835. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. This symbolically means that all of them were cast as they were into the hell where their loves of falsity and accompanying lusts for evil are found.

Being alive means, symbolically, as they were. These two, namely the beast and the false prophet, symbolize all those people who have professed faith alone and are inwardly evil, both the laity and the clergy, as said just above in no. 834. The lake of fire burning with brimstone symbolizes the hell where those people are found who are impelled by loves of that falsity and at the same time lusts for evil. A lake symbolizes an abundance of falsities, as will be seen below. Fire symbolizes love, here these people's love of falsity. Fire symbolizes love in both senses, good and evil, as may be seen in nos. 468, 494, 599, and here it symbolizes a love of falsity, because it is described as a lake of fire. Brimstone symbolizes a lust for evil and its accompanying falsities (no. 452).

Something similar is said about the dragon and these two in the next chapter, in these words:

The devil (that is, the dragon) that deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. (Revelation 20:10)

[2] It should be known that the hell where people like this are appears at a distance as a lake of fire with a green flame like that of brimstone or sulfur. But those who are there do not see this. They are shut up in their workhouses where they vehemently argue with each other. Sometimes knives appear in their hands, which they brandish in a threatening manner to keep from yielding. It is their love of falsity together with their lusts for evil that occasions the appearance of such a lake. This appearance is produced because of its correspondence.

[3] That a lake symbolizes a place with an abundance of truth, and in an opposite sense, therefore, a place with an abundance of falsity, can be seen from the Word. A place with an abundance of truth from the following:

...waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert. The parched ground shall become a lake... (Isaiah 35:6-7)

I will make the wilderness into a lake of water, and the dry land into springs of water. (Isaiah 41:18, cf. Psalms 107:33, 35)

I will make the rivers into islands, and I will dry up the lakes. (Isaiah 42:15)

...the God of Jacob, who turned the rock into a lake of water, and the flint into a fountain of waters. (Psalms 114:7-8)

...all who make payment from the lakes of the soul. (Isaiah 19:10)

In an opposite sense from the following:

I will cut off from Babylon the name and remnant..., and I will make it into a possession of the bird of prey, and into lakes of water. (Isaiah 14:22-23)

Death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:14)

If anyone was not found written in the Book of Life, he was cast into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:15)

...their part in the lake of fire burning with brimstone, which is the second death. (Revelation 21:8)

452. And out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone. This symbolically means that interiorly regarded, their thoughts and discourses contained nothing else, and issuing from them was nothing but a love of self and the world, which is a characteristic trait of the will, a conceit in their own intelligence, which is a characteristic trait of the intellect, and the lusts attendant on evil and falsity, which are a characteristic trait flowing from them both.

Out of their mouths means from their thoughts and discourses. Fire symbolizes a love of self and the world, which is a characteristic trait of the will (nos. 450, 468, 494). Smoke symbolizes a conceit in one's own intelligence, which is a characteristic trait of the intellect, emanating from the love of self and the world like smoke from a fire (no. 422). And brimstone symbolizes the lusts attendant on evil and falsity, which are a characteristic trait flowing from them both.

This is not, however, apparent from these people's discourses in public in the world. But it is clearly apparent to angels in heaven. Consequently we say that their thoughts and discourses, interiorly regarded, are of this character.

Fire symbolizes hellish love, and brimstone the lusts flowing from that love through a conceit in one's own intelligence, in the following places:

I will rain down on him... fire and brimstone. (Ezekiel 38:22)

Upon the wicked (Jehovah) will rain... fire and brimstone... (Psalms 11:6)

...the day of Jehovah's vengeance... Its streams shall be turned into pitch, and its dust into brimstone...; its smoke shall ascend forever. (Isaiah 34:8-10)

On the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone... Even so will it be in the day the Son of Man is revealed. (Luke 17:29-30. Cf. Genesis 19:24)

If anyone worships the beast and his image..., he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone... (Revelation 14:9.10)

The beast, the false prophet, and the devil were cast into the lake of fire and brimstone (Revelation 19:20; 20:10; 21:8).

The breath of Jehovah, like a stream of brimstone, shall kindle (the pyre). (Isaiah 30:33)

The whole land is brimstone, salt, and burning; it shall not be sown, nor shall it sprout..., like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah... (Deuteronomy 29:22-23)

Brimstone is scattered on the habitation (of the wicked). (Job 18:15)