940. This hell is where most of the Jews who had been appallingly greedy go. ¹ When they come near other spirits, the stench of rats announces their presence.

Speaking of Jews, let me tell how wretched their condition is after death — at least the condition of those who had been rapacious and despised others in comparison with themselves (from the inborn arrogance of their belief that they alone were the chosen people). Let me also say something about their cities and about some outlaws in the wilderness.

During bodily life they had dreamed up and proved to their own satisfaction the idea that they were destined to arrive in Jerusalem — in the Holy Land there — and possess it, unwilling to see that the New Jerusalem means the Lord's kingdom in the heavens and on the earth. When they reach the next life, their delusion causes them to see a city that is to the left of Gehenna ² and a little out in front of it, which they enter in a mob. The city is full of putrid-smelling mud, though, and for this reason is called the foul Jerusalem. There they run around through the streets, ankle deep in muck and mud, complaining and howling.

(With their eyes they see cities, and streets too. Such things are represented to them as in clear daylight. I myself have seen cities several times.)

[2] I observed one rather shadowy spirit coming from this foul Jerusalem. A kind of gate opened. There were some wandering stars around him, especially on his left. (Wandering stars around a spirit symbolize falsity in the world of spirits; the case is different with stars that do not wander.) He came up and attached himself from above to my left ear, which he seemed to touch with his mouth in order to speak with me. He did not talk in a clearly audible voice, as others do, but inwardly, to himself, though still in such a way that I could hear and understand it.

He said that he was a Jewish rabbi and that he had lived in that muddy city for a long time. "The streets you have to go on there," he said, "are nothing but muck and mud. And there's nothing to eat but mud."

"Since you're a spirit, why should you want to eat?" I asked.

"I do eat," he said, "and when I want to eat, no one offers me anything but mud. So I complain bitterly.

"What's to be done, then?" he went on to ask. "I can't find Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob."

I told him a few things about the patriarchs. "There's no point in looking for them," I added. "If you do find them, they won't be able to help you at all." And I said some other, rather hard-to-grasp things. "You should not be looking for anyone but the Lord alone," I went on. "He's the Messiah, whom the Jews despised during their lives. He rules the whole of heaven and all the earth without anyone else's help."

"Where is he?" the rabbi anxiously asked me several times.

"You find him everywhere," I said, "and he hears and knows everyone." But then some other Jewish spirits dragged him away.

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: