7668. 'Go now, you young men, and serve Jehovah' means that those guided by truths that have been corroborated will be left alone, in order that they may worship the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of the command 'go' as the intimation that they will be left alone, as above in 7658; from the meaning of 'young men' as corroborated truths, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'serving Jehovah' as worshipping the Lord, as above in 7654, 7664. The reason why 'young men' means those guided by truths that have been corroborated is that by sons, boys, young men, men, and old men' are meant aspects of intelligence and wisdom in their true order. Such aspects instead of those male persons are understood in heaven; for those in heaven possess spiritual ideas which are such that images from the purely natural order or the world cannot enter them without being instantly sloughed off and transformed into the kinds of images that are more in keeping with the wisdom of heaven and with angelic thought. This is why 'sons, boys, young men, men, and old men' cannot in the spiritual sense mean those male persons, only corresponding spiritual realities, which are aspects of intelligence and wisdom. The fact that these are meant is plainly evident from the internal sense of the places in the Word where they are mentioned.

[2] In the Word 'young men' is used to mean those who have intelligence, or - on the level of abstract ideas on which angels think - intelligence itself. And since intelligence is meant by them, so is firmly established truth since this belongs to intelligence. Also the expression which is used here in the original language to denote young men is derived from strength and power, which truth receives from good, and so which firmly established truth receives. And this name is therefore applied to the Lord in Zechariah,

O sword, rise up against My shepherd, and against the (young) man, My neighbour. Strike the shepherd, and the sheep are scattered. Zechariah 13:7.

These words were spoken in reference to the Lord, see Matthew 26:31. And also in Jeremiah,

How long do you wander around, O estranged daughter? Jehovah has created a new thing on the earth, a woman has surrounded a (young) man. Jeremiah 31:22.

[3] Another word for 'young men in the original language stands for intelligence, and so for the truth that belongs to it, in Amos,

I have sent the pestilence upon you in the way of Egypt, I have killed your young men with the sword, along with captured horses. ¹ Amos 4:10.

'The way of Egypt' stands for perverted factual knowledge, young men who have been killed' for truths which have as a result been destroyed, and 'captured horses' for an understanding that has been led into error.

[4] In the same prophet,

They will wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they will run to and fro to seek the Word of Jehovah, and will not find it. On that day the beautiful virgins and the young men will faint from thirst. Amos 8:12-13.

'The beautiful virgins' stands for the affection for truth, 'the young men' for intelligence, and 'fainting from thirst' for being deprived of truth; and this is why it says 'they will run to and fro to seek the Word of Jehovah, and will not find it'. The fact that neither beautiful virgins, nor young men, nor fainting because of thirst are meant here is self-evident.

In Jeremiah,

Death has come up through our windows, it has entered our palaces, cutting off the young child from the street, young men from the lanes. Jeremiah 9:11.

In the same prophet,

How is the city of glory not forsaken, the city of My joy? Therefore her young men will fall in her streets. Jeremiah 49:25-26; 50:30.

In the same prophet,

Hear now, all peoples, see my sorrow; my virgins and my young men have gone into captivity. Lamentations 1:18.

In these places 'young men' stands for the truths that belong to intelligence.

Voetnoten:

310. From the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, signifies by means of Divine good united to the Divine truth in His Human. This is evident from the signification of "the tribe of Judah," as being all goods in the complex, for all the tribes of Israel signified all truths and goods of heaven and the church (of which above, n. 39; and "Judah" or his tribe signified the good of celestial love (of which see also above, n. 119; and Arcana Coelestia 3654, 3881, 5583, 5603, 5782, 6363); therefore in the highest sense, in which the Lord is treated of, "the tribe of Judah" signifies Divine good. It is evident also from the signification of "the Root of David," as being Divine truth; for by "David" in the Word the Lord in respect to Divine truth is meant (See above, n. 205). Therefore "of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David," means the Lord in respect to Divine good united to Divine truth in His Human. In the Word in the sense of its letter two expressions are mostly used, one involving good but the other truth; but in its internal or spiritual sense these two are joined into one, and this on account of the marriage of good and truth in every particular of the Word (of which see above, n. 238 at end, 288); the reason is that good and truth in heaven are not two but one, for every truth there is of good. The Lord in respect to the Human is called "the Root of David," for the reason that all Divine truth is from Him, even as all things exist and subsist from their root; for the same reason also He is called "the Root of Jesse," in Isaiah:

It shall be in that day that the Root of Jesse, which standeth for a standard of the peoples, the nations shall seek; and His rest shall be glory (Isaiah 11:10).

"Jesse" here stands for David, because he was David's father.