Apocalypse Explained, Vol. 6

damnation of profanation of truth. “Thou shalt not be joined with them in the sepulchre, for thou hast destroyed thy land, thou hast slain thy people; the seed of the wicked shall not be named for ever,” signifies more grievous damnation than that of the rest, because all things of the church have been extinguished. “Prepare slaughter for his sons for the iniquity of their fathers, that they rise not up and possess the land, and the faces of the land be filled with cities,” signifies their eternal destruction. “I will cut off from Babylon name and remnant, and son and son's son,” signifies total destruction, because they have no longer anything of good or of truth. “I will make thee a heritage for the bittern, and pools of waters, and I will sweep her with the besom of destruction,” signifies infernal falsity through destruction of truth. “I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains will I tread him under foot,” signifies that in the new church there shall spring up no reasonings from falsities against truths and goods. Furthermore, the things in this chapter may be seen more particularly explained in other parts of this work (as n. 208[b], 223[b], 304[d, g.], 331[b], 386[b], 405[e], 539[b], 589, 594[d], 608[a], 659[e], 687[b], 697[c], 724[e], 727[b], 730[b], 741[d], 768[e], 811[d]).

[e.] [14.] In the same,

“So shall Babylon, the ornament of kingdoms and the glory of the magnificence of the Chaldeans, be as God’s overthrow, Sodom and Gomorrah; it shall not be inhabited for ever; it shall not be dwelt in even from generation to generation; that the Arabian may not abide there, nor shepherds make their flocks to lie down there; but the ziim wild beasts of the desert shall lie down there, and their houses shall be full of ochim howling creatures, and the daughters of the owl shall dwell there, and the satyrs shall dance there. And the ijim jackals/howling demons shall answer in her palaces, and dragons in her palaces of delights. Her time is near to come, and her day shall not be prolonged” (xiii. 19–22).

This entire chapter treats of the total devastation of all things of good and all things of truth of the church, with those who are of Babylon. “So shall Babylon be” means in the sense of the letter the great city called Babylon; but in the spiritual sense it means a church that has become Babylon. Babylon is called “the ornament of kingdoms and the glory of the magnificence of the Chaldeans,” because of the wisdom of that church in its beginning, as has been said before; but in general “Babel (or Babylon)” means a church in which all goods of love have been destroyed and finally profaned, and “Chaldea” a church in which all truths of faith are destroyed and finally profaned; and this is why it is said “as God's overthrow, Sodom and Gomorrah,” “Sodom” also signifying destruction of all good by love of self, and “Gomorrah” destruction of all truth therefrom. “It shall not