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:

6396. 'Dan' means those who are guided by truth but not as yet by good. This is clear from the representation of 'Dan' as the good of life, dealt with in 3921, 3923, but here those who have some goodness of life, which is engendered by truth but not as yet by good. For the situation with a person who is being regenerated by the Lord is that at first truth resides with him but no goodness of life engendered by that truth. Then such goodness of life engendered by truth, though not as yet by good, does reside with him; and after that, once he has been regenerated, goodness of life engendered by good comes to reside with him, at which stage he discerns truth from the vantage point of good and multiplies that truth residing with him. These are the degrees of regeneration, and 'Dan' is used to mean those with whom goodness of life resides which is engendered by truth but not as yet by good. The good that resides with them still lies deeply concealed within that truth; yet it provides them with an affection for truth and impels them to lead a life in accordance with the truth. Such people are in the Lord's kingdom, but because they are led to do good not by good but by truth, that is, not by anything of a new will but by the understanding - thus not by love but by obedience because they are commanded so to act - they are among those in the Lord's kingdom who inhabit the first or lowest heaven. These are the people whom 'Dan' represents, for in the internal sense of the prophetic declarations made here by Israel his twelve sons serve to describe in general the essential natures of all who are in the Lord's kingdom.

[2] The habitation by those meant by 'Dan' of the lowest heaven or lowest level of the Lord's kingdom because they are guided by truth but not as yet by good was represented by the falling of the lot last for Dan when the land of Canaan was shared out as an inheritance among the tribes, Joshua 19:40-48, and by the allotment at that time of an inheritance to them in the remotest part of the land, Judges 18. For the lot was cast before Jehovah, Joshua 18:6, and therefore fell for each tribe in accordance with its representation. The land of Canaan represented the Lord's kingdom, see 1607, 3038, 3481, 3705, 3686, 4447, 4454, and all its boundaries were therefore representative, 1607, 1866, 4116, so that the outermost parts of that land represented the lowest parts of the Lord's kingdom, 4240. 'Dan' consequently represented the inhabitants of those lowest parts, for before truth has become joined to good it resides on the lowest level of that kingdom. But if truth has become entirely separated from good it does not reside within any boundary of the Lord's kingdom but is outside it.

[3] The fact that Dan's inheritance was the outermost part of the land of Canaan is clear from the fact that whenever the full extent of that land was described the expression from Beersheba even to Dan was used, 2 Samuel 3:10; 17:11; 24:15; 1 Kings 4:25. In this expression Beersheba means the inmost part of the land, for the reason that it was the place where Abraham and Isaac lived, that is, before Jerusalem and Zion had become the inmost parts of the land.

[4] The essential nature of those guided by truth but not as yet by good was also represented by the Danites who were to spy out the land in which they were to live, Judges 18. It was represented by their removal of the Levite from Micah's house and their making off with the ephod, teraphim, and carved image, by which objects is meant the worship of those guided by truth but not as yet by good. For those people venerate things of an external nature but have no interest in those of an internal nature; for things of an internal nature are discerned by none but those who are guided by good. This is what the Danites under consideration here represented, as becomes clear from the consideration that all the historical incidents in the Word, both those in the Books of Moses and those in the Books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings, are representative of the celestial and spiritual realities of the Lord's kingdom, including therefore this incident in the Book of Judges involving the Danites. As regards anything further concerning the essential nature of those guided by truth but not as yet by good, this is described in the internal sense of the things said about Dan that come next.