Keeping balance in one’s spiritual life is of supreme importance—and perhaps this is why the book of Daniel is given in two such clearly demarcated forms. The first six chapters show us the history of Daniel’s life in Babylon, from the time of his captivity as a youth to his elevation to power in the reign of Darius the Mede. The overall view of these first six chapters is to bring home the concept that our spiritual life is an ongoing progression. Certainly there are hard times, and certainly the selfishness in our characters is often hard to beat. Implicit in the history, however, is the ongoing promise that this evil can and will be beaten. We need to keep this in mind.

As we turned to the prophetic section of the book the importance of the historical section becomes clearer. In chapter seven, in the midst of the horrific vision which tells of our slide into evil, we need to remember the context of the vision—it takes place in the reign of Belshazzar. So does the vision of chapter eight, which describes the alternating states of good and evil, and particularly the state in which evils seems to so completely take over and dominate our minds.

In these visions there is a tendency to feel desperate. Will any goodness ever return to us, will the state ever swing back towards goodness? Daniel’s reaction to this vision was to faint and feel sick for days.

The darkness of night, however, is always broken by the gleams of morning light. In the depths of temptation, even to the point of despair, we are given the gift of the long view shown in the historical section. Belshazzar the king, during whose reign Daniel saw these visions, was deposed by Darius the Mede, and even though he faced terrible dangers during those years, nevertheless, he rose to a position of great power.

Belshazzar, as we have seen earlier depicts states of selfishness and evil in our external life. When we allow ourselves unfettered selfishness, when we willingly permit ourselves to discard the restraining truths of the Word, then our evil will express itself in daily life. Even the good things we do, when done from a selfish motive, are really expressions of evil. Like Belshazzar before us, when we are in this state, we wantonly profane the love of goodness and the understanding of truth given to us by the Lord.

This state, however, never lasts unless we choose to embrace it of our own free accord. As in the case of the four beasts shown in chapter seven, there will be a time of judgment. Like Belshazzar we will be weighed in the balances and found wanting.

The important question, however, is what do we do to turn the tide of evil, or tip the balances of our lives? Even in chapter eight, when Daniel sees the vision of the ram and the goat, he was within the walls of the citadel of Shushan, showing us that no matter how much we slide into evil, the Lord provides that our conscience is always able to be activated, and from that conscience we are able to see our condition, repent and turn away from it.

It follows, then, that chapters seven and eight outline a natural progression from the origin of evil in our lives—described as the beast, to the rule of evil, shown by the actions of the goat. Liberation comes from humility and repentance before the Lord, and chapter nine focuses on repentance leading the way to a fulfilment of spiritual life.

VERSES 1-2

We first met Darius the Mede at the end of chapter five, when he swept into Babylon and killed Belshazzar on the very night of the profane feast. Specific mention was made that Darius was sixty two years old at the time. Analysis of the way Darius exalted Daniel, especially his unwillingness to have him put to death, indicates that Darius represents a person who is in the process of turning aside from pure selfishness into a state where the conscience, symbolised by Daniel, is elevated to high rank. In this state the conscience begins to rule our thoughts as Daniel ruled in Babylon, second only to himself (Cf. Daniel 6:3).

The reign of Darius stands as a counterpoint to that of Belshazzar, both in the historical and prophetical series. In Belshazzar’s reign, epitomising selfishness, Daniel saw visions of beasts putting goodness to flight. Those states, as said before, alternate with other states when the conscience is able to direct our feelings and thoughts. These latter are states of spiritual lucidity and recommitment to regeneration, and by correspondence take place during the reign of Darius.

Daniel, who had lived long in Babylon, surviving both Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar, found himself an old man. He had been carried into captivity as a young boy, and later watched from afar as Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonian hordes. From his privileged vantage point he was aware of the vast number of Jews compelled to live in Babylon on order from the king. He was equally aware of the destruction of the temple at Jerusalem, and knew that this meant that no sacrificial worship could take place. Yet Daniel also knew prophecies indicating that this state of affairs would not last forever. He states that he "understood by the books the number of years specified … that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem." Years in the internal sense of the Word never refer to time, always to state, and the number of years therefore refers to the states a person must go through in their selfish, or Babylonian, states, before they are set free to live again without the influence of selfishness to mar their lives.

The desolation of Jerusalem is the damage done to the church, or more specifically the states of genuine goodness and truth within us, by the evils of selfishness. Selfishness is the single most destructive human emotion, as we have seen from the violence of its depiction in the actions of Nebuchadnezzar, the profanation of Belshazzar, and in the terror of the beast and the goat. Yet if the human conscience is nurtured and fed, if it is lifted up, as Darius honoured and promoted Daniel, then the conscience will flourish, and spiritual sanity will be restored.

The process takes a lifetime. "Two thousand three hundred evenings and mornings," Daniel was told—alternations continuing through states of temptations until it is possible for a new state to break into our minds and establish itself there.

In chapter nine the seventy years of Babylonian captivity describe the steady breakdown of the power of selfishness over us. "Seventy years" of captivity before release represents the states in us before the Lord is present. When we are in states of selfishness, our selfishness blocks out the presence of the Lord. As we regenerate, however, the selfishness is put aside, and the Lord is able to draw closer. The presence of the Lord in our lives has the effect of further breaking down our selfishness, and ushering in new states of life freed from these.

Seen from this point of view, chapter nine follows clearly from chapters seven and eight. The pendulum of life has swung, we are aware of our evils, in fact we are still immersed in them, but by the power of the conscience we begin the process of breaking free.

VERSES 9-19

Spiritual regeneration begins in humility. Daniel was aware of Israel’s captivity in Babylon, and longed for it to end. In humility he turned his face towards the Lord God, to make his requests by prayers and supplications and to emphasise his grief and mourning over this state of affairs with the time honour practices of fasting, wearing garments of sack-cloth and pouring ashes over his head.

These actions, rooted in the deepest of Old Testament times contain within them the very essence of repentance. We will forever remain slaves to selfishness unless and until we are willing to humble ourselves to the Lord. This begins when we recognise the work of the beast and the goat in our own lives, when we see Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar as twin kings of evil directing our inner and outer selves. It is easy to lay the blame for these states on others, to claim that our up-bringing was not good, for example, but in reality the responsibility is ours. The Daniel side of our minds needs to be active.

The first step of the spiritual activity which will eventually set us free is recorded in the words "Daniel set his face to the Lord God." That single physical motion is the beginning of the series of spiritual events in our lives which will eventually free us from selfishness. In the internal sense the "face" represents our internal states, which gives us the ability to see our lives from a different perspective than simply that of the senses (Arcana Coelestia 358, 5165) As we saw earlier, it was because of Daniel, or our conscience, that we are able to see anything in ourselves at all. Part of the judgment arising from truth is looking at ourselves, as we are, and rejecting the evil or grosser parts of our beings. Daniel turning his face to the Lord God takes on the meaning of a person focusing his or her internals on the presence of the Lord in them. To do this, they have to turn aside from their selfishness.

By fixing our sights on the Lord we are able to begin the process of repentance. Repentance is a process which involves a complete reorientation of our lives. We are told that “actual repentance consists in a person’s examining himself, recognising and acknowledging his sins, praying to the Lord, and beginning a new life” (True Christian Religion 528).

The visions of Chapter Seven and Eight, which show the origin and progress of evil in our lives, can easily be related to the self examination required in repentance. Chapter Nine deals more fully with the acknowledgement of sins, and prayer to the Lord for forgiveness.

Yet repentance can never begin without turning our faces towards the Lord God, for, as in the words of the Psalmist, all our sins are really sins against Him. Recognising this is the basis of true humility.

It is in this humility that Daniel proposed to speak to the Lord. Notice his words as he turned his face towards the Lord God "to make request by prayer and supplication." In the literal sense Daniel is praying for the restoration of Jerusalem and freedom from Babylon. In our lives, our request is for a return to the states of innocence and peace we last experienced in our infant years, with the difference that after regeneration this innocence is an expression of wisdom in contrast with infant ignorance.

Daniel turned to the Lord with "prayer and supplication." These words are not merely repetition of the same thing. In the Word where pairs of words are used in this way, it draws attention to the duality in the Word (Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture 80-90, True Christian Religion 248-253). The Word is an outpouring of love and wisdom from the Lord, which is reflected in each and every detail, but most clearly when pairs of words are used to describe the same thing. "Prayer and supplication" as a pair of words, meaning the same thing, express both the love and wisdom from Lord, and by using them in this fashion, Daniel draws attention to the fact that our humility and repentance come from both the will and the understanding parts of our being.

Should we turn to the Lord with the will only, we may find that we wish to repent, but do not have any idea of how to do so. The desire may well eventually founder because it is not directed by the understanding. On the other hand, repentance which does not also draw from a will or desire to change has no depth. The intellectual side of our minds alone cannot lead us into a new life. So the two must go together, as partners, to lead us with by the desire of the will according to the wisdom of the understanding. Like Daniel, we need to turn to the Lord with "prayer and supplication."

Prayer, we are told "is talking to God and at the same time some inner view of the things that are being prayed for” (Arcana Coelestia 2535). Prayer is a very necessary part of our spiritual lives. We are told that a person can remove evils "only if he acknowledges the Divine Providence and prays that the removal be done by it” (Divine Providence 184). The power to overcome evils is given in response to the prayer (Doctrine of Life 31), which is described as "a certain opening of the man's interiors toward God” (Arcana Coelestia 2535). As our interiors open to the Lord, the power He used to fight against evil spirits is given to us to use as our own power, which puts us into a state of freedom to resist evil.

