'To smite' signifies condemnation.

'To smite the earth with every plague as often as they will,' as in Revelation 11:6, signifies the destruction of the church by all kinds of evils and falsities.

Among the ancients, who lived in an age of representatives and meaningful signs, 'to smite the mother with the children' was a proverbial expression meaning the destruction of the Church and of everything that belonged to the Church either in general, or in particular with anyone who in himself is a Church. 'Mother' was used to mean the Church, and 'children' or 'sons,' truths which belonged to the Church. So 'to smite the mother with the children' means to perish completely, as a person also perishes completely when the Church and what belongs to the Church perishes in him, or when the affection for truth, which is the meaning of 'mother' and constitutes the Church in a person, is destroyed. 

'To smite,' as in Genesis 32:8, signifies destruction.

In Genesis 14:15, this signifies vindication.

(Mga Sanggunian: Arcana Coelestia 7871)