10731. 'Everyone doing work on it shall die' means spiritual death to those who are led by self and selfish loves, and not by the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of '[doing] work on the sabbath day' as being led by self and selfish loves, and not by the Lord, dealt with in 8495, 10360, 10362, 10364; and from the meaning of 'dying' as damnation or spiritual death, dealt with in 6119, 9008. Those led by self and selfish loves do not believe in the Lord, for belief in the Lord consists in being led by Him and not by self. Nor, as a result of this, do they see any value at all in the union of His Human with the Divine itself, nor indeed any value at all in being regenerated by the Lord, nor thus any value in the Church's truths either. For they say to themselves, What are such things? Or, What advantage do we have if we know them, indeed think about them and desire them? Surely we live in the way others do, so what difference does it make? The reason why they think like this is that the life of the world, not the life of heaven, governs their thinking; the life of heaven is something about which they are ignorant and no one's thought can be governed by that of which he is ignorant. People such as these therefore cannot be saved, for they do not have heaven within them and consequently cannot be in heaven; their interiors are not in accord with it. For unless their interiors have been rearranged by the Lord to conform to an image of heaven there can be no joining to heaven. This is what those people are like who refuse to believe in those all-embracing realities. This condition in a person is what is meant by '[doing] work on the sabbath day', and the spiritual death of such is what is meant by their natural death.

9008. 'Shall surely die' means damnation. This is clear from the meaning of 'surely dying' as damnation, dealt with in 5407, 6119, 7494. The reason why 'death' means damnation is that with those who have been damned the truths of faith and forms of the good of charity have been wiped out. These are what constitute the most real kind of life a person has, for they are received from the Lord, who is the one and only source of life. When they have been wiped out their place is then taken by falsities and evils; and these, being the opposites of truths and forms of good which are the constituents of life, are therefore the constituents of death - spiritual death, which is damnation, hell, and eternal unhappiness. The reason why those immersed in evils and falsities, that is, those who are in hell, continue to be alive is that they were born human beings and consequently have the ability to receive life from the Lord. And they do receive life from the Lord, as much life as will enable them to think, reason, and speak, to make their evil look like good and their falsity like truth, and so to give the appearance of life.