Notice Daniel’s actions in prayer. The matter for which he prayed was close to his heart, the deliverance of Israel from Babylonian captivity. He knew the prophecy of seventy years, and knew also that about seventy years had passed since the captivity had taken place. His prayer, however, was not one of demanding his rights, there was no arrogance in his tone, such as we sometime find in our own when we think the Lord has not lived up to His side of the covenant.

Daniel’s prayer was full of inner and outer humility. We see the outer humility first as he prepared himself for prayer by fasting and clothing himself in sackcloth and ashes. As in every detail of the Word this sequence of actions contains within itself a series of states, in this case states preparatory to prayer itself.

Daniel began with fasting. In the internal sense "to fast" means "to mourn on account of the lack of good and truth” (Apocalypse Explained 1189:2). In our prayer to the Lord for help in times of temptation and deliverance from it, it is important to begin with the attitude of recognition that we actually have no real good or truth in us. Our goodness is under control of the love of self, just as Daniel was, in spite of his high position, technically still a captive of the king of Babylon.

We can only begin to really break free of the bondage of self when we come to this recognition—and this is why Daniel had to witness those two terrible visions, so that he, and we through him, could see our own state, and be affected by it, and be moved by a desire to break free from it. The concept of "fasting" therefore, also contains a willingness to enter into combat against the Babylonian side of ourselves (Apocalypse Explained 730).

There is another element in the idea of fasting which is also of great importance here. "Fasting" also stands for the desire to learn the forms of good and the truths of faith (Arcana Coelestia 9050:7). Without this desire our spiritual progress grinds to a halt. A person who has no interest in acquiring knowledge about the forms of goodness and truth closes his or her mind to the presence of the Lord, remaining thus in ignorance and will eventually lapse, without resistance, back into a life of unfettered selfishness.

This fasting is in many ways analogous to the young Daniel, recently carried to Babylon from Jerusalem, when he refused to eat the food from the king’s table. Although he did eat fresh vegetables, technically he fasted in regards to Nebuchadnezzar’s food. "Eating" and "drinking" represent the assimilation of goods and truths in our minds, and in the opposite sense, the assimilation of evil and falsity. By refusing to eat the king’s food, young Daniel showed himself unwilling to partake of the feelings and thoughts arising from selfishness. It was really that unwillingness which sustained him during the course of his life, and now, as he begins to pray to the Lord, he once again fasts.

The reality of this in our own lives is very important. Our conscience is formed partly from an unwillingness to embrace evil, not only once but continually. When we come to repent our sins, this unwillingness has to be at the very core of our spirits, otherwise our repentance will be of no avail.

There are many examples in the Old Testament of people in a state of mourning who fast, wear garments of sackcloth and cover their heads with ashes. In the New Testament the Lord ties together the concept of grieving or mourning with repentance when He said, “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes (Luke 10:13).

It was entirely in keeping with the customs of the Old Testament, therefore, for Daniel in his grief over the captivity of the people, to augment his fast with clothes of sackcloth and ashes on his head. In the internal sense to be clothed in sackcloth means to be in mourning because one does not one has not been receptive of Divine good and truth (Apocalypse Explained 637), and thus that good has been destroyed (Arcana Coelestia 4779). Ashes, which were placed on the head, or sometimes people rolled in them, represent the false thoughts and ideas a person has had on account of evil (Arcana Coelestia 7520).

Daniel’s actions are deeply symbolic of a person who is beginning the process of serious repentance. By fasting, wearing sackcloth and ashes he indicates the feeling of humility and sorrow, or contrition, we need in order to truly enter into repentance. While contrition is necessary to motivate us to repent, one needs to be careful that those intense feelings of sorrow about our evil states do not so dominate our thoughts that we feel that the sorrow itself is repentance. One needs to guard against falling into the trap of thinking that we are total depraved sinners without seeing any particular evil in ourselves which can be overcome by repentance (True Christian Religion 513). Repentance is an activity, not a feeling.

Daniel does not wallow in his sorrow, he directs his thoughts to the Lord with the words of prayer and confession. Repentance is a process beginning is self-examination done in a state of humility. A person who is repenting needs to then do two things after self-examination- prayer and confession. As one takes the findings of self-examination to the Lord in prayer, so one confesses ones sins to Him. Confession "will be that he sees, recognises, and acknowledges his evils, and finds himself to be a miserable sinner" (True Christian Religion 539). The person doesn’t need to list particular incidents of sin to the Lord, for the Lord is present in the process of self-examination, but he or she needs to have a clear understanding of the sins to be repented.

Once the person confesses to the Lord, it is necessary to pray to the Lord for forgiveness. Even though the Lord constantly forgives people their sins, but it is necessary to pray for forgiveness for our own sakes because it reminds us that forgiveness comes with the removal of sins, and sins are removed as we refrain from them and enter a new life. We also need to be reminded of the fact that the Lord does indeed forgive us our sins if we repent them. (True Christian Religion 539).

Daniel’s prayer is a model of confession and begging for forgiveness. He begins with a recognition of the Lord Himself. Notice the duality of the terms in his opening, "O Lord, great and awesome God." As we saw earlier, this juxtaposition of two names refers to the qualities of Divine Love and Divine Wisdom. The name used for God in any given chapter of the Word indicates the quality or aspect of God present in the internal sense at that point. Generally the name "Lord" refers to the Lord’s love operating in people’s lives, while God describes the Divine truth which is the vehicle carrying love down to the level at which people can receive it (Arcana Coelestia 2921, 2769).

This opening of a prayer can seem like simply addressing the prayer to the Lord, but it is much more than that. It indicates that in the state of repentance we need to keep two things in mind, firstly, that the Lord is a God of love. Without this idea there would be no real reason to repent at all. If the Lord was a God of anger or revenge, then no matter what we do we would never be able to be reconciled with Him, for no human being can ever hope to prepare for the Lord a state so perfect that He would be appeased. If, however, one sees God as a God of love, then there the quality of mercy is allowed, and from this there is hope. Secondly, by using the term God, we are reminded of the order by which the Lord both creates and governs His creation. This order is inscribed by the Lord on all things, including the process of repentance. Daniel’s choice of words here is no accidental greeting to the Supreme, but carefully chosen because it conveys the fullness of God to us in a state of repentance.

The presence of the Lord in repentance is in order. Daniel continues that the Lord "keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep his commandments." Here again we see the positioning of two issues, covenant and mercy.

The Lord’s covenant, first given to Noah, and reiterated to Abram and many others after him is simple: if people obey they will prosper, if they disobey they will perish. The whole of the Old Testament bears testimony to this covenant. A covenant is an agreement between two parties, and in the Lord’s covenant the two parties are Himself and the human race. The covenant is the promise that people can be regenerated and so conjoined to the Lord (Arcana Coelestia 665, 666). Every impulse towards goodness and truth in our lives bears testament to this covenant.

However, it is also told in the pages of the Old Testament, and in our own lives, that we do not always embrace the Lord’s goodness and truth. We fall short in the part we play in the covenant. The nature of the human being is attracted to selfishness and a desire to dominate over others. This is why we end up captives in our own spiritual Babylon, dominated by Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar. Yet within the Lord’s covenant is the implicit promise of repentance. If we turn away from selfishness, the Lord can and will remit our sins, and we will be renewed. Daniel in his prayer is aware of the Lord’s mercy as a factor of the covenant, and appeals to it. We too need to be aware of this, for it inspires us with hope, and spurs us on to a rejection of evil.

Daniel continues then with a confession of the sins of Israel, "we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled." Notice again the duality of phrase, sin and committed iniquity. "To sin" means "to sin, to miss, to miss the way, to go wrong, to incur guilt" (Brown-Driver-Briggs definition no. 2398). While "iniquity" means "to bend, to twist, to distort” (Brown-Driver-Briggs Definition no. 5753). In these dictionary definitions one sees the fullness of Daniel’s confession. Not only was the sin from the will, which causes one to miss the way, go wrong and incur guilt, but also from the understanding as one bends, twists and distorts the truth. One can trace this process through the pages of Daniel, especially in the historical series, where in chapter two one sees the influence of the evil of selfishness on the understanding and in chapter three on the will. Both need to be cleansed, and so both need to be confessed.

Essentially "sin" is a state of disjunction from the Lord (Arcana Coelestia 4997), it is the breaking of the Lord’s covenant and arises in the loves of selfishness and greed. All people are born with an inclination towards evils, but they are not born "sinners" as is commonly believed by those who propound the doctrine of "original sin." Sin enters a person’s life when he or she becomes, through purposeful action, guilty of evil (Arcana Coelestia 7147), and so separated from the life of goodness and truth which is the basis of the Lord’s covenant.

In order for a sin to be a sin it must be done purposefully, or from intention, while knowing that it is opposed to the Lord’s teaching. We are told that “to sin is to do and think what is evil and false intentionally from the will, for such things which are done intentionally from the will are such as come forth out of the heart and defile man, consequently which destroy spiritual life with him” (Arcana Coelestia 8925).

Recognising sin in our lives, then, is recognition of the fact that we have turned aside from the Lord. We have broken covenant with Him, and can only be lead back into communion with Him through the process of repentance and reformation.

In a similar way "to commit iniquity" means to twist or distort the truth. There is a steady thread of this distortion running throughout Daniel, from Jehoiakim, king of Judah who represents a lust for evil and an aversion to truth (Apocalypse Explained 481:4), to the magicians, astrologers, sorcerers and Chaldeans that Nebuchadnezzar called on to interpret his dreams. These represent the habitual thought processes we fall into to protect and enhance our selfish states. Whenever our minds are not directed by the conscience, our thoughts are dominated by the selfish will, with the result that we commit iniquity by thinking selfishly.

