eye: as the eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth out her wings, taketh him, beareth him upon her wings (Deut. xxxii. 10, 11). Instruction in the truths and goods of faith is what is here described, and compared to the eagle. The very process until man becomes rational and spiritual, is contained in the description and comparison. Comparisons in the Word are all made by means of significatives, and thus here by the eagle, which is the rational. In the same: Jehovah said to Moses, 2 Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and bare you up upon eagles' wings, and brought you unto Myself (Exod. xix. 3, 4)—meaning the same. In Isaiah: They that wait upon Jehovah shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with strong wing as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint (xl. 31). To renew the strength is to grow as to willing good, and to mount up with strong wing as eagles, is to grow as to understanding truth, and thus as to the rational. The subject is set forth here, as elsewhere, by two expressions, one of which involves good which is of the will, the other truth which is of the understanding; and so it is with the expressions, they shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint. In Ezekiel: Speak a parable unto the house of 3 Israel, and say, Thus said the Lord Jehovih, A great eagle, with. ... long pinions, full of feathers, which had divers colors, came unto Lebanon, and took a twig of the cedar. he carried it into a land of traffic, he set it in a city of spicemerchants. It grew, and became a spreading vine. . . There was another great eagle, with great and many feathers; and, behold, this vine did bend its roots toward him, and shot forth its branches toward him, that he might water it, from the beds of its plantations. . . . In a good field, by many waters. But it shall be laid waste. He sent his ambassadors into Egypt that they might give him horses and much people (xvii. 2−9, 15). The eagle first named stands for the rational enlightened by the Divine, the eagle

...

in the second place for the rational from what is one's own, afterward perverted by reasonings from sensual things and knowledges. Egypt stands for knowledges (see n. 1164, 1165, 1186, 1462), horses for the intellectual from them 4 (n. 2761, 2762, 3217). In Daniel: The vision of Daniel : Four beasts came up out of the sea, diverse one from another, the first was like a lion, but it had eagle's wings. I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand upon its feet like a man, and a man's heart was given to it (vii. 3, 4). The first state of the church is what is described by a lion which had eagle's wings, and the eagle's wings there are rational things from one's own, on the taking away of which, rational and voluntary things from the Divine are given, which are signified by its being taken up from the earth, and made to stand upon its feet like a man, and hav5 ing a man's heart given to it. In Ezekiel, in the description of the likeness of the faces of the four animals, or cherubs They had the face of a man, and they four had the face of a lion on the right side, and they four had the face of an ox on the left side, and they four had the face of an eagle (i. 10). As for the wheels they were called Galgal, and every one had four faces; the first face was the face of the cherub, and the second face was the face of a man, and the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle (x. 13, 14). In John: Round about the throne were four animals full of eyes before and behind; the first animal was like a lion, and the second animal like a calf, and the third animal had a face as a man, and the fourth animal was like a flying eagle (Apoc. iv. 6, 7). That the animals seen signify Divine arcana, is evident; and consequently so does the likeness of their faces; but what arcana in particular are signified cannot be known, unless it is known what in the internal sense is a lion, a calf, a man, and an eagle. That the face of the eagle is circumspection and thence providence is manifest; for the cherubs

which are represented by the animals in Ezekiel, signify the providence of the Lord lest man should enter into the mysteries of faith, of himself and from his rational (see n. 308). It is also manifest from this, that the eagle, when predicated of man, is in the internal sense the rational; and this for the reason that the eagle flies high, and from above has a broad view of the things that are below. In Job: Does the 6 hawk soar by thy wisdom? and stretch her wings toward the south? Does the eagle mount up at thy command, and make her nest on high? (xxxix. 26, 27.) That the eagle here is reason, which is of intelligence, is manifest. Such was the signification of the eagle in the Ancient Church, for the book of Job is a book of the Ancient Church (see n. 3540 at the end). Almost all the books of that period were written by significatives; but in process of time the significatives became so obliterated that it is not even known that birds in general mean thoughts, although they are so often named in the Word and it appears manifest there that they have another meaning. That an eagle in the opposite 7 sense signifies rational things that are not true, and thus false, is manifest from the following passages in Moses: Jehovah shall bring upon thee a nation from far from the end of the earth, as the eagle flieth, a nation whose tongue thou understandest not, a nation of fierce countenance (Deut. xxviii. 49, 50). In Jeremiah: Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as a whirlwind; his horses swifter than eagles. Woe unto us! for we are spoiled (iv. 13). In the same: Thy boasting hath deceived thee, the pride of thy heart, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that holdest the height of the hill; because thou madest thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from thence. . . . Behold, he shall come up and fly as the eagle, and spread out his wings against Bozrah, and the heart of the mighty men of Edom at that day shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs (xlix. 16, 22). same: Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles .

In the they

chased us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness (Lam. iv. 19). In Micah: Make thee bald, and poll thee for the children of thy delights, enlarge thy baldness as the eagle, for they are gone into captivity from thee (i. 16). In Obadiah: Though thou mount on high as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, I will bring thee down from thence (verse 4). In Habakkuk : I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which march through the breadths of the land to possess dwellingplaces that are not theirs. Their horses are swifter than leopards * ... their horsemen come from far, they fly as 8 an eagle that hasteth to devour (i. 6, 8). By eagles in these passages is signified falsity induced by reasonings, which is induced from the fallacies of the senses and external appearances. That by Chaldeans in the prophet last cited are signified those who are in a holy external, but interiorly in falsity, may be seen above (n. 1368); also that they who vastate the church are like Babylon (n. 1327); that the breadths of the land mean truths (n. 3433, 3434). Vastation is signified by marching through the breadths of the land. Their horses are their intellectual things, which are similar (see n. 2761, 2762, 3217). What the eagle hastening to devour signifies, is thus evident, namely, that it is desolating man of truths, for the desolating of the church is there treated of. Comparisons are here made with eagles, but, as has been said, comparisons in the Word are made by significatives. From this it is now manifest what is signified by the comparison with the eagles that will be gathered together to the carcase.

*The Latin has aquilis, eagles. Elsewhere sometimes pardis, leopards, as A. E. 281, 355, sometimes aquilis, as A. E. 780. The two words differ in Hebrew in only one letter.

CHAPTER XXX.

1. And Rachel saw that she did not bear to Jacob, and Rachel was jealous against her sister; and she said unto Jacob, Give me sons, and if not I am dead.

2. And Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, Am I in God's stead, Who withholdeth from thee the fruit of the womb?

3. And she said, Behold my handmaid Bilhah, go in unto her, and she shall bear upon my knees, and I also shall be built up by her.

4. And she gave him Bilhah her maidservant for a woman, and Jacob went in unto her.

5. And Bilhah conceived, and bare Jacob a son.

6. And Rachel said, God hath judged me, and hath also heard my voice, and hath given me a son; therefore she called his name Dan.

7. And she conceived again, and Bilhah, Rachel's maidservant, bare a second son to Jacob.

8. And Rachel said, With wrestlings of God have I wrestled with my sister, I have also prevailed; and she called his name Naphtali.

9. And Leah saw that she stood still from bearing, and she took Zilpah her maidservant, and gave her to Jacob for a woman.

10. And Zilpah, Leah's maidservant, bare Jacob a son. 11. And Leah said, A troop cometh, and she called his name Gad.

12. And Zilpah, Leah's maidservant, bare a second son to Jacob.

13. And Leah said, In my blessedness; for the daughters will call me blessed; and she called his name Asher.

14. And Reuben went in the days of wheat-harvest, and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them unto Leah his mother. And Rachel said to Leah, Give me, I pray, of thy son's mandrakes.