Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 9205

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9205. 'And I will kill you with the sword' means that they deprive themselves of goodness and truth through falsities. This is clear from the meaning of 'killing' - when it refers to people who defraud those in possession of good or of truth, who are meant by 'widows, orphans, and sojourners' - as depriving them of such things, for 'killing' means depriving of spiritual life, see 3607, 6767, 8902; and from the meaning of 'the sword' as truth engaged in conflict with falsity and destroying it, and in the contrary sense falsity engaged in conflict with truth and destroying it, dealt with in 2799, 4499, 6353, 7102, 8294. Therefore 'killing with the sword' here means depriving of forms of good and of truths through falsities.


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