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:

5871. 'Make every man go out from me' means that incompatible and contradictory factual knowledge was to be cast away from the centre. This is clear from the meaning of 'every man from him' as factual knowledge, for the men were Egyptians, and by 'Egyptians' is meant factual knowledge, see 1164, 1165, 1186, 1462, 5700, 5702; and since it was cast aside it follows that it was incompatible and contradictory. For the situation is this: When the truths present in the external or natural man become joined to the good present in the internal man - that is, when the truths of faith are joined to the good of charity - all factual knowledge which is incompatible, and especially that which is contradictory, is cast away from the centre to the sides, thus from the light in the centre to the shadowy parts at the sides. When this happens that knowledge is in part disregarded and in part treated as valueless. But from the remaining factual knowledge which is compatible and harmonious, a kind of extraction - or if one can use the expression, a kind of distillation - takes place, from which the inner meaning of things is obtained, a meaning that no one perceives while in the body except through some joyful feeling, like that experienced at daybreak. Such is the way in which the joining of the truth of faith to the good of charity is effected.