Arcana Coelestia volume 7 - Swedenborg Foundation

ARCANA COELESTIA 4088Abroad shall the sword bereave, and out of the chambers terror,both young man and virgin, the suckling with the old man (Deut.32:25);where the “sword” denotes the vastation of truth and thepunishment of falsity (see n. 2799); “terror out of the chambers”denotes out of man’s interiors. That the “chambers” here are notthe chambers that are meant is evident.[4] In David:Who watereth the mountains from his chambers (Ps. 104:13);“to water the mountains” in the spiritual sense is to bless those whoare in love to the Lord, and in love toward the neighbor (that a“mountain” is the celestial of love, see n. 795, 1430, 4210); hence“from his chambers” is from the interiors of heaven. In Luke:Whatsoever ye have spoken in the darkness shall be heard in thelight, and that which ye have spoken in the ear in the bed chambersshall be proclaimed upon the roofs (Luke 12:3);where also “bed chambers” denote the interiors of man, namely,what he has thought, what he has purposed, and what he hasendeavored to do. In Matthew:When thou prayest, enter into thy bed chamber, and when thouhast shut thy door, pray in secret (Matt. 6:6);“to enter into the bed chamber and pray” means not in the outwardappearance; for this was said representatively.5695. And he washed his faces. That this signifies that it soarranged is evident from the signification of “washing the faces” ashere being to arrange so as not to appear; for the face was washedthat no trace of tears might appear; consequently it was arranged inthis way. How the case is with these things will of the Lord’sDivine mercy be told in the following pages. Here something mustbe said about the correspondence of the face with the interiors. The