4779. And put sackcloth upon his loins. That this signifies mourning for destroyed good, is evident from the signification of “putting sackcloth upon the loins,” as being a representative of mourning for destroyed good. For the “loins” signify conjugial love, and hence all celestial and spiritual love (n. 3021, 3294, 4277, 4280, 4575), and this from correspondence; for as all the organs, members, and viscera of the human body correspond to the Grand Man—as has been shown at the end of the chapters—so also the loins correspond to those in the Grand Man, or heaven, who have been in genuine conjugial love; and as conjugial love is the fundamental of all loves, therefore by the “loins” is signified in general all celestial and spiritual love. From this came the rite of putting sackcloth on the loins when they mourned over good destroyed, for all good is of love.

[2] That they put sackcloth on the loins to testify to this mourning may be seen from the historic and prophetic parts of the Word, as in Amos:

I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; thus I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only-begotten, and the end thereof as a bitter day (Amos 8:10); where “bringing up sackcloth upon all loins” denotes mourning over destroyed goods; “all loins” denotes all the goods of love.

In Jonah:

The men of Nineveh believed in God, and therefore they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least. And when the word came unto the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, and laid his robe from upon him, and covered him with sackcloths, and sat on ashes. And he made proclamation, Let man and beast be covered with sackcloth (Jonah 3:5-8);

manifestly for a sign representative of mourning over the evil on account of which Nineveh was to perish; thus over destroyed good.

[3] In Ezekiel:

They shall utter a cry over thee with their voice, and shall cry bitterly, and shall cause dust to come up upon their heads, they shall roll themselves in ashes; and they shall make themselves bald for thee, and gird them with sackcloths (Ezekiel 27:30-31);

said of Tyre, the particulars being representative of mourning for falsities and evils, thus for destroyed truths and goods. “To utter a cry and to cry bitterly” denotes a lamentation over falsity or destroyed truth (n. 2240); “causing dust to come up upon the head” denotes being damned on account of evil (n. 278); “rolling themselves in ashes” denotes being damned on account of falsity; “making themselves bald” denotes mourning because the natural man had no truth (n. 3301); “girding them with sackcloths” denotes mourning because it had no good. Likewise in Jeremiah:

O daughter of My people gird thyself with sackcloth, and roll thyself in ashes; make thee the mourning of an only-begotten, the wailing of bitternesses; for the spoiler shall suddenly come upon us (Jeremiah 6:26).

Again:

The elders of the daughter of Zion shall sit in the earth, they shall keep silence, they shall cause dust to go up upon their head, they shall gird themselves with sackcloths, the virgins of Jerusalem shall cause their head to go down into the earth (Lam. 2:10);

here there are similar representatives according to the kinds of good and truth which were destroyed, as above.

[4] In Isaiah:

The prophecy concerning Moab; he shall go up to Bayith and Dibon, into the lofty places to weep; Moab shall howl over Nebo, and over Medeba; on all his heads is baldness, every beard is shaven. In his streets they have girded on sackcloth, on his housetops and in his streets he shall wholly howl, going down into weeping (Isaiah 15:2-3);

“Moab” denotes those who adulterate goods (n. 2468). The mourning over this adulteration which is signified by “Moab,” is described by such things as correspond to evil of this kind; and therefore almost the same occurs in Jeremiah:

Every head is baldness, and every beard shaven; upon all hands are cuttings, and upon the loins sackcloth. On all the housetops of Moab and in the streets thereof is wholly mourning (Jeremiah 48:37-38).

[5] When king Hezekiah heard the blasphemies which Rabshakeh spoke against Jerusalem, he rent his garments and covered himself with sackcloths (Isaiah 37:1; 2 Kings 19:1); because he spoke against Jehovah, the king, and Jerusalem, wherefore there was mourning; that it was against truth is signified by his rending his garments (n. 4763); and that it was against good, by his covering himself with sackcloth. For where truth is treated of in the Word, good also is treated of, on account of the heavenly marriage which is that of good and truth and of truth and good in every particular; as also in David:

Thou hast turned my mourning into dancing; Thou hast opened my sackcloth and girded me with joy (Psalms 30:11);

here “dancing” is predicated of truths, and “joy” of goods, as also in other passages in the Word; thus “to open sackcloth” denotes to take away mourning over destroyed good.

[6] In the second book of Samuel:

David said to Joab and to all the people that were with him, Rend your garments, and gird yourselves with sackcloth, and mourn before Abner (2 Samuel 3:31);

because a wicked deed had been committed against what is true and good, it was therefore commanded by David that they should rend their garments and gird themselves with sackcloth.

So likewise because Ahab had acted contrary to what was equitable and just (in the spiritual sense contrary to truth and good), when he heard the words of Elijah that he should be cut off, he rent his garments, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went slowly (1 Kings 21:27).

