847. In the Word in various passages it is said [of certain persons] that they were 'slain', 'pierced', even 'dead', and yet it is not understood that they were slain, pierced or dead, but that they were rejected by those who are in evils and untruths, as may be seen (n. 59, 325, 589). The like is signified by 'the dead' in the following verse where it is said that 'the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished'. From these considerations it is plain that by those who are said to be 'beheaded with the axe' is signified that they were rejected by those who are in untruths derived from self-intelligence. That by an 'axe' is signified untruth derived from self-intelligence is plain from these passages:-
The statutes of the nations are vanity, if one hews wood out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman with the axe Jer. x 3.
The voice of Egypt goes as a serpent, they came with axes like hewers of logs Jer. xlvi 22.
He is known as one lifting up axes on a trellis (implexum) of wood, and now they demolish the carved work thereof at once with the axe and hammers; in the land they have profaned the habitation of Thy Name Ps. lxxiv 5-7.
When thou shalt besiege a city, thou shalt not destroy the tree thereof by wielding an axe against it Deut. xx 19.
By 'an axe' in these places is signified untruth derived from self-intelligence. This is because by 'iron' is signified the truth in ultimates that is called sensual truth, which when it is separated from rational and spiritual truth is turned into untruths. The untruth is derived from self-intelligence because what is sensual is in the proprium, as may be seen (n. 424). On account of this signification of 'iron' and 'an axe' it was commanded that:-
If a stone altar should be built, it should be built of whole stones, and that iron should not be moved upon the stones, lest it be profaned Exod. xx 25 [H.B. 22]; Deut. xxvii 5.
Therefore these words are said of the Jerusalem temple:
The house itself was being built with whole stone, neither hammer nor axe nor any instrument of iron was heard in the house when it was being built 1 Kings vi 7;
and on the contrary, where graven images are treated of, by which is signified untruth derived from self-intelligence, it is said that:-
He shall work it with iron, with tongs, or with the axe and hammers Isa. xliv 12.
That untruths derived from self-intelligence is signified by 'a graven image' and 'an idol' may be seen above (n. 459).
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