139. Internal Meaning of Ezekiel, Chapter 16

The successive states of the Jewish church. (2)

1-2 There was nothing in it but falsity and evil. (2)

3-6 It was forsaken by the Lord from the beginning, because it was without anything of the church. (2)

7-12 After a time truths and goods of every kind and species were given to it through the Word, and thus evils and falsities were removed. (2)

13-14 Thus it could have been in intelligence. (2)

15-20 It falsified all things of the Word. (2)

21-22 It extinguished truths and goods, and became as in the beginning. (2)

23-25 It turned truths into falsities (2)

26-28 by knowledges [scientifica] of the natural man, by traditions, and by reasonings from them, (2)

29-30 finally profaning [truths]. (2)

31 It exalted itself above all men. (2)

32-34 It obtruded its falsities on others. (2)

35-42 They will utterly perish by the falsities by which the truths of the Word have been destroyed. (3)

43-45 Thus they will be as in the beginning. (3)

46-52 The like has come to pass with the Israelitish church, but in a less degree. (3, 17)

53-55 Nevertheless the church in general shall be restored. (11)

56-58 It is everywhere better than in the Jewish church. (11)

59-63 A new church is to be instituted among others. (11)

Flesh signifies man, and spirit signifies the influx of truth and goodness from the Lord, as in Joel 2:28. In Isaiah 31:3, flesh signifies what is man's own, and spirit life from the Lord. To eat the flesh of another signifies to destroy his proprium.

(参考: Apocalypse Explained 654; Joel 2)