Jerusalem, on Mount Zion, signifies the doctrine of love to the Lord, and how it governs your life. Jerusalem first comes to our attention in 2 Samuel 5, when King David takes the city from the Jebusites and makes it his capital. In the next chapter he brings the Ark of the Covenant there, and later it is where Solomon builds the temple, and his own palace. From then on Jerusalem is the center of worship of the Israelitish church. It is the place where the Lord was presented in the temple as a baby, where He tarried to talk to the priests at age twelve, where He cleansed the temple, had the last supper, was crucified and then rose. It is a central place in both the old and new Testaments. The city was built on Mount Zion, the highest point of the mountains of Judea. A city, in the Word, represents doctrine, the organized knowledge of the truths of the church. Mountains represent love of the Lord and the consequent worship. If you put those things together, Jerusalem on Mount Zion signifies the doctrine of love to the Lord, and how it governs your life. This is why David was led to make Jerusalem the most important city of the land, and why all worship was conducted there. And this is also why Jeroboam was condemned for introducing idol worship in Samaria. In the Book of Revelation, John's vision of the city New Jerusalem descending from God is a prophecy of a new dispensation of doctrine coming from the Lord.

(Referências: Arcana Coelestia 4539, 8938; The Apocalypse Explained 365 [35-38])

2607. As regards the historical narratives, with the exception of those in the initial chapters of Genesis, which are made-up history, and have been dealt with in Volume One, they are all historically true. But although historically true they nevertheless possess an internal sense; and in that sense the one subject, as with the prophetical sections, is the Lord. They do, it is true, have reference as well to heaven and the Church, and to what belongs to heaven and the Church; but as these are the Lord's, historical descriptions, even when they have reference to heaven and the Church, ultimately have regard to the Lord, and on that account are the Word. All the historical events recorded there are representative, and each word used to describe them carries a spiritual meaning. The fact that the historical events are representative is clear from what has been explained up to this point regarding Abraham, and will be clear from the explanations that must be given, in the Lord's Divine mercy, regarding Isaac, Jacob, his twelve sons, Egypt, the people's wandering in the wilderness, their entry into the land of Canaan, and everything else.

[2] That individual words used to describe them carry a spiritual meaning is also evident from what has been shown, for example, about names meaning real things, such as that Egypt means knowledge, Asshur the rational part of the mind, Ephraim the intellectual part, Tyre cognitions, Zion the celestial Church, Jerusalem the spiritual Church, and so on with everything else. The same has been shown to be so with particular expressions, such as that 'a king' means truth, 'a priest' good, and that all other words - such as kingdom, city, house, nation, people, garden, vineyard, olive-grove, gold, silver, bronze, iron, birds, beasts, bread, wine, oil, morning, day, light - each have their specific internal meaning. This is consistently so in the historical books as well as the prophetical, even though they were written by various authors and in different periods. This consistency would never have been possible if the Word had not come down out of heaven. From all this one may know that there is an internal sense in the Word, as well as from the fact that the Divine Word cannot possibly be about mere human beings such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their descendants who formed the worst of the nations; or about their kings, wives, sons, daughters, prostitutes, plunderings, and like matters, all of which regarded in themselves are not worthy of mention in the Word unless by means of them such things as exist in the Lord's kingdom are represented and meant. It is these that are worthy of the Word.