247、“蛇用肚子行走”表示他们的感官部分不能再向上看天堂的事物，只能向下看肉体和尘世的事物。这从以事实清楚可知：古时，“肚腹”表示最接近于地的事物；“胸”表示在地之上的事物；“头”表示最高的事物。这就是为何在本节，感官部分，也就是人的最低部分，“用肚子行走”，因为它转向地上的事物。在犹太教会，肚腹紧贴地面，将尘土撒在头上，具有同样的含义。因此，我们在诗篇读到：
你为何掩面，忘了我们的苦难和压迫呢？我们的灵魂伏于尘土，我们的肚腹紧贴地面。求你起来帮助我们，因你的怜悯救赎我们。（诗篇44:24–26）
由此也明显可知，当人转离耶和华的面时，他就开始将肚腹紧贴尘土和地面。同样，在约拿书，约拿被抛入的大鱼的“肚腹”表示地的较低部分，这从他的预言明显看出来：
我从阴间的肚腹呼求，你就俯听我的嗓声。（约拿书2:2）
此处“阴间（即地狱）”是指低地。
New Century Edition
Cooper(2008,2013)
[NCE]247. The serpent's traveling on its belly means that the sensory level could no longer look up toward heavenly values as it had before, but only down toward bodily and earthly ones. This can be seen from the fact that in ancient times people used belly to symbolize the things that are closest to the earth, chest to mean things higher than the earth, and head to mean the highest things of all. So here it says that the sensory plane, which by its nature is the lowest plane of the human mind, would travel on its belly because it turned toward earthly things. In the Jewish religion too a tendency toward lower things was symbolized by pressing one's belly down to the ground and by sprinkling dirt on one's head.{*1} David puts it this way:
Why do you hide your face, why forget our misery and our oppression? For our soul has bowed down to the dirt and our belly clings to the earth. Rise up as a helper to us and ransom us for the sake of your mercy. (Psalms 44:24-25, 26)
Here again we can see that when we turn away from Jehovah's face, our stomach begins to cling to the dirt and the earth.
The belly of the big fish that Jonah was cast into symbolizes the underground realm,{*2} as a prophecy in the Book of Jonah shows:
From the belly of hell I shouted; you heard my voice. (Jonah 2:2)
In this verse, hell stands for the underground realm.
Footnotes:
{*1} For biblical references to sprinkling dirt (or dust) on one's head, see Joshua 7:6; 2 Samuel 1:2; 15:32; Lamentations 2:10; Ezekiel 27:30. [LHC]
{*2} The Latin phrase here translated "underground realm" is infera terrae, literally, "low areas of the earth." When the English phrase "underground realm" appears again at the end of the passage, it stands for a slightly different Latin phrase: terra infera, "the low earth." These Latin phrases are two of six similar, more or less interchangeable ways in which Swedenborg denotes "the underground realm," a low-lying area below the world of spirits (see note 3 in 0) but above hell. The other four phrases are:
1. that which Swedenborg uses most often, terra inferior, literally, "the lower earth," paralleling the Hebrew phrase אֶרֶץ תַּחְתִּי ('ereṣ taḥtî), which appears in Ezekiel 31:14, 16, 18;
2. terra inferiorum, literally, "the land of low places," paralleling the Hebrew phrase אֶרֶץ תַּחְתִּיּוֹת ('ereṣ taḥtiyyôṯ), which appears in Ezekiel 26:20; 32:18, 24;
3. inferiora terrae, literally, "low places of the earth," paralleling the Hebrew phrase תַּחְתִּיּוֹת אָרֶץ (taḥtiyyôṯ 'āreṣ), which appears in Psalms 63:9; 139:15; Isaiah 44:23; and
4. simply infera, "low areas."
