Arcana Coelestia #3696
3696. And lay down in that place. That this signifies the tranquillity of the state, is evident from the signification of “lying down,” as being to be in a state of tranquillity; for “lying down” and “sleeping” signify nothing else. That in the internal sense this is the signification of “lying down,” may also be seen from other passages in the Word, concerning which just below. With those who are to be regenerated, who are here treated of in the internal representative sense, the case is that first of all they are in a state of tranquillity, or in a state of external peace (for external peace, or peace in externals, is called “tranquillity”); and the same is produced from the Divine state of peace that is inmostly within it; and it comes forth into the externals through the removal of cupidities and falsities; for these are what cause all unrest. Moreover at the beginning of his life, that is, during his infancy, every man is in a state of tranquillity; but as he advances in life, that is, grows up to manhood, he removes himself from this state, because he gives himself up to worldly cares, and consequently to anxieties caused by the cupidities of the love of self and of the world, and the derivative falsities.
[2] The case is almost the same with the new life in the man who is being regenerated: at first he is in a state of tranquillity; but as he passes into a new life, he also passes at the same time into an untranquil state; for the evils and falsities with which he had before become imbued emerge and come forth, and disturb him, and this at last to such a degree that he is in temptations and vexations inflicted by the diabolical crew, who are continually striving to destroy the state of his new life. Yet inmostly the man is in a state of peace, for unless this were with him inmostly, he would not combat, for in his battlings he is continually looking to this state as the end, and unless he had such an end, he would in no wise have power and strength to combat. This moreover is the reason why he overcomes; and because this is the end in view, he also comes into this state after the combats or temptations. This is like the state of spring, which succeeds the state of autumn and winter; or it is like the state of dawn, which succeeds evening and night. (That a state of peace in spiritual things is like spring and dawn in natural things, may be seen above, n. 1726, 2780; and that peace is from good and truth, and unrest from what is evil and false, n. 3170)
[3] That in the Word “to lie down” signifies a state of tranquillity, may be seen from the following passages.
In Moses:
If ye walk in My statutes, and keep My commandments and do them, I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid; and I will cause the evil wild beast to cease out of the land, neither shall the sword pass through your land (Leviticus 26:3, 6); where “lying down” is manifestly predicated of a state of peace and tranquillity; “evil beasts” denote the cupidities of evil (n. 45, 46, 908), which shall “cease;” the “sword” denotes, falsity fighting against truth (n. 2799), which shall not “pass through;” all which shows that peace and the tranquillity of peace are from good and truth, and that the destruction thereof is from evils and falsities.
[4] In Isaiah:
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together (Isaiah 11:6-7); where the Lord is treated of, and the state of peace in His kingdom; that they shall “lie down together” signifies that they cannot be infested by any evil and falsity.
In Hosea:
In that day will I make a covenant for them with the wild beast of the field, and with the fowl of the heavens, and with the creeping thing of the earth; and I will break the bow and the sword and war out of the land, and will make them to lie down in confidence (Hos. 2:18); where in like manner “to lie down” signifies a state of tranquillity on the removal of falsities and evils, which occasion unrest.
[5] In David:
I will lay me down and sleep; and I will awake, for Jehovah sustaineth me. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of the people that have set themselves against me round about (Psalms 3:5-6); where “to lie down and sleep” signifies a state of tranquillity and security. Again:
In peace I will both lay me down and sleep; for Thou, Jehovah alone, makest me to dwell in confidence (Psalms 4:8).
And again:
He will make me to lie down in green pastures; He will lead me to the waters of rest; He will restore my soul (Psalms 23:2-3).
From these passages it is evident that a state of peace and tranquillity is signified by “lying down;” and that by “lying down in that place” is signified the tranquillity of the state, for in the internal sense “place” signifies state (n. 3692).
Leviticus 26
1
"'You shall make for yourselves no idols, neither shall you raise up an engraved image or a pillar, neither shall you place any figured stone in your land, to bow down to it: for I am Yahweh your God.