This kind of acknowledgement is the beginning of the formal process of repentance. As Daniel says in his prayer, "we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgements." In these words he captures the totality of human evil, both as to its motivation sin and the expressive thought. All sin, in one way or another, is a rebellion against God. As we have seen in earlier chapters Lucifer’s fall was occasioned by his rebellion.

Any general recognition of sin and iniquity of life, however, needs to be more than simply a general statement of evil. It does people no good to simply admit that of themselves they are sinners without specifying at least one sin. A person may know from the Word that he or she is a sinner, but unless that person actually searches out his or her evils, they remain as a source of spiritual infection (Charity 3). If we claim to be sinners without self-exploration, can cannot truly confess ourselves to be sinners (Arcana Coelestia 8390, The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine 159) for our confession would have no basis in self-perception and would merely be a lip confession, which can be made even by evil men when the thought of hell-fire is present (True Christian Religion 517).

It follows then that Daniel highlights a specific example of how the Jews had sinned against God, which lead to their captivity in Babylon. He said, “Neither have we heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land” (Daniel 9:6).

The sin of the ancient Jews was the ignoring of and disobedience to the prophets sent by the Lord to lead the people. King after king of Judea set up idols, worshipping them in place of the Lord, until finally the kingdom was overrun, the temple desecrated and destroyed, the people carried off into captivity or scattered. Jehoiakim, king of Judah at the time of the Babylonian captivity is a case in point. His father, Josiah, read the Word and restored the temple. He tore down idolatrous places of worship and re-instituted the Passover (2 Kings 23, 24). Jehoiakim, inheriting the throne at age twenty five, knowing full well the reforms of Josiah, and yet chose to reject these by "doing evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done” (2 Kings 23:37). In this way he ignored the Lord and disobeyed His teachings.

Much the same happens to us. When selfishness controls us it leads us to intentionally reject the teachings of the Word—even though we may pay lip-service to them. The result is a state of disobedience which can only be rectified through repentance. Each alternation of state, when we swing from goodness into evil is such an action. As Daniel says, we do not listen to the Lord’s prophets.

In the literal sense of the Word a prophet is one who preaches the truth, as did Elijah and Elisha, to name but two. However, in the internal sense a prophet represents the teaching itself, thus the doctrine from the Word (Arcana Coelestia 2534). As we have seen earlier, "kings" in the Word represent the ruling principles in our lives, and if these are false, then all our subsidiary thoughts, the "princes" will also be false.

The nature of sin and iniquity, then, is to allow the ruling principles in our minds, our "kings," and our thoughts derived from these, our "princes" to fall into falsity by ignoring the teachings of the Word. When a person can see this tendency within themselves, they are well on the way to truly confessing their sins to the Lord, not as an abstract state of life, but specific incidents of disobedience.

Part of this process of recognition and confession of sins is an observance of the consequences of one’s sins. Remember that Daniel is writing this prayer partly in response to the captivity of Judah—a captivity resulting from the neglect on the part of at least the king of Judah to obey the Word of the Lord. This captivity describes our states when we are held captive by the evils and falsities arising in selfishness. Daniel could clearly see that the historical captivity resulted from the disobedience of the kings of Judah. Can we see that our evils and their consequences are a result of our disobedience to the Lord? Can we come to the point at which we acknowledge our guilt to the Lord in Daniel’s words?

“Lord, to us belongs shame of face, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against you.”—Such a cry to the Lord would be cold and sterile if there was not hope of redemption. The historical story of Daniel shows us, however, that there is always hope. The recurring theme is that the Lord is always with us, even in the darkest times to bring the light of knowledge and a renewed commitment to change. In times of repentance this is perhaps more important than at any other time, for when we repent we undertake to change based on our recognition of the states of evil and falsity within us. At those times we need to remember that the Lord does not bear grudges, and that the very force of His Divine Providence is leading us towards heaven.

The measure of the Lord’s mercy is highlighted in the concept that when one sins, one sins against the Lord Himself (Psalm 51:4). Daniel recognises that by not listening to the teaching of the prophets the Jews had "not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God." This is a further development in the recognition of sin in oneself. To reject and be disobedient to the teaching or doctrine of the Word is one thing, for the Word is open to many interpretations, it can be twisted this way and that to suit people’s will. The real damage to the Word comes, however, through the motive for the twisting. As we have seen in many places in Daniel, when the Word is twisted to underpin and protect selfish loves, then one does damage to the Lord Himself, for He is the Word itself. As Daniel points out, the prophets are "His servants," as teaching is a servant of truth itself.

The result is the disjunction of sin, a breaking of the covenant and separation from all the goodness and truth which originates in the Lord, and which is described in the book of Deuteronomy as a curse. There are too many curses to list, but they all indicate various states of evil which befall those who separate themselves from the Lord.

In Daniel the woes of captivity are indicated as being curses from the Lord on the Jews for disobeying the Lord, and it is easy to be sympathetic to this view. Evil, especially selfishness causes life to unravel, if not in this world, then certainly in the next. Relationships based on selfishness will never be happy, conflict dogs those whose only concern is themselves. This unhappiness and conflict may seem to be a curse or disaster sent by the Lord to punish the evil doer, yet it is a great truth that the Lord never punishes anyone for their evils (Arcana Coelestia 696, 697, 1857).

For a person who is in the process of repentance this is both a necessary and comforting thought, for if the Lord cast us into hell because of our sins, all hope would be lost and life would lose its point. We need to know that regardless of how dreadful our evils may seem, and how willingly we allow ourselves to be drawn into them, still the Lord is, as Daniel says "righteous in all the works which He does, though we have not obeyed His voice."

It is important in order to keep a state of balance in repentance to remember the times the Lord has helped us in our captivity to selfishness. In his prayer Daniel remembers back to the liberation from Egypt. If we take the historical series of the book of Daniel as our guide, we can see the Lord’s hand in the way He patiently and continually led Nebuchadnezzar through terrible times to the eventual point where the king could praise the Lord as his God. Each detail of that journey is reflected in our progressive liberation from selfishness and all its attendant states. Finally as our inner motivations change, we can be lead to the state depicted in the reign of Darius when Daniel is given charge over the land.

Providence can never be seen in advance, only in hindsight (Divine Providence 178, 187). In the throes of temptation and repentance is seems as if the Lord has abandoned us, yet He is always there to show us the way to a new state of life.

VERSES 20-27

The wonder of prayer lies in the answers. Sometimes people are not certain whether the Lord listens to prayer, and whether prayer can ever change the Lord’s mind about something. This is not, or at least should not be the reason we pray. Prayer is for our benefit, for it focuses our minds upon the Lord and opens up the interiors of our minds making it possible for us to receive His presence. The answers to prayers are seldom given in loud or dramatic ways. More often than not the answer lies in a small quiet awareness of the Lord’s presence. As we are told in the doctrines, the answer comes as “…something like a revelation (which is manifested in the affection of him that prays) as to hope, consolation, or a certain inward joy” (Arcana Coelestia 2535).

Daniel prayed to the Lord for the salvation of Israel, captive in Babylon for seventy years. He prayed with deep humility, with an awareness of the evils of the Jews, and a willingness to confront those evils. The Lord answered his prayer.

When we are in the process of repenting, we too need to pray to the Lord in confession and in prayer for forgiveness and mercy. The fact of saying those prayers is powerful, for in confessing our sins to the Lord we acknowledge from humility of heart that the evils of our lives are not defensible. The action of prayer is, in many ways, the opposite and therefore the antidote to the rule of Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar in our minds. While they are present we justify our evils, we permit and actively make possible states opposed to the presence of the Lord. But in confession this changes, and our minds are opened.

Supplication, or prayer for mercy does much the same thing. In our Babylonian states we are self-sufficient—we don’t need the Lord or His Word. Our minds are dominated across the axes of our will and understanding just as the he-goat in chapter eight extended the power of his horns to the four winds of the earth. By opening our minds in prayer, however, we acknowledge that this selfish power is not real power. Real power belongs to the Lord who can and will forgive us, and in so doing gives us the power to override selfishness and break its hold over us.

While Daniel prayed, he became aware of the answer from the Lord. The imagery in his words show us a great deal about how the Lord answers prayers from the heart. As he prayed he became aware of "the man Gabriel" who flew swiftly and reached him at the time of the evening offering.

In Chapter Eight we learned that Gabriel was in reality an entire society of angels (Apocalypse Explained 302). Gabriel represents the Divine truth itself drawing near to human conscience (Arcana Coelestia 8192). This is the first part of the Lord’s answer to our prayers. When we pray we ask the Lord to hear us. The essence of prayer in Daniel’s words are summed up in verse nineteen: “O Lord hear! O Lord forgive! O Lord listen and act!”

The Lord listens with His Divine truth, and answers with truth, represented by Gabriel flying down to Daniel, reaching him at "about the time of the evening offering." As we have seen many times in this study, "evening" is a state of obscurity caused by the presence of selfishness blocking out charity and thus faith. When we repent and pray to the Lord we are still in that state of obscurity, and yet part of the answer of prayer is to lift the darkness and give us insight into the nature of our lives and a clearer vision of how to overcome our evils. This is why Gabriel came in the evening, but notice his words to Daniel “Daniel, I have now come forth to give you skill to understand.”

The answer to prayers is given as "hope, consolation, or a certain inward joy” (Arcana Coelestia 2535). These spiritual gifts come from the Lord’s love for all humanity, but love is always communicated by means of wisdom. In other words we cannot have a feeling of hope unless we have thoughts of hope. We will not experience consolation unless we know that things will turn out for the better. Without the thought process, faith if you will, there can be no inward joy, for joy, or any emotion cannot exist in a vacuum separated from the thought processes.

