427. Genesis 4:23. And Lamech said to his wives, Adah and Zillah, "Listen to my voice, wives of Lamech, and with your ears perceive what I say, because I killed a man for my wound and a little child for my bruise."

Lamech as before [§§405, 406] symbolizes devastation. He said to his wives, Adah and Zillah, that they should perceive with their ears what he said, is an admission of guilt, which is made only where the church exists, the church being symbolized by his wives, as mentioned [§409]. He killed a man for his wound means that he destroyed faith, a man symbolizing faith, as before [§§340, 367:1]. Killing a little child for his bruise is destroying charity. The wound and the bruise mean that nothing was sound any longer, the wound meaning that faith had been abandoned and the bruise meaning that charity had been wiped out.

409. The situation was similar for the heresy named Cain, which over time suffered devastation. It is true that this heresy acknowledged love, but it put faith in first place, ahead of love. The further heresies that it bred gradually deviated from this, and Lamech, the sixth in line, absolutely denied faith. When this era arrived, a new light or dawn emerged and grew into a new church, here called Adah and Zillah, who are described as Lamech's wives.

They are called the wives of Lamech (who was devoid of faith) just as the inner church and outer church of the Jews (who were also devoid of faith) are called wives in the Word. This was represented in Leah and Rachel, the two wives of Jacob; Leah stood for the outer church and Rachel for the inner. Although this pair of churches appears to be two churches, they are one church, because the external, representative church without the internal church is simply something idolatrous or dead. The internal together with the external, on the other hand, formed one and the same church, as Adah and Zillah do here.

Since "Jacob" or in other words his descendants were, like Lamech, lacking in faith, the church could not remain among them but was transferred to non-Jewish nations, who lived in ignorance rather than faithlessness. Rarely if ever does the church survive among possessors of the truth while they are undergoing devastation. Instead it is transferred to those who know absolutely nothing of the truth, because they embrace faith much more easily.