Apocalypse Explained, volume 1 - Swedenborg Foundation

APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED 467shall not cleave one to another, even as iron doth not mingle withclay.”238. And miserable and poor, signifies that they do not know thatthey have neither knowledges of truth nor knowledges of good.This is evident from the signification of “miserable” or “pitiable,”as meaning those who are in no knowledges of truth; and from thesignification of “poor” as meaning those who are in no knowledgesof good. That this is the meaning of “miserable” and “poor” isevident from many passages in the Word, and also from this, thatspiritual misery and poverty are nothing else than a lack of theknowledges of truth and good, for the spirit is then miserable andpoor; but when the spirit possesses these it is rich and wealthy;therefore also “riches” and “wealth” in the Word signifies spiritualriches and wealth, which are the knowledges of truth and good (aswas shown just above, n. 236).[2] “Miserable and poor” are terms used in many passages in theWord. He who is ignorant of the spiritual sense of the Wordbelieves that by these no others are meant than the miserable andpoor in the world. These, however, are not meant, but those whoare not in truths and goods and in the knowledges thereof; and bythe “miserable” indeed, those who are not in truths because not inthe knowledges of truths, and by the “poor” those who are not ingoods because not in the knowledges of goods. As these two, truthsand goods, are meant by these two expressions, the two in manyplaces are mentioned together; as in the passages that now follow.In David:I am miserable and poor, Lord, remember me (Ps. 40:17; 70:5).Incline Thine eaThe “miserable and poor” here mean evidently those who aremiserable and poor, not in respect to worldly riches but in respectto spiritual riches, as David says this of himself; therefore he alsosaid, “Jehovah, incline thine ear, and answer me.”[3] In the same: