2712. ).
[6] In Isaiah:
Look: these will come from far off! And look: those will come from the north and from the west; and those, from the land of Sinim! (Isaiah 49:12)
The north stands for people with a dim sight of truth; the west, for people with a dim sight of goodness. They are said to come from far off because they are remote from the light the Lord sheds.
[7] In Amos:
Watch! The days will come in which I send famine into the land, and they will wander from sea to sea; and from the north all the way to the east they will dash about to seek Jehovah’s Word and will not find it. (Amos 8:11, 12)
The famine stands for a scarcity and lack of religious knowledge (§§1460, 3364). Wandering from sea to sea stands for trying to find out where the knowledge is, seas meaning knowledge in general (§§28, 2850). Dashing about from the north all the way to the east means dashing from a dim to a radiant sight of that knowledge. Obviously the object is knowledge, because it says they dash about to seek Jehovah’s Word and will not find it.
[8] In Jeremiah:
Shout these words toward the north and say, “Come back, rebellious Israel! I will not make my face fall regarding you, because I am merciful.” In those days the house of Judah will go toward the house of Israel, and they will come as one from the land of the north onto the land that I made your ancestors inherit. (Jeremiah 3:12, 18)
This passage is about rejuvenating the church with people from outside it. The north stands for people who do not know the truth but live a good life. The passage is clearly not talking about the north and the land of the north, because Israel no longer existed at that time. In the same author:
As Jehovah lives, who brought the children of Israel up from the land of the north! (Jeremiah 16:15)
Again the north stands for ignorance of truth.
[9] In the same author:
Watch: I am bringing them from the land of the north, and I will assemble them from the flanks of the land; among them are the blind and the lame. (Jeremiah 31:8)
The land of the north stands for ignorance of goodness resulting from ignorance of truth. Canaan represented the Lord’s kingdom and therefore represented what is good (see §3705 above), and its central points, such as Zion and Jerusalem, represented inmost goodness, to which truth has been united. So the more remote parts represented a dim sight of goodness and truth. All goodness and truth lying in the semidark is called the land of the north and the flanks of the land.
[10] In addition, since everything good that flows in from the Lord with light ends up in our murky minds, the north is also called a place of assembly, as in Isaiah:
You have said in your heart, “I will scale the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God and sit on the mountain of assembly, on the flanks of the north.” (Isaiah 14:13)
In the same author:
Wail, you gate! Shout, you city! Philistia, the whole of you has dissolved, because from the north comes smoke, and [there will not be] one single person in the assemblies. (Isaiah 14:31)
In David:
Great is Jehovah, and highly praised in the city of our God, his holy mountain; the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion, the flanks of the north, the city of the great king. (Psalms 48:1, 2)
Further in the same author:
Yours are the heavens; yours also the earth. The world and its abundance you founded; the north and the right-hand side you created. (Psalms 89:11, 12)
The north stands for people who are fairly distant from the light of goodness and truth; the right-hand side, for those who are closer. The latter are on the Lord’s right hand; see §§1274, 1276.
[11] In Zechariah:
[Zechariah] saw four chariots going out between two bronze mountains. [The chariots] had horses that were chestnut, black, white, and hail-spotted, sturdy. The angel said, “These are the four winds of the heavens going out from where they stand by the Lord of the whole earth”—the black horses going out into the land of the north; and the white went out after them, and the hail-spotted went out into the land of the south. “Those going out to the land of the north bring my spirit to rest in the land of the north.” (Zechariah 6:1-8)
Chariots going out between two bronze mountains stand for doctrines teaching what is good. The meaning of chariots as doctrines will become clear elsewhere. A mountain means love (see §§795, 1430, 2722), so two mountains mean two kinds of love: heavenly love, or love for the Lord, and spiritual love, or love for one’s neighbor. Bronze means goodness on the earthly level resulting from this love (425, 1551). Horses mean intellectual matters and therefore an understanding of teachings about goodness (2760, 2761, 2762, 3217). The land of the south stands for people with a knowledge of what is good and true (1458, 3195). The land of the north stands for people who lack a knowledge of what is good and true but live a good life, as upright non-Christians do. When a new religion starts up among them, the spirit of God is said to rest there.
