1748. The fact that from the string of a shoe even to its strap symbolizes everything that was unclean on the earthly and bodily levels can be seen from the symbolism of a shoestrap.

In the Word, the foot and heel symbolize the periphery of the earthly level, as shown before, in §259. A shoe is what covers the foot and heel, so it symbolizes an even more peripheral part of the earthly level, which is to say the actual level of the body. A shoe's symbolism depends on the topic at hand. When mentioned in connection with something good, it is taken in a positive sense; when mentioned in connection with something bad, it is taken in a negative sense. The latter is how it is taken here, where the subject is the property of Sodom's king, symbolizing evil and falsity. So the shoestrap symbolizes what is unclean on the earthly and bodily levels. A shoestring symbolizes falsity, and a shoestrap, evil. Because it is so small, it symbolizes what is lowliest of all.

[2] This symbolism of a shoe can also be seen from other places in the Word. When Jehovah appeared to Moses in the middle of the bramble, for instance, he said to Moses:

You are not to come near here; strip your shoes off your feet, because the place on which you are standing is holy land. (Exodus 3:5)

The leader of Jehovah's army said the same thing to Joshua:

Strip your shoe off your foot, because the place on which you are standing is holiness. (Joshua 5:15)

Anyone can see here that a shoe would not detract from the holiness in any way, provided the individual were intrinsically holy. The order is given because the shoe was representing the earthly, bodily periphery, which needs to be shed.

[3] The fact that earthly and bodily things are unclean can be seen in David:

Moab is my wash basin. On Edom I will set my shoe. (Psalms 60:8)

Something similar is involved in the command to the disciples:

If anyone does not welcome you or listen to your words, coming out of that house or city shake off the dust of your feet. (Matthew 10:14; Mark 6:11; Luke 9:5)

The dust of the feet symbolizes the same thing as a shoe — namely, something made unclean by evil and falsity — because the bottom of the foot means the outer limit of the earthly level. In those days people were engrossed in representation and believed that representation alone, rather than the naked truth, held secrets of heaven within it. That is why they were commanded to shake the dust off.

[4] Since a shoe symbolized the periphery of the earthly level, having a shoe taken off meant being stripped of the outermost dimensions of the earthly plane. As an example, take a man who refused to perform the levirate, ¹ spoken of in Moses:

If a man does not wish to perform the levirate, his sister-in-law shall come up to him in the eyes of the elders and draw his shoe off his foot and spit in his face. And she shall answer and say, "This is what shall be done to the man who does not build up the house of his brother." And his name in Israel will be called the house of one stripped of his shoe. (Deuteronomy 25:5-10)

This stands for a complete lack of earthly charity.

[5] A shoe symbolizes the outer limit of the earthly level in a good sense too, as can also be seen in the Word. Moses, for instance, says of Asher:

A blessing on Asher because of his sons! Let him be acceptable to his brothers and dip his foot in oil; iron and bronze is his shoe. (Deuteronomy 33:24-25)

The shoe stands for the periphery of the earthly level. A shoe of iron stands for earthly truth; a shoe of bronze, for earthly good. This is indicated by the symbolism of iron and bronze (§§425, 426). Because a shoe symbolized the earthly, bodily periphery, it gave rise to this figure of speech ["from the string of a shoe even to its strap"] that meant the least important, lowliest things of all. The outermost part of our earthly, bodily dimension is the lowliest of everything we have in us, which is what John the Baptist meant when he said,

One mightier than I is coming, and I am not worthy to undo the strap of his shoes. (Luke 3:16; Mark 1:7; John 1:27)

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1072. The meaning of he became drunk as the fact that they consequently fell into error can be seen from the meaning of a drunkard in the Word. The people called drunkards are those who believe only in what they can grasp [with their senses] and who therefore make investigations into the mysteries of faith. Because they conduct their inquiry by consulting the senses or the academic disciplines or philosophy, the process inevitably leads them into error, human nature being what it is. Our thinking is purely earthbound, body-centered, and matter-based, because it is formed out of earthly, bodily, and materialistic notions, which cling tenaciously to it. Those notions form the foundation and resting place of the concepts that make up our thinking, so to think and reason about the Lord on the basis of such concepts is to lead ourselves into error and perversion. It is as impossible for us to construct a faith for ourselves out of these things as it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. ¹ The resulting error and insanity is what the Word calls drunkenness.

