573. And his feet like a bear's, signifies full of fallacies from the sense of the letter of the Word read but not understood. By "feet" is signified the natural, which is the ultimate, upon which that heresy, meant by "the leopard," subsists, and as it were walks, and this is the sense of the letter of the Word, and by "a bear" are signified those who read the Word and do not understand it, whence they have fallacies. That these are signified by "bears" was clear to me from the bears seen in the spiritual world, and from some there who were clothed in bear skins, who had all read the Word, but had not seen any doctrinal truth therein; also who had confirmed the appearances of truth therein, whence they had fallacies. In that world there appear bears that are hurtful, and bears that are harmless, and some that are white; but they are distinguished by their heads; those which are harmless have heads like calves or sheep. "Bears" have such a signification in the following passages:
He hath overturned my highways, as a bear lying in wait for me, as a lion in secret places, he hath turned aside my ways, he hath made me desolate (Lam. 3:9-11). I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved, and there will I devour them like an immense lion, the wild beast of the field shall tear them (Hos. 13:7-8). The calf and the young lion shall lie down together, and the cow and the bear shall feed (Isa. 11:6-7). The second beast coming up out of the sea was like a bear, and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth (Dan. 7:5). The lion and the bear, which David took by the beard and smote (1 Sam. 17:34-37) has a like signification and likewise 2 Sam. 17:8. [2] "The lion and the bear" are mentioned in those places, because by "a lion" is signified falsity destroying the truths of the Word, and by "a bear" are signified fallacies, which also destroy, but not in so great a degree; therefore it is said in Amos:
The day of Jehovah is a day of darkness and not of light, as if one fleeth from a lion, and he falls upon a bear (Amos 5:18-19). We read in the second book of Kings, that:
Elisha was mocked by boys, and they called him bald-head; and therefore forty-two boys were torn by the two bears out of the forest (2 Kings 2:23-24). This took place because Elisha represented the Lord as to the Word (n. 298); and because "baldness" signifies the Word without the sense of the letter, thus not anything (n. 47); and the number forty-two, blasphemy (n. 583); and "bears" signify the sense of the letter of the Word, read indeed, but not understood.
This page is part of 
© 2000-2001 The Academy of the New Church