; and like doves we make a constant moan: we look judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us.

12. For our transgressions are multiplied before You; and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us, and our iniquities we acknowledge;

13. By transgressing and lying against Jehovah, and by turning backward from our God; by speaking oppression and revolt, and by conceiving and meditating from the heart words of falsehood.

14. And judgment is turned away backwards, and justice stands afar off: for truth has stumbled in the street, and rectitude cannot enter.

15. And truth is taken away; and he that shuns evil is accounted mad: and Jehovah saw it, and it was evil in His eyes that there was no judgment.

16. And He saw that there was no man; and He wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore His own arm wrought salvation for Him; and His justice, it sustained Him.

17. And He put on justice as a breast-plate, and a helmet of salvation upon His head: and He put on the garments of vengeance for His clothing; and He clad Himself with zeal as with a mantle.

18. According to their deserts, accordingly will He repay: fury to His adversaries, recompense to His enemies; to the islands a recompense will He repay.

19. And they from the west shall fear the name of Jehovah; and they from the rising of the sun, His glory: when he [the adversary] cometh in like a rushing river, the Spirit of Jehovah shall raise up a standard against him,

20. And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and to them that turn away from transgression in Jacob; says Jehovah.

21. And as for Me, this is My covenant with them, says Jehovah: My spirit, which is upon you, and My words, which I have put in your mouth; they shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your seed, nor from the mouth of your seed's seed, says Jehovah; from this time forth for ever.

31. Verse 6. And hath made us kings and priests, signifies that from Him we are in His spiritual and celestial kingdom. This is evident from the signification of "kings," as meaning those who are in truths from good; and since they constitute the Lord's spiritual kingdom, as meaning those who are in His spiritual kingdom. That these are signified by "kings" in the Word, will appear from what follows. The above is evident also from the signification of "priests," as meaning those who are in the good of love; and since these constitute the Lord's celestial kingdom, they also are those who are in His celestial kingdom. (That there are two kingdoms, into which the heavens are in general divided, see in the work on Heaven and Hell 20-28, and that the spiritual kingdom is called the Lord's regal kingdom, and the celestial kingdom His priestly kingdom, n. 24.) In any places in the prophetic Word, kings are mentioned, and he that is ignorant of the internal sense believes that by "kings" are there meant kings; kings, however, are not meant, but all those who are in truths from good, or in faith from charity, from the Lord. The reason of this is, that the Lord is the sole king, and those who from Him are in truths from good are called His "sons;" for this reason the same are meant by "princes," by "sons of the kingdom," by "sons of kings," and also by "kings;" and in a sense abstracted from the idea of persons, as it is in heaven, truths from good are meant, or, what is the same, faith from charity; since truth is of faith, and good is of charity.

[2] That kings are not meant can be seen simply from its here being said that Jesus Christ "hath made us kings and priests"; and afterwards:

And hast made us to be unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign upon the earth (Revelation 5:10);

and in Matthew:

The good seed sown in the field are the sons of the kingdom (Matthew 13:38);

the "seed of the field" are truths from good with man from the Lord (Arcana Coelestia 3373, 10248, 10249). Everyone, moreover, may perceive that the Lord will not make all those here treated of to be kings, but that he calls them kings from the power and the glory which those have who from the Lord are in truths from good. From this it can now be seen that by "king," in the prophetic Word, is meant the Lord as to Divine truth, and by "kings" and "princes," those who from the Lord are in truths from good, and as most things in the Word have also an opposite sense, that "kings" signify in that sense those who are in falsities from evil.

[3] That by "King" in the Word is meant the Lord in respect to Divine truth, is clear from the words of the Lord Himself to Pilate:

Pilate said, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest it, because I am a king. For this have I been born, and for this am I come into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Everyone that is in the truth heareth My voice. Pilate said unto Him, What is truth? (John 18:37-38).

From the question of Pilate, "What is truth," it is clear that he understood that truth was called "king" by the Lord; but as he was a Gentile, and knew nothing from the Word, he could not be taught that Divine truth is from the Lord, and that He is Divine truth; therefore, immediately after his question:

He went out to the Jews, saying, I find no fault in him; and afterwards put upon the cross, This is Jesus, the king of the Jews. And when the chiefs of the priests said unto him, Write not, The king of the Jews, but that He saith I am the king of the Jews, Pilate answered, What I have written, I have written (John 19:4, 19:14-22).

[4] When these things are understood, it may be known what is meant by "kings" in the following passages in Revelation:

The sixth angel poured out his bowl upon the great river Euphrates, and the water thereof was dried up, that the way might be made ready for the kings that come from the sun rising (Revelation 16:12).

The great harlot that sitteth upon many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication (Revelation 17:1-2).

The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sitteth, and they are seven kings; the five are fallen, the one is, the other is not yet come. And the ten horns that thou sawest are ten kings, who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive power as kings with the beast for one hour. These shall war against the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them; for He is Lord of lords and King of kings (Revelation 17:9, 10, 12, 14).

And the woman whom thou sawest is the great city, which hath the kingdom over the kings of the earth (Revelation 17:18).

Of the wine of the wrath of her fornication all the nations have drunk, and the kings of the earth committed fornication with her (Revelation 18:3).

And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together, to make war against Him that sat on the horse and against His army (Revelation 19:19).

And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it, and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it (Revelation 21:24).

In these passages by "kings" are not meant kings, but all who are either in truths from good, or in falsities from evil, as was said before. Likewise in Daniel:

By the king of the south and by the king of the north, who made war against each other (Daniel 11:40

By "the king of the south" are there meant those who are in the light of truth from good, by "the king of the north" those who are in darkness from evil. (That "south" in the Word signifies those who are in the light of truth from good, see Arcana Coelestia 1458, 3708, 3195, 5672, 9642; and "north" those who are in the darkness of falsity from evil, n. 3708, and in general, in the work on Heaven and Hell 141-153, where The Four Quarters in Heaven are treated of.)

