THE EXPLANATION of Isaiah Chapter 48

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

1. HEAR you this, O house of Jacob; you, who are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah; who swear by the name of Jehovah, and who make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in justice:

VERSE 1. The "house of Jacob and Israel" is the church; to "come forth out of the waters of Judah" is from doctrine out of the Word, for the church is from thence. That "waters" denote Truths of doctrine from the Word, may be seen above, Chapter 12:3, the Exposition. Apocalypse Explained 119.

The "waters of Judah" signify the Truths which are from the Good of love to the Lord; the Truths thence derived are the essential Goods of charity, which are called spiritual Goods, and which make the spiritual church, the internal of which is "Israel", and the external of which is the "house of Jacob." Hence it is evident what is meant by the "house of Jacob, called by the name of Israel, and come forth out of the Waters of Judah." Arcana Coelestia 3654.

Verses 1, 2. Who are called by the name of Israel, etc. - To "call by a name" signifies quality, · (see Chapter 4:1, the Exposition.) and to "call", without mentioning a name, signifies, in the internal sense, to be of such a quality, as in Isaiah:

"For they are called of the holy city"; (Isaiah 48:2) where, to be " called of [or from] the holy city", is to be of such a quality [as is signified by the holy city].

And in Luke:

"He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest; (Luke 1:32) to be, "called the Son of the Highest", is to be [the Son of the Highest]. Arcana Coelestia 3421.

Who swear by the name of Jehovah. - As to "swearing", see above, Chapter 45:23, the Exposition.

2. For they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves upon the God of Israel; Jehovah of Hosts is His name.

Verse 2. Jerusalem was called the "holy city", because it signified the church as to the doctrine of Truth, and the Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord is what is called "Holy." That that "city", without such a representation, and consequent signification, was by no means holy, but rather profane, may be manifest from this consideration, that they rejected and crucified the Lord there; wherefore it is also called "Sodom and Egypt." (Revelation 11:8)

But whereas it signified the church as to the doctrine of Truth, it was called not only the "holy city", but also the "city of God", and the "city of the great King", Apocalypse Explained 223.

See above, Chapter 1:1, the Exposition, why "Jerusalem" signified the church as to doctrinals.

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

3. The former things from the beginning I declared: and from My mouth they went forth, and I made them known: suddenly I effected them, and they came to pass.

Verse 3. [The "former things" which the Lord declared, and which "came to pass", relate to the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt, and which were fulfilled according to the divine predictions. These things or events are appealed to, in order to show to the Jews captive in Babylon, that their deliverance would also be effected, and that they should trust in the Lord for this purpose; but their unbelieving spirit is denoted by "their neck being a sinew of iron", and who would not believe these divine declarations, until at length. "suddenly", unexpectedly, the judgment would come. For although, in the literal sense, the judgment coming upon Babylon, through the attack of Cyrus, is understood, yet, in the primary idea, or in the spiritual sense, the judgment upon the church denoted by "Babylon" is meant.]

4. Because I knew that you wast obstinate, and that your neck was a sinew of iron, and that your forehead was brass;

Verse 4. In this and in the following passages, the "forehead" signifies that which is opposite to the Good of love, that is, the evil of the love [of self], and thence what is hard, obstinate, impudent, and infernal; - "hard" or "obstinate" in the above passage, also in Ezekiel:

"The house of Israel will not obey Me; for the whole house of Israel are obstinate in the forehead, and hard in the heart." (Ezekiel 3:7, 8)

"Impudent" in Jeremiah:

"The forehead of a woman that is a harlot remains with you; you have refused to be ashamed." (Jeremiah 3:3)

And "infernal" in the Apocalypse, 13:16; 14:9-11, 16:2. For as the Good of love is celestial, and thence mild, patient, and modest, so the evil opposite to that Good is infernal, hard, obstinate, and impudent. Apocalypse Explained 427.

5. Therefore I declared it unto you from the beginning; before it came to pass, I made you to hear it: lest you should say, Mine idol has done them; and my graven image and my molten image have commanded them.

