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:

2348. 'From boy even to old man' means falsities and evils, both recent and confirmed. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'a boy' and of 'an old men' when used in reference to falsities and evils. That is to say, 'boys' means evils and falsities that were not yet fully developed, and so those that were recent, while 'old men' means evils and falsities that had matured, and so that had been confirmed. 'Boy' and 'old man' have a similar meaning when they occur elsewhere in the Word, as in Zechariah,

Old men and old women will again dwell in the streets of Jerusalem. And the streets of the city will be full of boys and girls playing in the streets. Zechariah 8:4-5.

Here 'Jerusalem' stands for the Lord's kingdom and Church, 402, 2117. 'Streets' stands for truths there, 2336. 'Old men' accordingly stands for confirmed truths, 'old women' for confirmed goods, 'boys playing in the streets' stands for recent truths, 'girls' for recent goods, and for their affections and resulting joys. This shows how celestial and spiritual things are converted into those of a historical nature when they come down into the worldly things that constitute the sense of the letter, in which it seems scarcely otherwise than that old men and boys, [old] women and girls, are meant.

[2] In Jeremiah,

Pour it out upon the small child in the street of Jerusalem and upon the gathering of young men equally; for even man together with woman will be taken, old man together with one full of days. Jeremiah 6:11.

Here 'the street of Jerusalem' stands for falsities which reign within the Church, 2336. Those that are recent and those that are more developed are called 'the small child' and 'young men', those that are well established and those that have been confirmed are called 'old man' and 'one full of days'. In the same prophet,

In you I will scatter the horse and its rider, and in you I will scatter the chariot and him who rides in it; and in you I will scatter men and women, and in you I will scatter old man and boy. Jeremiah 51:21-22.

Here similarly 'old man and boy' stands for truth both confirmed and recent.

[3] In the same prophet,

Death has come up into four] windows; it has entered our palaces, cutting off the small child in the street, and the young men from the lanes. Jeremiah 9:21.

Here 'the small child' stands for truths which are newly born and which are cut off when 'death has entered [our] windows and palaces', that is, things of the understanding and those of the will - 'windows' meaning things of the understanding, see 655, 658 and 'palaces' or houses those of the will, 710.