The Lord’s answer to Daniel’s, and our, prayers is by lightening the darkness in our minds. Gabriel came to bring "skill to understand," with us that is the skill to see the evils of life clearly. It means breaking away from the persuasive power of the astrologers, magicians, soothsayers and Chaldeans who held such power over Nebuchadnezzar. In the historical series we were shown how they failed the king whose questions could only be satisfied by Daniel, our conscience.

So it is with us. In the process of repentance our conscience leads us to see our sins and urges us to confess them to the Lord. As we do so, the Lord enlightens our minds. This makes it possible for us to see several things from His perspective, firstly the enormity of our sins, secondly the possibility of rejecting them and being forgiven, and thirdly real hope that we will be freed from them. All this takes "skill to understand," and an increasingly clear sight of the Divine truth.

Gabriel then begins to explain to Daniel. He goes back to the very point at which Daniel began his prayer of repentance—the seventy years of captivity in Babylon, saying “Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy” (Daniel 9:24).

As we saw at the beginning of this chapter "seventy weeks" means the time of fullness from beginning to end of the Babylonian captivity (Apocalypse Explained 684). This period represents the steady breakdown of selfishness in our lives. When we are in states of selfishness we are held captive by the "Babylonians" within, yet with the rise of conscience to power, that hold is gradually broken, and the process is described by Daniel’s steady rise to power. The promise given to us in the process of repentance, therefore, is that we will eventually be liberated during the course of "seventy weeks."

Daniel was told that the captivity of seventy weeks would be upon his people and the city of holiness. The "people" are those states in us which belong to the church (Apocalypse Explained 684), or, in other words, all the states of goodness and truth, of charity and faith which are oppressed and held in bondage by selfishness. When we are selfish it is impossible to be in states of true charity—we cannot love other people when we love ourselves more, nor can we think in terms of truth clearly when our thoughts are clouded by habitual self justification. In these states of spiritual captivity, our conscience is present, as Daniel was present throughout the entire Babylonian captivity, to lead us to a state of repentance when bondage can be broken.

The "city of holiness" with us relates to the thought process based on truths from the Word which lead us into revolt against selfishness (Apocalypse Explained 684). While we are in spiritual bondage our thoughts are dominated by selfishness, but the Lord provides certain truths from the Word which form the basis of our conscience. These truths are the "cities of holiness" for they are from the Lord and make it possible for the Lord to be present in our minds, even in our darkest hours. It also makes it possible for the conscience to develop to the point where it can enter into active opposition against selfishness.

The seventy weeks "determined for your people and your holy city" are the states of life we pass through as we journey through our captivity. A person cannot repent from selfishness until he or she sees the quality of self, and rejects it, just as Nebuchadnezzar had to be brought down to a point of madness before he could be completely restored, and as Belshazzar had to be weighed in the balances and found wanting before he could be killed. We too have to pass through that process, and allow it to run its course, for it is only when we are moved with horror at our evils, as Daniel was moved to feel physically sick at the sight of the he-goat, that we can be led into true repentance, and then the Lord can come to us in full glory.

Gabriel’s words all built up to this point. One has to finish the transgression, make an end of sins and a reconciliation of iniquity, and then the Most Holy is anointed. In the Lord’s own life this verse meant that He would eventually unite the Divine to the Human through to process of glorification (Apocalypse Explained 624, 684). He did this by continual victories over hell from His own power (Arcana Coelestia 2025).

We overcome hell by the power of the Lord, and when we do so, we come into the states of peace and tranquillity which typify heaven, and yet that can only happen in a state of total rejection of evil and falsity (This state of rejection is called "vastation," and without it the Lord cannot be fully received (Arcana Coelestia 728)).

Having explained this to Daniel, Gabriel continues: “Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublesome times” (Daniel 9:25).

In history the ancient Jews were liberated from Babylon by king Cyrus. They returned home with the intention of rebuilding Jerusalem and the temple armed with the confidence that the cost of rebuilding was be born by the state. Even the vessels taken by Nebuchadnezzar would be restored to their rightful places. A tremendous inertia set in, however. Only the oldest of the captives could remember Jerusalem after seventy years, and many of the Jews were firmly established in Babylon. Historian John Bright writes that “the early years of the restoration venture proved bitterly disappointing, bringing little but frustration and discouragement (Bright 1972:361, 363, 364).

These early difficulties were mirrored in Gabriel’s words to Daniel, that from the giving of the command to the restoration of the temple to the coming of the Messiah shall be "seven weeks and sixty two weeks." The "going forth of the command" means the end of the time of preparation. Specifically in the analysis in the Apocalypse Explained we are told that these Word signify the end of the Old Testament because it was fulfilled by the coming of the Lord. The "restoration and building of Jerusalem" describes the renewal of the church by the Lord’s coming (Apocalypse Explained 684).

In the story of regeneration, these concepts can be seen to apply to the establishment of a new state within the human soul who has undergone the process of repentance and who is in process of fulfilling his or her potential of the development of new spiritual states. Thus the "going forth of the command" can be seen to be the process of repentance, which is the true beginning of regeneration, while the "building of the Jerusalem" is the final, regenerated state in which the ends of selfishness have been defeated and one returns to true worship of the Lord in every aspect of life.

As in earlier chapters Gabriel provides Daniel with a time frame for this development. This should not be thought of as natural time, however, but as the progression of state through which one passes between repentance and regeneration. Regeneration does not spring into being fully formed the moment a person decides to repent. It is a life-time process involving the gradual transition from a self-oriented life to a selfless life. To manage this one needs to undergo the rigours of temptation and the discipline of self compulsion.

The time given by Gabriel is familiar. The time between the order and the building of Jerusalem is seven weeks. Here we see the repetition of seven, and the meaning is the same—the full cycle of life, indicating once again that rebirth is an ongoing process.

More interesting, however, is the statement that "after sixty and two weeks it shall be restored and built." The term "sixty two" is only used in one other place in the Word, in Daniel chapter five, where we are told that Darius was sixty two years old when he killed Belshazzar. At that point we saw that sixty two represents a state in which faith is developing, but has not yet reached its fullness, for "sixty" describes the progress we make, while "two" indicates the incompleteness of that progress.

By pointing this out we are prepared to realise that whilst repentance is a major step forward in our spiritual lives, by itself it is not enough. If we persist, however, that repentance will develop into the states of reformation and finally regeneration, and the city Jerusalem will be built in our minds.

The angel says that in sixty two weeks the "street will be built again, and the wall." A "street" describes the truth of teaching from the Word (Apocalypse Explained 684). This is not simply an intellectual knowledge of what the Word teaches but an insight into the relevance of that truth to our lives. This truth is clearly related to the conscience which has been developing in the person throughout the course of his or her life, and which is now coming to fruition in leading the person to repentance.

The New King James version here describes the wall being build around the city, but in the original language the term is more properly translated as a trench, a moat or a ditch (Brown-Driver-Briggs Definition #2742. Swedenborg uses the term "fossa" which is translated "moat" or "drainage ditch"). In the internal sense a "moat" represents the doctrine or teaching which leads a person through life. The street and the moat are two sides of the same insightful concept of truth which the Lord gives to us as a result of repentance and prayer.

However, we should also know, as was mentioned above, that repentance initiates one into states of temptation. As soon as we begin to shun selfishness, there is a reassertion of the selfishness. The result is that we enter into the alternations of state described in Daniel’s visions in chapters seven and eight. These alternations are states of temptation as we struggle to be freed from the evil sides of our personalities, and remain connected to the good. The city, street and moat, therefore would be built in "troublesome times," meaning that our spiritual life is regained with difficulty.

There will even be times when "the Messiah will be cut off," a concept similar to the vision in chapter eight, when one feels that one’s spiritual progress, described by the ram, is scattered by the he-goat. The "Messiah shall be cut off" indicates states of relapse into selfishness (Apocalypse Explained 684), although within that selfishness there is still the hope that as long as our conscience survives, like Daniel in the citadel of Shushan, there will be enough power to turn the corner once again and repent.

This is the promise of repentance. When we turn to the Lord in prayer of confession and thanksgiving, we need to know that while things will ultimately be all right, still there is a hard road ahead. Nevertheless we are not alone. The Lord answered Daniel’s prayer with honesty, and He answers our prayers in the same way. The city will be rebuilt, but there is work to be done in the rebuilding of it. Nevertheless, at the time of repentance, we can experience the hope, consolation and inward joy in knowing that the Lord walked this path before us, and from His own power fought and defeated these same inner demons. He gives us the power to walk that path.

375. And the oil and the wine hurt thou not, signifies that it is provided that the internal or spiritual sense of the Word should suffer no harm either in respect to good or in respect to truth. This is evident from the signification of "oil," as being the good of love (of which presently); from the signification of "wine," as being the truth of that good, for every good has its truth, that is, every truth is of good, therefore such as the good is such is the truth; also from the signification of "to hurt," as being to do injury to these. That the internal or spiritual sense of the Word in respect to good and in respect to truth is what is here signified in particular by "oil and wine" is evident from this, that "wheat and barley" signify good and truth, equally with "oil and wine," but "wheat and barley" signify the good and truth of the church in general, thus good and truth in the sense of the letter of the Word; for the goods and truths that are in that sense of the Word are goods and truths in general, the sense of the letter enclosing the spiritual sense, and thus spiritual goods and truths; therefore "wheat and barley" signify the goods and truths of the church in general, which are of the sense of the letter of the Word; while "oil and wine" signify the goods and truths of the internal or spiritual sense of the Word. The latter are interior goods and truths, but the former exterior.

