127. Internal Meaning of Ezekiel, Chapter 4

Representation of the perverted church in the church. (2)

1-2 He should represent the falsities of the church, and the church besieged by them. (2)

3 He should represent the hardness of their heart, from which it is that they have no fear; (2)

4-8 he should also represent the church besieged by falsities of evil and evils of falsity. (2)

9-16 He should represent the falsification and adulteration of the sense of the letter of the Word, (2)

17 by which everything of the church has perished. (2, 3)

'Waters' particularly signify the spiritual parts of a person, or the intellectual aspects of faith, and also their opposites.

'The waters above the firmament,' as in Genesis 1:7, signify the knowledges in the internal self, and 'the waters beneath the firmament' signify the knowledges of the external self.

'Waters,' as in Ezekiel 47:9, refer to the New Jerusalem, and they signify spiritual things from a celestial origin.

'Many waters,' as in Revelation 17:1, signify truths of the Word adulterated. 'Waters' or 'rivers' signify spiritual, rational, or scientific things pertaining to truth.

'Waters … that go softly,' as in Isaiah 8:6-7, signify spiritual things, and 'waters … strong and many,' signify falsities.

'Waters,' as in Psalms 104:3, signify divine truths.

'Waters' signify truths in the natural self, and in the opposite sense, falsities.

'The waters were dried up from off the earth,' as in Genesis 8:7, signifies the apparent dissipation of falsities.

(References: Apocalypse Explained 17; Apocalypse Revealed 50; Ezekiel 9, 47; Genesis 1, Genesis 7, 8; Isaiah 6, 8; Psalms 3, 104)