399. And there became hail and fire mingled with blood, signifies falsity from infernal love destroying good and truth, and falsifying the Word. By "hail" is signified falsity destroying good and truth; by "fire" is signified infernal love; and by "blood" is signified the falsification of truth. That "hail" signifies falsity destroying good and truth, will be seen below; that "fire" is love in both senses, celestial and infernal, may be seen (n. 468); that blood is the Divine truth of the Lord, which is also the Word, and, in the opposite sense, the Word falsified (n. 379). On joining these together into one sense, it is plain, that by "there became hail and fire mingled with blood," is signified falsity from infernal love destroying good and truth and falsifying the Word. This is signified, because such things appear in the spiritual world when the sphere of the Lord's Divine love and Divine wisdom descends from heaven into the societies below, where there are falsities from infernal love, and the Word is falsified thereby. [2] "Hail" and "fire" together have a like signification in the following passages:
At the brightness before Him the clouds passed by, hailstones and coals of fire; the Most High gave a voice, hailstones and coals of fire; and He sent out His many arrows and scattered them (Ps. 18:12-14). And I will plead with pestilence and blood, and I will make to rain upon them hailstones, fire, and brimstone (Ezek. 38:22). And Jehovah shall cause His voice to be heard, in the flame of a devouring fire and hailstone (Isa. 30:30). He gave them hail for their rains, the fire of flames in their land, and broke the tree of their coasts (Ps. 105:32-33). The hail smote their vine, and their sycamore trees with grievous hail, and their cattle with burning coals; in the wrath of His anger He sent an incursion of evil angels (Ps. 78:47-49). These words are applied to Egypt. Concerning them it is thus written in Moses:
Moses stretched forth his rod, and Jehovah gave voices and hail; and there was hail and fire together walking in the midst of the grievous hail; and the hail smote every herb of the field, and broke every tree of the field (Exod. 9:23-35). All the miracles that were wrought in Egypt signified the evils and falsities from infernal love, which were with the Egyptians; each miracle signifying some particular evil and falsity: for with them was a representative church, as in many kingdoms of Asia, but it became idolatrous and magical; by the "Red Sea" is signified hell, in which at last they perished. [3] Something similar is signified by:
The hailstones, by which more of the enemy perished than by the sword (Josh. 10:11). The same, also, is meant by "hail" in the following passages:
Woe to the crown of pride, the Lord is strong, like an inundation of hail; the hail overturneth the refuge of lies (Isa. 28:1-2, 17). It shall hail, until the forest sinketh itself down (Isa. 32:19). The temple of God was opened in heaven, and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunders, and an earthquake, and great hail (Rev. 11:19). And there came down upon men out of heaven a great hail, about the weight of a talent (Rev. 16:21). Hast thou seen the treasures of hail which I have reserved unto the day of battle and war? (Job 38:22-23). Say unto them which daub with what is unfit, that it shall fall; there shall be an inundating rain, in which you, O hailstones, shall fall (Ezek. 13:11). "To daub with what is unfit" is to confirm falsity that it may appear like truth; they therefore who do so are called "hailstones."
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