414. So that a third of the day did not shine, and likewise the night. This symbolically means that they no longer have in them any spiritual truth or natural truth from the Word serviceable for doctrine and life.

The day's not shining means that they had no light from the sun, and "likewise the night" means that they had no light from the moon and stars. Light in general symbolizes Divine truth, which is truth from the Word. The light of the sun symbolizes spiritual Divine truth, and the light of the moon and stars symbolizes natural Divine truth, both acquired from the Word. Divine truth in the spiritual sense of the Word is like the light of the sun during the day, and Divine truth in the natural sense of the Word is like the light of the moon and stars at night. The spiritual sense of the Word, moreover, flows into its natural sense, as the sun does with its light to the moon, and this reflects the light of the sun indirectly.

In this way also does the spiritual sense of the Word enlighten people, even people who know nothing of that sense, when they read the Word in its natural sense. However, it enlightens a spiritual person as light from the sun does his eye, but a natural person as light from the moon and stars does his eye. Everyone is enlightened in accordance with his spiritual affection for truth and goodness, and at the same time in accordance with the genuine truths by which he has opened his rational faculty.

[2] Day and night also have this meaning in the following places:

God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night...." Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule by day, and the lesser light to rule by night. He made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to rule by day and by night, and to divide the light from the darkness. (Genesis 1:14-19)

(Jehovah) made great lights..., the sun to rule by day..., the moon and stars to rule by night... (Psalms 136:7-9)

The day is Yours, (O Jehovah,) the night also is Yours; You have prepared the light and the sun. (Psalms 74:16)

...Jehovah... gives the sun for a light by day, the ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night... (Jeremiah 31:35)

If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that there will not be day and night in their season, then My covenant also may be broken with David My servant... If I have not appointed My covenant with day and night, the ordinances of heaven and earth, I also will reject the offspring of Jacob and David... (Jeremiah 33:20-21, 25-26)

I cite these passages to make known that the darkening of both kinds of light is meant.

8106. 'During the daytime in a pillar of cloud' means that when there was a state of enlightenment, this was moderated by a dimming of truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'during the daytime' or 'in the day' as in a state of enlightenment, for the times of day - morning, midday, evening, and night - correspond to degrees of enlightenment in the next life, that is, of intelligence and wisdom, 5672, 5962, 6110, so that 'the day' is a state of enlightenment or clear perception, and 'the night' a state of unenlightenment or dimmed perception, 7680; and from the meaning of 'cloud' as a dimming of truth, since a cloud takes away the brilliance of the light from the sun and also moderates it.

[2] Various places in the Word say that Jehovah appeared in a cloud, that He was clothed with a cloud, or that 'clouds were under His feet'. In those places 'cloud' is used to mean a dimming of truth; in particular the literal sense of the Word is meant, for in comparison with the internal sense the literal sense is a dimmed presentation of truth, see the Preface to Genesis 18, and also 4391, 5922, 6343, 6752. This was meant by 'the cloud' when the Lord appeared in glory to Peter, James, and John, Luke 9:34; when He appeared to the people from Mount Sinai, and to Moses when he went in to Him there, Exodus 19:9; 20:21; 24:15-18; 34:5. The same was also meant by what the Lord declared so many times, that He would come in the clouds of heaven, Matthew 24:30; 26:63-64; Mark 13:26; 14:61-62; Luke 21:27.

[3] The literal sense of the Word is called 'a cloud' because the internal sense, which is called 'the glory', cannot be understood by anyone unless he has been regenerated and therefore enlightened. If the internal sense of the Word, or God's truth in its glory, were to appear in front of someone who has not been regenerated it would be like thick darkness in which he would see absolutely nothing, and also would leave him blind, that is, with no belief at all.

From all this one may see what the description 'a cloud during the daytime' means, namely a dimming of truth and, when it has reference to the Word, the literal sense.

[4] The expressions 'in a pillar of cloud' and 'in a pillar of fire' are used because 'a pillar' means a load-bearing support, as in Jeremiah 1:18; Psalms 75:3; Revelation 3:12; Job 9:6; and it is used to refer to the natural level, since the natural level is a kind of support or pedestal for the spiritual level. For the spiritual level terminates at the natural level and rests on it. This explains why the feet of an angel coming down from heaven looked like pillars of fire, Revelation 10:1; for the natural level is meant by 'feet', 2162, 3147, 3761, 3986, 4280, 4938-4952, 5327, 5328.