9022. Dying he shall die, signifies damnation (as above, n. 9008, 9016, 9020). How the particulars in the internal sense cohere together, is evident from what has been said and shown. For the internal sense treats in a series of the denial, blaspheming, and profanation of the truth and good which are from the Lord. But in the external sense no such series appears, for in this sense various things are treated of; as those who smite a man so that he dies; those who kill a companion with deceit; those who smite father and mother; those who steal a man and sell him; and those who curse father and mother. Such is the Word in its particulars, namely, that in the internal sense things follow in order and as it were in a chain; although in the external sense, that is, in the sense of the letter, they are scattered, and in many places disconnected.

9008. Dying he shall die. That this signifies damnation, is evident from the signification of “dying to die,” as being damnation (see n. 5407, 6119, 7494). That “death” denotes damnation, is because with those who are damned the truths of faith and the goods of love have been extinguished, for these are what constitute the veriest life of man, because they are from the Lord who is the only source of life. When these have been extinguished, falsities and evils succeed in their place, which being opposite to the truths and goods that are of life, are therefore of death, but of spiritual death, which is damnation, hell, eternal unhappiness. That nevertheless those are alive who are in evils and falsities, or who are in hell, is because they have been born men, and therefore into the capacity of receiving life from the Lord; and also do receive so much of life from the Lord as to be able to think, reason, and speak, and thereby to cause the evil in themselves to appear as good, and the falsity as truth; and thus to live as semblances of life.