[2] That there are interior and exterior goods and truths, the former in the spiritual or internal man, the latter in the natural or external, can be seen from what is said and shown in the work on Heaven and Hell, namely, that there are three heavens, and that the inmost or third heaven is in inmost goods and truths, or in those of the third degree; and the middle or second heaven in lower goods and truths, or in those of the second degree; and the ultimate or first heaven is in ultimate goods and truths, that is, in those of the first degree. Ultimate goods and truths or those of the first degree are such as are contained in the sense of the letter of the Word; consequently those who remain in that sense and from it frame doctrine for themselves and live according to such doctrine, are in ultimate goods and truths. These do not see interior things, because they are not purely spiritual, like the angels of the higher heavens, but spiritual-natural; yet they are in heaven, although in the ultimate heaven, since the goods and truths that they have derived from the sense of the letter of the Word, and which are with them, contain in them interior goods and truths belonging to the spiritual sense of the Word, for the two correspond and by correspondence make a one.

[3] For example: He that believes from the sense of the letter of the Word that God is angry, that He condemns and casts into hell those who live ill, although this is in itself not true, since God is never angry, and never condemns man or casts him into hell, yet with those who live well and who so believe because the Word in the letter says so, this is accepted by the Lord as truth, because the truth lies concealed internally within it, and although they themselves do not see it, it is manifest to the interior angels. Take as another example, one who believes that he will enjoy a long life if he loves father and mother, according to the commandment of the Decalogue, if he loves them for this reason, and lives well, he is accepted just the same as if he had believed the truth itself, for he does not know that "father and mother" mean in the highest sense the Lord and His kingdom, "father" the Lord, and "mother" His kingdom, and that "prolongation of days" or "length of life" signifies happiness to eternity. It is the same in a thousand other instances. This has been said that it may be known what is meant by the exterior goods and truths and by the interior goods and truths of the Word, since "wheat and barley" signify exterior goods and truths, that is, those that are of the sense of the letter of the Word; while "oil and wine" signify interior goods and truths, that is, those that are of the spiritual sense of the Word.

[4] "Wheat and barley" signify exterior goods and truths, or the goods and truths of the sense of the letter of the Word, because they are the harvest of the field and do not serve for food until made into bread, and "bread" in the Word signifies interior goods; consequently "wheat and barley" signify such things as these goods are made out of, that is, the goods and truths of the sense of the letter of the Word. But that "oil and wine" signify interior goods, which are the goods of the internal or spiritual sense of the Word, can be seen from their signification in the Word, as will be evident from what follows. It is said that these "must not be hurt," because they are not to be profaned; for they would be profaned if they were known and were believed and were afterwards denied, or also if the life were contrary to them; and to profane interior goods and truths is to conjoin oneself with heaven and with hell at the same time, which is a total destruction of spiritual life. For not only do such goods and truths as are believed remain, but also the evils and falsities that succeed in their place by denial or by a life contrary to them; thence there is a conjunction of the good and truth that are of heaven with the evils and falsities that are of hell, and the two cannot be separated, but must be torn asunder, and when torn asunder everything of spiritual life is destroyed. In consequence of this, profaners, after death, are not spirits in a human form as others are, but they are mere phantoms, and seem to themselves to fly hither and thither without any thought; and at length they are separated from others and cast down into the lowest hell of all; and as they do not appear in a human form like the other spirits, they are no longer called he or she, but it, that is, not man. (But more may be seen on the profanation of good and truth in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 169, 172.)

[5] Because such a lot awaits those who profane the interior goods and truths of heaven and the church, therefore the internal or spiritual sense of the Word, in which these are contained, was not opened to the Jews, since if it had been opened they would have profaned it; neither was it opened to Christians, since they also if it had been opened would have profaned it; and for this reason it has been hidden from both Jews and Christians that there is any internal or spiritual sense within the sense of the letter of the Word, which is the natural sense; and that they might remain ignorant of it, it was provided that the knowledge of correspondences, which was the chief knowledge of the ancients, should be lost so entirely that it should be unknown what correspondence is, and therefore what the spiritual sense of the Word is. For the Word is written by pure correspondences, therefore without a knowledge of correspondences it could not be known what the internal sense is. This was provided by the Lord lest the genuine goods and truths themselves, in which the higher heavens are, should be profaned.

[6] But the internal or spiritual sense of the Word is at this day opened, because the Last Judgment has been accomplished, and therefore all things in the heavens and in the hells have been reduced to order, and thus the Lord can provide that no profanations take place. That the internal or spiritual sense of the Word would be opened when the Last Judgment had been accomplished was foretold by the Lord in Revelation (respecting which see in the small work on The White Horse). That the internal or spiritual sense of the Word would then suffer no harm is also signified by the soldiers having divided the Lord's garments and not the tunic, which was without seam, woven from the top throughout (John 19:23, 24). For the Lord's "garments" signify the Word; the "garments that were divided" the Word in the letter; the "tunic" the Word in the internal sense; and the "soldiers" those who should fight in behalf of the truths and goods of the church. (That such are signified by the "soldiers," see above, n. 64 at the end; and that "garments" in the Word signify truths, "clothing" good, and the Lord's "garments" Divine truth, thus the Word, see also above, n. 64, 195)

[7] That "oil" signifies the good of love, can be seen especially from the anointings among the sons of Israel, or in their church, which were effected by oil; for by oil all things of the church were inaugurated, and when they had been inaugurated they were called holy, as the altar and its vessels, the tent of meeting and all things therein, likewise those who officiated in the priesthood and their garments, and also the prophets and afterwards the kings. Anyone can see that it is not oil itself that makes holy, but it is that which is signified by "oil," which is the good of love to the Lord from the Lord; this is signified by "oil;" consequently when persons or things were anointed, from that moment they became representative, for the oil induced a representation of the Lord and of the good of love from Him. For the good of love to the Lord from the Lord is the holy itself of heaven and the church, since through it everything Divine flows in; consequently the things of heaven and the church, which are called things spiritual, are so far holy as they are grounded in this holy.

[8] The reason of the representation of holiness by oil is this: the Lord alone in respect to the Divine Human is the Anointed of Jehovah, for the Divine good itself of the Divine love was in Him from conception, and from that His Human when He was in the world was Divine truth itself, and this He then also made Divine good of the Divine love by uniting it with the Divine Itself in Himself. And as all things that belonged to the church represented things Divine from the Lord, and in the highest sense the Lord Himself (since the church instituted with the sons of Israel was a representative church), so "oil," which signified the Divine good of the Divine love was employed to induce representations; and afterwards the things or persons that were anointed were regarded as holy, not that there was from this any holiness in them, but the holiness was thereby represented in heaven when they were worshiping. This has been said that it may be known that "oil" signifies the good of love.

[9] But that this may be made clearer, I will explain the particulars in order, namely:

1. In ancient times they anointed with oil the stones set up for statues;

2. Also arms of war, as bucklers and shields;

3. Afterwards, the altar and all its vessels, and the tent of meeting and all things therein;

4. And besides, those who officiated in the priesthood, and their garments;

5. Also the prophets;

6. And finally, the kings, who were therefore called "the anointed."

7. It was also a custom commonly received to anoint themselves and others with oil, to testify gladness of mind and good will.

8. From this it is evident that "oil" in the Word signifies good; the "oil of holiness," which was prepared for anointing those things that were to be used in worship in the church, signifying the Divine good of the Divine love; and "oil" in general, good and its enjoyment.

[10] 1. As to the first point, "that they anointed stones set up for statues," is evident from the book of Genesis:

Jacob rose up in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head, and set it up for a statue, and poured oil on the top of it. And he called the name of that place Bethel. And he said, If I shall come again to my father's house in peace, this stone which I have set up for a statue shall be God's house (Genesis 28:18-22).

Stones were thus anointed because "stones" signified truths, and truths without good have no spiritual life, that is, no life from the Divine; but when the stones were anointed with oil, they represented truths from good, and in the highest sense, Divine truth proceeding from the Divine good of the Lord, who is thence called "the Stone of Israel." The stones themselves set up were called "statues," and were accounted holy, and from this arose the use of statues among the ancients, and afterwards in their temples. As this stone then set up by Jacob was representatively sanctified, therefore Jacob called the name of the place Bethel, and said that this stone should be "God's house," Bethel meaning "God's house," and "God's house," signifies the church in respect to good, and in the highest sense the Lord in respect to His Divine Human (John 2:19-22). (The remainder may be seen explained in the Arcana Coelestia; and further, that statues were set up by the ancients for a sign, for a witness, and for worship, n . 3727; that at first they were holy boundaries, n. 3727; that afterwards they were used in worship, n. 4580; what they signified, n. 4580, 10643. That "stones" signify truths, and "the Stone of Israel" the Lord in respect to Divine truth, n. 643, 1298, 3720, 6426, 8609, 9388, 9389, 10376. That the pouring of oil upon the head of a statue or anointing it, was done to induce the representative of truth from good, and that it might thus be used for worship, n. 3728, 4090.)

[11] 2. "That they anointed the arms of war, as bucklers and shields," is evident from Isaiah:

Rise up, ye princes, anoint the shield (Isaiah 21:5).

Also in the second book of Samuel:

The shield of the heroes was polluted; the shield of Saul was not anointed with oil (2 Samuel 1:21).

Arms of war were anointed because they signified truths fighting against falsities, and truths from good are what prevail against falsities, but not truths without good; therefore the arms of war represented the truths by which the Lord Himself with man fights against the falsities from evil which are from hell. (That "the arms of war" signify truths fighting against falsities, see Arcana Coelestia 1788, 2686, and above, n. 131, 367; and that "wars" in general signify spiritual combats, n. 1664, 2686, 8273, 8295; and "enemies" evils and falsities, and in general the hells, n. 2851, 8289, 9314)

[12] 3. "That they anointed the altar and all its vessels, and the tent of meeting, and all things therein," is evident from Moses:

Jehovah said to Moses, Thou shalt anoint the altar, and sanctify it (Exodus 29:36).

