Apocalypse Explained, volume 1 - Swedenborg Foundation

APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED 483Jehovah said to the prophet, Put off the sackcloth from upon thyloins, and put off thy shoe from upon thy foot. And he did so. ThenJehovah said, Like as My servant Isaiah hath gone naked and barefoot,so shall the king of Assyria lead the captivity of Egypt, and the crowd ofCush that is to be carried away, lads and old men, naked and barefoot,and with buttocks bare, the nakedness of Egypt (20:2–4).What of the church and of heaven lies hidden in these words noone can see unless he knows their spiritual sense; for in everyparticular of the Word there is something of the church and ofheaven, because the Word is spiritual; this shall therefore beexplained. By “prophet” the doctrine of the church is here meant;“putting off the sackcloth from his loins,” or presenting the loinsnaked, means to disclose filthy loves; the customary “sackcloth” ofthe prophet here means the breeches that cover, and “the loin”signify such loves; “putting off the shoe from upon his foot,” orunshoeing the soles of the foot, signifies to disclose the filthy thingsof nature; that “the king of Assyria shall lead the captivity of Egypt,and the crowd of Cush that is to be carried away,” means that theperverted rational will confirm evils and falsities by means ofknowledges (scientifica) and by means of fallacies; “lads and oldmen” means by means of all things both general and particular;“naked and barefoot” means that they are deprived of all truth andall good; “buttocks bare” means the evils of self-love; “thenakedness of Egypt” means falsities therefrom. From this it is clearwhat things of the church and of heaven are here treated of,namely, that the perverted rational, which is the rational that deniesGod and attributes all things to nature, confirms itself by means ofknowledges and fallacies, until it is destitute of all theunderstanding of truth and the will of good. (That “prophet” in theWord means doctrine, see Arcana Coelestia, n. 2534, 7269; that the“loins” signify loves in both senses, n. 3021, 4280, 5059; that“feet” signify the natural things with man, and “the soles of thefeet” the things that are in ultimates, n. 2162, 3147, 3761, 3986,4280, 4938–4952; that “shoes” signify these same things in respectto their covering, n. 1748, 2162, 4835, 6844; that “the king ofAssyria” signifies the rational in both senses, n. 119, 1186; that“Egypt” signifies the faculty of knowing (scientificum) of thenatural man, in both senses, good and bad, n. 1164, 1165, 1186,1462, 5700, 5702, 6015, 6651, 6679, 6683, 6692, 7296, 9340,