9372. And He said unto Moses. That this signifies that which concerns the Word in general, is evident from the representation of Moses, as being the Word (of which below); and from the signification of “He said,” as involving those things which follow in this chapter, thus those which concern the Word (see n. 9370). (That Moses represents the Word, can be seen from what has been often shown before about Moses, as from the preface to Genesis 18; and n. 4859, 5922, 6723, 6752, 6771, 6827, 7010, 7014, 7089, 7382, 8601, 8760, 8787, 8805.) Here Moses represents the Word in general, because it is said of him in what follows, that he alone should come near unto Jehovah (verse 2); and also that, being called unto out of the midst of the cloud, he entered into it, and went up the mount (verses 16-18).

[2] In the Word there are many who represent the Lord in respect to truth Divine, or in respect to the Word; but chief among them are Moses, Elijah, Elisha, and John the Baptist. That Moses does so, can be seen in the explications just cited above; that so do Elijah and Elisha, can be seen in the preface to Genesis 18; and n. 2762, 5247; and that John the Baptist does so is evident from the fact that he was “Elias who was to come.” He who does not know that John the Baptist represented the Lord as to the Word, cannot know what all those things infold and signify which are said about him in the New Testament; and therefore in order that this secret may stand open, and that at the same time it may appear that Elias, and also Moses, who were seen when the Lord was transfigured, signified the Word, some things may here be quoted which are spoken about John the Baptist; as in Matthew:

After the messengers of John had departed, Jesus began to speak concerning John, saying, What went ye out into the wilderness to see? a reed shaken by the wind? But what went ye out to see? a man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they that wear soft things are in kings’ houses. But what went ye out to see? a prophet? Yea, I say unto you, even more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is written, Behold I send Mine angel before Thy face, who shall prepare Thy way before Thee. Verily I say unto you, Among those who are born of women there hath not arisen a greater than John the Baptist; nevertheless he that is less in the kingdom of the heavens is greater than he. All the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if ye are willing to believe, he is Elias who was to come. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear (Matthew 11:7-15; and also Luke 7:24-28).

No one can know how these things are to be understood, unless he knows that this John represented the Lord as to the Word, and unless he also knows from the internal sense what is signified by “the wilderness” in which he was, also what by “a reed shaken by the wind,” and likewise by “soft raiment in kings’ houses;” and further what is signified by his being “more than a prophet,” and by “none among those who are born of women being greater than he, and nevertheless he that is less in the kingdom of the heavens is greater than he,” and lastly by his being “Elias.” For without a deeper sense, all these words are uttered merely from some comparison, and not from anything of weight.

[3] But it is very different when by John is understood the Lord as to the Word, or the Word representatively. Then by “the wilderness of Judea in which John was” is signified the state in which the Word was at the time when the Lord came into the world, namely, that it was “in the wilderness,” that is, it was in obscurity so great that the Lord was not at all acknowledged, neither was anything known about His heavenly kingdom; when yet all the prophets prophesied about Him, and about His kingdom, that it was to endure forever. (That “a wilderness” denotes such obscurity, see n. 2708, 4736, 7313.) For this reason the Word is compared to “a reed shaken by the wind” when it is explained at pleasure; for in the internal sense “a reed” denotes truth in the ultimate, such as is the Word in the letter.

[4] That the Word in the ultimate, or in the letter, is crude and obscure in the sight of men; but that in the internal sense it is soft and shining, is signified by their “not seeing a man clothed in soft raiment, for behold those who wear soft things are in kings’ houses.” That such things are signified by these words, is plain from the signification of “raiment,” or “garments,” as being truths (n. 2132, 2576, 4545, 4763, 5248, 6914, 6918, 9093); and for this reason the angels appear clothed in garments soft and shining according to the truths from good with them (n. 5248, 5319, 5954, 9212, 9216). The same is evident from the signification of “kings’ houses,” as being the abodes of the angels, and in the universal sense, the heavens; for “houses” are so called from good (n. 2233, 2234, 3128, 3652, 3720, 4622, 4982, 7836, 7891, 7996, 7997); and “kings,” from truth (n. 1672, 2015, 2069, 3009, 4575, 4581, 4966, 5044, 6148). Therefore by virtue of their reception of truth from the Lord, the angels are called “sons of the kingdom,” “sons of the king,” and also “kings.”

