653. 'And the blood went out of the winepress even to the horses' bridles' signifies the violence inflicted on the Word by means of dreadful falsifications of truth, and the understanding so closed up thereby that a man can scarcely any longer be taught, and thus be led by means of Divine truths by the Lord. By 'blood 'is signified violence inflicted on the Word (n. 327), and the Divine Truth of the Word falsified and profaned (n. 379); for by 'blood out of the winepress' is understood must and wine out of the trodden clusters, and by 'must and wine' similar things are signified (n. 316). By 'the horses' bridles' are signified the truths of the Word by means of which the understanding is led, for 'a horse' signifies the understanding of the Word (n. 298), and in consequence by 'a bridle' is signified the truth by means of which the understanding is led. 'Even to the horses' bridles' is equivalent to even within the mouth in which the bridle has been inserted, and a horse is watered and fed through the mouth, and therefore it is also signified that such violence has been inflicted on the Word by means of dreadful falsifications that a man can scarcely any more be taught, and thus led by means of Divine truths by the Lord. By 'a bridle' is also signified that by means of which the understanding is led (Isa. xxx 27, 28; xxxvii 29); and by 'the blood of grapes' is signified the Divine Truth of the Word (Gen. xlix ii; Deut. xxxii 14); but here in the opposite sense.