The Bible

 

Lamentations 1:1

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1 How hath she sat alone, The city abounding with people! She hath been as a widow, The mighty among nations! Princes among provinces, She hath become tributary!

Commentary

 

Virgin and girl

  

In the Word, the words 'virgin' and 'girl' are used, although the word translated 'girl' rarely occurs in the original language. In Exodus 2:8, 'a virgin' signifies the good of the celestial church, but 'a girl,' the truth of good of the spiritual church.

(References: Arcana Coelestia 6742)

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #6742

Study this Passage

  
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6742. 'And the girl went and called the child's mother' means that the Church's truth of good linked things of the Church to it. This is clear from the meaning of 'the girl' as the Church's truth of good, dealt with below; from the meaning of 'calling' as linking, for the reason why she called the mother was in order to link her; and from the meaning of 'the mother' as the Church, dealt with in 289, 2691, 2717, 5581, and so also as things of the Church. In the Word the expression 'virgin' is used; so also is 'girl', though the word rendered 'girl' here rarely occurs in the original language. 'Virgin' means the good that the celestial Church possesses, whereas 'girl' means the truth of good that the spiritual Church possesses, as in David,

They have seen Your goings, O God, the goings of my God, my King, in the sanctuary. The singers went before, players [of stringed instruments] after, in the midst of the girls playing timbrels. Psalms 68:24-25.

The words in these verses all have reference to the truths of good that the spiritual Church possesses. The expression 'God' is used when truth is the subject, see 2769, 2807, 2822, 4402; 'king' means truth, 1672, 2015, 2069, 3009, 4575, 4581, 4966, 5044, 5068, 6148; 'singers' has reference to truths that the spiritual Church possesses, 418-420, and 'timbrel players' has reference to spiritual good, 4138. From this one may see that 'the girls' are the truths of good which the spiritual Church possesses.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.