765. 18:8 "Therefore her plagues will come in one day - death and mourning and hunger." This symbolically means that consequently, at the time of the Last Judgment the punishments for the evils they have done will come back on themselves - death, which is life in hell and an inner anguish at being cast down from their domination - mourning, which is an internal anguish owing to their poverty and wretchedness instead of opulence - and hunger, which is the loss of any understanding of truth.

"Therefore" refers to the fact that she said in her heart, "I sit as queen and am not a widow, and will not see grief," as explained just above in no. 764. In one day means, symbolically, at the time of the Last Judgment, called also the Day of Judgment. Plagues symbolize punishments for the evils they did in the world, which will then come back on them. Death symbolizes life in hell, and internal anguish at being cast down from their dominion, which in no. 763 above is called torment. We will say something about this death below. Mourning symbolizes an inner anguish owing to their poverty and wretchedness instead of wealth, as explained also in no. 764 above. Hunger symbolizes the loss of any understanding of truth.

People of the Roman Catholic religion who have exercised dominion from a love of self and without a love of useful services for their own sake, suffer these three plagues or punishments. They are also atheists at heart, since they attribute everything to their own prudence or to nature. All the rest of that tribe who are of the same character, but who do not think deeply within themselves, are idolaters.

That the plague or punishment called hunger means the loss of any understanding of truth may be seen in no. 323 above.

Every person, indeed, while living in the world, possesses rationality, that is, a faculty for understanding truth. This faculty continues to exist in every person after death. Yet those who from a love of self or a conceit in their own intelligence have imbued themselves with religious falsities in the world, after death refuse to understand truth, and to refuse is be virtually unable. This inability owing to a lack of will is found in all people of the character described, and it increases as the delight in their lust for falsity to gain dominion draws them to imbue themselves with new falsities to support it, so that intellectually they become embodiments of nothing but falsity and remain so to eternity.

Similar statements are made regarding Babylon in Jeremiah:

Your mother was deeply ashamed; she who bore you was filled with shame. Behold, the last of the nations shall be a wilderness, a dry land and a desert. Because of the wrath of Jehovah she shall not be inhabited, but shall be a complete wasteland. Everyone who passes by Babylon shall be astounded, and shall hiss at all her plagues. (Jeremiah 50:12-13)

2538. 'Know that you will certainly die' means that no doctrine of truth and good will exist. This too becomes clear from what has been stated above in 2516, where also similar words occur. Likewise 'everyone who is yours' means all that belonged to it together, namely to doctrine. The reason why in the internal sense 'everyone' means every thing or all things is that persons mentioned in the Word mean real things, and so 'everyone who is Abimelech's' means every thing or all things of doctrine. From all this it is now evident what the internal sense is of the words in this verse, namely that the spiritual truth of doctrine was by him to be brought back untouched by the rational, and that in this way it was to be taught and to be revealed to Him, and so the doctrine would have life. But if spiritual truth was not by him brought back untouched from the rational, the doctrine of truth and good would be worthless in every single respect of it.

[2] The position with doctrine is that insofar as belief is rooted in what belongs to the human, that is, in sensory impressions, factual knowledge, and rational deductions, no doctrine exists; but insofar as sensory impressions, factual knowledge, and rational deductions are put aside, that is, insofar as belief is formed quite apart from these, doctrine comes into being because the Divine is able to flow in; whereas those properties possessed by the human prevent influx and reception. It is however one thing to rely for belief on rational deductions, factual knowledge, and sensory impressions, that is, to resort to them so as to arrive at belief, but quite another to confirm and strengthen belief by means of rational deductions, factual knowledge, and sensory impressions. The difference between the two approaches will be evident in what follows below, for these also are dealt with in the internal sense in this chapter.