323. 'With the sword (romphaea) and with famine and with death and by the beasts of the land' signifies by means of untruths of doctrine, evils of life, love of proprium, and lusts. That by a 'sword' is signified truth fighting against evils and untruths and destroying them may be seen above (n. 52, 108, 117). Here therefore by 'sword' (machoera), because [the Word] treats of the destruction of every good of the Church, untruths of doctrine are signified. That by 'famine' evils of life are signified, will be confirmed below. By 'death' the love of a man's proprium is signified, because by 'death' is signified the extinction of spiritual life, and as a result a natural life separated from a spiritual life, as above (n. 321) and this life is the life of the love of a man's proprium, for out of this life the man does not love anything else but himself and the world, and consequently he loves evils of every kind, which are delightful to him on account of the love of that life. That by 'the beasts of the land' the lusts derived from that love are signified will be seen below (n. 567). Here something will be said about the signification of 'famine'. 'Famine' signifies a deprivation and rejection of cognitions of truth and good, originating from evils of life. Again it signifies ignorance of cognitions of truth and good originating from a deficiency thereof in the Church; and it also signifies a longing for knowing and understanding them. [2] I. That 'famine' signifies a deprivation and rejection of cognitions of truth and good, originating from evils of life, and consequently signifies evils of life, can be established from the following passages:-
They shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, so that their carcase shall be food for the birds of the heavens and he beasts of the land Jer. xvi 4.
These two things shall come unto thee, devastation and breaking up, and famine and the sword Isa. li 19.
Behold Me, visiting upon them, the young men shall die by the sword, sons and daughters shall die by famine Jer. xi 22.
Give his sons to the famine, and mow them down upon the hand of the sword, so that men may become slain by death Jer. xviii 21.
I will send upon them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and I will make them like rough figs that cannot be eaten for badness, and I will pursue them with the sword, the famine, and the pestilence Jer. xxix 17, 18.
I will send among them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, till they be consumed from off the land Jer. xxiv 10.
I proclaim a liberty for you, to the sword, to the famine and the pestilence, and I will consign you for a disturbance to all the nations Jer. xxxiv 17.
Because thou hast defiled My sanctuary, a third part of thee shall die from the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed, and a third part shall fall by the sword: when I send among them the evil arrows of famine, which shall be for destruction Ezek. v 11, 12, 16, 17.
The sword is without, and the pestilence and the famine within Ezek. vii 15.
For all the evil abominations, they shall fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence Ezek. vi 11, 12.
My four evil judgments, the sword, the famine, and the evil beast, and the pestilence, will I send upon Jerusalem, to cut off from it man and beast Ezek. xiv 13, 15, 21;
besides elsewhere, as Jer. xiv 12, 13, 15, 16; xlii 13, 14, 16-18, 22; xliv 12, 13, 27; Matt. xxiv 7, 8; Mark xiii 8; Luke xxi 11. By 'sword', 'famine', 'pestilence' and 'beast' in those passages similar things are signified as here by 'sword', 'famine', 'death' and 'beasts of the land'; for in the Word there is a spiritual sense in the separate [expressions], in which 'sword' is the destruction of spiritual life by untruths, 'famine' is the destruction of spiritual life by evils, 'beast of the land' is the destruction of spiritual life by the cupidities of untruth and evil, and 'pestilence and death' is a complete consuming, and thus damnation. [3] II. That 'famine' signifies ignorance of cognitions of truth and good originating from a deficiency thereof in the Church, is established also from various passages in the Word, as Isa. v 13; viii 19-22; Lam. ii 19; v 8-10; Amos viii 11-14; Job v 17, 20, and elsewhere. III. That 'famine' or 'hunger' signifies a longing for knowing and understanding the truths and goods of the Church is plain from these: Isa. viii 25; xxxii 6; xlix 10; lviii 6, 7; 1 Sam. ii 4, 5,; Ps. xxxiii 18, 19; xxxiv 9, 10 [H.B. 10, 11]; xxxvii 18, 19; cvii 8, 9, 35-37; cxlvi 7; Matt. v 6; xxv 35, 37, 44; Luke i 53; John vi 35, and elsewhere.
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