315. A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny, signifies because the estimation of good and truth is so small as to be scarcely anything. These are signified because by "a measure" [choenix] which was the measure and the quantity measured, is signified quality, as above (n. 314); by "wheat" and "barley" is signified good and truth; and by a penny [denarius] which is a very small coin, that they are held in little or no estimation. It is said "three" measures of barley, because "three" signify all, and are predicated of truths (n. 515). The reason why "wheat" and "barley" signify good and truth, here the good and truth of the church from the Word, is, because all things which belong to the field and the vineyard, signify such things as are of the church, because "a field" signifies the church as to good and truth thence, and "a vineyard," the church as to truth and good therefrom; therefore where these are mentioned in the Word, the angels, who perceive all things spiritually, understand nothing else; as in Joel:
The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted; the must is dried up, the oil languisheth. Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vine dressers, for the wheat and the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished (Joel 1:10-12). [2] All these things signify such things as are of the church. That "wheat" and "barley" signify the good and truth of the church, may be seen from these passages:
John saith concerning Jesus, that He will gather the wheat into the barn, and burn up the chaff with fire (Matt. 3:11-12). Jesus said, Let the tares and the wheat grow together, and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares to burn, but gather the wheat into My barn (Matt. 13:24-30). I have heard the consummation and decision from Jehovah God; he layeth up the measured wheat, and the appointed barley; for his God doth instruct him to judgment, and doth teach him (Isa. 28:22, 25-26). Jehovah shall lead thee to a land of wheat and barley (Deut. 8:7-8). "A land of wheat and barley" here is the land of Canaan, by which the church is signified. They shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of Jehovah, for wheat and must (Jer. 31:12). Jehovah shall satiate thee with the fat of wheat (Deut. 32:13-14; Ps. 81:16; 147:14). Jehovah said to the prophet Ezekiel that:
He should make himself cakes of barley mixed with dung, and eat them (Ezek. 4:12, 15). And to the prophet Hosea that:
He should take a woman an adulteress; whom he bought for a homer of barley, and half a homer of barley (Hos. 3:1-2). Which things were done by those prophets, that they might represent the falsifications of truth in the church, for "barley" signifies truths, and "barley mixed with dung" truths falsified and profaned; "a woman an adulteress" also signifies truth falsified (n. 134).
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