1082. And shall eat her flesh, signifies rejection of its evils, which are adulterated goods, and then the manifestation that they were without any good. This is evident from the signification of "flesh," as being the good of the Word and of the church, and in the contrary sense the evil thereof. Here "flesh" means evils, which are adulterated goods. Also from the signification of "to eat," as being to consume, but here to reject wholly, because this is said of the Reformed, who have rejected the works or goods of Babylon, which consist especially in gifts to the idols of their saints, to their sepulchers, also to monasteries, and to the monks themselves, given as offerings for various expiations. It follows that the same words mean also the manifestation that they were without any good, for when spurious and meritorious goods are rejected, which are signified by the "flesh that they should eat," it is then manifest that they are without any good.

[2] "Flesh" has various significations in the Word. It signifies what is man's own [proprium], thus either his good or evil, and from this it signifies the whole man. But in the highest sense it signifies the Lord's Divine Human, and particularly the Divine good of the Divine love that proceeds from Him. That "flesh" signifies the Divine Human as to the good of love is evident in John:

Jesus said, I am the living bread, which cometh down out of heaven; if anyone eat of this bread he shall live forever; and the bread which I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The Jews, therefore, strove one with another, saying, How can this one give His flesh to eat? Jesus therefore said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood ye shall not have life in yourselves. He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day; for My flesh is truly food, and My blood is truly drink. He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood abideth in Me and I in him. This is the bread which cometh down out of heaven (John 6:51-58).

It is clearly evident that "flesh" here means the own [proprium] of the Lord's Divine Human, which is the Divine good of the Divine love, and is that which is called in the Holy Supper the body. (That the "body" there, that is, the "flesh," is the Divine good, and the "blood" is the Divine truth, may be seen above, n. 329.) And as "bread and wine" have the same signification as "flesh and blood," "bread" meaning the Divine good, and "wine" the Divine truth, therefore these were commanded in place of flesh and blood.

[3] Divine good from the Lord was signified also by the flesh of the sacrifices that Aaron, his sons, and those who sacrificed, and others who were clean, might eat:

And that this was holy (may be seen in Exodus 12:7-9, 29:31-34; Leviticus 7:15-21; 8:31; Deuteronomy 12:27; 16:4);

Consequently if an unclean person ate of that flesh he would be cut off from his people (Leviticus 7:21).

That those sacrifices were called bread (Leviticus 22:6-7).

That that flesh was called the flesh of holiness (Jeremiah 11:15; Haggai 2:12),

And the flesh of the offering, which was to be upon the table in the Lord's kingdom (Ezekiel 40:43).

The Lord's Divine Human is also called "flesh" in John:

The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us; and we saw His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father (John 1:14).

[4] That "flesh" signified also the good with man can be seen from the following passages. In Ezekiel:

I will give them one heart, and I will give a new spirit in the midst of you, and I will take away the heart of stone out of their flesh, and I will give them a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 11:19; 36:26).

"Heart of flesh" means the will and love of good. In David:

O God, Thou art my God, in the morning I seek Thee; my soul thirsteth for Thee; my flesh longeth for Thee in a land of drought and weariness without waters (Psalms 63:1).

In the same:

My soul longeth for the courts of Jehovah; my heart and my flesh cry out unto the living God (Psalms 84:2).

The "flesh" that longeth for Jehovah, and that crieth out unto the living God, signifies man as to good of the will, for the "flesh" of man corresponds to the good or evil of his will, and the "blood" to the truth or falsity of his understanding; here "flesh" means the good of the will, because it longeth for Jehovah and crieth out unto God.

[5] In Job:

I have known my Redeemer, He liveth, and at the last He shall rise upon the dust; and afterwards these things shall be encompassed by my skin, and from my flesh I shall see God (Job 19:25-27).

To see God from one's flesh signifies from one's own voluntary made new by the Lord, and thus good. In Ezekiel:

Upon the bones seen in the midst of the valley, I will put sinews, and I will cause flesh to come up upon them, and I will cover them with skin, and I will give spirit unto them that they may live (Ezekiel 37:6, 8).

Here, too, "flesh" signifies what is one's own [proprium] of the will made new by the Lord, and thus good. What "bones" and the rest signify here may be seen above (n. 418, 419, 665). In Revelation:

Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God, that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of commanders of thousands, and the flesh of the mighty, and the flesh of horses and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all, free and bond, small and great (Revelation 19:17-18; Ezekiel 39:17-19).

That "flesh" here does not mean flesh but goods of every kind, is clearly evident.

[6] But on the other hand, that "flesh" signifies man's own voluntary, which regarded in itself is evil, is evident from the following passages. In Isaiah:

They shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm (Isaiah 9:20).

In the same:

I will feed thine oppressors with their own flesh (Isaiah 49:26).

In Jeremiah:

I will feed you with the flesh of their sons and with the flesh of their daughters; and they shall eat every man the flesh of his companion (Jeremiah 19:9).