6. You didst hear it [beforehand]; behold, the whole [is accomplished]: and will you not declare it? From this time I make you to hear new things, and hidden things which you have not known.

7. They are created now, and not from the beginning; and before the day when you heardest them not; lest you should say, Behold, I knew them!

Verse 5. That by "idols" and "graven and molten images" are signified doctrines from man's own intelligence, and not from the Word, see above, Chapter 40:18-20; 44:9-18; Exposition.

Since falsities and evils of doctrine, which are signified by "graven and molten images", are formed from man's own intelligence, when under the guidance of his self-love, therefore they are called in the Word "the work of man's hands", "the work of the hands of an artificer", and "the work of the hands of the workman or smith", as may be seen from Hosea 13:2; Deuteronomy 27:15; Psalm 115:4; 135:15. Arcana Coelestia 10406.

8. Yea, you have not heard; yea, you have not known; yea, from the first thine ear was not opened: for I knew that you wouldst deal very treacherously, and that you wast called a transgressor from the womb.

Verse 8. That to "see" signifies faith in science and in understanding, and to "hear", faith in obedience or in the will, is from correspondences in the other life, and hence from significatives. Those who are intellectual and in faith hence, belong to the province of the eye, and those who are obedient and in faith hence, belong to the province of the ear. This may be seen from the following passages in this Prophet, namely, Isaiah 1:19; 50:4, 5; 55:2, 3. Arcana Coelestia 3869 Arcana Coelestia 3869[1-14].

I knew that you wouldst deal very treacherously, and that you wast called a transgressor from the womb. - These things are said of the "house of Jacob", by which is signified the church perverted. To "deal treacherously" signifies against the revealed Truths; and to be "called by the name of a transgressor from the womb" signifies recession from Truths from the first time in which reformation could be effected. By being "called by a name" is signified quality as to such things; see above, verse 2. Apocalypse Explained 710.

9. For the sake of My name I will defer Mine anger; and for the sake of My praise I will restrain it from you, that I may not cut you off.

Verse 9. I will defer Mine anger, etc. - In respect to "anger", when ascribed to the Lord, see Chapter 9:12, 17, 21, the Exposition.

10. Behold, I have purified you, but not for silver; I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction.

11. For Mine own sake, for Mine own sake, will I do it; for how should [My name] be blasphemed? and My glory I will not give to another.

Verse 10. "Affliction" means temptations, for in the Lord's Word nothing else is signified by "afflictions." (Arcana Coelestia 1846)

What "temptations" are, see Chapter 43:2, the Exposition.

Verse 11. What is signified by "profaning and blaspheming the Lord's name", see Chapter 37:6, 17, 23, 24, the Exposition.

My glory I will not give to another. - "Glory", in the supreme sense, is the Divine Human, thus also the Divine Truth, because this is from the Divine Human, "Not to give glory to another" is only to the Divine Human, which is One with Himself. Arcana Coelestia 5922.

The reason why" glory" signifies the Divine Truth in its fulness, is, because everything magnificent in heaven is from the light which proceeds from the Lord, and the light proceeding from Him as the

Sun of heaven is in its essence Divine Truth. True Christian Religion 780.

12. Hearken unto Me, O Jacob and Israel, whom I have called: I am He; I am the First, and I am the Last:

13. Yea, My hand has founded the earth; and My right hand has spanned the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up together.

Verses 12, 13. By the "foundation of the world", (Revelation 17:8) in the sense of the letter, or in the natural sense, is understood the creation of the world, but in the internal spiritual sense is understood the establishment of the church; for the spiritual sense treats of spiritual things, and the natural sense of natural things, which are of the world. Hence it is that by the "creation of heaven and earth", in the first chapter of Genesis, is described, in the spiritual sense, the new creation, or the establishment of the first or most ancient church on this earth, as may be seen in the Arcana Coelestia. Moreover by "to create", in the Word, is signified to reform, and by "Creator", the Lord as the Reformer and Saviour. The establishment of the church is understood by the "foundation of the world", in Matthew 25:34; Luke 11:50; John 17:24. That the establishment of the church is understood by the "foundation of the earth", is further evident from the passages in the Word where "founding the earth" and the "foundation of the earth" are mentioned, by which the foundation or the creation of the earth is not meant, but the establishment or the creation of the church upon the earth, as in Zechariah:

