Apocalypse Explained, volume 1 - Swedenborg Foundation

APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED 226Midianitish woman in the place of their lust, and for doing that healso was blessed; and for the same reason there were slain of Israeltwenty and four thousand (as may be seen, Num. 25:1 to the end).Such punishments and such plagues merely because of the eating ofidol sacrifices, and committing whoredom with the women ofanother nation, would never have been commanded to be done,unless they had involved heinous offenses against heaven and thechurch, which do not appear in the literal sense of the Word, butonly in its spiritual sense. The heinous offenses involved were theprofanation at once of the goods and of the truths of the church,and this, as has been said above, was the appropriation of evil andfalsity.141b. [3] That adulteries and whoredoms involve such things isevident from numerous passages in the Word, where they arerecounted, which show clearly that they signify the adulterations ofgood and the falsifications of truth, as in the following. In Ezekiel:Jerusalem, thou hast trusted in thy beauty, and hast committedwhoredom because of thy renown, so that thou hast poured out thywhoredoms on everyone that passed by. Thou has committedwhoredom with the sons of Egypt thy neighbors, great of flesh, and hastmultiplied thy whoredom. Thou hast committed whoredom with thesons of Asshur, when there was no satiety to thee, with whom thoucommittedst whoredom. Thou hast multiplied thy whoredom even toChaldea, the land of traffic. An adulterous woman receiveth strangersinstead of her husband. All give reward to their harlots, 10 but thou hastgiven reward to all thy lovers, and hast rewarded them that they maycome unto thee on every side in thy whoredoms. Wherefore, O harlot,hear the word of Jehovah (Ezek. 16:15, 26, 28–29, 32–33, 35 seq.).Who cannot see that by “whoredoms” here are not meantwhoredoms in the usual natural sense? For the church in which allthe truths of the Word have been falsified is treated of; this is whatis meant by “whoredoms”; for “whoredoms” in the spiritual sense,or spiritual whoredoms, are no other than falsifications of truth.“Jerusalem” here is the church; the “sons of Egypt,” with whom shecommitted whoredom, are knowledges of every kind, perverselyapplied to confirm falsities; the “sons of Asshur” are reasoningsfrom falsities; “Chaldea,” the land of traffic, is the profanation of