Apocalypse Revealed #351
351. Of the tribe of Reuben twelve thousand were sealed. This symbolizes wisdom springing from celestial love in those people who will be in the New Heaven and in the Lord's New Church.
In the highest sense Reuben symbolizes omniscience; in the spiritual sense, wisdom, intelligence and knowledge, also faith; and in the natural sense, sight. Here, however, Reuben symbolizes wisdom, because he comes after Judah, who symbolizes celestial love, and celestial love produces wisdom. For there is no love without its partner, which is knowledge, intelligence, or wisdom. The partner of natural love is knowledge; that of spiritual love is intelligence; and that of celestial love is wisdom.
[2] Reuben symbolizes these three because his name was derived from a word meaning to look or see, and natural sight spiritually is knowledge, spiritual sight is intelligence, and celestial sight is wisdom.
Reuben was also Jacob's firstborn, and therefore Israel called him "my might, the beginning of my strength, excellent in eminence and excellent in valor" (Genesis 49:3). Of such a character also is wisdom springing from celestial love.
Moreover, because by virtue of his primogeniture Reuben represented and so symbolized the wisdom possessed by people of the church, therefore he urged his brothers not to kill Joseph, and he grieved when he found Joseph not in the pit (Genesis 37:21-22, 29-30).
For the same reason his tribe camped on the south side of the Tabernacle, and the tribes camped on that side were called the Camp of Reuben (Numbers 2:10-16). The south, too, symbolizes wisdom springing from love. Consequently people in heaven who have that wisdom dwell toward the south (see the book Heaven and Hell, 148-150nos. ).
This wisdom is symbolized by Reuben in the prophetic utterance of Deborah and Barak:
Among the divisions of Reuben were great resolves of heart... Why do you sit among the packs, (Issachar,) to hear the rustling of the flocks? To listen to the divisions of Reuben (where there are) great searchings of heart? (Judges 5:15-16)
The divisions of Reuben are concepts of every kind, which have to do with wisdom.
[3] Because the tribes all symbolize their opposites as well, so too does the tribe of Reuben; and in an opposite sense he symbolizes wisdom divorced from love, and thus also faith divorced from charity. Therefore his father Israel cursed him (Genesis 49:3-4). And therefore he was deprived of his primogeniture (1 Chronicles 5:1; see no. 17 above). For the same reason, too, the tribe was given an inheritance in the Trans-Jordan and not in the land of Canaan. And Ephraim and Manasseh, Joseph's sons, were acknowledged in the place of Reuben and Simeon (Genesis 48:5).
Nevertheless, he still retained the representation and consequent symbolism of wisdom.
Nahum 1
1
An oracle about Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.
2
Yahweh is a jealous God and avenges. Yahweh avenges and is full of wrath. Yahweh takes vengeance on his adversaries, and he maintains wrath against his enemies.
3
Yahweh is slow to anger, and great in power, and will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. Yahweh has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
4
He rebukes the sea, and makes it dry, and dries up all the rivers. Bashan languishes, and Carmel; and the flower of Lebanon languishes.
5
The mountains quake before him, and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, yes, the world, and all who dwell in it.
6
Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the fierceness of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken apart by him.
7
Yahweh is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and he knows those who take refuge in him.
8
But with an overflowing flood, he will make a full end of her place, and will pursue his enemies into darkness.
9
What do you plot against Yahweh? He will make a full end. Affliction won't rise up the second time.
10
For entangled like thorns, and drunken as with their drink, they are consumed utterly like dry stubble.
11
There is one gone forth out of you, who devises evil against Yahweh, who counsels wickedness.
12
Thus says Yahweh: "Though they be in full strength, and likewise many, even so they will be cut down, and he shall pass away. Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more.
13
Now will I break his yoke from off you, and will burst your bonds apart."
14
Yahweh has commanded concerning you: "No more descendants will bear your name. Out of the house of your gods, will I cut off the engraved image and the molten image. I will make your grave, for you are vile."
15
Behold, on the mountains the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace! Keep your feasts, Judah! Perform your vows, for the wicked one will no more pass through you. He is utterly cut off.
