2015. Kings shall go forth from thee. That this signifies that all truth is from Him, is evident from the signification of a “king,” in both the historical and the prophetic Word, as being truth (stated above, n. 1672, but not yet fully shown). From the signification of “nations” as being goods, and from the signification of “kings” as being truths, we can see the nature of the internal sense of the Word, and also how remote it is from the sense of the letter. He who reads the Word, especially the historical portion, has no other belief than that the nations there are nations, and kings, and thus that nations and kings are treated of in the very Word itself. But the idea of nations, as well as that of kings, altogether perishes when it is received by the angels, and in their place there succeed good and truth. This cannot but appear as strange and indeed as a paradox, but still it is really so, and the truth of it may appear to everyone from considering that if, in the Word, nations were signified by “nations,” and kings by “kings,” then the Word of the Lord would involve scarcely anything more than any other history, or any other writing, and thus would be a merely worldly affair, when yet there is nothing in the Word that is not Divine, and therefore celestial and spiritual.

[2] Take as a single instance what is said in this verse, that Abraham should be made fruitful and should be made nations, and that kings should go forth from him-what is this but a merely worldly matter, and in no respect heavenly? For in these things there is only the glory of the world, which is nothing at all in heaven; but if this is the Word of the Lord, there must be in it the glory of heaven, and none of the world’s glory. Therefore the sense of the letter is altogether obliterated and vanishes when it passes into heaven; and it is so purified that nothing that is worldly is intermingled. For by “Abraham” is not meant Abraham, but the Lord; by his being “made fruitful” is not meant that his posterity should increase exceedingly, but that the good of the Lord’s Human Essence should increase to infinitude; by the “nations” are not meant nations, but goods; and by the “kings,” not kings but truths. Still the history according to the sense of the letter remains true; for it is true that it was so said to Abraham; also that he was made fruitful, and that nations and kings came from him.

[3] That “kings” signify truths, may be seen from the following passages.

In Isaiah:

The sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee; thou shalt suck the milk of the nations, and the breast of kings shalt thou suck (Isaiah 60:10, 16);

what it is to “suck the milk of nations” and “the breast of kings,” is by no means plain from the letter, but it is from the internal sense, in which it signifies to be gifted with goods, and instructed in truths.

In Jeremiah:

There shall enter in by the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses (Jeremiah 17:25; 22:4);

to “ride in chariots and on horses” is a prophetical saying which signifies an abundance of intellectual things, as may appear from very many passages in the Prophets; and thus by “kings entering in by the gates of the city” is signified in the internal sense that they should be imbued with truths of faith. This is the heavenly sense of the Word, into which the worldly literal sense passes.

[4] Again, in the same Prophet:

Jehovah hath despised in the indignation of His anger the king and the priest; the gates of Zion have sunk into the earth; He hath destroyed and broken her bars; her king and her princes are among the nations; the law is not (Lamentations 2:6, 9);

“the king” here denotes the truth of faith; “the priest” the good of charity; “Zion” the church which is being destroyed, and whose bars are being broken; hence “the king and the princes are among the nations,” that is, truth and the things which are of truth will be banished to such an extent that there will be no “law,” that is, nothing of the doctrine of faith.

In Isaiah:

Before the child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the ground shall be forsaken, which thou loathest in the presence of her two kings (Isaiah 7:16); where the Lord’s coming is treated of; the “ground which shall be forsaken” denotes faith, of which there would then be none, and the truths of which are the “kings that would be loathed.”

[5] In the same Prophet:

I will lift up My hand to the nations, and raise up My ensign to the peoples; and they shall bring thy sons in their bosom, and thy daughters shall be carried upon the shoulder; and kings shall be thy nourishers, and their queens those that give thee suck (Isaiah 49:22-23);

“the nations” and “the daughters” denote goods; and “the peoples” and “the sons” truths (as shown in Part First, where it may be seen that “nations” denote goods, n. 1259, 1260, 1416, 1849; and that “daughters” have a similar signification, n. 489-491; also that “peoples” denote truths, n. 1259, 1260; and “sons” likewise, n. 489, 491, 533, 1147). “Kings” therefore denote truths in general, by which they will be nourished, and their “queens” the goods from which they will be “suckled.” Whether you say goods and truths, or those who are in goods and truths, it is the same.

