Spiritual Meaning of
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By young men in the Word are meant those who are intelligent, or according to abstract angelic ideas, intelligence; and because intelligence is meant, therefore by them confirmed truth is also meant, for this pertains to intelligence. Moreover the word by which young men is here expressed in the original tongue is derived from the strength and power which truth has from good, thus which confirmed truth has; whence this name is attributed to the Lord. In Zechariah:--
O sword, rise up against My shepherd, and against the man (young man) My neighbor; smite the shepherd, and let the sheep be scattered (Zech. 13:7);
but these words were spoken of the Lord, see (Matt. 26:31). And also in Jeremiah:--
How long dost thou wander about, O thou backsliding daughter? for Jehovah hath created a new thing in the earth, A woman hath encompassed a man (young man) (Jer. 30:1).
[3] Young men in another word in the original tongue denote intelligence, thus its truth, in Amos:--
I have sent among you the pestilence in the way of Egypt; your young men have I slain with the sword, with the captivity of the horses (Amos 4:10);
where the way of Egypt denotes memory-knowledges perverted; the young men who were slain, the truths thence destroyed; the captivity of the horses, the intellectual seduced.
[4] In the same:--
They shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even unto the east; they shall run to and fro to seek the word of Jehovah, and shall not find it. In that day shall the fair virgins and the young men faint for thirst (Amos 8:12, 13);
where fair virgins denote the affection of truth; young men intelligence; to faint for thirst denotes to be deprived of truth; therefore it is said, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of Jehovah and shall not find it. That fair virgins are not meant, nor young men, nor faintness by reason of thirst, is plain. In Jeremiah:--
Death is come up through our windows, it is entered into our palaces; to cut off the babe from the street, the young men from the avenues (Jer. 9:21).
How is the city of glory not forsaken, the city of my joy? wherefore her young men shall fall in her streets (Jer. 49:25, 26; 50:30).
Hear, I pray, all ye peoples, see my grief; my virgins and my young men are gone into captivity (Lam. 1:18).
In these passages young men denote the truths which are of intelligence.
from AC 7668
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| Author: E. Swedenborg (1688-1772). | Design: I.J. Thompson, Feb 2002. | www.BibleMeanings.info |