252. The woman' is used to mean the Church. This becomes clear from the heavenly marriage, dealt with above in 155. The heavenly marriage is one in which heaven, and so the Church, is united to the Lord by means of the proprium, even to the extent of it existing within the proprium itself; for if there is no proprium the union does not exist. And when the Lord from His mercy instills into this proprium innocence, peace, and good, it still looks like the proprium, but it is now something heavenly and richly blessed; see what has been said already in 164. But the nature of the heavenly and angelic proprium obtained from the Lord on the one hand, and the nature of the hellish and devilish proprium deriving from self on the other, defies description. The difference is like that between heaven and hell.

3035. 'Jehovah, the God of heaven' means the Lord's Divine itself. This is clear from what has been stated above in 3023 - that 'Jehovah, the God of heaven' is the Lord's Divine itself, for the name 'Jehovah', which occurs so many times in the Old Testament Word, was used to mean the Lord alone. Every single detail there refers in the internal sense to Him, and every single religious observance of the Church represented Him, see 1736, 2921. Furthermore the most ancient people who belonged to the celestial Church did not mean by 'Jehovah' anyone other than the Lord, 1343. Here and elsewhere in the sense of the letter it seems as though someone other, who is higher, is meant by Jehovah; but the sense of the letter is such that it sets forth as separate entities things which the internal sense presents as one. The reason for this is that man who has to be taught from the sense of the letter is unable to have the idea of one without first of all having the idea of several. For with man that which is a single whole is formed from several parts, or what amounts to the same, things existing simultaneously come into being consecutively. Many attributes exist in the Lord, and all are Jehovah, and therefore the sense of the letter regards these as separate entities, whereas heaven never does so. Heaven acknowledges one God with an idea that does not divide Him; nor does it acknowledge anyone other than the Lord.