[6] Again in the same Prophet:

He shall sprinkle many nations, upon him kings shall shut their mouth-for that which was [not] told them have they seen; and that which they did not hear have they understood (Isaiah 52:15),

where the Lord’s coming is spoken of; the “nations” denote those who are affected by goods, and “kings” those who are affected by truths.

In David:

Now, O ye kings, be intelligent; be instructed, ye judges of the earth; serve Jehovah with fear, and exult with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish in the way (Psalms 2:10-12).

“Kings” denote those who are in truths; who also from their truths are often called “king’s sons;” “the Son” here denotes the Lord, who is here called “the Son” because He is the truth itself, and because all truth is from Him.

[7] In John:

They shall sing a new song, Worthy art Thou who takest the book, and openest the seals thereof; Thou hast made us unto our God kings and priests, that we may reign upon the earth (Revelation 5:9-10); where they who are in truths are called “kings.”

The Lord also calls such persons “the sons of the kingdom,” in Matthew:

He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; the field is the world; the seed is the sons of the kingdom, and the tares are the sons of the evil one (Matthew 13:37-38).

In John:

The sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the Kings that are from the sun rising might be prepared (Revelation 16:12).

That by the “Euphrates” is not meant the Euphrates, nor by “the kings from the sun-rising” any kings therefrom, is evident (what is meant by the “Euphrates” may be seen above, n. 120, 1585, 1866); so that “the way of the kings that are from the sun-rising” means the truths of faith that are from the goods of love.

[8] In the same:

The nations that are saved shall walk in the light of it, and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory and honor into it (Revelation 21:24); where “the nations” denote those who are in goods, and “the kings of the earth” those who are in truths, as may be inferred from the fact that these words are prophetic, and not historical.

In the same:

With the great harlot that sitteth upon many waters the kings of the earth have committed whoredom, and have been made drunken with the wine of her whoredom (Revelation 17:1-2).

And again:

Babylon hath made all the nations drink of the wine of her whoredom, and the kings of the earth have committed whoredom with her (Revelation 18:3, 9); where in like manner it is evident that kings are not meant by “the kings of the earth;” for the falsification and adulteration of the doctrine of faith, that is, of truth, is treated of, and this is the “whoredom;” “the kings of the earth” denote the truths that are falsified and adulterated.

[9] In the same:

The ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, that have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority [potestas] as kings with the beast for one hour. These shall have one mind, and shall give their power and authority to the beast (Revelation 17:12-13).

That these “kings” are not kings, is evident to everyone; for if so it would be wholly unintelligible that the ten kings should receive authority as kings one hour. So too in another passage:

I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war with him that sat upon the horse, and with his army (Revelation 19:19).

That “he that sat upon the horse” is “the Word of God,” is openly stated in verse 13; and it is against this that the kings of the earth are said to have been gathered together. “The beast” denotes the goods of love, profaned; and “the kings” denote the truths of faith, adulterated; these are called “the kings of the earth,” because they are within the church. (That “the earth” is the church may be seen above, n. 662, 1066, 1067, 1262.) The “white horse” denotes the understanding of truth; and “he that sat upon the horse,” the Word. This meaning is still more manifest in Daniel (chapter 11), where the war between “the king of the south” and “the king of the north” is treated of; by which terms are signified the truths and falsities that had fought, the combats being described here also in an historical manner by this “war.”

