216. 'Be zealous therefore and repent' signifies that this [healing through temptations] may result from an affection of truth and a turning away of untruth. Here, 'Be zealous' is said, because above (verse 15) it was said, 'I would thou wert cold or hot', here that he may be hot, for zeal is spiritual heat, and spiritual heat is an affection of love, here the affection of the love of truth; and he who acts out of an affection of the love of truth, acts also out of an aversion to untruth. These things are therefore signified by 'repent'. 'Zeal' in the Word, where [it treats] of the Lord, signifies love and wrath. Love (John ii 17; Ps. lxix 9 [H.B. 10]; Isa. xxxvii 32; lxiii 15; Ezek. xxxix 25; Zech. i 14; viii 2). Wrath (Deut. xxxii 16, 21; Ps. lxxix 5, 6; Ezek. viii [3, 5; xvi] 42; xxiii 25; Zeph. i 18; iii 8). 'Zeal' with the Lord, however, is not wrath. It only appears like it in externals. Interiorly it is love. In externals it appears like wrath, because the Lord seems to be angry while He is reproving a man, especially when his evil is punishing him. The fact that leave is given by love that his evil may be removed, is just like the case of a parent who, if he loves the children, allows chastising for the purpose of removing their evils. It is plain from these [considerations] why Jehovah says He is 'zealous' (Deut. iv 24; v 9, 10; vi 14, 15).