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:

7680. 'The whole of that day and the whole of that night' means all the perception, both that which was darkened and that which was not darkened, of the molesting ones - that is to say, it was all destroyed. This is clear from the meaning of 'day' as a state of undarkened perception; and from the meaning of 'night' as a state of darkened perception. For periods of the day - morning, midday, evening, and night - correspond to degrees of enlightenment, that is, of intelligence and wisdom, 5672, 6110, and so to degrees of perception. In general day and night are called degrees of perception, not of enlightenment, because the evil who molest have no enlightenment, though they may still have perception. They have it for as long as there remains with them any knowledge at all of truth and goodness which they had acquired from the Church in which they had lived. For through truth and goodness they have contact with those who are in heaven. But once they have been deprived of such knowledge, as happens when they have undergone vastation, they no longer have any perception. Those in hell are, it is true, able to justify their evils, and also their falsities; but this is not perception. Perception is seeing that truth is truth and good is good, and also that evil is evil and falsity is falsity. But it is not perception when people see truth as falsity, or good as evil, and conversely see evil as good or falsity as truth. Those who do this have delusion instead of perception. That delusion takes on the appearance of perception, in that people such as they know how to justify falsities and evils by means of the kinds of ideas that suggest themselves to the senses and lend support to their evil longings.