162. (Verse 21) And I gave her time to repent of her whoredom; and she repented not. That this signifies that those who are in falsities neither turn themselves to truths, nor by truths, is evident from the signification of repenting of whoredom, as being to turn from falsities to truths; for whoredom signifies the falsification of truth; and to repent is to turn from such falsities, because repentance is an actual turning from falsities to truths, and dissociation and separation from the former (as may be seen above, n. 143). Also from the signification of her not repenting, as being that they do not turn themselves from falsities to truths. These things are said concerning Jezebel, but they are to be understood of those who, from the delight of the loves of self and of the world, have falsified truths and adulterated goods; for in the prophetical parts of the Word one person is named, and thereby are meant all those who are of such a quality.

[2] Something shall be said briefly concerning the circumstance that those who falsify truths in themselves by applying them to the delight of the love of self, do not afterwards turn themselves to truths. Man, from his Spiritual or Internal, and from his Intellectual, sees the truths which pertain to the church from the Word, but he receives them there only in proportion as he so loves them as to be willing to do them. When man thus wills to do them, his internal or spiritual man calls forth and elevates to itself from the natural man and its memory the truths which are therein, and conjoins them to the love of his will; thus the internal spiritual man is opened, where the interior or higher mind dwells, and is successively filled and perfected. But if he suffers the natural delight, which is the delight of the love of self and of the world, to predominate, he then sees all things from that delight, and, in this case, if he perceives truths, he applies them to his own love, and falsifies them. When this is the case, the internal spiritual man is closed, because it is accommodated to the reception of such things as pertain to heaven, and cannot endure truths to be falsified. Wherefore, when truths are falsified, it contracts and closes up, like a fibril when touched with a prickle or sting; and the internal being once closed, the love of self or the love of the world reigns, or both together, and they form the external or natural man altogether in opposition to the internal or spiritual man. This is why those who have falsified truths by applying them to the delights of the love of self and of the world cannot afterwards turn themselves to truths. This is what is meant by these words,

"I gave" to the woman Jezebel "time to repent of her whoredom, and she repented not."

143. Repent. That this signifies dissociation from them is evident from the signification of "repent" when predicated of those things which are signified by the doctrine of Balaam, and by the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, as being to be dissociated from them. Repentance is nothing else, for no one can be said to repent unless he actually separate himself from those things of which he has repented; and he separates himself from them when he shuns them and holds them in aversion. (That this is repentance, or penitence, may be seen in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 159-172.)