506. 'And shall not allow their bodies to be put into tombs' signifies that they have damned and are going to damn them. By the 'bodies' here are signified the two Essentials of the New Church (treated of n. 505 and above); and by 'not allow to be put into tombs' is signified to reject as if damned. This is signified because by 'to be put into tombs' or to be buried is signified resurrection and the continuation of life, for then the things derived from the earth are committed to the earth, thus the things that are earthly and in consequence unclean. Consequently by 'not to be put into tombs' or not to be buried is signified to remain in earthly and unclean things, and on that account to be rejected as if damned. This is why in the Church with the sons of Israel, which was a representative Church, there was a statute that those who were regarded as damned should be cast forth and not buried, as is plain from these [statements]:-
Jehovah has said concerning them, They shall die with grievous deaths, they shall not be lamented, neither shall they be buried, they shall be for dung upon the faces of the land, and their carcase shall be for food to the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the land Jer. xvi 3, 4.
The prophets prophesying lies shall be cast out into the streets of Jerusalem, and none burying Jer. xiv 16.
In that day they shall drag out the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets out of their graves; they shall neither be gathered nor buried; they shall be for dung upon the faces of the land Jer. viii 1, 2.
That the dogs devoured Jezebel in the field, and none burying 2 Kings ix 10.
Thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable shoot, like a carcase trodden under foot Isa. xiv 19, 20;
besides elsewhere, as Jer. xxv 32, 33; xxii 19; vii 32, 33; xix 11, 12; 2 Kings xxiii 16.
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