162. (Verse 21) And I gave her time to repent of her whoredom; and she repented not. That this signifies that those who are in falsities neither turn themselves to truths, nor by truths, is evident from the signification of repenting of whoredom, as being to turn from falsities to truths; for whoredom signifies the falsification of truth; and to repent is to turn from such falsities, because repentance is an actual turning from falsities to truths, and dissociation and separation from the former (as may be seen above, n. 143). Also from the signification of her not repenting, as being that they do not turn themselves from falsities to truths. These things are said concerning Jezebel, but they are to be understood of those who, from the delight of the loves of self and of the world, have falsified truths and adulterated goods; for in the prophetical parts of the Word one person is named, and thereby are meant all those who are of such a quality.

[2] Something shall be said briefly concerning the circumstance that those who falsify truths in themselves by applying them to the delight of the love of self, do not afterwards turn themselves to truths. Man, from his Spiritual or Internal, and from his Intellectual, sees the truths which pertain to the church from the Word, but he receives them there only in proportion as he so loves them as to be willing to do them. When man thus wills to do them, his internal or spiritual man calls forth and elevates to itself from the natural man and its memory the truths which are therein, and conjoins them to the love of his will; thus the internal spiritual man is opened, where the interior or higher mind dwells, and is successively filled and perfected. But if he suffers the natural delight, which is the delight of the love of self and of the world, to predominate, he then sees all things from that delight, and, in this case, if he perceives truths, he applies them to his own love, and falsifies them. When this is the case, the internal spiritual man is closed, because it is accommodated to the reception of such things as pertain to heaven, and cannot endure truths to be falsified. Wherefore, when truths are falsified, it contracts and closes up, like a fibril when touched with a prickle or sting; and the internal being once closed, the love of self or the love of the world reigns, or both together, and they form the external or natural man altogether in opposition to the internal or spiritual man. This is why those who have falsified truths by applying them to the delights of the love of self and of the world cannot afterwards turn themselves to truths. This is what is meant by these words,

"I gave" to the woman Jezebel "time to repent of her whoredom, and she repented not."

7780. 'Even to the firstborn of the servant-girl who is behind the mill' means falsified truths of faith that occupy the very last place. This is clear from the meaning of 'the firstborn' as faith, dealt with immediately above in 7779, and since faith is meant, so is truth in its entirety because truth, being that which one ought to believe, is the component of faith; and from the meaning of 'a servant-girl' as a rather external affection for truth, or an affection for knowledge, dealt with in 1895, 2567, 3835, 3849, and 'the servant-girl behind the mill' as the most external affection for knowledge since 'behind the mill' means that which occupies the very last place. The expression 'behind the mill' is used because 'the mill' has reference to matters of faith. For by means of a mill grain is ground into flour and so prepared for making bread, and 'flour' means truth which results in good, 'bread' the actual good that results from it. Thus 'sitting at the mill' is acquiring and learning the kinds of things that will be of service to faith, and through faith of service to charity. This is why when the ancients described learning the basic elements of faith they described it as 'sitting at the mill', or learning elements even more basic as 'sitting behind the mill'. It is because such things were meant that in His teachings about the final period of the Church the Lord says,

Two women grinding at the mill; one will be taken and the other will be left behind. Matthew 24:41.

These words would never have been used if 'the mill' had not meant matters of faith. For what 'the mill' and 'grinding' mean in the internal sense, see 4335. With regard to the truths of faith that occupy the first place and those that occupy the very last, it should be recognized that the truths of faith which emanate directly from the good of charity occupy the first place, for they are the outward form taken by good, whereas the truths which occupy the last place are bare truths. For when truths derive in succession from good, each degree of them departs further away from it, till at length they become bare truths. This is the kind of truths meant by 'servant-girls behind mills'.