In Zechariah:

The rest shall eat everyone the flesh of another (Zechariah 11:9).

In Moses:

I will chastise you sevenfold for your sins, and ye shall eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters (Leviticus 26:28-29).

[7] In Jeremiah:

Cursed is the man who trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm (Jeremiah 17:5).

Here "flesh" signifies what is man's own [proprium] which in itself is evil; to appropriate this to oneself is signified by eating and feeding upon it. Again, "flesh" signifies what is man's own [proprium] in Matthew:

Jesus said, Blessed art thou, Simon, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee (Matthew 16:17).

In John:

As many as received, to them gave He power to become sons of God, who were born, not from bloods nor from the will of the flesh, but from God (John 1:12-13).

In Ezekiel:

Jerusalem committed whoredom with the sons of Egypt her neighbors, great in flesh (Ezekiel 16:26).

In Isaiah:

Egypt is man and not God, and his horses are flesh and not spirit (Isaiah 31:3).

In John:

It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing (John 6:63).

In the same:

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is begotten of the spirit is spirit (John 3:6).

In David:

God remembered that they were flesh, a breath that passeth away and returneth not (Psalms 78:39).

The evil of man's will, which is what is his own [proprium] from birth is what is signified in these passages by "flesh"; also by:

The flesh that the sons of Israel lusted after in the desert, and on account of which they were smitten with a great plague, and from which the place was called graves of lust (Numbers 11:4-34).

Moreover, in the Word the expression "all flesh" is frequently used as meaning every man (as in Genesis 6:12, 13, 17, 19; Isaiah 40:5, 6; 49:26; 66:16, 23, 24; Jeremiah 25:31; 32:27; 45:5; Ezekiel 20:48, 21:4, 5; and elsewhere).

(Continuation respecting the Word)

[8] The spiritual by influx presents what is correspondent to itself in the natural, in order that the end may become a cause, and the cause become an effect, and thus the end through the cause may present itself in the effect as visible and sensible. This trine, namely, end, cause, and effect, is given from creation in every heaven. The end is the good of love, the cause is truth from that good, and the effect is use. That which produces is love, and the product therefrom is of love from good by means of truth. The final products, which are in our world, are various, as numerous as the objects are in its three kingdoms of nature, animal, vegetable, and mineral. All products are correspondences.

[9] As this trine, namely, end, cause, and effect, exists in each heaven, there must be in each heaven products that are correspondences, and which in form and aspect are like the objects in the three kingdoms of our earth; from which it is clear that each heaven is like our earth in external appearance, differing only in excellence and beauty according to degrees. Now in order that the Word may be full, that is, may consist of effects in which are a cause and an end, or may consist of uses, in which truth is the cause and good is the end and love is that which produces, it must needs consist of correspondences; and from this it follows that the Word in each heaven is like the Word in our world, differing only in excellence and beauty according to degrees. What this difference is shall be told elsewhere.

4728. 'And let us throw him into one of the pits' means among falsities. This is clear from the meaning of 'pits' as falsities. The reason 'pits' means falsities is that people who are immersed in false assumptions are kept for a considerable time after death beneath the lower earth, until falsities have been removed from them and so to speak cast away to the sidelines. The places situated there are called pits. Those who go there are people who have to undergo vastation, dealt with in 1106-1113, 2699, 2701, 2704. ¹ This is why by 'pits' in the abstract sense falsities are meant. The lower earth is directly below the feet, and is a region that does not extend to any great distance all around. There the majority stay after death before being raised up into heaven. Mention is also made of this lower earth in various places in the Word. Below it are places where vastation takes place, and they are called pits. Beneath these places and extending to quite a distance all around are the hells.

[2] From this one may have some idea of what is meant by hell, the lower earth, or the pit, when these are mentioned in the Word, as in Isaiah,

You have been sent down to hell, to the sides of the pit; you are cast out from your sepulchre like an abominable branch, a garment of the slain, those pierced by the sword, who go down to the stones of the pit. Isaiah 14:15, 19.

This refers to the king of Babel, who represents the profanation of truth, for 'a king' represents truth, 1672, 2015, 2069, 3009, 4581, and 'Babel' profanation, 1182, 1326. 'Hell' is the place where the condemned are, and their state of condemnation is compared to 'an abominable branch' and 'a garment of the slain and of those pierced by the sword, who go down to the stones of the pit'. 'A garment of the slain' means truth that has been made profane; 'those pierced by the sword' means people among whom truth has been annihilated; 'the pit' means falsity that is to be laid waste, 'stones' the limits of that falsity, which are also therefore called 'the sides', for surrounding the pits there are the hells. 'A garment' means truth, 2576, and therefore 'a garment of the slain' means truth that has been made profane, for 'the blood' with which it has been stained means that which has been made profane, 1003. 'Those pierced by the sword' means those among whom truth has been annihilated, 4503. From all this it is also evident that without the internal sense one cannot by any means know what these things mean.