[12] In Jeremiah:
... Jehovah, who summoned up and who brought back the seed of the house of Israel from the land to the north and from all the lands to which I drove them, so that they could live on their land. (Jeremiah 23:8)
“From the land to the north” means from a dark place of ignorance concerning goodness and truth. In the same author:
Will iron be broken—iron from the north—and bronze? (Jeremiah 15:12)
Iron stands for earthly truth (§§425, 426); bronze, for earthly goodness (§§425, 1551). They are said to come from the north because they come from the earthly level, where there is relative darkness and an outer limit. The meaning in this prophetic utterance is not that iron and bronze come from the north, as is obvious without explanation. If that were the meaning, what divinity would the passage have? In fact, how would it connect with the verses before and after it?
[13] In Matthew:
I tell you that many will come all the way from the east and from the west and recline at [the table] with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. (Matthew 8:11; Luke 13:29)
Many all the way from the east and from the west stands for people who know and live by what is good, and for people encumbered by darkness and ignorance—in other words, people inside and outside the church. As noted above, east and west symbolize states of goodness. Reclining with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob means being with the Lord; see §3305 at the end.
The Prophets say the same thing: that from east and west will come the people who will live with the Lord in his kingdom, or his church. In Isaiah, for example:
From the east will I bring your seed, and from the west will I gather you. (Isaiah 43:5)
In another place:
They will fear Jehovah’s name from the west, and his glory from the east. (Isaiah 59:19)
In another place:
They will know from sunrise and from sunset that there is none besides me; I am Jehovah, and there is no one else. (Isaiah 45:6)
And in another place:
I will rouse one from the north who will come; from the rising of the sun, that one will call on my name. (Isaiah 41:25)
The same symbolism of east, west, south, and north can also be plainly seen from the construction of the tabernacle; the way in which the children of Israel camped and set out to travel; the description of the land of Canaan; and the description of the new temple, the new Jerusalem, and the new earth.
The construction of the tabernacle: Everything in the tabernacle was arranged according to the compass directions (see Exodus 38), which determined, for instance, what went on the eastern and western sides and what went on the southern and northern ones (Exodus 26:18, 20, 22, 27; 27:9, 12,
[13]). The lampstand stood opposite the table [of showbread] on the side of the dwelling place toward the south, but the table, on the north side (Exodus 26:35; 40:22).
The way the children of Israel camped and set out to travel: This too was determined by the quarters. The people camped around the meeting tent—the tribe of Judah, the tribe of Issachar, and the tribe of Zebulun toward the east; the tribes of Reuben, Simeon, and Gad toward the south; those of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin toward the west; and those of Dan, Asher, and Naphtali toward the north (Numbers 2:1–end). Of the Levites, the Gershonites were toward the west; the Kohathites, toward the south; the Merarites, toward the north; and Moses, Aaron, and their offspring, in front of the dwelling place toward the east (Numbers 3:23-38). These positions represented the heavenly pattern displayed in the Lord’s kingdom as determined by the states of goodness and truth there. The people would trumpet an alert toward the south for setting out on their journeys (Numbers 10:6), and they set out in the same order in which they camped (Numbers 2:34).
The description of the land of Canaan: Moses first described the land in terms of its borders all around—on the southern side, western side, northern side, and eastern side (Numbers 34:2-12). This was repeated later when Canaan was assigned to the tribes by lot (Joshua 15,16, 17, 18, 19). As a result, and because of the earliest people (who lived in Canaan), all locations there developed a representation and symbolism according to their placement, distance, and directional borders (§§1607, 1866).