"Jehovah stretches forth the heavens, and founds the earth and forms the spirit of man within him"; (Zechariah 12:1) where by "stretching forth the heavens" and by "founding the earth", is not understood to stretch forth the visible heaven, and to found the habitable earth, but the church, as to its internals, which are called spiritual things, and as to its externals, which are called natural things; to "found" the one, and to "extend" the other, is to establish [the church], wherefore it is also said that "He forms the spirit of man within him", by which his reformation and regeneration are signified. And in Isaiah 48:12, 13, where by "My hand has founded the earth, and My right hand has spanned the heavens", etc., are signified similar things. Apocalypse Explained 1057.

I am the First, and I am the Last: yea, My hand has founded the earth; and My right hand has spanned the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up together. - By the "hand" and the "right hand" of Jehovah, or of the Lord, is understood Omnipotence; by "the earth which He founds", is denoted the ultimate; "the heaven which He stretches out or extends", is that which is between the First and the Last; to "call them, that they may stand up together", is to hold all interior things together by the ultimate, in connection and in form, that they may regard one end. The one End which they should regard is "the First and the Last", who is the Lord, us is evident from Revelation 2:8, where He is expressly called "the First and the Last." Arcana Coelestia 10044. See also the Exposition of Isaiah 44:6.

14. Gather yourselves together, all of you, and hear: which among them has declared these things? Jehovah has loved him: and He will execute His pleasure on Babylon; and His arm on the Chaldeans.

15. I, even I, have spoken; yea, I have called him: I have brought him, and he will make his way prosperous.

Verses 14, 20. He will execute His pleasure on Babylon; - Come you forth from Babylon, etc. - 1n respect to "Babylon", and its significance in the Word, see above, Chapter 13 and 14, the Exposition.

16. Come near unto Me, and hear you this: From the beginning I have not spoken in secret; from the time when it began to be, there am I. And now the Lord Jehovih has sent Me, and His Spirit.

Verse 16. The Lord Jehovih. - What is understood when the Lord is called by this name, see Chapter 3:15, note and Exposition; and what by His "Spirit", see Chapter 11:2, 3, the Exposition.

17. Thus says Jehovah, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am Jehovah, your God; who teaches you how to profit; who leads you in the way wherein you should go.

Verse 17. That it was JEHOVAH Himself who descended and assumed Human nature for the purpose of effecting the work of Redemption, see above, Chapter 43:11, the Exposition.

18. O that you hadst hearkened to My commandments! then had your peace been like a river, and your justice as the waves of the sea:

Verses 18, 22. For as much as " peace" can only exist with those who live according to the precepts of the Lord, and not with those who do not so live, therefore it is said, "O that you hadst hearkened to My commandments l then had your peace been like a river, and your justice as the waves of the sea. There is no peace, says Jehovah, to the wicked." "Peace like a river", signifies in abundance; "justice as the waves of the sea", signifies fructification of Good by Truths, "justice", in the Word, being predicated of Good, and the "sea" of Truths. Apocalypse Explained 365. In the Word mention is frequently made of "keeping and doing the commandments of God, and His precepts."

By "doing the precepts of God" is understood the same as by loving the Lord above all things, and our neighbour as ourselves; for whatever man inwardly, or from the heart, loves, that be wills, and what he wills, that he does; and to love God is to love His precepts, these being of God, insomuch that they are God. Hence it may appear how little the followers of Faith alone know what "love" is; they announce or affirm that faith lives from love, and that faith is dead without love, and yet they do not know that "love" and "deeds" are one; they say also that in faith there is love, and yet they are ignorant that there can be no "love" in "faith", if they do not live according to the precepts of the Lord contained in the Word; and that it is from thence, and from no other source whatever, that there can be any "love" in "faith", except what is natural only, which is not the love of the Lord and of the neighbour, but the love of self and of the world, and these loves are altogether destructive of faith, yea, they falsify the Truths which appertain to genuine Faith, which are contained in the Word. Apocalypse Explained 894.