In the same:

Thou shalt make the oil of anointing of holiness, wherewith thou shalt anoint the tent of meeting, and the ark of the Testimony, and the table, and all the vessels thereof, and the lampstand and all the vessels thereof, and the altar of incense, and the altar of burnt-offering, and all the vessels thereof, and the lavers, and the base. Thus shalt thou sanctify them, that they may be holy of holies; whosoever shall touch them shall sanctify himself (Exodus 30:25-29; 40:9-11; Leviticus 8:10-12; Numbers 7:1).

The altars and the tent of meeting, with all things therein, were anointed that they might represent the Divine and holy things of heaven and the church, consequently the holy things of worship; and these they could not have represented unless they had been inaugurated by something significative of the good of love, for it is through the good of love that the Divine enters, and through it is present; the same is true in worship, without the good of love the Divine neither enters nor is present. (That the altar was the chief representative of the Lord, and thence of worship from the good of love, see Arcana Coelestia 2777, 2811, 4489, 4541, 8935, 8940, 9 388, 9389, 9714; and that the tent with the ark was the chief representative of heaven where the Lord is, n. 9457, 9481, 9485, 9594, 9596, 9632, 9784)

[13] 4. "That they anointed those who officiated in the priesthood, and their garments," is evident from Moses:

Take the oil of anointing, and pour it upon the head (of Aaron), and thou shalt anoint him (Exodus 29:7; 30:30).

Put upon Aaron the garment of holiness, and thou shalt anoint him and sanctify him, that he may minister unto Me in the priesthood; and his sons thou shalt anoint as thou didst anoint their father, and it shall be that their anointing shall be to them a priesthood of an age throughout their generations (Exodus 40:13-15).

In the same:

Moses poured of the oil upon Aaron's head, and anointed him to sanctify him. And afterwards he took of the oil of anointing, and of the blood that was upon the altar, and sprinkled it upon Aaron, upon his garments, upon his sons, and upon his sons' garments with him, and sanctified Aaron, his garments and his sons, and his sons' garments with him (Leviticus 8:12, 30).

Aaron and his sons were anointed, and their very garments, that they might represent the Lord in respect to the Divine good, and as to Divine truth therefrom; Aaron, the Lord in respect to Divine good, and his sons the Lord in respect to Divine truth therefrom; and, in general, that the priesthood might represent the Lord in respect to His work of salvation. Their garments were anointed (Exodus 29:29) because "garments" represented spiritual things investing. (That Aaron represented the Lord in respect to Divine good, see Arcana Coelestia 9806; that his sons represented the Lord in respect to Divine truth proceeding from Divine good, n. 9807; that the priesthood in general represented the Lord in respect to His work of salvation, n. 9809; that the garments of Aaron and his sons represented things spiritual, n. 9814, 9942, 9952.)

[14] Because inauguration to representation was effected by anointing, and Aaron and his sons represented the Lord and what is from Him, therefore to Aaron and his sons the holy things of the sons of Israel were given, which were gifts given to Jehovah, and were called "heave-offerings;" and it is said that they were "the anointing" or "for the anointing," that is, were a representation or for a representation of the Lord, and of the Divine things that are from Him, as is evident from these passages in Moses:

The wave-breast and the heave-shoulder have I taken from among the sons of Israel. This is the anointing of Aaron and the anointing of his sons, out of the offerings by fire to Jehovah, which He commanded ¹ to give them in the day that He had anointed them from among the sons of Israel (Leviticus 7:34-36).

And elsewhere in the same:

Jehovah spoke unto Aaron, Behold, I have given thee the charge of Mine heave-offerings as to all the hallowed things of the sons of Israel; unto thee have I given them by reason of the anointing, and to thy sons, for the statute of an age. Every gift of theirs, even to every meal-offering of theirs, even to every sacrifice of sin and guilt of theirs, every wave-offering of the sons of Israel. All the fat of the pure oil, and all the fat of the new wine, and of the corn, the firstfruits of them, which they shall give unto Jehovah, to thee have I given them. Likewise everything devoted in Israel, every opening of the womb, thus every heave-offering of things holy. Thou shalt have no inheritance in their land, neither shalt thou have any part in the midst of them; I am thy part and thine inheritance in the midst of the sons of Israel (Numbers 18:8-20).

From this it is evident that the anointing is a representation, since by anointing they were inaugurated to represent, also that it was signified by it that all inauguration into the holiness of heaven and the church is by means of the good of love which is from the Lord, and that the good of love is the Lord with them; because this is so, it is said that Jehovah is "his part and his inheritance."

[15] 5. "That they anointed the prophets also," is evident from the first book of Kings:

Jehovah said unto Elijah, Anoint Hazael to be king over Syria; and Jehu anoint to be king over Israel; and Elisha anoint to be prophet instead of thee (1 Kings 19:15-16).

And in Isaiah:

The spirit of the Lord Jehovih is upon me; therefore hath Jehovah anointed me to preach good tidings unto the poor (Isaiah 61:1).

The prophets were anointed because the prophets represented the Lord in respect to the doctrine of Divine truth, consequently in respect to the Word; for the Word is the doctrine of Divine truth. (That the prophets represented and thence signified doctrine from the Word, see Arcana Coelestia 2534, 7269; in particular, Elijah and Elisha, n. 2762, 5247 at the end, 9372.) That it is the Lord in respect to the Divine Human who is here represented, thus that it was He by whom Jehovah anointed, the Lord Himself teaches in Luke (Luke 4:18-21).

[16] 6. That they afterwards anointed kings, and that these were called "the anointed of Jehovah," is evident from many usages in the Word (as 1 Samuel 10:1; 15:1; 16:3, 6, 12; 24:6, 10; 26:9, 11, 16, 23; 2 Samuel 1:16; 2:4, 7; 5:3; 19:22; 1 Kings 1:34, 35; 19:15, 16; 2 Kings 9:3; 11:12; 23:30; Lamentations 4:20; Habakkuk 3:13; Psalms 2:2, 6; 20:6; 28:8; 45:7; 84:9, 20, 38, 51; 132:17 elsewhere). Kings were anointed that they might represent the Lord in relation to judgment from Divine truth; therefore in the Word "kings" signify Divine truths (See above, n. 31). Kings were called "the anointed of Jehovah," and it was therefore sacrilege to do harm to them, because "anointed of Jehovah" means the Lord in respect to the Divine Human, although, in the sense of the letter the term is applied to the king anointed with oil; for the Lord, when He was in the world, in respect to His Human was the Divine truth itself, and in respect to the very esse of His life, which with man is called the soul from the father, was the Divine good itself of the Divine love; for He was conceived of Jehovah, Jehovah in the Word meaning the Divine good of the Divine love, which is the esse of the life of all; consequently the Lord alone was the Anointed of Jehovah in very essence and in very deed, since there was in Him the Divine good of the Divine love, and the Divine truth proceeding from that good itself in His Human while He was in the world (See above, n. 63, 200, 228, 328; and in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, n. 293-295, 303-305). Moreover, earthly kings were not "the anointed of Jehovah," but were so called because they represented the Lord, who alone was "the Anointed of Jehovah," therefore because they were anointed it was sacrilege to harm the kings of the earth. But the anointing of the kings of the earth was an anointing with oil, while the anointing of the Lord in respect to the Divine Human was accomplished by the Divine good itself of the Divine love; and this is what the "oil" signified and the "anointing" represented. For this reason the Lord was called the Messiah and Christ, Messiah in the Hebrew signifying anointed, and Christ the like in Greek (John 1:41; 4:25).

[17] From this it can be seen, that when "the anointed of Jehovah" is mentioned in the Word, in a representative sense the Lord is meant. As in Isaiah:

The spirit of the Lord Jehovih is upon Me; therefore hath Jehovah anointed Me to preach good tidings unto the poor; He hath sent Me to bind up the broken in heart, to proclaim liberty to the captives (Isaiah 61:1).

That the Lord in respect to the Divine Human is He whom Jehovah anointed, is evident in Luke, where the Lord openly declares it in these words:

There was delivered to Jesus the book of the prophet Isaiah. And He unrolled the book, and found the place where it was written, The spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the broken in heart, to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to proclaim the accepted year of the Lord. After that, rolling up the book, He gave it to the minister, and sat down. But the eyes of all in the synagogue were fastened on Him. He began to say unto them, Today hath this scripture been fulfilled in your ears (Luke 4:17-21).

In Daniel:

Know therefore, and perceive, that from the going forth of the Word even to the restoration and building of Jerusalem, even to Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks (Daniel 9:25).

"To build Jerusalem" means to establish the church, "Jerusalem" meaning the church; "Messiah the Prince," that is, the Anointed, means the Lord in respect to the Divine Human.

[18] In the same:

Seventy weeks are determined to seal up vision and prophet, and to anoint the holy of holies (Daniel 9:24).

"To seal up vision and prophet" means to conclude and fulfill the things said in the Word respecting the Lord; "anointing the holy of holies" meaning the Lord's Divine Human, in which was the Divine good of the Divine love, or Jehovah.

[19] "The anointed of Jehovah" means the Lord also in the following passages. In David:

The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers took counsel together against Jehovah and against His anointed. I have anointed My king upon Zion, the mountain of My holiness (Psalms 2:2, 6).

"The kings of the earth" are falsities, and the "rulers" are evils from the hells, against which the Lord fought when He was in the world, and which He conquered and subdued; "the anointed of Jehovah" is the Lord in respect to the Divine Human from which He fought; "Zion, the mountain of holiness upon which he is said to have been anointed as a king," is the celestial kingdom, which is in the good of love; this kingdom is the inmost of heaven and the inmost of the church.

[20] In the same:

I found David My servant; with the oil of holiness have I anointed him (Psalms 89:20).