[5] That the Word is more than any doctrine in the world, and more than any truth in the world, is signified by “what went ye out to see? a prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet;” and by, “there hath not arisen among those who are born of women a greater than John the Baptist;” for in the internal sense “a prophet” denotes doctrine (n. 2534, 7269); and “those who are born,” or are the sons, “of women” denote truths (n. 489, 491, 533, 1147, 2623, 2803, 2813, 3704, 4257).

[6] That in the internal sense, or such as it is in heaven, the Word is in a degree above the Word in the external sense, or such as it is in the world, and such as John the Baptist taught, is signified by, “he that is less in the kingdom of the heavens is greater than he;” for as perceived in heaven the Word is of wisdom so great that it transcends all human apprehension. That the prophecies about the Lord and His coming, and that the representatives of the Lord and of His kingdom, ceased when the Lord came into the world, is signified by, “all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.” That the Word was represented by John, as by Elijah, is signified by his being “Elias who is to come.”

[7] The same is signified by these words in Matthew:

The disciples asked Jesus, Why say the scribes that Elias must first come? He answered and said, Elias must needs first come, and restore all things. But I say unto you, that Elias hath come already, and they knew him not, but did unto him whatsoever they wished. Even so shall the Son of man also suffer of them. And they understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist (Matthew 17:10-13).

That “Elias hath come, and they knew him not, but did unto him whatsoever they wished” signifies that the Word has indeed taught them that the Lord is to come, but that still they did not wish to comprehend, interpreting it in favor of the rule of self, and thus extinguishing what is Divine in it. That they would do the same with the truth Divine itself, is signified by “even so shall the Son of man also suffer of them.” (That “the Son of man” denotes the Lord as to truth Divine, see n. 2803, 2813, 3704)

[8] From all this it is now evident what is meant by the prophecy about John in Malachi:

Behold I send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of Jehovah cometh (Malachi 4:5).

Moreover, the Word in the ultimate, or such as it is in the external form in which it appears before man in the world, is described by the “clothing” and “food” of John the Baptist, in Matthew:

John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, had His clothing of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his food was locusts and wild honey (Matthew 3:1, 4).

In like manner it is described by Elijah in the second book of Kings:

He was a hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins (2 Kings 1:8).

By “clothing,” or a “garment,” when said of the Word, is signified truth Divine there in the ultimate form; by “camel’s hair” are signified memory-truths such as appear there before a man in the world; by the “leathern girdle” is signified the external bond connecting and keeping in order all the interior things; by “food” is signified spiritual nourishment from the knowledges of truth and of good out of the Word; by “locusts” are signified ultimate or most general truths; and by “wild honey” their pleasantness.

[9] That such things are signified by “clothing” and “food” has its origin in the representatives of the other life, where all appear clothed according to truths from good, and where food also is represented according to the desires of acquiring knowledge and growing wise. From this it is that “clothing,” or a “garment,” denotes truth (as may be seen from the citations above; and that “food” or “meat” denotes spiritual nourishment, n. 3114, 4459, 4792, 5147, 5293, 5340, 5342, 5576, 5579, 5915, 8562, 9003; that “a girdle” denotes a bond which gathers up and holds together interior things, n. 9341; that “leather” denotes what is external, n. 3540; and thus “a leathern girdle” denotes an external bond; that “hairs” denote ultimate or most general truths, n. 3301, 5569-5573; that “a camel” denotes memory-knowledge in general, n. 3048, 3071, 3143, 3145, 4156; that “a locust” denotes nourishing truth in the extremes, n. 7643; and that “honey” denotes the pleasantness thereof, n. 5620, 6857, 8056). It is called “wild honey,” or “honey of the field,” because by “a field” is signified the church (n. 2971, 3317, 3766, 7502, 7571, 9139, 9295). He who does not know that such things are signified, cannot possibly know why Elijah and John were so clothed. And yet that these things signified something peculiar to these prophets, can be thought by everyone who thinks well about the Word.

[10] Because John the Baptist represented the Lord as to the Word, therefore also when he spoke of the Lord, who was the Word itself, he said of himself that he was “not Elias, nor the prophet,” and that he was “not worthy to loose the latchet of the Lord’s shoe,” as in John:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. The Jews from Jerusalem, priests and Levites, asked John who he was. And he confessed, and denied not, I am not the Christ. Therefore they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? But he said, I am not. Art thou the prophet? He answered, No. They said therefore unto him, Who art thou? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said Isaiah the prophet. They said therefore, Why then baptizest thou, if thou art not the Christ, nor Elias, nor the prophet? He answered, I baptize with water; in the midst of you standeth one whom ye know not; He it is who is to come after me, who was before me, the latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to unloose. When he saw Jesus, he said, Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world! This is He of whom I said, After me cometh a man who was before me; for he was before me (John 1:1, 14, 19-30).

