515. Verse 13. And in that hour there was a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, signifies a remarkable change of state then took place with them, and they were torn away from heaven and sank down into hell. "In that hour" signifies at the time when they saw "the two witnesses" ascend into heaven, and nevertheless they remained in their falsities as above (n. 514); for "the two witnesses prophesied," that is, taught them (verse 3), and afterwards were killed, and revived; they also saw them ascend up to heaven, and still did not recede from their falsities, then there became a great earthquake. That a similar thing happened with the Two Doctrines of the New Jerusalem, one concerning the Lord, and the other concerning the Life according to the Commandments of the Decalogue, may in some measure be seen from the Relations after each chapter. Those two doctrines are the two witnesses here treated of. By "an earthquake" is signified a change of state (n. 331), here their destruction, because in it "a tenth part of the city fell"; by "a tenth part" is signified all there, for "ten" signifies much and all (n. 101); in like manner, "the tenth part," or "a tenth," as "the fourth part," or "a fourth," signifies the same as "four" (n. 322); and "the third part" or "a third" the same as "three" (n. 400). By "falling" is signified to sink down into hell, which takes place when they are torn away from heaven; for the cities in the world of spirits which are in evils and falsities, after they that dwell therein are visited, informed, and warned, and still remain in their evils and falsities, are shaken with an earthquake, by which a gulf is opened, into which they sink down, and then their inhabitants appear to themselves to be at the bottom, as it were, in a desert, whence they are severally removed to their places in hell. That it was so done to this city, will be seen below (n. 531).