Spiritual Meaning of Euphrates

Spiritual Meaning of

Euphrates

The signification of the Euphrates, is the good and truth of the rational. That the Euphrates has this signification is because Assyria was there, and by Assyria, or Asshur, is signified the rational (AC 119, 1186).

[2] This is meant by the Euphrates where it is said, from the wilderness to the Euphrates, and from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates; as in the following passages:--

From the wilderness, and Lebanon, even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, the whole land of the Hittites, and even unto the great sea toward the setting of the sun, shall be your border (Josh. 1:4).

To thy seed will I give this land, from the river of Egypt even unto the great river, the river Euphrates (Gen. 15:18).

Thou madest a vine to journey out of Egypt. Thou hast sent out its shoots even unto the sea, and its twigs unto the river (Ps. 80:8, 11);

a vine out of Egypt denotes the spiritual church represented by the sons of Israel; unto the sea, and unto the river, denote to interior truths and goods. In like manner in Micah:--

They shall come unto thee from Assyria and from the cities of Egypt, and thence from Egypt even unto the river, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain (Micah 7:12).

[3] But something else is signified by the Euphrates when it is looked at from the middle of the land of Canaan as its extreme limit on one side, or as what closes it in on one side; in this case by that river is signified that which is the ultimate of the Lord's kingdom, that is, which is the ultimate of heaven and the church, in respect to rational good and truth. That the borders of the land of Canaan, which were rivers and seas, signified the ultimates in the Lord's kingdom, (AC 1585, 1866, 4116, 4240, 6516). The Euphrates therefore signified such truths and such goods as belong to the sensuous mind, and correspond to the truths and goods of the rational. But as the sensuous of man stands forth nearest to the world and the earth, and receives its objects therefrom (AC 9331), it therefore acknowledges nothing else as good than that which delights the body; and nothing else as truth than that which favors this delight. By the river Euphrates therefore in this sense is signified the pleasure arising from the loves of self and of the world; and the falsity which confirms it by reasonings from the fallacies of the senses.

[4] This is what is meant by the river Euphrates in the Revelation:--

A voice said to the sixth angel, Loose the four angels which are bound at the great river Euphrates. They were loosed, and they killed the third part of men (Rev. 9:14, 15);

the angels bound at the Euphrates denote the falsities originating through reasonings from the fallacies of the senses, which falsities favor the delights of the loves of self and of the world. Again:--

The sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings who are from the sunrising might be prepared (Rev. 16:12);

the Euphrates here denotes falsities from a like origin; the water dried up denotes these falsities removed by the Lord; the way of the kings from the east denotes that then the truths of faith are seen by and revealed to those who are in love to the Lord. That waters denote truths, and in the opposite sense falsities, (AC 705, 739, 756, 790, 839, 2702, 3058, 3424, 4976, 7307, 8137, 8138, 8568, 9323); that a way denotes truth seen and revealed, (AC 627, 2333, 3477); that kind denote those who are in truths, (AC 1672, 2015, 2069, 3009, 4575, 4581, 4966, 5044, 5068, 6148); that the east denotes the Lord, and also love from Him and to Him, (AC 101, 1250, 3708); and in like manner the sun, (AC 1529, 1530, 2441, 2495, 3636, 3643, 4060, 4696, 5377, 7078, 7083, 7171, 7173, 8644, 8812).

[5] In Jeremiah:--

Thou hast forsaken Jehovah thy God, when He led thee into the way. And now what hast thou to do with the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Shihor? or what hast thou to do with the way of Assyria, to drink the waters of the river? (Jer. 2:17, 18);

to lead into the way denotes to teach truth; what hast thou to do with the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Shihor? denotes what hast thou to do with falsities which have been occasioned by memory-knowledges wrongly applied? what hast thou to do with the way of Assyria, to drink the waters of the river? denotes what hast thou to do with the falsities which have arisen through reasonings from the fallacies of the senses in favor of the delights of the loves of self and of the world?

[6] In the same:--

Jehovah said unto the prophet, Take the girdle that thou hast bought, which is upon thy loins, and arise, go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole of the rock. So I went and hid it at the Euphrates. Afterward it came to pass at the end of many days, that Jehovah said, Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take the girdle from thence. Wherefore he went to the Euphrates, and digged, and took the girdle from the place where he had hidden it; but behold the girdle was marred, it was profitable for nothing (Jer. 13:3-7);

the girdle of the loins denotes the external bond containing all things of love and thence of faith; to be hidden in a hole of the rock by the Euphrates denotes where faith is in obscurity and has become no faith, through falsities from reasonings; the girdle marred so that it was profitable for nothing denotes that all things of love and of faith are then dissolved and dispersed.

[7] That Jeremiah was to tie a stone to the book written by him, and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates (Jer. 51:63); signified that the prophetic Word would perish through like things. In the same:--

Let not the swift flee away, nor the strong one escape; toward the north near the shore of the river Euphrates they have stumbled and fallen. But Jehovah Zebaoth taketh vengeance on His adversaries. The Lord Jehovih Zebaoth hath a sacrifice in the land of the north by the river Euphrates (Jer. 46:6, 10);

where also the river Euphrates denotes truths falsified, and goods adulterated, through reasonings from fallacies and the derivative memory-knowledges which favor the loves of self and of the world.

from AC 9341

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Author: E. Swedenborg (1688-1772).

Design: I.J. Thompson, Feb 2002.