950. There was a troop of spirits surging out on one side of Gehenna, ¹ rising high up in front. From their aura ² I could tell that they held the Lord ³ in contempt and despised all worship of God. (At the first approach of spirits, one can sense their character just from their aura.) Their speech rose and fell. One of them made scandalous charges against the Lord and was immediately tossed down to one side of Gehenna.

From in front they moved back over my head, intent on finding kindred souls they could band together with in order to dominate others. They were slowed down along the way, though, and told that they should give up their plan because it would turn out badly for them. So they came to a halt. I then had a look at them. Their faces were black, ⁴ and around their heads each wore a white headband, meaning that they saw the worship of God — and the Lord's Word ⁵ too — as something black, useful only for binding the fetters of conscience on the great mass of people. ⁶

Their residence is near Gehenna, and nonpoisonous flying snakes live there, which is why it is called a snakes' nest. ⁷ But since they are not charlatans, their hell is not very oppressive.

People like this ascribe everything to themselves and their own shrewdness and boast that they fear nothing, but they were shown that a mere hiss can drive them to terrified flight. Hearing one once, they assumed in their fright that all hell was rising up to carry them off, and from being heroes they suddenly became like women. ⁸

Footnotes:

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.

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