1678. The meaning of they turned back and came into En-mishpat (that is, Kadesh) as a continuation can be seen from what precedes and from what follows. The current theme is falsity and the evil in which it results. The Amalekite symbolizes falsity and the Amorite in Hazazon-tamar symbolizes the resulting evil.
Kadesh symbolizes truth, but also disputes about truth. The theme here is falsity and the evil it results in, which the Lord overcame the first time he contended against it, so the present verse mentions En-mishpat (that is, Kadesh), since there was strife over the truth.
[2] The symbolism of Kadesh as truth under dispute is visible in Ezekiel, where the borders of the [visionary] holy land are defined:
The southern side toward the south will be from Tamar all the way to the waters of Meriboth- [quarrels of] kadesh, 1 the inheritance at the Great Sea, and [this will be] the southern side toward the south. (Ezekiel 47:19; 48:28)
The south stands for the light of truth. The boundary of the place, which means quarreling over truth, is called Kadesh.
[3] Kadesh was also the place where Moses struck the rock from which water gushed, and the water was called Meribah from [a word meaning] quarrels (Numbers 20:1-2, 11, 13). A rock symbolizes the Lord, as is known. 2 Water, on the Word's inner plane, symbolizes what is spiritual, or truth. It is called the water of Meribah because of the strife over it. The fact that it was also called "the water of quarreling in Kadesh" is clear in Moses:
You rebelled against what I said in the wilderness of Zin, in the quarreling of the congregation: that you should consecrate me with the water in view of them. This was the water of quarreling in Kadesh in the Wilderness of Zin. (Numbers 27:14; Deuteronomy 32:51)
Likewise Kadesh was where the scouts returned to from the land of Canaan and where [the people] murmured and bickered, not wanting to enter the land (Numbers 13:26).
[4] This evidence shows that En-mishpat (that is, Fountain of Judgment), or the Fountain of Mishpat (or Kadesh), symbolizes disputes over truth and so means a continuation.
Since the history here is real history and happened as described, it may seem as though such things could not be represented or symbolized by the places Chedorlaomer came to or by the nations he struck. But all the history in the Word — the places, the nations, the events — represents and symbolizes something, as is obvious from all the details in both the narrative and prophetic parts of the Word.
Footnotes:
1. This bracketed gloss is Swedenborg's. The name of the place is Meriboth-kadesh, and "Meriboth" (מְרִיבוֹת [mǝrîḇôṯ]) means "quarrels of" in Hebrew. Schmidt 1696 offers the same gloss in his translation. "Meriboth" is a plural form; the singular is "Meribah" (מְרִיבָה [mǝrîḇā]), mentioned just below. [LHC]
2. Scripture very often refers to God as a rock, directly or obliquely; see, for instance, Deuteronomy 32:4, 15, 18, 30-31; 2 Samuel 22:2-3, 32; 23:3; Psalms 18:2, 31; 31:2-3; 62:2, 6-7; Isaiah 17:10; 26:4; 30:29; 44:8; 1 Corinthians 10:4; 1 Peter 2:4-8. [LHC]
