377. Verses 7-8. And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth animal saying, Come and see. And I saw, and behold a pale horse; and he that sat upon him his name was Death, and hell followed with him. And there was given unto them power over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with famine, and with death, and by the wild beasts of the earth.

7. "And when he had opened the fourth seal," signifies prediction still further manifested (n. 378); "I heard the voice of the fourth animal saying," signifies out of the inmost heaven from the Lord. n. 379); "Come and see," signifies attention and perception (n. 380).

8. "And I saw, and behold a pale horse," signifies the understanding of the Word then become nought in consequence of evils of life and then of falsities therefrom n. 381; "and he that sat upon him," signifies the Word (n. 382); "his name was Death, and hell followed with him," signifies eternal damnation (n. 383); "and there was given unto them power over the fourth part of the earth, to kill," signifies the loss of every good and thence of every truth from the Word, and in consequence, in the doctrine of their church from the Word n. 384; "with sword," signifies by falsity (n. 385); "and with famine," signifies by the loss, lack, and ignorance of the knowledges of truth and good (n. 386); "and with death," signifies the consequent extinction of spiritual life (n. 387); "and by the wild beasts of the earth," signifies the evils of life or lusts and falsities therefrom springing from the love of self and of the world, which devastate all things of the church with man n. 388.

988. 'Upon every bird of the air' ¹ means over falsities that go with reasoning. This is clear from the meaning of 'a bird'. In the Word birds mean intellectual concepts - gentle, useful, and beautiful ones mean intellectual concepts that are true, but savage, useless, and ugly ones intellectual concepts that are false, that is, falsities that go with reasoning. That they mean intellectual concepts, see 40, 776, 870. From this it is also evident that birds mean reasonings and the falsities that go with them. To leave no one in any doubt, the places quoted below, in addition to what is mentioned in 866 concerning the raven, will serve to confirm the point. In Jeremiah,

I will visit them with four kinds [of destroyers], with the sword to slay, with dogs to tear, with the birds of the air, ¹ and with the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. Jeremiah 15:3.

In Ezekiel,

Upon its ruin will dwell every bird of the air, ¹ and on its branches will be every wild animal of the field. Ezekiel 37:13.

In Daniel,

At length upon the bird of abominations will come desolation. Daniel 9:27.

In John,

Babylon, a prison of every unclean and hateful bird. Revelation 18:1.

And the Prophets declare many times that dead bodies would be given as food to the birds of the air ¹ and to the beasts of the earth, Jeremiah 7:33; 19:7; 34:20; Ezekiel 29:5; 39:4; Psalms 79:2; Isaiah 18:6. This meant that they would be destroyed by falsities, which are 'the birds of the air' ² , and by evils or evil desires, which are 'the beasts of the earth'.

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