10492. 'And there fell of the people on that day up to three thousand men' means a complete shutting off of what is internal. This is clear from the meaning of 'falling' or being killed as being shut off, dealt with above in 10490; and from the meaning of 'three thousand' as that which is complete. For 'three' means what is full and complete, see 2788, 4495, 7715, 8347, 9198, 9488, 9489, and 'three thousand' likewise, because every large number has a similar meaning to the smaller ones of which it is the product when they are multiplied together, 5291, 5335, 5708, 7973. All numbers in the Word mean spiritual realities or real things, see in the places referred to in 9488, and in 10127, 10217, 10253.
[2] Since then the subject here has been the shutting off of what was internal among the Israelite and Jewish nation, let something further be stated here regarding the shutting off of what is internal. Evils and falsities are what shut off the internal man, or what amounts to the same thing, worldly, earthly, and bodily kinds of love do so when they are predominant; for they are the source of all evils and falsities. The reason why what is internal is shut off by them is that those kinds of love are the opposites of heavenly kinds; or what amounts to the same thing, evils and falsities are the opposites of forms of good and truths. Therefore when opposites act against each other that which has been injured holds itself in, just as a fibre does when it is pricked, or as any other part of the human body does from pain. It is well known that injury or a depressed state of mind can put creases on a person's face, cramp the abdomen, and restrict the lungs and their breathing. So it is also with the internal man when evils and falsities enter thought and will. There is a feeling of detestation then, and a consequent holding in, which also reveal themselves in the face and in the body.
[3] This is the general reason why the internal is closed. But the specific reason is to prevent forms of good and truths from passing from heaven by way of the internal man into the external, and from their being defiled and rendered profane there. To prevent this from happening with the Israelite nation among whom the Word and the holy things of the Church existed, their internal was completely shut off. Its being completely shut off is plainly evident from the fact that although they now live among Christians, and although prophecies plainly refer to the Lord, they still do not at all acknowledge Him. Indeed they are such that they are not even able to entertain any thought that strengthens [belief in the Lord]. There is inward repudiation and revulsion, because their internal has been closed.
[4] In addition it should be recognized that in the Christian world as well the internal is closed in the case of those who know the truths of faith from the Word and do not lead a life in keeping with them. An actual life in keeping with them opens the internal man; without it those truths reside merely in the external man's memory. With those however who repudiate these truths the internal is completely closed. And astonishing though it may seem to be, the internal is closed more in the case of intelligent than in that of simple people. The reason for this is that the intelligent are ruled by desires for high position and monetary gain, and consequently by self-love and love of the world, more than the simple are. They also have a greater ability to justify evils and falsities resulting from those loves by the use of factual knowledge, which the intelligent possess more abundantly than the simple do. Added to this, the majority of them think of the soul on the basis of some hypothesis in the learned world, from which they gain no other idea than that of a breath of air or a puff of wind which perhaps contains some spark of life. The thought of simple but good people on the other hand is not based on such an idea, only on the idea that the soul is the person living after death. So it is that the internal of these simple people is open, whereas that of those intelligent ones is closed. Whether you speak of the internal being opened or closed, or you speak of heaven being so, it amounts to the same thing.