From these words it is plain that when John spoke about the Lord Himself, who was Truth Divine itself, or the Word, he said that he himself was not anything, because the shadow disappears when the light itself appears, that is, the representative disappears when the original itself makes its appearance. (That the representatives had in view holy things, and the Lord Himself, and not at all the person that represented, see n. 665, 1097, 1361, 3147, 3881, 4208, 4281, 4288, 4292, 4307, 4444, 4500, 6304, 7048, 7439, 8588, 8788, 8806.) One who does not know that representatives vanish like shadows at the presence of light, cannot know why John denied that he was Elias and the prophet.

[11] From all this it can now be seen what is signified by Moses and Elias, who were seen in glory, and who spoke with the Lord when transfigured, of His departure which He should accomplish at Jerusalem (Luke 9:29-31); namely, that they signified the Word (“Moses” the historic Word, and “Elias” the prophetic Word), which in the internal sense throughout treats of the Lord, of His coming into the world, and of His departure out of the world; and therefore it is said that “Moses and Elias were seen in glory,” for “glory” denotes the internal sense of the Word, and the “cloud” its external sense (see the preface to Genesis 18, and n. 5922, 8427).

9188. 'A sorceress' means those with whom something of the Church has been joined to falsities arising from the evil of self-love. This is clear from the meaning of 'sorceries' as falsities arising from the evil of self-love which have been joined to such things as belong to the Church. There are two things that compose heaven and so compose spiritual life with a person - the truth of faith in the Lord and the good of love to Him. And there are two things that compose hell and so compose spiritual death with a person - the falsity of faith and the evil of self-love. The second two have been joined together with those in hell and constitute the hellish marriage, whereas the first two are joined together with those in heaven and constitute the heavenly marriage. So far as possible the Lord withholds a person from joining truth and good to falsity and evil, since such a joining together is profanation. Even so, a large number of those who belong to the Church cannot be withheld, the reason for this being that from the time they were young children they have absorbed from the Word and from teachings drawn from the Word such things as belong to the Church. Some of these people have embraced them and made them matters of their own faith; and then having reached adult life when they start to think for themselves and not rely on others as they had done previously, they have set no value on those things which have become matters of their faith and instead of them have seized on and also embraced falsities. These are the ones who have within themselves joined truths to falsities; for once truths have become matters of faith they remain and cannot be rooted out, and after that falsities which become matters of faith join themselves to those truths.

[2] This joining together is what is meant in the internal sense by 'sorceries'. The reason why those falsities are falsities arising from the evil of self-love is that all evil wells up chiefly from that love; and when evil wells up, so too does falsity since they cling to each other. From this it is evident that no spiritual life exists with such people because it has been destroyed by falsities arising from evil. To the extent that they have joined those falsities to truths these people have wiped out the spiritual life they have within themselves. And since they have thus become dead instead of living it says 'you shall not keep them alive'.

[3] The fact that this kind of joining together is meant in the Word by 'sorceries' is evident in Isaiah,

You said, ¹ A widow I shall not sit, nor shall I know loss of children. But these two things will come to you in a moment in one day - loss of children and widowhood - on account of the multitude of your sorceries, on account of the extremely great abundance of your magic. You have trusted in your wickedness; you have said, No one sees me. Your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray, when you said in your heart, I am, and there is no one else like me. Therefore evil will come upon you, which you will not know how to ward off, and calamity will befall you, which you will not be able to expiate. Devastation will come upon you suddenly, [which] you will not know. Persist now in your magic, and in the multitude of your sorceries, in which you have laboured from your youth. You are wearied with the multitude of your counsels. Let those who search the sky, those who gaze at the stars, and those who know about new moons now stand up and save you from those things that will come upon you. Behold, they have become as stubble, the fire has burned them; they do not save themselves from the power of the flame. ² Isaiah 47:8-14.