The description of the new temple, the new Jerusalem, and the new earth: Ezekiel too speaks in terms of quarters; for instance, in saying that the structure of the city was on the south, and in speaking of a gate to the building as having its face toward the east, toward the north, or toward the south (Ezekiel 40:2, 6, 19, 20-46). He speaks of the measurement of the temple and of its doorway toward the north and south (Ezekiel 41:11); of the courtyard toward the north, east, south, and west (Ezekiel 42:1, 4, 11, [16,] 17, 18, 19); of the glory of Jehovah, Israel’s God, entering by way of the east (Ezekiel 43:1, 2, 4); of the gates to the courtyard (Ezekiel
[44]:1, 2,
4;
[46]:1, 9, 10, 19, 20); of the Holy Land’s borders toward the north (Ezekiel 47:15, 16, 17), toward the east (Ezekiel 47:18), toward the south (Ezekiel 47:19), and toward the west (Ezekiel 47:20); and of each tribe’s territorial inheritance in terms of the four quarters (Ezekiel 48). And gates to the holy Jerusalem are spoken of as being on the east, north, south, and west (Revelation 21:13).
What is meant in an inner sense by the four quarters of the world in which such holy objects—or objects representing something holy—were arranged? Clearly they do not mean the four quarters but states of goodness and truth in the Lord’s kingdom.
The negative symbolism of north and west as something false and evil is clear from the following passages. In Jeremiah:
The word of Jehovah came to me a second time, saying, “What are you seeing?” I said, “An open pot I am seeing, and its face is toward the north.” And Jehovah said, “From the north, evil will open over all the inhabitants of the land. Watch! I am calling all the clans of the north to come.” (Jeremiah 1:13, 14, 15)
In the same author:
Raise a signal toward Zion! Assemble; do not stand there, because I am bringing evil from the north, and great wreckage. (Jeremiah 4:6)
In the same author:
The sound of a din! Look: it is coming, and great commotion from the land of the north, to reduce the cities of Judah [to] a wasteland. (Jeremiah 10:22)
In the same author:
In Tekoa, blow a horn, because evil looks out from the north, and great wreckage. Here comes a people coming from the land of the north, and a large nation will be stirred up from the flanks of the land. (Jeremiah 6:1, 22)
In the same author:
I took the goblet from Jehovah’s hand and gave a drink to all the nations—Jerusalem and the cities of Judah and its monarchs; Pharaoh, monarch of Egypt, and all the western horde; all the monarchs of Arabia and all the monarchs of the west living in the wilderness and all the monarchs of the north near and far. (Jeremiah 25:17-26)
In the same author:
The swift will not flee nor the mighty escape; toward the north along the shore of the river Euphrates they have stumbled and fallen. Who is this who rises like the river? Egypt rises like the river, for it said, “I will go up; I will blanket the land; I will destroy the city and those living in it.” But that day belongs to the Lord Jehovih Sabaoth—a day of vengeance—because there will be sacrifice to the Lord Jehovih in the land of the north along the river Euphrates. A very beautiful heifer is Egypt; destruction comes from the north.
The daughter of Egypt has been shamed, has been delivered into the hand of the people of the north. (Jeremiah 46:6, 7, 8, 10,
20, 24)
In the same author:
This is what Jehovah has said: “Look! Water climbing from the north; and it is like a flooding river, and will flood the earth and its abundance, the city and those living in it.” (Jeremiah 47:2)
In the same author:
Jehovah has spoken against Babylon: “A nation from the north will come up against them; it will make their land a desolation so that nothing can live in it.” (Jeremiah 50:[1,] 3)
In the same author:
Look: I am stirring and bringing up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the land of the north, and they will draw up their ranks against it; from there it will be seized. Look: a people coming from the north, and a large nation; and many monarchs will be stirred up from the flanks of the land. (Jeremiah 50:9, 41)
In the same author:
Then the heavens and the earth and all that is in them will sing over Babylon, because from the north destroyers will come to it. (Jeremiah 51:48)
In Ezekiel:
Tell Gog, “You will come from your place, from the flanks of the north, and many peoples with you; you will come up against my people Israel like a cloud to blanket the land.” (Ezekiel 38:14, 15, 16)
In the same author:
Here, now, I am against you, Gog, you chief; I will make you return, destroy a sixth of you, and bring you down from the flanks of the north and lead you onto Israel’s mountains. On Israel’s mountains you will fall; on the face of the field you will fall. (Ezekiel 39:1, 2, 4, 5)
In Zechariah:
“Oh, flee from the land of the north!” says Jehovah, “for I will spread you out like the four winds of the heavens. Oh, Zion, escape—you who live with the daughter of Babylon!” (Zechariah 2:6, 7)
These passages show what the north symbolizes in an opposite sense: falsity that produces evil, and falsity that comes from evil. Falsity that produces evil rises out of shallow reasoning about and against divine qualities on the basis of facts known to our earthly self, so it is said to be a people of the north from Egypt. (Egypt means facts of this type; see §§1164, 1165, 2588 at the end.) Falsity that comes from evil rises out of superficial worship that is seemingly devout but inwardly profane, so it is called a nation of the north from Babylon. (Babylon means this kind of worship; see §§1182, 1283, 1295, 1304, 1306, 1307, 1308, 1321, 1322, 1326. Babylon also means the force that causes spiritual devastation, §1327.) Both the falsity that produces evil and the falsity that comes from evil are said to hail from Gog, because Gog means an outward show of worship without any inward content. Accordingly it means idolatry of the kind in which Jews engaged in every era. (For this symbolism of Gog, see §1151.)
Out of the semidark in our earthly self, either truth dawns or falsity rises. When we allow ourselves to receive light from the Lord through the Word, the gloom we live in brightens. An inner path opens, enabling the Lord to flow in and communicate with us through heaven. When we do not allow ourselves to receive light from the Lord through the Word but only through our own intellect, the gloom we live in deepens into darkness, or falsity. The inner path closes, preventing the Lord from flowing in or communicating with us through heaven. The only inflow and communication that remains is the kind preserving the outward appearance of a human being who thinks and speaks, though solely at the inspiration of evil and falsity. Consequently in people who allow themselves to receive light, the north symbolizes truth, and in those who do not, it symbolizes falsity. The former rise out of the semidark, soaring into the light; the latter sink farther down from the semidark, recoiling from the light. The former go to the south; the latter, to Tartarus.
The meaning of the north as the pitch black of falsity and of the south as the light of truth is obvious in passages in Daniel about the ram and the buck of the goats and about the kings of the south and north. Concerning the ram and the buck of the goats:
The ram butted toward the west and toward the north and toward the south, so that no animals could stand before it. The buck of the goats came from the west onto all the face of the earth, and from one of its horns went out a horn that grew immensely toward the south and toward the sunrise and toward the ornament [of Israel]. (Daniel 8:4, 5, 9)
Concerning the kings of the south and north, the king of the south symbolizing people with a knowledge of truth, and the king of the north symbolizing people with falsity:
At the end of years they will become allies, so that the daughter of the king of the south will come to the king of the north to do what is right, but her arm will not gain strength. From her lineage will rise one who will come into the stronghold of the king of the north and prevail. And he will take captives away into Egypt. The king of the south will come into the kingdom and fight with the king of the north. The king of the north will return and marshal a great throng—more than before. Many will stand against the king of the south.
The king of the north will come and seize a fortified city and destroy much. The king of the south will engage in war with a large army but will not stand, because [people] will plan plans against him. Later he will come back but will not be as before. The people who know their God will grow strong.
Finally, at the time of the end, the king of the south will clash with [the king of the north]; therefore the king of the north will storm onto him with chariot and riders. In the beautiful land, many will be overthrown. But rumors will scare him from the sunrise and from the north, so that he goes out with great anger. He shall come to his end, and none will be helping him. (Daniel 11:1–end)
The king of the south means people who live in the light of truth, and the king of the north means those who live first in the shadow, then in the pitch black of falsity, as the details of the passage show. So the verses depict conditions in the church and the way they gradually deteriorate. The two kinds of people are called kings of the south and north because on the Word’s inner level kings symbolize truth and, in a negative sense, falsity (§§1672, 2015, 2069). Kingdoms symbolize aspects of truth and, in a negative sense, aspects of falsity (§§1672, 2547).