"David" here as also elsewhere means the Lord (See above, n. 205); "the oil of holiness with which Jehovah anointed him" means the Divine good of the Divine love; that it is the Lord who is here meant by David is clear from what there precedes and what follows, for it is said:

Thou spoke in vision of thy Holy One, I will set his hand in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers. He shall call Me, My Father. Also I will make him the firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth. His seed will I establish forever, and his throne as the days of the heavens (Psalms 89:19, 25-27, 29 besides other passages).

Likewise elsewhere in the same:

In Zion will I make the horn of David to bud; I will set in order a lamp for Mine anointed. His enemies will I clothe with shame, but upon himself shall his diadem flourish (Psalms 132:17-18).

That here, too, the Lord is meant by "David" is evident from the preceding verses, where it is said:

We have heard of Him in Ephrathah; we have found Him in the fields of the forest. We will go into His tabernacles; we will bow ourselves down at His footstool. Thy priests shall be clothed with righteousness, and Thy saints shall shout for joy; for Thy servant David's sake turn not back the faces of Thine anointed (Psalms 132:6-10).

From this it can be seen that the Lord in respect to His Divine Human is here meant by David, "the anointed of Jehovah."

[21] In Jeremiah:

They chased us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness. The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of Jehovah, was captured in their pits; of whom we had said, Under his shadow we shall live among the nations (Lamentations 4:19-20).

Here, also, "the anointed of Jehovah" means the Lord, for this treats of assault upon Divine truth by falsities and evils, which is the signification of "they chased us upon the mountains, and laid wait in the wilderness;" "the breath of the nostrils" means heavenly life itself which is from the Lord (Arcana Coelestia 9818).

[22] From this it can now be known why it was so sacrilegious to do harm to the anointed of Jehovah, as appears from the Word. Thus, in the first book of Samuel:

David said, Jehovah forbid that I should do this word unto my lord, the anointed of Jehovah, and put forth my hand against him, for he is the anointed of Jehovah (1 Samuel 24:6, 10).

So again:

David said to Abishai, Destroy him not; for who shall put forth his hand against the anointed of Jehovah and be guiltless? (1 Samuel 26:9).

In the second book of Samuel:

David said unto him who said that he had slain Saul, Thy blood be upon thy head; for thou hast said, I have put to death the anointed of Jehovah (2 Samuel 1:16).

And again:

Abishai said, Shall not Shimei be put to death for this, because he cursed the anointed of Jehovah? (2 Samuel 19:21).

That Shimei was therefore slain by command of Solomon (1 Kings 2:36-46, to the end).

[23] 7. "That it was a commonly received custom to anoint themselves and others with oil, to testify gladness of mind and good will," is evident from the following passages. In Amos:

Who drink out of bowls of wine, and anoint themselves with the first fruits of oils, but they are not grieved for the breach of Joseph (Amos 6:6).

In Micah:

Thou shalt tread the olive, but thou shalt not anoint thee with oil (Micah 6:15);

meaning, thou shalt not be glad. In Moses:

Thou shalt have olive-trees in all thy border, but thou shalt not anoint thee with the oil (Deuteronomy 28:40).

These words have a like signification. In Isaiah:

To give them a tiara instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning (Isaiah 61:3).

In David:

Thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows (Psalms 45:7).

In the same:

My horn shalt Thou exalt like that of a unicorn; I shall grow old in fresh oil (Psalms 92:10).

In the same:

Wine gladdeneth the heart of man, to make the face bright with oil (Psalms 104:15).

In Luke:

Jesus said to Simon, I entered into thine house, and My head with oil thou didst not anoint; but this woman hath anointed My feet with ointment (Luke 7:44, 46).

In Matthew:

But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head, and wash thy face, that thou appear not unto men to fast (Matthew 6:17-18).

[24] "To fast" signifies to mourn, because they fasted when they mourned, and as they then refrained from expressions of gladness, they also then abstained from anointing themselves with oil, as in Daniel:

I Daniel was mourning three weeks; I ate not the bread of desires, neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth, neither was I anointed with anointing, until three weeks of days were fulfilled (Daniel 10:2-3).

From this it is clear that it was a custom to anoint themselves and others with oil; not with the "oil of holiness" with which priests, kings, the altar, and the tabernacle were anointed, but with common oil, because this oil signified the gladness and satisfaction that are from the love of good, while "the oil of holiness" signified the Divine good; of this it is said:

Upon the flesh of man shall it not be poured, and in quality thereof ye shall not make any like it; it shall be holy unto you. Whosoever shall prepare any like it, or whosoever shall put any of it upon a stranger, shall be cut off from his people (Exodus 30:32-33, 38).

[25] 8. From this it is evident that "oil" in the Word signifies good; the "oil of holiness," which was prepared for anointing the things that were used in worship in the church signifying the Divine good of the Divine love, and "oil" in general, good and its enjoyment, as can be seen from other passages in the Word where "oil" is mentioned, as from the following.

[26] In David:

Behold how good and how lovely it is for brethren to dwell together! It is like the good oil upon Aaron's head, that cometh down upon the beard, Aaron's beard; that cometh down upon the hem of his garments; like the dew of Hermon that cometh down upon the mountains of Zion; there Jehovah hath commanded the blessing of life even to eternity (Psalms 133:1-3).

What these words signify no one can know unless he knows what is signified by "brethren," by "the oil upon Aaron's head," by "his beard," and "the hem of his garments," and by "the dew of Hermon," and "the mountains of Zion." "Brethren" here signify good and truth, for these are called "brethren" in the Word; therefore "Behold how good and how lovely it is for brethren to dwell together" signifies that in the conjunction of good and truth is every heavenly good and delight, for every heavenly good and delight is from the conjunction of good and truth. "The oil upon the head that cometh down upon the beard, Aaron's beard, that cometh down upon the hem of his garments," signifies that from that conjunction is the good and delight of heaven, from inmosts to ultimates, "head" signifying the inmost, "beard" the ultimate; "to come down upon the hem of his garments" signifies the influx and conjunction of celestial good and spiritual good. (That in the Word good and truth are called "brethren," see Arcana Coelestia, n. Arcana Coelestia 367, 3160, 9806; that "head" signifies the inmost, n. 4938, 4939, 9656, 9913, 9914; "beard" the ultimate, n. 9960; "the hem of the garments" the influx and conjunction of celestial and spiritual good, thus of good and truth, n . 9913, 9914; and this is said of Aaron, because he represented the Lord in respect to Divine good, since every good and every conjunction of good and truth is from Him, n. 9806, 9946, 10017.) "The dew of Hermon" signifies Divine truth, and "the mountains of Zion" signify Divine good; therefore "like the dew of Hermon that cometh down upon the mountains of Zion" signifies the conjunction of truth and good, which is here treated of; and as angels and men have all their spiritual life from that conjunction, it is added, "there Jehovah hath commanded the blessing of life to eternity." (That "dew" signifies the Divine truth, see Arcana Coelestia 3579, 8455; that "mountains" signify Divine good, and why, n. Arcana Coelestia 795, 4210, 6435, 8327, 8758, 10438, 10608; and that "Zion" signifies the church where the good of love is, n. 2362, 9055 at the end.) From this it is clear what is the nature of the Word in its spiritual sense, notwithstanding its sound in the letter.

[27] In Ezekiel:

I entered into a covenant with thee, that thou mightest be Mine; and I washed thee with waters, yea, I washed away thy bloods from upon thee, and I anointed thee with oil; and I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with badgers' skins. Thou didst eat fine flour, honey, and oil, whence thou didst become exceeding beautiful, and didst prosper even to a kingdom (Ezekiel 16:8-10, 13).

These things are said of "Jerusalem," which signifies the church, therefore these particulars signify the spiritual things pertaining to the church. These things evidently were not said of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, namely, that Jehovah "washed them with waters," "washed away their bloods" "clothed them with broidered work, and shod them with badgers skins;" but "to wash with waters" signifies to reform and purify by means of truths; "to wash away bloods" signifies to remove the falsities of evil; "to anoint with oil" signifies to gift with the good of love; "to clothe with broidered work," and "to shoe with badgers' skins," signify to instruct in the knowledges of truth and good from the sense of the letter or the ultimate sense of the Word; "to eat fine flour, honey, and oil," signifies to make truth and good one's own; "to become beautiful thereby" signifies to become intelligent; "and to prosper even to a kingdom" signifies thus to become a church, "kingdom" meaning the church.

[28] In Jeremiah:

Jehovah hath ransomed Jacob. Therefore they shall come and sing aloud in the height of Zion, and shall flow together unto the goodness of Jehovah; to the corn, and to the new wine, and to the fresh oil, and to the sons of the flock and of the herd; and their soul shall become as a watered garden (Jeremiah 31:11-12);

"new wine and fresh oil" signifying truth and good. (What the remainder signifies see just above, n. 374.)

[29] In Joel:

Exult, ye sons of Zion, and be glad in Jehovah your God; for He hath given you the former rain in righteousness, so that the threshing-floors are full of pure grain, the presses overflow with new wine and fresh oil (Joel 2:23-24).

Here, too, "new wine and oil" signify the truth and good of the church, for "sons of Zion," to whom these things are said, signify those who are of the church; "the former rain in righteousness" signifies Divine truth flowing into good, from which is there conjunction, fructification, and multiplication; and "floors full of pure grain" signify consequent fullness.

[30] In the same:

The field was devastated, the ground mourned; for the corn was devastated, the new wine was dried up, the fresh oil languisheth (Joel 1:10).

This signifies the devastation of all things of the church which have reference in general to the good of love and the truth of faith; "field," and also "ground," mean the church, "field" the church from the reception of truth, and "ground" the church from the perception of good; "corn" means everything of the church, "new wine" truth, and "fresh oil" good.

