771. [verse 11] 'And the merchants of the land shall weep and mourn over her, because no one is buying their merchandise any more' signifies the lesser ones in rank who are ministering and making gain by means of holy things, here their griefs that after the destruction of Babylon their forms of religion are not acknowledged as being holy, but as being adulterated and profaned goods and truths of the Word and of the Church therefrom, and thus that they cannot any more profit by those means as before. By 'the merchants' are understood the lesser ones in rank of their ecclesiastical hierarchy because by 'the kings of the hand', treated of thus far, are understood the higher ones in that rank as may be seen above (n. 767); thus by 'the merchants of the land' are understood those who are ministering and making gain by means of holy things. By 'they shall weep and mourn' their griefs are signified, as also above (n. 767). By 'their merchandise' are signified the holy or religious things by means of which they make gain or profit. By 'to buy them no more' is signified not to wish to have them, because they are not holy things but adulterated and profaned goods and truths of the Word and of the Church therefrom. 'To buy' is to procure for themselves (n. 6o6). Of this [we read] in Jeremiah:-