870. And Death and Hell delivered up the dead who were in them. This symbolizes the impious at heart in the church, who in themselves were devils and satanic spirits, called together for judgment.

The people meant by Death and Hell are no others than people who inwardly were devils and satanic spirits - Death meaning people who inwardly were devils, and Hell people who inwardly were satanic spirits - accordingly all the impious at heart, who nevertheless in outward appearances seemed to be people of the church. For they were the only people who were called together for this universal judgment, inasmuch as only those people are judged who in outward appearances seem to be people of the church, whether laymen or clergy, but who inwardly are devils and satanic spirits. That is because in their case, their outward displays and inward realities have to be separated, and because they also can be judged, since they have known and professed the tenets of the church.

That Death means the impious at heart who in themselves were devils, and Hell those who in themselves were satanic spirits, is apparent from the statement in the next verse, verse 14, that Death and Hell were cast into the lake of fire, when neither death nor hell can be cast into hell. But those can be who, as regards their interiors, personify death and hell, that is to say, who in themselves are devils and satanic spirits.

Just who are meant by the Devil and Satan may be seen in nos. 97, 841, 857 ¹ above; and that those are Death who in themselves are devils, in no. 866 above.

Death and hell are mentioned also elsewhere, as in the following:

(The Son of Man said,) "I have the keys of hell and death." (Revelation 1:18)

The name of him who sat on (the pale horse) was Death, and Hell followed him. (Revelation 6:8)

Likewise in Hosea 13:14; Psalms 18:4-5; 49:14-15; 116:3.

Фусноте:

5368. 'Do what he tells you' means provided that obedience exists. This is clear from the meaning of 'doing what someone says' as being obedient. The meaning of this is that good becomes linked to truth in the natural provided that the natural conforms and is obedient. But something must also be said about such a conformity and obedience on the part of the natural. People absorbed solely in worldly interests, more so those absorbed in bodily interests, and more so still those absorbed in earthly ones cannot grasp what is meant by the need for the natural to conform and be obedient. They imagine that what is going on inside a person is the same throughout; thus they do not think of one part within him that commands and another part that obeys.

[2] Yet within him there is an internal man that ought to command and an external man that ought to obey. The latter is obedient when it does not have the world but heaven, not self but the neighbour, as its end in view, consequently when bodily and worldly matters are thought of as means and not as an end. Such are thought of as means and not an end when that person loves his neighbour more than himself, and the things of heaven more than those of the world. When this is so the natural is obedient, the natural being the same as the external man.