[4] 'Sorcerers' are people who join falsities arising from the evil of self-love to the truths of faith, and in so doing perish. This is evident from the details of these verses when seen in the internal sense; for such people are described there. The annihilation of their spiritual life is described by 'widowhood and loss of children', 'widowhood' being the deprivation of truth and of the good resulting from it, and 'loss of children' being the deprivation of truth and good. The origin of falsity - that it arises from the evil of self-love - is described by the following words, 'Your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray, when you said in your heart, I am, and there is no one else like me'. And the evil itself of self-love is described by 'Behold, they have become as stubble, the fire has burned them; they do not save themselves from the power of the flame', 'the fire' and 'the flame' being self-love. The fact that spiritual life has been completely annihilated is described by 'Evil will come upon you, which you will not be able to ward off, and calamity will befall you, which you will not be able to expiate'. They are called 'those who search the sky, those who gaze at the stars, and those who know about new moons' because they are interested in external things and not in anything internal. Such people see things from the external man's point of view and nothing from the internal man's; thus they see things in inferior, natural light and nothing in superior, spiritual light. For 'the sky', 'the stars', and 'new moons' in the internal sense mean religious and factual knowledge, in this instance when seen from a worldly and not a heavenly point of view.

[5] The fact that 'sorceries' means this kind of falsities is also evident in Micah,

I will cut off the cities of your land and pull down all your fortifications; I will cut off sorceries from your hand, and you will have no soothsayers. Micah 5:11-12.

'The cities of your land' are the false teachings of their Church, which are called 'sorceries' because they destroy the truths of faith. In Nahum,

... because of the multitude of the acts of whoredom of a harlot with goodly grace, ³ the mistress of sorceries, the seller of nations in her acts of whoredom, and of families in her sorceries. Nahum 3:4.

'The acts of whoredom' are perversions of truth, 'sorceries' falsities resulting from them. Similarly in the second Book of Kings,

Jehoram said to Jehu, Is all well, ⁴ Jehu? And he said, All well? ⁵ when the harlotries of Jezebel your mother, and her many sorceries are still with us! 2 Kings 9:22.

[6] People are sorcerers when they rely on their own ideas to teach them, and when they trust themselves alone to such an extent that they love themselves and wish to be worshipped as deities. This is also evident from places which openly refer to the Coming of the Lord, who will teach them and cast out sorcerers. For anyone who is going to learn about the truths and forms of the good of faith must rely on the Lord to teach him and not at all on his own ideas. This is why the following is stated in Malachi,

Behold, I am sending My angel, who will prepare the way before me. And suddenly there will come to His temple the Lord whom you seek, and the angel of the covenant in whom you delight. And I will draw near to you to judgement; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against adulterers, and against those who swear falsely. Malachi 3:1, 4, 5.

'The sorcerers' stands for those who rely on their own ideas to teach them and in so doing destroy truths received from the Lord. 'Adulterers' stands for those who destroy forms of good, and 'those who swear falsely' for those who corroborate falsities. The fact that the Lord is the one who will cast them out is self-evident, for it says that 'there will come to His temple the Lord, and the angel of the covenant'.

[7] Also in Moses,

When you come to the land which Jehovah [your] God will give you, there shall not be found among you anyone who makes [his] son or his daughter pass through the fire, practises divination, or enquires of the hells, or is a foreteller of the future, or is a sorcerer, or is an enchanter, or enquires of a familiar spirit, or is a soothsayer, or is one who seeks the dead. For everyone doing these things is an abomination to Jehovah; and because of these abominations Jehovah your God is driving them out before you. Jehovah your God will raise up for you from the midst of you, from your brothers, a Prophet like me; Him you shall obey. Jehovah said in Horeb, I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from the midst of their brothers; and I will put My words in His mouth, that He may speak to them all that I command Him. Therefore it will happen, that a man who does not obey My words which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him. Deuteronomy 18:9-19.

[8] 'Practisers of divination', 'foretellers of the future', 'sorcerers', and all the others mentioned here, mean in the internal sense those who destroy the Church's truths and forms of good by a wrong use of factual knowledge (that is, who do so by relying on their own intelligence) and who destroy them by falsities arising from the evils of self-love and love of the world (that is, who are moved to learn and teach by a desire for gain and important positions, not by any affection for the truth of faith or for goodness of life). And since all falsities contained in religious teachings and all evils of life are the outcome of this, these verses speak of a Prophet who is going to come and teach them. The Church knows that this Prophet is the Lord, and Jews and gentiles at that time knew it too, as is evident in Matthew 21:11; Luke 1:76; 7:16; 13:33; Mark 6:4. People are taught by the Lord when they read the Word not for any selfish or worldly reason but for goodness and truth's own sake; for they are enlightened then. But when they read it for a selfish or worldly reason they are blind. 'A prophet' means one who teaches, and in the abstract sense withdrawn from ideas of persons means doctrinal teachings, 2534, 7269, thus the Lord in respect of the Word or Divine Truth.

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