898. [verse 12] 'Having a great and high wall' signifies the Word in the sense of the letter from which the doctrine of the New Church will be derived. When by 'the holy city Jerusalem' is understood the Lord's New Church as to doctrine, by its 'wall' nothing else is understood but the Word in the sense of the letter from which the doctrine is derived, for that sense protects the spiritual sense which is concealed within just as a wall protects a city and its inhabitants. That the sense of the letter is the basis, the containant and the support of its spiritual sense may be seen in THE DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE (n. 27-36); and that that sense is a guard lest the interior Divine Truths that are of its spiritual sense should be harmed (n. 97 there); also that the Church's doctrine is to be drawn out of the sense of the letter of the Word, and confirmed by it (n. 50-65 there). It is said 'a great and high wall' because there is understood the Word as to Divine Good and Divine Truth, for 'great' is predicated of good and 'high' of truth, as above (n. 896). [2] By 'a wall' is signified that which protects, and where it concerns the Church it signifies the Word in the sense of the letter in the following passages also:-
I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem; by day and night they shall not be silent, making mention of Jehovah Isa. lxii 6.
They shall call thee the city of Jehovah, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel, and thou shalt call thy walls salvation, and thy gates praise Isa. lx 14, 18.
Jehovah shall be for a wall of fire round about, and for the glory in the midst of her Zech. ix 5 [H.B. 9].
The sons of Arvad are upon thy walls, and the Gammadians have hung their shields upon the walls round about, and they have perfected thy beauty Ezek. xxvii 11;
these things being said concerning Tyre, by which is signified the Church as to the cognitions of truth derived from the Word.
Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see if there is [any one] seeking the truth (veritas); go up onto her walls, and cast down Jer. v 1, 10.
Jehovah has thought to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion, He has made the rampart and the wall to mourn, they languish together; the law and the prophets are no more Lam. ii 8, 9.
They shall run to and fro in the city, they shall run on the wall, they shall climb up into the houses, they shall get in through the windows Joel ii 9;
these things concerning the falsifications of truth.
Day and night the wicked go about in the city upon its walls, destructions are in the midst of it Ps. lv 10, 11 [H.B. 11, 12];
besides elsewhere, as Isa. xxii 5; lvi 5; Jer. i 15; Ezek. xxvii 11; Lam. ii 7. That the Word in the sense of the letter is signified by 'a wall' is quite plain from the following things of this chapter, which treat much of the wall, its gates, foundations and measurements. This is because the doctrine of the New Church, which is signified by 'the city', is solely derived from the sense of the letter of the Word.
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