[10] As “a king” signifies truth, it may be seen what is meant in the internal sense when the Lord is called a King and also a Priest; and also what it was in the Lord that was represented by kings, and what by priests. Kings represented His Divine truth, and priests His Divine good. All the laws of order by which the Lord governs the universe as King, are truths; but all the laws by which He governs the universe as Priest, and by which also He rules truths themselves, are goods; for government from truths alone would condemn everyone to hell; but government from goods lifts everyone out thence and uplifts him into heaven (see n. 1728). Because in the Lord’s case these two are conjoined, they were anciently represented by kingship conjoined with priesthood; as with Melchizedek, who was king of Salem and at the same time priest to God Most High (Genesis 14:18); and afterwards with the Jews, among whom the representative church was instituted in its own form, by judges and priests, and afterwards by kings.

[11] But as the kings represented truths, which ought not to have command, for the reason, as before said, that they condemn, therefore the desire to have kings was so displeasing as to call for rebuke, and the nature of truth as regarded in itself was described by the rights [jus] of the king (1 Samuel 8:11-18); and at an earlier day it was commanded by Moses (Deuteronomy 17:14-18) that they should choose genuine truth which is from good, and not spurious; and that they should not defile it by reasonings and memory-knowledges [scientifica]. This is what is involved in the directions concerning a king, given in Moses in the place just cited; which no one can possibly see from the sense of the letter, but yet is evident from the several points contained in the internal sense; so that “king” and “kingship” evidently represented and signified nothing else than truth.

4459. And the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father in fraud. That this signifies an evil opinion and intention concerning the truth and good of the Church among the Ancients, is evident from the representation of Shechem, as being the truth among the ancients, or what is the same, truth from the ancient Divine stock (see n. 4399, 4454); from the representation of Hamor, as being the good from which came this truth (n. 4399, 4431, 4447, 4454); and from the signification of “fraud,” as being an evil opinion and intention, for in a general sense “fraud” implies evil against another, and against what he speaks and what he does, because he who is in fraud thinks and intends that which is contrary to another, as is also evident from the effect described in this chapter. Hence it is evident that by the “sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father in fraud,” is signified an evil opinion and intention concerning the truth and good of the Church among the Ancients.

[2] The sons or descendants of Jacob could have no other than an evil opinion and intention concerning the truth and good of the internal man, because they were in externals without internals (see n. 4281, 4293, 4307, 4429, 4433); and they also made internal things of no account, and therefore utterly despised them. Such also is that nation at this day, and such are all who are in external things alone. They who are in external things alone do not even know what it is to be in internal things, for they do not know what that which is internal is. If anyone in their presence mentions what is internal they either affirm it to be so because they know it from doctrine (yet making this affirmation in fraud), or else they deny it with both heart and lips, for they go no further than the sensuous things of the external man. Consequently they do not believe in any life after death, nor that any resurrection is possible unless they are to rise with their bodies, and therefore they are permitted to have such an opinion of the resurrection, because otherwise they would have none at all, for they vest all life in the body, not knowing that the life of the body is from the life of the spirit which lives after death. They who are in externals alone can have no other belief; for with them external things extinguish all thought about internal things, and consequently all faith in them.

[3] At the present day this kind of ignorance reigns supreme, and therefore it is necessary to state what it is to be in external things apart from internal things. All those who are devoid of conscience are in external things alone, for the internal man manifests itself by conscience; and all those have no conscience who think and do what is true and good not for the sake of what is true and good, but for the sake of self by reason of their own honor and gain, and also merely on account of the fear of the law and of fear for their life, for if their reputation, honor, gain, or life were not endangered, they would rush without conscience into all kinds of wickedness. In the other life this is very evident from those who have been of this character in the life of the body, for there, where the interiors are open, they are in the perpetual endeavor to destroy others, and therefore they are in hell, where they are kept bound in a spiritual manner.

