339. Verse 16. And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall upon us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth upon the throne, and from the anger of the Lamb, signifies confirmation of evil by falsity, and of falsity from evil, until they did not acknowledge anything Divine in the Lord. "Mountains" signify the loves of evil, thus evils (n. 336), and "rocks" signify the falsities of faith; by "falling upon them and hiding them," is signified to be defended against influx from heaven; and as this is done by confirmations of evils by falsity, and of falsity from evil, therefore these are signified; by "hiding themselves from the face of Him that sitteth upon the throne, and from the anger of the Lamb," is signified until they do not acknowledge anything Divine in the Lord; by "Him that sitteth on the throne" is meant the Divine of the Lord, from whence are all things; and by "the Lamb" is meant Himself as to the Divine Human; the Lord as to both was upon the throne, as has been shown above. It is said "from His face and from His anger," because all they who are in caves and rocks, dare not set foot out of them, nor even put forth a finger, by reason of the pain and torment consequent on doing so; this is owing to the hatred which they bear against the Lord, even to their not being able to name Him; and the Divine sphere of the Lord fills all things, which they cannot remove from themselves, except by confirmations of evil by falsity, and of falsity from evil; the delights of evils do this. [2] Similar is the signification of this passage in Hosea:
And they shall say to the mountains, Cover us, and to the hills, Fall upon us (Hos. 10:8). And in Luke:
Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall upon us; and to the hills, Hide us (Luke 23:30). That this is the spiritual sense of these words, cannot appear in the letter, but it appears in the spiritual sense from this, that when the Last Judgment is executed, they who are in evil, and desire to be in good, suffer hard things in the beginning; whereas they suffer less on such an occasion who confirm themselves in their evil by falsities, for these last cover their evil by falsities, but the former lay bare their evil, and in this case cannot endure the Divine influx, as is seen in what follows. The caves and caverns into which they cast themselves, are correspondences.
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