2
"'You shall keep my Sabbaths, and have reverence for my sanctuary. I am Yahweh.
3
"'If you walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;
4
then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.
5
Your threshing shall reach to the vintage, and the vintage shall reach to the sowing time; and you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.
6
"'I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and no one will make you afraid; and I will remove evil animals out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.
7
You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.
8
Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand; and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.
9
"'I will have respect for you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and will establish my covenant with you.
10
You shall eat old store long kept, and you shall move out the old because of the new.
11
I will set my tent among you: and my soul won't abhor you.
12
I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you will be my people.
13
I am Yahweh your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves; and I have broken the bars of your yoke, and made you go upright.
14
"'But if you will not listen to me, and will not do all these commandments;
15
and if you shall reject my statutes, and if your soul abhors my ordinances, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant;
16
I also will do this to you: I will appoint terror over you, even consumption and fever, that shall consume the eyes, and make the soul to pine away; and you will sow your seed in vain, for your enemies will eat it.
17
I will set my face against you, and you will be struck before your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you; and you will flee when no one pursues you.
18
"'If you in spite of these things will not listen to me, then I will chastise you seven times more for your sins.
19
I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your sky like iron, and your soil like brass;
20
and your strength will be spent in vain; for your land won't yield its increase, neither will the trees of the land yield their fruit.
21
"'If you walk contrary to me, and won't listen to me, then I will bring seven times more plagues on you according to your sins.
22
I will send the wild animals among you, which will rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, and make you few in number; and your roads will become desolate.
23
"'If by these things you won't be reformed to me, but will walk contrary to me;
24
then I will also walk contrary to you; and I will strike you, even I, seven times for your sins.
25
I will bring a sword upon you, that will execute the vengeance of the covenant; and you will be gathered together within your cities: and I will send the pestilence among you; and you will be delivered into the hand of the enemy.
26
When I break your staff of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver your bread again by weight: and you shall eat, and not be satisfied.
27
"'If you in spite of this won't listen to me, but walk contrary to me;
28
then I will walk contrary to you in wrath; and I also will chastise you seven times for your sins.
29
You will eat the flesh of your sons, and you will eat the flesh of your daughters.
30
I will destroy your high places, and cut down your incense altars, and cast your dead bodies upon the bodies of your idols; and my soul will abhor you.
31
I will lay your cities waste, and will bring your sanctuaries to desolation, and I will not take delight in the sweet fragrance of your offerings.
32
I will bring the land into desolation; and your enemies that dwell therein will be astonished at it.
33
I will scatter you among the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you: and your land will be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.
34
Then the land will enjoy its sabbaths as long as it lies desolate and you are in your enemies' land. Even then the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths.
35
As long as it lies desolate it shall have rest, even the rest which it didn't have in your sabbaths, when you lived on it.
36
"'As for those of you who are left, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies: and the sound of a driven leaf will put them to flight; and they shall flee, as one flees from the sword; and they will fall when no one pursues.
37
They will stumble over one another, as it were before the sword, when no one pursues: and you will have no power to stand before your enemies.
38
You will perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies will eat you up.
39
Those of you who are left will pine away in their iniquity in your enemies' lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them.
40
"'If they confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, in their trespass which they trespassed against me, and also that, because they walked contrary to me,
41
I also walked contrary to them, and brought them into the land of their enemies: if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled, and they then accept the punishment of their iniquity;
42
then I will remember my covenant with Jacob; and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham; and I will remember the land.
43
The land also will be left by them, and will enjoy its sabbaths while it lies desolate without them: and they will accept the punishment of their iniquity; because, even because they rejected my ordinances, and their soul abhorred my statutes.
44
Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them; for I am Yahweh their God;
45
but I will for their sake remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am Yahweh.'"
46
These are the statutes, ordinances and laws, which Yahweh made between him and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai by Moses.
