6281. As regards the verb 'to redeem', its proper meaning is to restore to oneself and to take to oneself what was previously one's own; and it is used when slavery, death, or evil is involved. When it is slavery, people who have become slaves are meant, in the spiritual sense those enslaved to hell; when it is death, people in a state of damnation are meant; and when it is evil, as in the present context, people in hell are meant, since the evil from which the angel redeemed the speaker is hell, 6279. Because the Lord delivered mankind from those evils through having made the Human within Himself Divine, His Divine Human is the One in the Word who is called the Redeemer, as in Isaiah,

I am helping you, said Jehovah, and your Redeemer the Holy One of Israel. Isaiah 41:14.

In the same prophet,

Thus said Jehovah, the Redeemer of Israel, His Holy One. Isaiah 49:7, 26.

In the same prophet,

Jehovah Zebaoth is His name, and your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole earth He will be called, Isaiah 54:5.

In these places a distinction is made between the Divine itself, called Jehovah, and the Divine Human, referred to as the Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.

[2] Yet Jehovah Himself within His Divine Human is the Redeemer, as is clear from the following places: In Isaiah,

Thus said Jehovah the King of Israel, and his Redeemer Jehovah Zebaoth, I am the first and I am the last, and besides Me there is no God. Isaiah 44:6.

In the same prophet,

Thus said Jehovah your Redeemer, I am Jehovah your God, who is teaching you. Isaiah 48:17.

In the same prophet,

You are our Father, for Abraham does not know us and Israel does not acknowledge us. You, O Jehovah, are our Father, our Redeemer; from of old is Your name. Isaiah 63:16.

In David,

Jehovah who has redeemed your ¹ life from the pit. Psalms 103:4.

[3] From these places too it is evident that no one else but the Lord is meant in the Word by 'Jehovah', 1743, 1736, 2921, 3035, 5667, and that 'Jehovah the Redeemer' is His Divine Human. Here also is the reason why those who have been redeemed are called 'the Redeemed of Jehovah' in Isaiah,

Say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your salvation comes; behold, His reward is with Him, and the recompense of His work before Him. They will call them, The Holy People, the Redeemed of Jehovah. Isaiah 62:11, 12.

It is quite plain that the Lord is the reason why they are called 'the Redeemed of Jehovah', for the words 'Behold, your salvation comes; behold, His reward is with Him' have reference to the Lord's Coming. See in addition Isaiah 43:1; 52:2-3; 63:4, 9; Hosea 13:14; Exodus 6:6; 15:13; Job 19:25, where it is evident that redemption has reference to slavery, death, and evil.

Fotnoter:

1044. 'And it will be for a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth' means a token of the Lord's presence in charity, 'the earth' here being a person's proprium. This is clear from what has been stated already. That 'the earth' means a person's Proprium is clear from the internal sense and from the whole train of thought. Above it was stated that 'this is the sign of the covenant between Me and you and every living soul that is with you' meant whatever has been regenerated; but here the wording is different - 'it will be for a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth'. From this, and also from the repetition of 'sign of the covenant', it is evident that something different is meant here, and indeed that 'the earth' is that which has not been regenerated, and which is incapable of being, namely the will part of a person's proprium.

[2] When somebody is regenerate he belongs to the Lord so far as the understanding Part of his mind is concerned but belongs to himself so far as the will part of it is concerned. These two parts in the spiritual man are opposed to each other. But although the will part of a person's proprium is opposed, its continuing presence is nevertheless inevitable. Indeed all the obscurity in the understanding part, that is, all the thickness of his cloud, originates there. It is constantly flowing in from there, and in the measure it flows in so the cloud in the understanding part thickens; but in the measure it is taken away, the cloud thins out. This is why 'the earth' here means a person's proprium. That 'the earth' means the bodily part of man's nature as well as having many other meanings has been shown already.

[3] The relationship between those two parts is like two parties who were first of all joined together by a covenant of friendship - as will and understanding were in the member of the Most Ancient Church - and then the friendship was broken off and hostility arose, as happened when man corrupted totally the will part of him. After that, when the covenant is renewed, the hostile part presents itself as though the covenant were with it. But no covenant is made with it because it is utterly opposed and contrary. It is made instead with that which flows in from it, as has been stated, that is, with the understanding part of the proprium. The sign or token of the covenant is this, that to the extent the Lord is present in the understanding part of the proprium the will part of it will be taken away. The relationship between the two is just like that of heaven and hell. The understanding part of a regenerate person, by virtue of the charity in which the Lord is present, is heaven, while the will part of him is hell. To the extent the Lord is present in heaven, hell is removed; for when he subsists from himself man is in hell, but when he does so from the Lord he is in heaven. Man is constantly being raised up from hell into heaven, and so far as he is raised up his hell is taken away from him. The sign or token therefore that the Lord is present rests in the fact that man's own will is taken away. The possibility of that removal is achieved by means of temptations and many other means of regeneration.