The underground realm is an area for good people who are nevertheless strongly attached to false ideas. As Swedenborg describes the spiritual geography of the underground realm, it is surrounded below and on all sides by the hells themselves; the people there are unwittingly subject to the negative influence of the hells. Yet from above, it enjoys support from and contact with angels and heaven. In the underground realm, and particularly in pits within that realm (to which biblical mentions of "the pit" correspond), people undergo a process called "devastation" to disabuse them of their false notions. This involves sometimes lengthy, painful, shattering experiences, but afterward the people who undergo them are lifted up into heaven with a great sense of consolation and relief. See Secrets of Heaven 4728, 4940-4950, 7090; Heaven and Hell 513 and its note a; Revelation Unveiled 845:2. [JSR]
Potts(1905-1910) 247
247. That the "serpent going on his belly" denotes that their sensuous part could no longer look upward to the things of heaven, but only downward to those of the body and the earth, is evident from the fact that in ancient times by the "belly" such things are signified as are nearest to the earth; by the "chest" such as are above the earth; and by the "head" what is highest. It is here said that the sensuous part, which in itself is the lowest part of man's nature, "went upon its belly" because it turned to what is earthly. The depression of the belly even to the earth, and the sprinkling of dust on the head, had a similar signification in the Jewish Church. Thus we read in David:
Wherefore hidest Thou Thy faces, and forgettest our misery and our oppression? For our soul is bowed down to the dust, and our belly cleaveth to the earth. Arise, a help for us, and redeem us for Thy mercy's sake (Ps. 44:24-26), where also it is evident that when man averts himself from the face of Jehovah, he "cleaves by his belly to the dust and to the earth." In Jonah likewise, by the "belly" of the great fish, into which he was cast, are signified the lower parts of the earth, as is evident from his prophecy:
Out of the belly of hell cried I, and Thou heardest my voice (Jonah 2:2), where "hell" denotes the lower earth.
Elliott(1983-1999) 247
247. 'The serpent going on its belly' means that the sensory part was no longer able to look upwards to celestial things, as previously, only downwards to bodily and worldly things. This is clear from the fact that in earliest times 'the belly' meant things closest to the earth, 'the breast' that those above the earth, and 'the head' those that were the lowest part of man since it directs itself to what is the lowest part of man since it directs itself to what is earthly, is referred to as 'going on its belly'. And in the Jewish Church lying flat with the belly on the head had the same meaning. In the ground and sprinkling dust over David it is said, Why do You hide Your facea and forget our misery and our oppression? For our soul is bowed down to the dust, and our belly cleaves to the ground. Rise up, as help for us, and redeem us for Your mercy's sake. Ps 44:24-26.
Here too it is clear that when a person turns away from the face of Jehovah he starts to cling with his belly to the dust and the ground. In Jonah also the belly of the great fish into which he was cast means the earth, as is clear from his own prophecy, Out of the belly of hell I cried, and You did hear my voice. Jonah 2:2.
Here 'hell' stands for the lower earth.
Latin(1748-1756) 247
247. Quod 'serpens super ventre ambularet' sit quod sensuale non amplius posset spectare sursum ad caelestia ut prius, sed deorsum ad corporea et terrestria, constat inde quod antiquitus per 'ventrem' significata sint ea quae proxima terrae; per 'pectus' quae supra terram, et per 'caput' quae suprema; ita hic, quod sensuale, quod in se est infimum hominis quia se convertit: ad terrestre, quod 'ambularet super ventre.' Hoc quoque in Ecclesia Judaica significatum est per depressionem ventris usque ad terram, et per conspersionem pulveris super caput; apud Davidem ita, Quare facies Tuas occultas, oblivisceris miseriae nostrae, et oppressionis nostrae; quia incurvata est ad pulverem anima nostra, et adhaeret terrae venter noster; surge auxilium{1} nobis, et redime nos propter misericordiam Tuam, Ps. xliv 25-27 [A.V. 24-26];ubi quoque constat cum avertit homo se a facie Jehovae, quod adhaerescat pulveri et terrae ventre. Apud Jonam etiam per ventrem piscis magni in quem conjectus, significantur infera terrae; ut constat a prophetia apud eum, E ventre inferni clamavi, audivisti vocem meam, Jon. ii 3;
ubi 'infernum' pro terra infera. @1 A.R. 281 has surge in auxilium. $