[5] "Kings" are also frequently mentioned by the prophets in the Old Testament; and there likewise are meant those who, from the Lord, are in truths from good, and in a contrary sense, those who are in falsities from evil; as in Isaiah:

He shall disperse ¹ many nations: kings shall shut their mouths upon Him; for that which had not been told them they have seen, and that which they have not heard they have understood (Isaiah 52:15).

In the same:

The Zion of the Holy One of Israel, thou shalt suck the milk of the nations, and shalt suck the breast of kings (Isaiah 40:14, 16).

Kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and the chief women thy nursing mothers; they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth (Isaiah 49:23; and 14:9 elsewhere, as in Isaiah 14:9; 24:21; 60:10; Jeremiah 2:26; 4:9; 49:38; Lamentations 2:6, 9; Ezekiel 7:26, 27; Hosea 3:4; Zephaniah 1:8; Psalms 2:10; 110:5; Genesis 49:20).

[6] Since "kings" signify those who, from the Lord, are in truths from good, it was a custom derived from ancient times for kings, when they were crowned, to receive such insignia as signify truths from good: as for the king to be anointed with oil, to wear a crown of gold, to hold a scepter in his right hand, to be clothed with a purple cloak, to sit upon a throne of silver, and to ride with the royal insignia upon a white horse; for "oil" signifies good from which is truth (See Arcana Coelestia 886[1-2], 4638, 9780, 9954, 10011, 10261, 10268-10269); a "crown of gold" upon the head has a like meaning (n. 9930); a "scepter," which is a staff, signifies the power of truth from good (n. 4581, 4876, 4966); a "cloak" and a "robe," Divine truth in the spiritual kingdom (n. 9825, 10005); and "purple," the spiritual love of good (n. 9467); a "throne," the kingdom of truth from good (n. 5313, 6397, 8625); "silver," that truth itself (n. 1551-1552, 2954, 5658); a "white horse," the understanding enlightened from truths (See the small work on The White Horse 1-5. That the ceremonies observed at the coronation of kings involve such things, but that the knowledge thereof is at this day lost, see also Arcana Coelestia 4581, 4966).

[7] As it is known from these things what is meant by a "king" in the Word, I will add to the above:

Why the Lord, when He entered Jerusalem, sat upon the foal of an ass, and the people then proclaimed Him king, and also strewed their garments in the way (Matthew 21:1-8; Mark 11:1-11; Luke 19:28-40; John 12:14-16).

This is predicted in Zechariah:

Exult, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold, thy king cometh unto thee, just and having salvation; riding upon an ass, and upon the foal of an ass (Zechariah 9:9; Matthew 21:5; John 12:15).

The reason was, that to sit upon an ass and the foal of an ass was the distinctive mark of the highest judge and of a king; as can be seen from the following passages:

My heart is towards the lawgivers of Israel, ye who ride upon white asses (Judges 5:9-10).

The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgivers from between his feet, till Shiloh come; who shall bind his ass's foal to the vine, and the son of his she-ass to the noble vine (Genesis 49:10, 11).

As sitting on an ass, and the foal of an ass, was such a distinctive mark:

Judges rode upon white she-asses (Judges 5:9-10);

And his sons upon asses' colts (Judges 10:4; 12:14);

And the king himself when crowned, upon a she-mule (1 Kings 1:33);

And his sons upon mules (2 Samuel 13:29).

One who does not know the signification of "horse," "mule," and "the foal of an ass," in a representative sense, will suppose that the Lord's riding upon the foal of an ass was significative of misery and humiliation. But it signified royal magnificence; for this reason the people then proclaimed the Lord king, and strewed their garments upon the way. This was done when He went to Jerusalem, because by "Jerusalem" is signified the church (as may be seen in the little work on The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine 6; and that "garments" signify truths clothing and serving good, may be seen in the Arcana Coelestia 1073, 2576, 5248, 5319, 5954, 9212, 9215-9216, 9952, 10536; and in the work on Heaven and Hell 177-182).

[8] From this it is now clear what is signified by the "King" and by "kings," in the Word, so also what by the "Anointed," "Messiah," and "Christ;" for "Anointed," "Messiah," and "Christ," like "King," signify the Lord as to Divine truth proceeding from His Divine good; for a king is called "anointed;" and "anointed" in the Hebrew is Messiah, and in the Greek Christ. But that the Lord, as to the Divine Human, was alone "the Anointed of Jehovah," since in Him alone was the Divine good of Divine Love from conception, for He was conceived of Jehovah, but that all that were anointed were only representatives of Him (See Arcana Coelestia n. 9954, 10011, 10268-10269). But "priests" signify such good as exists in the celestial kingdom (See in Arcana Coelestia, namely, that priests represented the Lord, as to Divine good, n. 2015, 6148; that the priesthood was representative of the Lord as to the work of salvation, since this was from the Divine good of His Divine Love, see n. 9809; that the priesthood of Aaron, of his sons, and of the Levites, was representative of the work of salvation, in successive order, see n. Arcana Coelestia 10017; that from this "the priesthood," and "priesthoods," in the Word signified good of love, which is from the Lord, see n. 9806, 9809; that by the two names, "Jesus" and "Christ," is signified both His priesthood and His royalty, that is, by "Jesus" is signified Divine good, and by "Christ" Divine truth, n. 3004, 3005, 3009; that priests and likewise kings who do not acknowledge the Lord signify the opposite, namely, evil, and falsity from evil, n. 3670).

Footnotes: