349. 'Sealed out of every tribe of Israel' signifies the Lord's heaven and Church from those. By 'tribe' is signified religion as to good of life, and by 'every tribe' is signified the Church as to every good of love and as to every truth derived from that good, from which the good of life is derived; for there are two things that make the Church, good of love and truth of doctrine. The marriage of these is the Church. The twelve tribes of Israel used to represent, and consequently signify, the Church as to that marriage, and each individual tribe some universal truth of good or good of truth therein. But what each individual tribe used to signify has not hitherto been revealed to anyone; nor could it be revealed, lest by an ill-connected exposition, the 'holy' that lies hidden in their being conjoined into a one should be profaned; for they have significance in accordance with the conjunction. [2] They have one signification in the series in which they are named following their births (Gen. xxix; xxx; xxxv 18), the series of them there being:-
Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulon, Joseph, Benjamin.
They have another signification in the series in which they are named when they came to Egypt, which is:-
Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulon, Gad, Asher, Joseph, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali Gen. xlvi 9-24.
Another in the series when they are blessed by their father Israel, which is this:-
Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Zebulon, Issachar, Dan, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Joseph, Benjamin Gen. xlix.
Another in the series when they are blessed by Moses, which is this:-
Reuben, Judah, Levi, Benjamin, Joseph, Ephraim, Manasseh, Zebulon, Gad, Dan, Naphtali, Asher Deut. xxxiii.
There Ephraim and Manasseh [are mentioned], and not Simeon and Issachar. [3] Another in the series when they were encamped and when they marched forth, which is this:-
The tribes of Judah, Issachar and Zebulon, to the east; the tribes of Reuben, Simeon and Gad to the south; the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh and Benjamin to the west; the tribes of Dan, Asher and Naphtali to the north; and the tribe of Levi in the midst Num. ii 1 to the end.
Another in the series in which they are named elsewhere, as Gen. xxxv 23-26; Num. i 5-16; vii 1 to the end; xiii 4-15; xxvi 5-56; xxxiv 17-28; Deut. xxvii 12, 13; Josh. xv-xix; Ezek. xlviii to the end. So, therefore, when 'Balaam saw Israel dwelling according to their tribes', he said:-
How good are thy tabernacles, O Jacob, and thy dwellings, O Israel Num. xxiv 1-4 seq.
[4] In the breastplate of judgment, which was the Urim and Thummim, in which there were 12 precious stones according to the names of the sons of Israel (Exod. xxviii 15-29), the tribes were significant in a series in accordance with an interrogation, to which they supplied an answer. But what they signify in the series in which they are named here in the Apocalypse, which is yet another, will be stated in the things following. 'Tribes' signify religion, and 'the twelve tribes' the Church as to all things thereof, because 'tribe' and 'sceptre' in the Hebrew tongue are one word, and the sceptre is the kingdom, and the Lord's kingdom is heaven and the Church.
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