Inasmuch as the church at this day does not know that conjunction with the Lord makes heaven, and that conjunction is effected by the acknowledgement that He is the God of heaven and earth, and at the same time by a life according to His precepts, it may therefore be expedient to say something on the subject. It may be asked by him who is uninstructed in this case "What is conjunction ? How can acknowledgement and life make conjunction? What need is there of these things, when everyone may be saved by mercy alone? What necessity for any other medium of salvation but faith alone? Is not God merciful and omnipotent?" But let such an one know that in the spiritual world knowledge and acknowledgement make all presence, and that the affection which is of love makes all conjunction; for spaces in that world are nothing else but appearances according to the similitudes of minds, that is, of affections and consequent thoughts; wherefore when anyone knows another either from reputation, or from communication with him, or from conversation, or from affinity, whilst he thinks of him from the idea of that knowledge, he is presented to view, although he was a thousand miles off as to appearance; and if any one loves another whom he is acquainted with, he dwells with him in one society, and if he loves him inmostly, in one house. This is the state of all throughout the spiritual world, and it derives its origin from this circumstance, that the Lord is present with everyone according to faith, and conjoined according to love; faith and the consequent presence of the Lord is given by the knowledge of Truths from the Word, especially concerning the Lord Himself there, but love and consequent conjunction is given by a life according to His precepts, for the ·Lord says, "He that has My precepts, and does them, he it is who loves Me; and I will love him, and make abode with him", etc. (John 14:2l-24.) But in what manner this is effected, it may also be expedient to say. The Lord loves everyone, and is willing to be conjoined to him, but He cannot be conjoined so long as man is in the delight of evil, as in the delight of hatred and revenge; in the delight of adultery and whoredom, in the delight of defrauding or stealing under any pretence whatever, in the delight of blaspheming and lying, and in the concupiscences of the love of self and of the world; for everyone who is in those evils, is in consort with devils who are in hell. The Lord, indeed, loves them even there, but He cannot be conjoined with them, unless the delights of those evils be removed; and they cannot be removed by the Lord, unless man explores himself, so as to know his own evils, acknowledging and confessing them before the Lord, and being willing to desist from them, and thus doing the act of repentance. This man ought to do as from himself, because he is not sensible that be does anything from the Lord; and this has been given to man, because conjunction, in order to be conjunction, must be reciprocal, of man with the Lord, and of the Lord with man. So far, therefore, as evils with their delights are thus removed, so far the love of the Lord enters, which, as was said, is universal towards all; and in such case man is withdrawn from hell, and brought into heaven. Apocalypse Revealed 937.

19. And your seed had been as the sand, and the offspring of your bowels like the gravel thereof: his name should not have been cut off, nor destroyed from before Me.

Verse 19. "Seed as the sand" signifies that if the church had obeyed the Lord's precepts, its Good would have so much increased; and "the offspring of your bowels" its Truths in like manner, for by "the issue or the offspring of your bowels" are signified those who are born of the Lord, or who are in love to the Lord and in charity to their neighbour. (See also the Exposition of Isaiah 63:15.) Arcana Coelestia 1803.

His name should not have been cut off, nor destroyed from before Me. - The "cutting off, and destroying of the name before Jehovah", denotes the quality of the state by which there is conjunction, which state is the spiritual state of those who are of the church which is signified by "Israel." Apocalypse Explained 148.

20. Go you forth from Babylon; flee you from the Chaldeans with the voice of singing: declare you this, and make it heard; utter it forth even to the end of the earth: say you, Jehovah has redeemed His servant Jacob;

Verse 20. As to "Babylon" and "Chaldea", see Chapter xiii., xiv.; also Isaiah 43:14; 47:1, the Exposition.