[4] That it may be further known what it is to be in external things, and what to be in internal things, and that they who are in external things alone cannot conceive what internal things are, and therefore cannot be affected by them (for no one is affected by things of which he has no conception), let us take as an example that in heaven to be least is to be greatest, and that to be humble is to be exalted; and also that to be poor and needy is to be rich and in abundance. They who are in external things alone cannot apprehend these things, for they think that the least cannot possibly be the greatest, nor the humble be exalted, the poor rich, or the needy in abundance, although in heaven this is precisely how the matter stands. And because they cannot apprehend these things they cannot be affected by them, and when from the bodily and worldly things in which they are, they reflect upon them, they feel an aversion for them. That such things exist in heaven they know not at all, and so long as they are in external things alone they do not desire to know them, nay, they cannot know them. Nevertheless in heaven the man who knows, acknowledges, and believes from the heart-that is, from affection-that he has no power from himself, but that all the power he has is from the Lord, is said to be the least, and yet is the greatest, because he has power from the Lord. The case is the same with the man who is humble, in that he is exalted; for he who is humble, acknowledging and believing from affection that he has no power of himself, no intelligence and wisdom of himself, and no good and truth of himself, is preeminently endowed by the Lord with power, with the intelligence of truth, and with the wisdom of good. It is the same with the poor and needy in respect to their being rich and in abundance; for he is said to be poor and needy who believes from his heart and from affection that he possesses nothing of himself, that he knows nothing and is wise in nothing of himself, and has no power of himself. In heaven such a man is rich and has abundance, for the Lord gives him all wealth, insomuch that he is wiser than all others and richer than all others, and dwells in the most magnificent palaces (n. 1116, 1626, 1627), and in the stores of all the riches of heaven.

[5] Take also as an example that one who is in external things alone cannot possibly comprehend that heavenly joy is to love his neighbor more than himself and the Lord above all things, and that happiness is according to the quantity and quality of this love; for the man who is in external things alone loves himself more than his neighbor; and if he loves others it is because they favor him, so that he loves them for the sake of himself, thus himself in them, and them in himself. A man of this character cannot know what it is to love others more than himself, and indeed he neither will nor can know it, and therefore when he is told that heaven consists in such love (n. 548) he feels an aversion for it. Hence it is that they who during their bodily life have been of this character cannot approach any heavenly society, for when they do so, in their aversion they cast themselves headlong into hell.

[6] As there are few at this day who know what it is to be in external things, and what to be in internal things, and as most people believe that they who are in internal things cannot be in external things, and the converse, I may for the sake of illustration adduce one more example. Take the nourishment of the body and the nourishment of the soul: one who is in merely external pleasures, makes much of himself, indulges his stomach, loves to live sumptuously, and makes the height of pleasure to consist in eatables and drinkables. One who is in internal things also finds pleasure in these things, but his ruling affection is to nourish his body with food pleasurably for the sake of its health, to the end that he may have a sound mind in a sound body, thus chiefly for the sake of the health of the mind, to which the health of the body serves as a means. One who is a spiritual man does not rest here, but regards the health of the mind or soul as a means for the acquisition of intelligence and wisdom—not for the sake of reputation, honors, and gain, but for the sake of the life after death. One who is spiritual in a more interior degree regards intelligence and wisdom as a mediate end having for its object that he may serve as a useful member in the Lord’s kingdom; and one who is a celestial man, that he may serve the Lord. To such a one bodily food is a means for the enjoyment of spiritual food, and spiritual food is a means for the enjoyment of celestial food; and as they ought to serve in this manner, these foods also correspond, and are therefore called foods. Hence it is evident what it is to be in external things alone, and what it is to be in internal things. The Jewish and Israelitish nation, treated of in the internal historical sense of this chapter, is (with the exception of those who die in infancy) for the most part of the character that has been indicated, for being in avarice they, more than all others, are in external things. They who love gains and profits merely for the sake of the gold and silver, in the possession of which consists the sole delight of their life, are in outermost or lowest things, for the objects of their love are merely earthly; whereas they who love gold and silver for the sake of some use, lift themselves above earthly things according to the use. The very use that a man loves determines his life and distinguishes it from others; an evil use makes the man infernal, and a good use makes him heavenly-not indeed the use itself, but the love of the use, for everyone’s life is in his love.