[3] In Ezekiel,

When I cause you to go down with those going down to the pit, to the people of old, and I cause you to dwell in the land of the lower ones, in the desolations from of old, so that you do not dwell with those going down to the pit, I will give beauty in the land of the living. Ezekiel 26:20.

'Those going down to the pit' stands for those who are made to undergo vastation. 'Not dwelling with those who go down to the pit' stands for being delivered from falsities.

[4] In the same prophet,

That none of all the trees by the waters may become arrogant because of their height nor send their trunk up among entangled boughs, and that none of all [the trees] that drink water may reach above them because of their height - all will be given over to death, to the lower earth in the midst of the sons of men, to those going down to the pit. At the sound of its crashing down I will make the nations tremble, when I cause him to go down into hell with those going down to the pit. And all the trees of Eden, the choicest and the most excellent of Lebanon, all those drinking water, will comfort themselves on the lower earth. Ezekiel 31:14, 16.

This refers to Egypt, meaning knowledge, which enters by itself into the mysteries of faith, that is, people who enter into them, 1164, 1165, 1186. What has been stated above makes plain the meaning of hell, the pit, and the lower earth mentioned at this point in the prophet. Nor from anywhere else than the internal sense can anyone see what is meant by 'the trees by the waters', 'the trees of Eden', 'the trunk sent up among entangled boughs', 'the choicest and the most excellent of Lebanon', and 'those drinking water'.

[5] In the same prophet,

Son of man, wail over the multitude of Egypt, and cause it and the daughters of magnificent nations to go down to the lower earth. with those going down into the pit. Asshur is there to whom graves have been given in the sides of the pit, all of them slain with the sword. Ezekiel 32:18, 22-23.

What these words mean may be seen from the explanations given above. In David,

Jehovah, You have caused my soul to come up out of hell; You have caused me to live, out of those going down to the pit. Psalms 30:3.

In the same author,

I have been reckoned with them going down to the pit; I have become as a man with no strength. You have put me in the pit of the lower ones, in darkness, in the depths. Psalms 88:4, 6.

In Jonah,

I had gone down to the bottoms of the mountains; the bars of the land were upon me for ever. Nonetheless You brought up my life from the pit. Jonah 2:6.

This refers to the Lord's temptations, and to deliverance from them. 'The bottoms of the mountains' means where the most condemned are, for the gloomy dark clouds which seemingly surround them are mountains.

[6] As regards 'the pit' meaning falsity laid waste, and in the abstract sense falsity itself, this is clear in addition in Isaiah,

They will be gathered together, in a gathering as the bound for the pit, and they will be shut up in the dungeon; but after a multitude of days they will be visited. Isaiah 24:22.

In the same prophet,

Where is the anger of the oppressor? He that leads out will hasten to open, and he will not die at the pit; nor will bread fail. Isaiah 51:13-14.

In Ezekiel,

Behold, I am bringing strangers upon you, the violent of the nations, who will draw their swords against the loveliness of your wisdom, and they will profane your splendour. They will bring you down into the pit, and you will die the deaths of those slain in the heart of the seas. Ezekiel 28:7-8.

This refers to the prince of Tyre, who means people under the influence of false assumptions.

[7] In Zechariah,

Exult greatly, O daughter of Zion! Make a noise, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King comes to you, just, meek, and riding on an ass, and on a colt, the young of she-asses. Through the blood of the covenant I will let out your bound ones from the pit in which there is no water. Zechariah 9:9, 11.

'The pit in which there is no water' stands for falsity that has no truth at all within it, as also in verse 24 below where it is said that they cast Joseph into the pit and the pit was empty, having no water in it. In David,

To You, O Jehovah, do I call; my rock, do not be silent to me, lest if You are silent to me I seem like those going down into the pit. Psalms 28:1.

In the same author,

Jehovah caused me to come up out of the pit of VASTATION, out of the miry clay, and He set my feet upon a rock. Psalms 40:2.

[8] In the same author,

Do not let the flow of waters rush over me, nor the deep swallow me up, nor the pit close its mouth over me. Psalms 69:15.

In the same author,

He sent His word and healed them, and rescued them from their pits. Psalms 107:20.

'From pits' stands for from falsities. In the same author,

Make haste, answer me, O Jehovah. My spirit is consumed. Do not hide Your face from me, lest I become like those going down into the pit. Psalms 143:7.

Because 'a pit' means falsity, and 'the blind' those who are immersed in falsities, 2383, the Lord therefore says,

Let them alone; they are blind leaders of the blind. For if the blind leads the blind both will fall into a pit. Matthew 15:13, 14; Luke 6:39.

Something similar to what was represented by Joseph was also represented by the prophet Jeremiah, who describes what happened to him as follows,

They took Jeremiah and cast him into the pit which was in the court of the guard, and let Jeremiah down by ropes into the pit where there was no water. Jeremiah 38:6.

That is, they cast Divine Truths away among falsities that had no truth at all within them.

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