Verse 20, 21. Jehovah has redeemed His servant Jacob; they shall not thirst in the deserts, through which He unll make them go, yea, He will cleave the rock, etc. - That the "Rock" in Horeb, from which the waters flowed, signified the Lord, is known in the church, [1 Corinthians 10:4.] but that it signified the Lord as to Faith, and also Faith from the Lord, [was shown above, Chap, Isaiah 16:1, the Exposition.] Arcana Coelestia 8581.

21. They shall not thirst in the deserts, through which He will make them go: He will cause waters from the rock to flow for them; yea, He will cleave the rock, and the waters shall gush forth.

Verse 21. He will cause waters from the rock to flow for them, etc."Rock", in this passage, signifies the Lord as to Divine Truth, or, what is the same thing, Divine Truth from the Lord. Apocalypse Explained 411.

22. There is no peace, says Jehovah, to the wicked.

Verse 22. All restlessness arises from what is evil and false, and all peace from what is Good and True. At this day scarcely anyone knows what "Peace" denotes, when it is named in the Word, as in the benediction, "May Jehovah lift up His face upon you, and give you peace!" (Numbers 6:26, and elsewhere.) Almost everyone believes that "peace" consists in security from enemies, and in domestic and social tranquillity, nevertheless this peace is not there meant, but a "peace" which immensely transcends that peace, and which is the heavenly "peace" spoken of just above. No one can be gifted with this "peace" but he who is led of the Lord, and is in the Lord, that is, in heaven, where the Lord is all in all; for heavenly "peace" flows in when the lusts arising from the love of self and of the world are taken away, inasmuch as these lusts are what take away "peace", for they infest the interiors of man, and cause him at length to place rest in restlessness and peace in disturbance, because his delight is in evils. So long as man is in such evils he cannot in any way know what "peace" is; yea, he so long believes that the above "peace" is a thing of nought; and if anyone says that the above "peace" then comes to perception when the delights arising from the love of self and of the world are removed, he ridicules the idea, and the reason is, because he places peace in the delight of evil which is opposite to "peace." Inasmuch as "peace" is of this description, that is, the inmost of all happiness and blessedness, and thence the universal ruling principle in every particular, therefore the ancients adopted a common formula of speech, and said, "Peace be to you!" when they meant to wish anyone's welfare, and inquired whether he had "peace", when they meant to ask whether it.was well with him. Arcana Coelestia 5662.

In respect to heavenly "peace", its origin and its nature, see above, Chapter 9:6, the Exposition.

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Isaiah Chapter 48

1. HEAR you this, O house of Jacob; you, who are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah; who swear by the name of Jehovah, and who make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in justice:

2. For they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves upon the God of Israel; Jehovah of Hosts is His name.

3. The former things from the beginning I declared: and from My mouth they went forth, and I made them known: suddenly I effected them, and they came to pass.

4. Because I knew that you wast obstinate, and that your neck was a sinew of iron, and that your forehead was brass;

5. Therefore I declared it unto you from the beginning; before it came to pass, I made you to hear it: lest you should say, Mine idol has done them; and my graven image and my molten image have commanded them.

6. You didst hear it [beforehand]; behold, the whole [is accomplished]: and will you not declare it? From this time I make you to hear new things, and hidden things which you have not known.

7. They are created now, and not from the beginning; and before the day when you heardest them not; lest you should say, Behold, I knew them!

8. Yea, you have not heard; yea, you have not known; yea, from the first thine ear was not opened: for I knew that thouwouldst deal very treacherously, and that you wast called a transgressor from the womb.

9. For the sake of My name I will defer Mine anger; and for the sake of My praise I will restrain it from you, that I may not cut you off.

10. Behold, I have purified you, but not for silver; I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction.

11. For Mine own sake, for Mine own sake, will I do it; for how should [My name] be blasphemed? and My glory I will not give to another.

12. Hearken unto Me, O Jacob and Israel, whom I have called: I am He; I am the First, and I am the Last:

13. Yea, My hand has founded the earth; and My right hand has spanned the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up together.

