765. 18:8 "Therefore her plagues will come in one day - death and mourning and hunger." This symbolically means that consequently, at the time of the Last Judgment the punishments for the evils they have done will come back on themselves - death, which is life in hell and an inner anguish at being cast down from their domination - mourning, which is an internal anguish owing to their poverty and wretchedness instead of opulence - and hunger, which is the loss of any understanding of truth.

"Therefore" refers to the fact that she said in her heart, "I sit as queen and am not a widow, and will not see grief," as explained just above in no. 764. In one day means, symbolically, at the time of the Last Judgment, called also the Day of Judgment. Plagues symbolize punishments for the evils they did in the world, which will then come back on them. Death symbolizes life in hell, and internal anguish at being cast down from their dominion, which in no. 763 above is called torment. We will say something about this death below. Mourning symbolizes an inner anguish owing to their poverty and wretchedness instead of wealth, as explained also in no. 764 above. Hunger symbolizes the loss of any understanding of truth.

People of the Roman Catholic religion who have exercised dominion from a love of self and without a love of useful services for their own sake, suffer these three plagues or punishments. They are also atheists at heart, since they attribute everything to their own prudence or to nature. All the rest of that tribe who are of the same character, but who do not think deeply within themselves, are idolaters.

That the plague or punishment called hunger means the loss of any understanding of truth may be seen in no. 323 above.

Every person, indeed, while living in the world, possesses rationality, that is, a faculty for understanding truth. This faculty continues to exist in every person after death. Yet those who from a love of self or a conceit in their own intelligence have imbued themselves with religious falsities in the world, after death refuse to understand truth, and to refuse is be virtually unable. This inability owing to a lack of will is found in all people of the character described, and it increases as the delight in their lust for falsity to gain dominion draws them to imbue themselves with new falsities to support it, so that intellectually they become embodiments of nothing but falsity and remain so to eternity.

Similar statements are made regarding Babylon in Jeremiah:

Your mother was deeply ashamed; she who bore you was filled with shame. Behold, the last of the nations shall be a wilderness, a dry land and a desert. Because of the wrath of Jehovah she shall not be inhabited, but shall be a complete wasteland. Everyone who passes by Babylon shall be astounded, and shall hiss at all her plagues. (Jeremiah 50:12-13)

791. 18:21 Then a mighty angel lifted up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, "Thus shall Babylon, that great city, be forcefully thrown down, and not be found anymore." This symbolically means that by a powerful influx of the Lord from heaven, the Roman Catholic religion will be cast headlong into hell, together with all its adulterated truths of the Word, and angels will never see it again.

A mighty angel's lifting up symbolizes a powerful influx of the Lord from heaven; for an angel symbolizes the Lord and His operation, an operation which takes place through heaven (nos. 258, 415, 465, 649). Here, because the angel is called a mighty angel and lifts up a great millstone, the operation symbolized is a powerful one, which means a powerful influx. A stone like a great millstone symbolizes the adulterated and profaned truths of the Word; for a stone symbolizes truth, and a mill symbolizes an inquiry into, examination of, and verification of truth from the Word, as we will show in no. 794. Here, however, it symbolizes an adulteration and profanation of the Word's truth, because the subject is Babylon. Being cast into the sea means, symbolically, into hell. "Thus shall Babylon, that great city, be forcefully thrown down," symbolically means that thus that great religion will be cast headlong into hell. Its not being found anymore means, symbolically, that angels will never see it again.

[2] This is the symbolic meaning, because all adherents of the Roman Catholic religion who are caught up in its evils and falsities come, in fact, after death into the world of spirits. For that world is like a public square in which all first gather, and it is like the stomach into which all foodstuffs are first collected. The stomach also corresponds to that world. However, at this day, because the Last Judgment is over, having been completed in 1757, people are no longer allowed to stay in that world and to form for themselves pseudo-heavens, as was the case before, but as soon as they arrive there, they are sent off to societies in that world that are connected with the hells, and from time to time are cast into them. And in this way the Lord has taken care that the angels never see them again. This, then, is what is symbolically meant by that city's, that is to say, that religion's, not being found anymore.

[3] Since a millstone symbolizes the Word's truth adulterated, and the sea symbolizes hell, therefore the Lord says:

Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea. (Matthew 18:6; called simply a millstone in Mark 9:42, Luke 17:2)

Almost the same thing is said regarding Babylon in Jeremiah:

...when you have finished reading this book, you shall tie a stone to it and throw it into midst of the Euphrates. Then you shall say, "Thus Babylon shall sink and not rise again...." (Jeremiah 51:63-64)

The midst of the Euphrates has the same meaning as the sea, because the river Euphrates formed the boundary that separated Assyria, where Babylon was located, from the land of Canaan.