[ 31 ] In Isaiah:

I will sing to my beloved a song of my friend. My beloved had a vineyard in a horn of the son of oil, which he fenced, and gathered out the stones, and planted it with a noble vine; and he waited for it that it should bring forth grapes, but it brought forth wild grapes (Isaiah 5:1-2

"The vineyard that the beloved had in a horn of the son of oil" signifies the spiritual church which has truths from the good of love, thus most excellent; for "vineyard" signifies the spiritual church, or the church that is in truths from good; its inauguration is meant by "the horn of oil," for inaugurations were performed by oil out of a horn; and "the son of oil," means truth from good; "beloved" means the Lord, because He it is who establishes churches, therefore it is said of Him, "which he fenced and gathered out the stones, and planted with a noble vine," "a noble vine" meaning spiritual truth from the celestial, or truth from the good of love; the "grapes that he waited for that it should bring forth" signify the goods of charity, which are the goods of life; and the "wild grapes that it brought forth" signify the evils that are contrary to the goods of charity, that is, the evils of life.

[32] In Hosea:

In that day, I will listen to the heavens, and they shall listen to the earth; and the earth shall listen to the corn and the new wine and the fresh oil; and these shall listen to Jezreel. And I will sow her unto Me in the earth (Hosea 2:21-23).

This is said of a new church to be established by the Lord; and "to listen to" means to obey and to receive; obedience and reception following and succeeding in order are thus described. That the heavens will receive from the Lord is meant by "I will listen to the heavens;" that the church will receive from the heavens, thus from the Lord through the heavens, is meant by "the heavens shall listen to the earth;" that good and truth will receive from the church is meant by "the earth shall listen to the corn and the new wine and the fresh oil;" "new wine" meaning truth, and "oil" good; and that those who are of the church with whom there are good and truth will receive therefrom is meant by "these shall listen to Jezreel." Evidently the earth, its corn, new wine, and oil is not meant, but the church with its goods and truths, for it is said, "I will sow Jezreel unto me in the earth."

[33] In Isaiah:

I will give in the wilderness the cedar of shittah, and the myrtle and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir, the pine and the box tree (Isaiah 41:19).

This is said of the establishment of the church among the Gentiles by the Lord; and "the wilderness" and "the desert" signify where there was before no good because no truth; "the cedar of shittah," "myrtle," and "oil tree" signify spiritual and celestial good; and "the fir," "the pine," and "the box tree" signify good and truth therefrom in the natural; for every tree in the Word signifies something pertaining to the good and truth of the church; and "the cedar of shittah," "the myrtle," and "the oil tree" signify such things of the church as are in the spiritual or internal man; while "the fir," "the pine," and "the box tree" signify such things of the church as are in the natural or external man.

[34] In David:

[Jehovah is] my shepherd; I shall not want. He will make me to lie down in pastures of the tender herb; He will lead me to the waters of rest. Thou wilt arrange a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; my head wilt thou make fat with oil; my cup will overflow (Psalms 23:1-2, 5).

This means, in the internal sense, that he who trusts in the Lord is led into all the goods and truths of heaven, and overflows with the enjoyments thereof; "my shepherd" means the Lord; "the pastures of the tender herb" signify the knowledges of truth and good; "the waters of rest" signify the truths of heaven therefrom; "table" signifies spiritual nourishment; "to make fat the head with oil" signifies wisdom which is from good; "my cup will overflow" signifies intelligence which is from truths, "cup" signifying the like as "wine." "The pastures of the tender herb" and "the waters of rest," seem to be mentioned as if they were comparisons, because the Lord is called a shepherd, and the flock of the shepherd is led into pastures of herbs and to limpid waters; but still these are correspondences.

[35] In Ezekiel:

Judah and the land of Israel were thy traders in the wheats of Minnith and Pannag, and in honey, and oil, and balsam (Ezekiel 27:17).

This is said of Tyre, which signifies the church in relation to the knowledges of truth and good; thus "Tyre" signifies the knowledges of truth and good of the church; and "Judah" and "the land of Israel," who "were traders" signify the church, "Judah" the church in relation to good, and "the land of Israel" the church in relation to truths from good; and "to trade" signifies to acquire to oneself and to communicate to others. "Wheats of Minnith and Pannag" signify goods and truths in general; and "honey, oil, and balsam," goods and truths in particular, "honey" and "oil" goods; and "balsam" truths which are grateful from good, for all truths that are from good are perceived in heaven as fragrant, and consequently as grateful; and this is the reason that the oil of anointing was prepared from various fragrant things (respecting which see Exodus 30:22-33); and also the oil for the lamps (respecting which see Exodus 27:20-21).

[36] In Moses:

Jehovah fed him with the increase of the fields, He made him to suck honey out of the cliff, and oil out of the flint of the rock (Deuteronomy 32:13).

This treats of the Ancient Church; "to suck oil out of the flint of the rock" means to be imbued with good through the truths of faith; "honey" means natural good and delight; "oil" spiritual good and delight; and "cliff" and "flint of the rock" mean the truth of faith from the Lord. If spiritual things were not meant by these words, what meaning could there be in "sucking honey out of the cliff, and oil out of the flint of the rock"?

[37] In Habakkuk:

The fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall there be produce in the vines; the labor of the olive shall dissemble, and the fields shall yield no food (Habakkuk 3:17).

Here fig tree, vine, olive, and fields, are not meant, but heavenly things, to which they correspond. "The fig tree" corresponds to and thence signifies natural good; "the vine" corresponds to spiritual good, which in its essence is truth; the "olive," as the fruit from which oil is derived, corresponds to the good of love in act; and "fields" correspond to all things of the church; "produce" and "foods" thence signify all things pertaining to spiritual nourishment; from which it is clear what these things signify in their order.

[38] In Hosea:

Ephraim feedeth on wind; they make a covenant with Assyria and oil is carried down into Egypt (Hosea 12:1).

This has no meaning unless it is known what is meant by "Ephraim," by "Assyria," and "Egypt." Man's own intellect [intellectuale proprium], which by reasonings from knowledges perverts and adulterates the goods of the church, is here described. "Ephraim" means the intellect, "Assyria" reasoning, and "Egypt" the knowing faculty; therefore "to carry down oil into Egypt" means to pervert the goods of the church by reasonings from knowledges.

[39] In Zechariah:

I saw a lamp stand of gold; two olive-trees by it, one at the right side of the bowl, and the other at the left side thereof. These are the two sons of oil that stand by the Lord of the whole earth (Zechariah 4:2-3, 14).

"Two olive-trees" and "two sons of oil" mean the good of love to the Lord and the good of charity towards the neighbor; the latter at his left hand, the former at his right.

[40] Likewise in Revelation:

The two witnesses shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and sixty ² days.

These are the two olive-trees, and the two lampstands standing before the God of the earth (Revelation 11:3-4);

the "two olive-trees" and "two lampstands" mean these same goods, which are called "the two witnesses" because they are from the Lord; but more respecting these when they are explained.

[41] Because "oil" signified the good of love to the Lord, and the good of charity towards the neighbor:

The Lord likened the kingdom of the heavens to ten virgins, of whom five had oil in the lamps, and five had not; therefore the latter were called foolish, and the former prudent (Matthew 25:1-11).

"The ten virgins" signify all who are of the church; and "five" signify some or a part of them, for such is the signification of the numbers "ten" and "five" in the Word; and "virgin" or "daughter" signifies the church; "oil" signifies the good of love to the Lord and the good of charity towards the neighbor; and "lamps" signify the truths that are called the truths of faith. From this the meaning of these words in the spiritual sense can be seen, namely, that the virgins that had no oil in their lamps, and consequently were not admitted into heaven, are those who know truths from the Word, or from the doctrine of the church, and yet are not in the good of love and charity, that is, do not live according to these truths; while the virgins who had oil in their lamps, and were received into heaven, are those who are in the good of love and charity, and thence in truths from the Word or from the doctrine of the church; which makes clear why the latter virgins are called "prudent," and the former "foolish."

[42] Because "oil" signified the good of love and charity, and "wine" signified truth:

The Lord says of the Samaritan, who as he journeyed saw in the way a man wounded by thieves, that he poured oil and wine into his wounds, and then set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and told them to care for him (Luke 10:33-35).

In the spiritual sense these things are thus perceived: "the Samaritan" means the Gentiles that were in the good of charity towards the neighbor; "the man wounded by thieves" means those who are infested by those from hell, who are thieves because they injure and destroy man's spiritual life; the "oil and wine that he poured into his wounds" mean things spiritual that heal man, "oil" good, and "wine" truth; that "he set him on his own beast" signifies that he did this according to his intelligence so far as he was able, "horse," and likewise "beast of burden" signifying the intellect; that "he brought him to an inn and told them to care for him" signifies to bring to those that are well instructed in the doctrine of the church from the Word, and who are better able to heal him than one who is still in ignorance. Thus are these words understood in heaven, and from them it is evident that the Lord when He was in the world spoke by pure correspondences, thus for the world and for heaven at the same time.

[43] Because "oil" signified the good of love and charity, and by this those are healed who are spiritually sick, therefore it is said of the Lord's disciples:

That they anointed many with oil and healed them (Mark 6:13).

(Furthermore, what is specially signified by "the oil prepared for the lamps," and what by "the oil prepared for anointings" see Arcana Coelestia 9778-9789, and n. 10250-10288, where they are explained.) From this it can now be seen that "oil" signifies celestial good and spiritual good, that is, the good of love to the Lord, and the good of charity towards the neighbor; "the oil of anointing" the good of love to the Lord from the Lord, and the "oil for the lamps" the good of charity towards the neighbor from the Lord.

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