1010. Shedding the blood of a person in a person means obliterating charity, and in a person means as it exists with us, which the following shows: Blood (discussed earlier [§§1001, 1003, 1005]) symbolizes the holiness of charity. And it says, "the blood of a person in a person," meaning our inner life, which is not in us but exists with us. The Lord's life is charity, which is not in people (since people are unclean and profane) but exists with them.

The fact that shedding blood is inflicting violence on charity can be seen from various passages in the Word, and from those quoted above in §§374 and 376, showing that the violence inflicted on charity is called blood.

[2] The literal meaning of bloodshed is murder, but the inner meaning is hatred for our neighbor, as the Lord teaches in Matthew:

You have heard that among the people of old it was said, "You shall not kill; whoever kills will be subject to judgment." I say to you, though, that any who are angry at their brother or sister without cause will be subject to judgment. (Matthew 5:21-22)

In this passage, being angry symbolizes a departure from neighborly love; see the discussion above at §357. Consequently it means hatred. Anyone who feels hatred not only lacks charity but also inflicts violence on it, or in other words, sheds blood. Hatred carries murder itself within it, as is clear from this, that those who hate another cherish no greater wish than to kill that person and if external restraints did not interfere would commit the murder. So the murder of a fellow human and the shedding of that person's blood is hatred; and since this is what hatred is, it lurks in every thought we nurture against that person.

The same is true with profanation. Anyone who profanes the Word not only hates truth but also blots it out, or kills it, as I said [§1008]. This can be seen clearly in the next life from those who had committed profanation. No matter how upright, wise, and devout they had appeared outwardly while living in their bodies, in the other world they nurse a deadly hatred for the Lord and for any kind of loving goodness or religious truth. After all, these things combat their deep-seated hatred, their thievery, and their adulteries, which they had veiled in sanctimony and misrepresented to their own advantage.

[3] In addition to the passages quoted earlier, in §374, the following passage from Moses shows that profanation is equated with blood:

Anyone from the house of Israel who slaughters an ox or lamb or goat in the camp or who slaughters one outside the camp and does not bring it to the doorway of the meeting tent to offer it as an offering to Jehovah in front of Jehovah's dwelling place, blood [guilt] will be imputed to that man; ¹ he has shed blood. And that man will be cut off from the midst of his people. (Leviticus 17:3-4)

Consecrating something anywhere but on the altar next to the tent represented profanation. Sacrifice was a holy act, but if performed inside or outside the camp, it was profane. ²

Footnotes:

374. The symbolism of the voice of blood as violence inflicted on charity can be seen from many places in the Word, where a voice is taken to mean everything that accuses and blood to mean every kind of sin, especially hatred. Those who hate their sister or brother kill her or him in their hearts, as the Lord teaches:

You have heard that among the people of old it was said, "You shall not kill; but whoever kills will be subject to judgment." I say to you, though, that any who are angry at their sister or brother without cause will be subject to judgment. Once again, any who say "Raca!" ¹ to their sister or brother will be subject to the Sanhedrin. ² But any who say, "Stupid!" will be subject to fiery Gehenna. ³ (Matthew 5:21-22)

These words refer to different degrees of hatred. Hatred opposes charity, and if it does not kill with its hand, it still does so in its mind or heart, in every way it can. External deterrents alone prevent it from killing with its hand. So every form of hatred is blood, as in Jeremiah:

Why do you amend your ways so as to seek love? Yes, on your hems ⁴ is found the blood of innocent paupers' souls. (Jeremiah 2:33-34)

[2] Since hatred is blood, so is all wickedness, because the source of all wickedness is hatred, as in Hosea:

False swearing and lying and killing and stealing and the committing of adultery; they rob, and blood has followed on blood. Therefore the earth will mourn and everyone living in it will waste away. (Hosea 4:2-3)

In Ezekiel:

Will you judge the blood-soaked city and let it know all its abominations? The city is shedding blood in its midst. By your blood that you shed you have become guilty. (Ezekiel 22:2-3, 4, 6, 9)

This is about lack of mercy. In the same author:

The earth is full of judgment on [crimes of] blood, and the city is full of violence. (Ezekiel 7:23)

In Jeremiah:

On account of the sins of Jerusalem's prophets, the transgressions of its priests, who shed the blood of the just in its midst, [those same prophets and priests] wander blind in the streets; they are defiled with blood. (Lamentations 4:13-14)

In Isaiah:

... when the Lord washes away the dirt of Zion's daughters, and has cleansed the blood of Jerusalem from its midst, with a spirit of judgment and a spirit of burning. (Isaiah 4:4)

In the same author:

Your palms have been defiled with blood, and your fingers with wickedness. (Isaiah 59:3)

In Ezekiel:

I passed right by you and saw you trampled in your blood, and I told you, "Live in your blood!" And I told you, "Live in your blood!" (Ezekiel 16:6, 22)

This is about Jerusalem's abominations, which are referred to as blood.

[3] The ruthlessness and hatred of the final days are also pictured as blood in Revelation 16:3-4.

Blood is used in the plural here [in the original language] because everything wicked and abhorrent wells up out of hatred, just as everything good and holy wells up out of love. Those who hate their neighbor would kill him or her if possible, in every way they are capable of, which is to inflict violence on their neighbor; and violence is what the voice of bloods properly symbolizes here.

Footnotes: