Esau and Edom with AE 410 [4]

The terror you inspire
and the presumption of your heart
have deceived you,
you who live in the clefts of the rocks,
who occupy the height of the hill.
Though you build your nest as high as the eagle's,
from there I will bring you down.

(Jeremiah 49:16)
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AE 410 [4]

This is said of Esau and Edom; and "Esau"
here signifies the love of self
and the evil therefrom
destroying the church,
and "Edom" the pride of self-intelligence
and the falsity therefrom
destroying the church.
That the love of self and such pride are meant
is evident from its being said
"the presumption of your heart has deceived you;
if you should make thy nest as high as the eagle,
from there I would I cast you down."
Those who are in falsities from self-intelligence
dwell in rocks below,
and the ways of approach to them
appear like holes . . ..
Within, however, there are rooms hollowed out
and arched chambers where they sit in their fantasies.
But before they are cast into these
they are seen on mountains and hills,
for they raise themselves into high places by fantasies,
and as they are not in truths they think they are there bodily,
and yet bodily they are in the caves of the rocks;
this, therefore, is what is meant by
"dwelling in the holes of the rocks,
and holding the height of the hill."
 This makes clear the nature of the Word,
namely, that in many places
it conforms to the aspects and appearances
in the spiritual world,
which are unknown to man
but known to spirits and angels;
from which it is evident
that the Word is written for them also.