1020. And the cities of the nations fell, signifies that all things of the doctrine of good from the Word were likewise dissipated. This is evident from the signification of a "city," as being doctrine (as just above); so "cities" mean doctrinals, or all things of doctrine. Also from the signification of "nations," as being those who are in the good of love, and in an abstract sense goods (see n. 175, 331, 625). Also from the signification of "falling," as meaning to be dissipated, for when cities fall they perish, and when doctrine falls its truths are dissipated.
(Continuation respecting the Eighth Commandment)
[2] When a man abstains from false testimonies understood in a moral and spiritual sense, and shuns and turns away from them as sins, the love of truth and the love of justice flow in from the Lord through heaven. And when, in consequence the man loves truth and loves justice he loves the Lord, for the Lord is truth itself and justice itself. And when a man loves truth and justice it may be said that truth and justice love him, because the Lord loves him; and as a consequence his utterances become utterances of truth, and his works become works of justice.
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