As a matter of fact, souls (spirits) in the next life who reason shallowly about religious truth, and against it, come to resemble drunkards and act drunk too. I will have more to say on this later, by the Lord's divine mercy. ²

[2] It is easy to tell whether or not a spirit has adopted the faith that comes of neighborly love. Those who have adopted it do not debate religious truth but affirm it and also corroborate it by the evidence of the senses, of organized knowledge, and of rational analysis, so far as they can. As soon as any obscurity interferes, they reject whatever they cannot perceive and refuse to let it bring them into doubt. What they are capable of grasping, they assert, is extremely limited, so that it would be insane to view something as untrue simply because they do not comprehend it. These are the people under the influence of charity. ³

The case is just the opposite with those who do not adopt a faith that results from charity. They lack interest in anything besides arguing whether a thing is true and knowing exactly how matters stand. Unless they can see what the facts of a case are, they say, they cannot believe it to be so. This in itself instantly gives away their lack of belief; it indicates that they not only doubt everything but even deny it at heart. When they do learn how matters stand, they stubbornly raise all kinds of objections, never resting, even if they have to go on arguing forever. And when they stick fast in this way, they heap error on top of error. These people, or their ilk, are those the Word describes as drunk on wine or strong drink,

[3] as in Isaiah:

These err through wine and go astray through strong drink. ⁴ Priest and prophet err through strong drink. They are swallowed up by wine; they err from strong drink; they err in their vision; all the tables are full of coughed-up vomit. Just whom will he teach knowledge, and whom will he cause to understand the message? Those weaned off milk? Those pulled from the breast? (Isaiah 28:7-8, 9)

That such people are meant here is self-evident. In the same author:

How can you say to Pharaoh, "I am the offspring of sages, the offspring of the monarchs of old"? Where are your sages now? And have them tell, please. Jehovah has mixed a spirit of perversities in [Egypt's] midst and made Egypt go astray in all its work, just as drunkards go astray in their own vomit. (Isaiah 19:11-12, 14)

Drunkards stand for those who want to explore spiritual and heavenly phenomena by means of facts. Egypt symbolizes factual knowledge, which is why it calls itself the offspring of sages. In Jeremiah:

Drink and get drunk, and vomit, and fall, and do not rise. (Jeremiah 25:27)

The drunkenness stands for falsities.

[4] In David:

They reel and quaver like a drunkard, and all their wisdom is swallowed up. (Psalms 107:27)

In Isaiah:

Come, let me take wine and let us get drunk on strong drink, and tomorrow as on this day there will be great abundance. (Isaiah 56:12)

This is said of concepts that oppose religious truth. In Jeremiah:

Every bottle will be filled with wine, all of Jerusalem's residents with drunkenness. (Jeremiah 13:12-13)

The wine stands for faith, the drunkenness for error. In Joel:

Wake up, drunkards, and cry and howl over the new wine, all you wine drinkers, because it has been cut off from your mouth. For a nation is coming up over my land; it turns my grapevine into a desolation. (Joel 1:5-6, 7)

This is about the church when its religious truth has been devastated. In John:

Babylon has given some of the wine of whoredom's anger to all the nations to drink; those inhabiting the land became drunk on the wine of whoredom. (Revelation 14:8, 10; 16:19; 17:2; 18:3; 19:15) ⁵

The wine of whoredom stands for religious truth that has been adulterated, which is described as causing drunkenness. Likewise in Jeremiah:

Babylon was a goblet of gold in Jehovah's hand, intoxicating the whole earth. Of her wine the nations drank, therefore the nations go mad. (Jeremiah 51:7)

[5] Since drunkenness symbolized insanity concerning religious truth, it also became a representative condition, one forbidden to Aaron in these words:

Aaron and his sons must not drink wine or intoxicating drink when they are about to enter the tent, or they will die — in order to distinguish between what is holy and what is profane, between what is unclean and what is clean. (Leviticus 10:8-9, 10)

In addition, people who believe nothing but what they grasp through sense experience or factual knowledge are described as "heroic at drinking" in Isaiah:

Doom to those who are wise in their own eyes and discerning in their own sight! Doom to those heroic at drinking wine and to men valiant at mixing strong drink. (Isaiah 5:21-22)

They are called wise in their own eyes and discerning in their own sight because those who argue against religious truth consider themselves wiser than others.

[6] But people who care nothing about the Word or the truth that makes up faith and who are consequently unwilling to learn anything about faith (in this way denying its chief tenets) are described as drunk without wine in Isaiah:

They are drunk, and not on wine; they stagger, and not from strong drink, because Jehovah has poured out a spirit of slumber on you and has sealed your eyes. (Isaiah 29:9-10)

What comes before and after this in Isaiah establishes the fact that these people's character is the one just described. Drunkards of this type imagine themselves more awake than others, but they are in a deep sleep.

At its inception, the ancient church — especially the people in it who came from the stock of the earliest church — had the nature depicted in this verse, as indicated earlier, in the statements of §788.

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