Swedenborg several times associates the “wicked” with “malevolence,” defines “malevolence” as “destroying good, interior and exterior,” and says that the wicked do this by disowning the desire for good and understanding for good that come from the Lord and actively denying the Lord.

We might say, then, that wickedness is evil on the hunt, looking for all that is good and true specifically so it can attack and destroy it.

(Референце: Apocalypse Explained 661; Arcana Coelestia 7590, 9249, 9264)

'The sick,' as in Matthew 25:35, signify people who are in evil who acknowledge that in themselves there is nothing but evil.

(Референце: Arcana Coelestia 4956, 4958; Matthew 25)