259. The inner meaning is primarily for angels, but it is also for us. To explain what the inner meaning of the Word is, what its nature is, and what its source is, I need to offer the following overview.

People think and speak differently in heaven than in this world-those in heaven think and speak in a spiritual way, and those in this world think and speak in an earthly way. As a result, when we are reading the Word, the angels who are with us take spiritually what we are taking in an earthly way. This means that angels are focused on the Word's inner meaning while we are focused on its outer meaning. However, the two make a single meaning because of their correspondence.

[2] The Word is understood differently by angels in the heavens than by us on earth; the meaning accessible to angels is an inner or spiritual one, while the meaning accessible to us is outer or earthly: 1887, 2395. Angels are aware of the inner meaning of the Word and not its outer meaning: 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 (which include evidence from personal experience with angels who spoke with me from heaven while I was reading the Word). Angelic concepts and angelic speech are both spiritual, while our concepts and speech are earthly, so the inner meaning, being spiritual, is for angels: 2333 (which includes evidence from eyewitness experience). Even so, the literal meaning of the Word serves as a support for the spiritual concepts of angels, much the way the words of our language carry the meaning of a subject for us: 2143. Matters of the Word's inner meaning fall into the category of things visible in heaven's light and therefore are suited to angelic perception: 2618, 2619, 2629, 3086. As a result, what angels get from the Word is very precious to them: 2540, 2541, 2545, 2551. Angels do not understand even a single word of the literal meaning of the Word: 64, 65, 1434, 1929. They do not know the names of people or places in the Word, either: 1434, 1888, 4442, 4480. Names cannot enter heaven or be pronounced there: 1876, 1888. All the names in the Word denote actual things, and are changed into concepts of those things in heaven: 768, 1888, 4310, 4442, 5225, 5287, 10329. Further, angels think in terms of qualities without reference to individuals: 5287, 8343, 8985, 9007. Examples from the Word showing the elegance of its inner meaning even when it consists of nothing but names: 1224, 1888, 5095. Further, a long list of names sometimes expresses just one topic in its inner meaning: 5095. All numbers in the Word have definable meanings as well: 482, 487, 647, 648, 755, 813, 1963, 1988, 2075, 2252, 3252, 4264, 6175, 9488, 9659, 10217, 10253. To the extent that their inner reaches are opened into heaven, spirits as well perceive the inner meaning of the Word: 1771. The literal meaning of the Word, which is earthly, is transformed instantly into spiritual meaning for angels because there is a correspondence (5648); and this happens apart from any hearing or awareness on their part of the content of the literal or outer meaning (10215). So the literal or outer meaning exists only on our level and does not reach beyond it: 2015.

[3] There is an inner meaning of the Word and also an inmost or highest meaning: 9407, 10604, 10614, 10627 (which include some discussion). Spiritual angels (that is, angels from the Lord's spiritual kingdom) perceive the inner meaning of the Word, and heavenly angels (that is, angels from the Lord's heavenly kingdom) perceive its inmost meaning: 2157, 2275.

[4] The Word is for us and is also for angels; it has been accommodated to each: 7381, 8862, 10322. The Word is what unites heaven and earth: 2310, 2895, 9212, 9216, 9357. The joining of heaven to us is brought about by means of the Word: 9396, 9400, 9401, 10452. That is why the Word is called "a covenant": 9396. In fact, "covenant" means a joining together: 665, 666, 1023, 1038, 1864, 1996, 2003, 2021, 6804, 8767, 8778, 9396, 10632. There is an inner meaning in the Word because the Word came down to us from the Lord through the three heavens (2310, 6597); and in this way it was adapted to the angels of the three heavens and also to us (7381, 8862). This is why the Word is divine (4989, 9280), and is holy (10276), and spiritual (4480), and is inspired by the Divine (9094). This is what inspiration is: 9094.

[5] People who have been regenerated, too, are effectively engaged with the Word's inner meaning even though they do not realize it, since their inner self is open, and this self has spiritual perception: 10400. However, the spiritual content of the Word flows into earthly concepts for them and therefore presents itself in earthly terms, because as long as we are living in this world, we do our thinking in the earthly self: 5614. This means that for people who are enlightened, the light of truth comes from within, that is, through their inner selves from the Lord: 10691, 10694. Something holy also flows in by this path for people who regard the Word as holy: 6789. Since regenerate people are (without knowing it) effectively engaged with the Word's inner meaning and with its holiness, after death they come into that meaning spontaneously and are no longer engaged with the literal meaning: 3226, 3342, 3343.

8398. 'And all the assembly of the children of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin' means arriving at another state of temptation. This is clear from the meaning of 'coming' as a point in the further stage that is meant in 8397 by 'travelling on'; from the meaning of 'the assembly of the children of Israel' as those who belong to the spiritual Church, dealt with in 7843; from the meaning of 'the wilderness' as a state when temptations have to be undergone, dealt with in 8098; and from the meaning of 'Sin' as the essential nature of the state since names hold within them the entire nature of the state of whatever thing they refer to, as has been shown in various places above. As temptation is meant by the grumbling over the lack of bread and flesh, and as the comfort received after that is meant by the manna and selav, the meaning of 'Sin' is clear, namely good that is the product of truth. In the contrary sense therefore 'Sin', a city in Egypt from which the wilderness of Sin took its name, means evil that is a product of falsity. In Ezekiel,

I will pour out My wrath onto Sin, the strength of Egypt, and I will cut off the multitude of No; and I will send fire on Egypt. Sin will suffer great pain, and No will be breached, and Noph by enemies daily. The young men of Aven and Pi Beseth will fall by the sword, and those [cities] will go away into captivity. And in Tehaphnehes the day will be darkened, when I break the yokes of Egypt there. Ezekiel 30:15-18.

[2] The subject here is those in possession of known facts, who use them to hatch falsities that give rise to evils. 'Egypt' here is factual knowledge, 'Sin' is evil that arises from falsity, and 'No' is falsity that gives rise to evil. Anyone may recognize, solely from the consideration that it is the Divine Word, that a deeper meaning lies here than that visible in the letter. Without the deeper meaning within it, it would contain scarcely any intelligible meaning, never mind a meaning with a holy content. From this it is plainly evident that the names appearing in it are descriptive of real things, and that these provide a general meaning that befits the Word which comes from Jehovah. Anyone who accepts that the Word is Divine cannot possibly deny this, so long as he is willing to think rationally or to draw conclusions with an understanding that has been somewhat enlightened.