488. "For it has been given to the gentiles." This symbolically means, because, owing to evil practices, the state of that church has been lost and forsaken. This follows from the symbolic meaning of gentiles as being people caught up in evil practices, and abstractly, evil practices themselves (nos. 147, 483).

147. "'To him I will give power over the nations.'" This symbolically means that they will overcome the evils in themselves that come from hell.

Nations in the Word mean people impelled by good, and in an opposite sense, people impelled by evil, thus abstractly goods or evils themselves, as may be seen in no. 483 below. Here, therefore, to give power over the nations means, symbolically, to make it possible for the people to overcome the evils in themselves that come from hell.