[7] That sackcloth is predicated of destroyed good, is also evident in Revelation:

When he opened the sixth seal, lo there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, and the whole moon became as blood (Revelation 6:12);

an “earthquake” denotes a change of the state of the church as to good and truth (n. 3355); the “sun” denotes the good of love (n. 1529, 1530, 2441, 2495, 4060, 4300, 4696), and therefore sackcloth is predicated of it when it is destroyed; the “moon” denotes the truth of faith (1529, 1530, 2120, 2495, 4060), of which blood is predicated, because “blood” is truth falsified and profaned (n. 4735).

[8] As being clothed in sackcloth and rolling in ashes represented mourning over evils and falsities, it also represented humiliation, and likewise repentance; for the primary thing in humiliation is to acknowledge that of himself one is nothing but evil and falsity. The same is true of repentance, which is effected solely through humiliation, and this through the confession of the heart that of himself one is of such a nature. That putting on sackcloth was a token of humiliation can be seen in 1 Kings 21:27-29; and that it was of repentance, in Matthew 11:21; Luke 10:13; but that it was nothing but a representative, thus only an external thing of the body, and not an internal thing of the heart, is plain from Isaiah:

Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to lie in sackcloth and ashes? Wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to Jehovah? Is not this the fast that I choose, to open the bonds of wickedness, to break bread to the hungry? etc. (Isaiah 58:5-7).

2240. That a “cry” denotes falsity, and “sin” evil, is evident from the signification in the Word of a “cry.” That a “cry” signifies falsity, can be evident to no one unless he knows the internal sense of the Word. The word sometimes occurs in the Prophets, and when vastation and desolation are there treated of, it is said that men “howl and cry,” by which is signified that goods and truths have been vastated; and a term is there made use of by which in the internal sense falsity is described; as in Jeremiah:

A voice of the cry of the shepherds, and the howling of the powerful ones of the flock because Jehovah layeth waste their pasture (Jeremiah 25:36),

where the “cry of the shepherds” denotes that they are in falsity, from which there comes vastation.

[2] In the same:

Behold, waters rise up from the north, and shall become an overflowing stream, and shall overflow the land and the fullness thereof, the city and them that dwell therein and the men shall cry, and every inhabitant of the land shall howl, because of the day that cometh to lay waste (Jeremiah 47:2, 4),

where the desolation of faith is treated of, which is brought about by falsities; the “overflowing stream” is falsity (as shown in Part First, n. 705, 790

[3] In Zephaniah:

The voice of a cry from the fish gate, and a howling from the second, and a great shattering from the hills, and their wealth shall become a spoil, and their houses a desolation (Zeph. 1:10, 13),

where also a “cry” is predicated of the falsities which lay waste.

[4] In Isaiah:

In the way of Horonaim they shall rouse up a cry of shattering, for the waters of Nimrim shall be desolations, for the grass has dried up, the herb is consumed, there is no green thing (Isaiah 15:5-6; Jeremiah 48:3), where the desolation of faith and its consummation is described by a “cry.”

[5] In Jeremiah:

Judah hath mourned, and her gates languish, they have been blackened upon the earth, and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up; and their illustrious ones have sent their younger ones to the waters; they came to the pits, they found no waters, they returned with their vessels empty (Jeremiah 14:2-3),

where the “cry of Jerusalem” denotes falsities; for by their “finding no waters” is signified that there were no knowledges of truth, which are “waters” (as shown in Part First,n. 28, 680, 739).

[6] In Isaiah:

I will exult in Jerusalem and be glad in My people, and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying (Isaiah 65:19),

where there “not being heard the voice of weeping” denotes that there shall not be evil; “nor the voice of crying” denotes that there shall not be falsity. Very many of these things cannot be understood from the sense of the letter, but only from the internal sense, and this is the case with a “cry.”

[7] In the same:

Jehovah looked for judgment, but behold a scab; for righteousness, but behold a cry (Jeremiah 5:7),

where also the vastation of good and truth is treated of. There is in this passage a kind of reciprocation, such as is occasionally found in the Prophets, and which is of such a nature that in the place of truth there is found evil, which is meant by there being “a scab instead of judgment;” and falsity in place of good, which is meant by there being “a cry instead of righteousness” (for that “judgment” is truth, and “righteousness” good, was shown above, n. 2235).

[8] There is a like reciprocation in Moses, where Sodom and Gomorrah are treated of:

Of the vine of Sodom is their vine, and of the fields of Gomorrah are their grapes; they have grapes of gall, clusters of bitternesses. (Deuteronomy 32:32),

where there is a similar mode of speaking; for the “vine” is predicated of truths and falsities, and the “fields” and “grapes,” of goods and evils; so that “the vine of Sodom” is falsity from evil, and “the fields and grapes of Gomorrah” are evils from falsities; for there are two kinds of falsity (see Part First,n. 1212); and so also there are two kinds of evil. Both kinds of falsity and evil are signified in this verse by the “cry of Sodom and Gomorrah having become great, and their sin having become exceeding grievous;” as is evident from the fact that “cry” is named in the first place, and “sin” in the second; and yet “Sodom,” which is evil from the love of self, is mentioned first; and “Gomorrah,” which is the derivative falsity, second.