14. Gather yourselves together, all of you, and hear: which among them has declared these things? Jehovah has loved him: and He will execute His pleasure on Babylon; and His arm on the Chaldeans.

15. I, even I, have spoken; yea, I have called him: I have brought him, and he will make his way prosperous.

16. Come near unto Me, and hear you this: From the beginning I have not spoken in secret; from the time when it began to be, there am I. And now the Lord Jehovih has sent Me, and His Spirit.

17. Thus says Jehovah, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am Jehovah, your God; who teacheth you how to profit; who leads you in the way wherein you should go.

18. O that you hadst hearkened to My commandments! then had your peace been like a river, and your justice as the waves of the sea:

19. And your seed had been as the sand, and the offspring of your bowels like the gravel thereof: his name should not have been cut off, nor destroyed from before Me.

20. Go you forth from Babylon; flee you from the Chaldeans with the voice of singing: declare you this, and make it heard; utter it forth even to the end of the earth: say you, Jehovah has redeemed His servant Jacob;

21. They shall not thirst in the deserts, through which He will make them go: He will cause waters from the rock to flow for them; yea, He will cleave the rock, and the waters shall gush forth.

22. There is no peace, says Jehovah, to the wicked.

5247. 'And he clipped [his hair and beard]' means a casting aside and the change made so far as the coverings of the exterior natural were concerned. This is clear from the meaning of 'clipping' - that is, clipping the head and beard - as casting aside the coverings of the exterior natural. For 'hair' which was clipped means the exterior natural, see 3301. Also, both hair on the head and that composing the beard correspond in the Grand Man to the exterior natural. This explains why in the light of heaven sensory-minded people - that is, those who have had no belief in anything apart from that which is natural, and have had no desire to understand how anything more internal or purer can exist apart from that which they can perceive with their senses - have a hairy appearance in the next life. They look so hairy that their faces are scarcely anything else than hairy beards. I have seen faces covered with hair like these on many occasions. But rationally-minded people, that is, spiritually-minded ones, with whom the natural has played a correctly subordinate role, are seen with tidy hair. Indeed from the state of people's hair in the next life one can tell what the natural with them is like. The reason spirits appear with hair on their heads is that in the next life spirits look exactly like people on earth. This too is why the Word sometimes includes a description of the hair of the angels people have seen.

[2] From all this one may now see what is meant by 'clipping', as in Ezekiel,

The priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, shall put off their garments in which they have been ministering and lay them in the holy chambers, and they shall put on other garments, and they shall not sanctify the people in their own garments. And they shall not shave their head and shall not let their hair grow long; they shall surely clip their heads. Ezekiel 44:15, 19-20.

This refers to a new Temple and a new priesthood, that is, to a new Church. 'Putting on other garments' means holy truths; 'not shaving their head, and not letting their hair grow long, but surely clipping their heads' means not casting aside the natural but taking measures to make it conformable, and so to make it subordinate. Anyone who believes that the Word is indeed holy can see that these and all the other details mentioned by the prophet which describe a new land, a new city, and a new Temple and priesthood must not be taken literally. The statement, for example, that the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, will minister there, at which time they will put off their ministerial garments and put on new ones, and will also clip their heads, is not meant literally; rather, each and all the details given by the prophet have as their meaning such things as are aspects of a new Church.

[3] The following rules were laid down for the high priest, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, in Moses,

The priest who is chief among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil has been poured and who has been consecrated ¹ to wear the garments, shall not shave his head or rend his garments. Leviticus 21:10.

The sons of Aaron shall not introduce any baldness on their head or shave the corner of their beard. They shall be holy to their God, and they shall not profane the name of their God. Leviticus 21:5-6.

You shall purify the Levites like this: Sprinkle over them the water of expiation, and they shall pass a razor over their flesh and wash their garments, and they shall be pure. Numbers 8:7.

