1306. The fact that a tower is self-worship can be seen from the symbolism of a tower. Self-worship exists when we set ourselves up above others, so much so that we seek to be worshiped. As a result, self-love — which is conceit and pride — is called height, loftiness, and elevation, and it is depicted by anything that is high up, as in Isaiah:
The eyes of human pride will lower, and the loftiness of men will sink, and Jehovah alone will be exalted on that day. For the day of Jehovah Sabaoth will come over all the proud and lofty and over all the haughty (and they will be brought down) and over all the cedars of Lebanon, tall and lifted up, and over all the oaks of Bashan, and over all the lofty mountains, and over all the tall hills, and over every high tower, and over every fortified wall. (Isaiah 2:11-18)
The theme here is self-love, which is portrayed by cedars, oaks, mountains, hills, and a tower, which are tall and lofty.
[2] In the same author:
There will be brooks, channels of water, on the day of great slaughter, when towers fall. (Isaiah 30:25)
Again it stands for self-love and for mixing conceit with worship. In the same author:
Look: the land of the Chaldeans! This people was not. 1 Assyria founded [the land] among tsiyim. 2 They will erect their spy towers; [the Chaldeans] will raise up their palaces; [Assyria] will make it a ruin. (Isaiah 23:13)
This is about Tyre and its destruction. The spy towers — for which a different [Hebrew] word is being used 3 — stand for the illusions that come from there. In Ezekiel:
I will bring many nations up against Tyre, and they will destroy Tyre's walls and demolish its towers, and I will remove its dirt from it and make it as dry as a rock. (Ezekiel 26:3-4)
The meaning is similar.
[3] The reason self-love within worship (that is, self-worship) is called a tower is that a city symbolizes doctrine, as shown earlier (§402), and towers patrolled by guards once formed the defenses of a city. Towers also dotted the borders and were accordingly called watchtowers (2 Kings 9:17; 17:9; 18:8) and spy towers (Isaiah 23:13). In addition, when the Lord's church is compared to a vineyard, different facets of worship and of its preservation are compared to a winepress and to a tower in the vineyard, as can be seen in Isaiah 5:1-2; Matthew 21:33; Mark 12:1.
Footnotes:
1. "Was not" is a Hebraism (לֹא הָיָה [lō hāyā]) suggesting that the people disappeared. At §1368:1, Swedenborg interprets the phrase as meaning that the people were not a people. [LHC]
2. Tsiyim is a transliteration of a plural Hebrew word (צִיִּים [ṣîyyîm]) whose meaning is uncertain. Although scholars today take them to be some kind of animal, Swedenborg took them to be some kind of bird (Marriage Love 430). Here as often elsewhere Swedenborg transliterates the word rather than translating it. [LHC]
3. Swedenborg is making a distinction between two terms for tower because they are different in Hebrew. To preserve this distinction, one (מִגְדָּל [miḡdāl]) is here translated "tower" (turris in Latin) and the other (בַּחוּנֵי [baḥûnê]) is translated "spy tower" (turris speculatoria in Latin). [LHC]
