8280. Verses 6-10 Your right hand, O Jehovah, has been magnified in strength; with Your right hand, O Jehovah, You break the enemy in pieces. And in the greatness of Your excellence You destroy those rising up against You; You send out Your wrath, it eats them up like stubble. And with the wind of Your nostrils the waters were heaped up, the floods stood as a heap; the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea. The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my soul will be filled with them. I will unsheathe my sword, my hand will drive them out. You blew with Your wind, the sea covered them over; they sought a deep place like lead in the mighty waters. 'Your right hand, O Jehovah, has been magnified in strength' means that the Lord's almighty power has been displayed. 'With Your right hand, O Jehovah, You break the enemy in pieces' means the effect almighty power has on evils and resulting falsities, whose power is eliminated. 'And in the greatness of Your excellence You destroy those rising up against You' means that things opposed to the Divine are cast aside by Him as worthless. 'You send out Your wrath' means the furious desires of the evil and their attempt to do violence. 'It eats them up like stubble' means consequent devastation and damnation, for which they themselves are responsible. 'And with the wind of Your nostrils the waters were heaped up' means falsities gathered together through heaven's presence. 'The floods stood as a heap' means that those constantly attempting what was evil could not engage in any molestation whatever. 'The depths were congealed in the heart of the sea' means that utter falsities arising from evil belonging to the desires of self-love could not rise to the surface. 'The enemy said' means the thought of those ruled by evils and the falsities arising from them, before the Lord's Coming. 'I will pursue' means molestation. 'I will overtake' means placing in subjection. 'I will divide the spoil' means servitude. 'My soul will be filled' means delight. 'I will unsheathe the sword' means unceasing conflict on the part of falsity arising from evil. 'My hand will drive them out' means that by its power heaven will be destroyed. 'You blew with Your wind' means the Lord's presence with the angels. 'The sea covered them over' means that all the falsity they possessed hemmed them in. 'They sought a deep place like lead' means that evils drew them down to lower levels like heavy objects in the world. 'In the mighty waters' means surrounded by a vast quantity of falsities.

3769. 'And there was a large stone over the mouth of the well' means that it, that is to say, the Word, was closed up. This becomes clear without explanation. The Word is said to be closed up when it is understood purely according to the sense of the letter and everything there is taken for doctrine. It is even more closed up when those things are acknowledged as doctrine which show favour to the desires that go with self-love and love of the world, for these especially roll the large stone over the mouth of the well, that is, they close the Word up. In this case people neither know nor wish to know that any interior sense exists within the Word. Yet they can see that the Word has an interior sense from the many places where the interior sense is used to explain the literal, and also from the generally accepted teachings within the Church which, by means of various explanations, are brought to bear on the literal sense.

[2] What is meant by the Word's being closed up becomes particularly clear from the Jews who explain every single thing literally, and as a consequence believe that they have been chosen in preference to everybody else in all the world, and that the Messiah is coming who will lead them into the land of Canaan and will exalt them above all nations and peoples of the world. For the Jews are governed by loves of an earthly and bodily nature, which are such that they close the Word altogether so far as interior teachings are concerned. What is more, they do not even know whether any heavenly kingdom exists, whether they are going to live after death, what the internal man is, or even the existence of anything spiritual, let alone that the Messiah has come to save souls. The fact that the Word is in their case closed up may also be seen quite clearly from the consideration that although they live among Christians they nevertheless accept nothing whatever of Christian teaching, in accordance with the following words in Isaiah,

Say to this people, Hearing hear, and do not understand; and seeing see, and do not comprehend. Make the hearts of this people fat and their ears heavy, and plaster over their eyes. And I said, How long, O Lord? And He said, Until cities have been laid waste till no inhabitant [is left], and houses till no man [is left], and the land has been laid waste as a desolation. Isaiah 6:9-11; Matthew 13:14-15; John 12:40-41.

[3] To the extent that someone is under the influence of self-love and love of the world, and of the desires that go with these loves, the Word is to him closed up. For those loves have self as the end in view, an end which fosters natural light but extinguishes heavenly light. As a result people see clearly the things that belong to self and the world but nothing whatever of those that belong to the Lord and to His kingdom. When this is so they may indeed read the Word, but their end in view is the increase of personal position and wealth, or that they may be seen by others; or else they read it because it is the done thing and therefore merely from force of habit, or they read it as a religious duty, but without any amendment of life in view. To these people the Word has in different ways become closed up, for some so closed that they do not wish to know anything at all apart from that which their own teachings - whatever these may be - declare.

[4] If anyone were to say, for example, that the power of opening and of shutting heaven has not been granted to Peter but to faith rooted in love, which faith is meant by Peter's keys, they would never acknowledge it because self-love and love of the world stand in the way. Or if anyone were to say that the saints ought not to be worshipped but the Lord alone, they would not accept that either. Nor would they believe it if someone were to say that the bread and wine in the Holy Supper mean the Lord's love towards the whole human race and man's love for the Lord in return. And if anyone were to say that faith - other than the good of faith, which is charity - does not achieve anything, they would give a completely contrary explanation. And so it would be with everything else. People like these can see nothing at all of the truth contained in the Word and do not wish to see it. Instead they adhere rigidly to their own doctrinal opinions. They do not even wish to hear of the existence of the internal sense in which the holiness and the glory of the Word reside. Indeed when they hear about the existence of it they are revolted because of their detestation of the mere mention of it. So the Word has been closed up. Yet the Word is such that it is open right into heaven, and through heaven towards the Lord, and is closed only in relation to man, that is, insofar as he is subject to the evils of self-love and love of the world where the ends in view of his life are concerned, and is subject to false assumptions resulting from those evils. From this one may see what is meant by 'a large stone over the mouth of the well'.