416. Saying with a loud voice, "Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!" This symbolizes the utmost lamentation over the state of damnation of people in the church who in doctrine and life have confirmed themselves in a faith divorced from charity.
"Woe" symbolizes a lamentation over the evil in someone, and so over his unhappy state. Here it means over the state of damnation of those people who are the subject of the next chapter and later. "Woe, woe, woe," moreover, symbolizes the utmost lamentation; for tripling it forms a superlative, since three symbolizes all and complete (no. 505).
Inhabitants of the earth mean people who are in a church which has the Word and where by it the Lord is known. To be shown that the earth symbolizes the church, see no. 285 above.
The blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound symbolize the examination and exposure of the state of the church and life in people who in doctrine and life have confirmed themselves in a faith divorced from charity, over whose state the lamentation takes place.
"Woe" symbolizes a lamentation over the present or future calamity, unhappiness, or damnation of various other people in the following:
Woe to you, ...Pharisees (and) hypocrites... (Matthew 23:13-16, 23, 25, 27, 29)
...woe to (the) man by whom (the Son of man) is betrayed! (Luke 22:22)
...woe to him through whom (offenses) do come! (Luke 17:1)
Woe to those who join house to house... Woe to those who rise early in the morning; they pursue intoxicating drink... Woe to those who draw to themselves iniquity... Woe to those who speak... good of evil... Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes... Woe to men mighty at drinking wine... (Isaiah 5:8, 11, 18, 20, 21, 22)
And so also in many other places.
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