4736. Cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness. That this signifies that they should conceal it meanwhile among their falsities, that is, that they should regard it as false, but still retain it because it was of importance to the church, is evident from the signification of a “pit,” as being falsities (see n. 4728); and from the signification of a “wilderness,” as being where there is no truth. For the word “wilderness” has a wide signification, it means where the land is uninhabited, and thus not cultivated; and when predicated of the church, it denotes where there is no good, and consequently no truth (n. 2708, 3900). Thus by a “pit in the wilderness” are here meant falsities in which there is no truth, because no good. It is said in which there is no truth because no good; for when anyone believes that faith saves without works, truth may indeed exist, but still it is not truth in him, because it does not look to good, nor is it from good. This truth is not alive, because it has in it a principle of falsity, consequently with anyone who has such truth, the truth is but falsity from the principle which rules in it. The principle is like the soul, from which the rest have their life. On the other hand there are falsities which are accepted as truths, when there is good in them, especially if it is the good of innocence, as with the Gentiles and also with many within the church.

7602. And the barley. That this signifies its good, is evident from the signification of “barley,” as being the good of the exterior natural. That “barley” has this signification is because it is produce of the field, and is a grain that serves for food; for “grain” in general signifies the good of truth (see n. 3580, 5295, 5410, 5959), especially barley and wheat—“barley,” the good of the exterior natural, and “wheat,” the good of the interior natural. The former good is signified by “barley” in Joel:

The meat-offering and the drink-offering are cut off from the house of Jehovah; the priests, the ministers of Jehovah, have mourned. The field hath been laid waste, the earth hath mourned, because the grain hath been devastated, the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth. The husbandmen are ashamed, the vinedressers have howled over the wheat and over the barley, because the harvest of the field hath perished (Joel 1:9-11).

The subject of this prophecy is the vastation of good and truth, as is evident from what follows in the chapter; and therefore by “grain,” “new wine,” “wheat,” and “barley,” are not signified these things, but spiritual things; thus by “wheat,” interior good; and by “barley,” exterior good. So with “barley” in Ezekiel 4:9, and in Deuteronomy 8:8. In the book of Judges:

When Gideon was come to the camp, a man was telling a dream to his fellow, and said, Behold, I dreamed a dream, and lo a baked loaf of barley rolled unto the camp of Midian, and came even unto the tent, and smote it that it fell, and turned it upside down, and so the tent fell (Judg. 7:13);

by “Midian” are signified those who are in the truth of simple good, and in the opposite sense those who are not in the good of life (n. 3242, 4756, 4788, 6773). This good is the good of the exterior natural, and is signified by a “loaf of barley;” but the delight of pleasures, if regarded as the end instead of this good, is what is signified by the “baked loaf of barley;” this is the state which the Midianites at that time represented, and which is there described.