These rules would never have been given unless they had held holy ideas within them. Can there be anything holy or anything of the Church in the actual rule forbidding the high priest to shave his head or rend his garments, or in the actual rule forbidding the sons of Levi to introduce any baldness on their head or shave the corner of their beard, or in that commanding the Levites to shave their flesh with a razor when they underwent purification? Rather, the possession of an external or natural man made subordinate to the internal or spiritual man, both of which have thereby been made subordinate to the Divine, is the holy idea within those rules; and it is also what angels perceive when man reads about them in the Word.

[4] The same goes for what is said about a Nazirite who was holy to Jehovah. If someone next to him happened to die suddenly and so defile his consecrated head, the Nazirite was required to clip his head on the day of his cleansing; on the seventh day he had to clip it. On the day that the days of his Naziriteship were completed he had to clip his consecrated head at the door of the Tent of Meeting and to take the hair from his head and put it on the fire which was under the sacrifice of peace offerings, Numbers 6:8, 9, 13, 18. For the meaning of a Nazirite and what aspect of holiness he represented, see 3301. No one can possibly understand why anything holy existed within the Nazirite's hair unless he knows from correspondence what is meant by 'the hair' and from this what aspect of holiness a Nazirite's hair corresponded to. Nor can anyone likewise understand how the source of Samson's strength lay in his hair, which he told Delilah about in the following description,

No razor has come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite of God from my mother's womb. If I am shaved, my strength will depart from me, and I shall become weak and be like anyone else. And Delilah called a man who shaved off the seven locks of his hair; and his strength departed from him. After that, when the hair on his head began to grow, even as it had been shaved off, his strength returned to him. Judges 16:17, 19, 22.

Without any knowledge of correspondence who can see that the Lord's Divine Natural was represented by 'a Nazirite', or that 'Naziriteship' had no other meaning than this, or that Samson's strength was due to that representation?

[5] Anyone who does not know, and more so one who does not believe that the Word has an internal sense, and that the sense of the letter serves to represent the real things contained in the internal sense, will recognize scarcely anything holy at all in these matters, when in fact the greatest holiness lies within them. Anyone who does not know, and more so one who does not believe that the Word has an internal sense that is intrinsically holy cannot know what the following texts enfold within them: In Jeremiah,

Truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth. Cut off the hair of your Naziriteship and throw it away. Jeremiah 7:28-29.

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 Micah,

Make yourself bald, and shave your head for the children of your delight; extend your baldness like an eagle, for they have departed from you. Micah 1:16.

Nor will anyone know the aspect of holiness contained in the reference to Elijah's being a man covered with hair, who wore a skin girdle around his loins, 2 Kings 1:8. Nor will he know why the children who called Elisha baldhead were torn apart by the bears out of the forest, 2 Kings 2:23-24.

[6] Both Elijah and Elisha represented the Lord as to the Word, and so represented the Word itself, specifically the prophetical part, see Preface to Genesis 18, and 2762. Being covered with hair and having a skin girdle meant the literal sense, 'a man covered with hair' meaning that sense so far as truths were concerned, 'wearing a skin girdle around his loins' so far as forms of good were concerned. For the literal sense is the natural sense of the Word since it employs ideas formed from things that exist in the world, whereas the internal sense is the spiritual sense because it employs ideas formed from things existing in heaven. These two senses are related to each other in the way that the internal and the external are related in the human being. But because the internal can have no existence without the external, the external being the last and lowest degree of order within which the internal is held in being, the calling of Elisha 'baldhead' therefore meant the shameful accusation made against the Word that it lacked so to speak an external and so lacked a sense suited to man's capacity to understand it.

[7] From all this one may see that every particular detail in the Word is holy. However, this holiness within the Word is discerned by no one unless he is acquainted with the internal sense; yet an inkling of it flows from heaven into someone who believes that the Word is holy. The internal sense known to the angels is the channel through which that influx comes; and even if the person has no understanding of that sense it nevertheless stimulates an affection in him, because the affection felt by the angels who know that sense is communicated to him. From this it is also evident that the Word was given to man so that he might have a means of communication with heaven and so that by flowing into him Divine Truth in heaven might stimulate affection in him.

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