2054. While he was there, I was reading in Deut. 1 about the Jewish people, about their having sent out to spy out the land and everything in it. These matters were turned by the heavenly spirits into a spiritual meaning, so that he was aware of nothing of the literal meaning, but only the spiritual. He said he did not know what I was reading, but that he was hearing wonderful things, for it was the inner meaning, that is, that the mountain of the Amorites [v. 7, 19, 20] symbolizes the world of evil spirits, through which they passed into heaven, and the river Eshkol,* where there were fruits and grape clusters [v. 24-5, cf. Num. 13:23], symbolizes the inward heaven. This was the meaning of the words there, but not the literal meaning, of which they said they had noticed nothing at all. This shows how the meaning of the Word of the Lord is lifted up toward the inward regions of the heavens, so that nothing of the literal meaning remains. This he declared to me, stating it to me in a clear voice, and that they were harligheter** he was hearing. 1748, 23 May. * See index under Coelum, Emorraei, Mons, Mundus, Verbum, Vinea, where Esel appears; also A. E. 403, which has Eskol. ** Swedish for "glorious things."