5039. When that knife and scissors were exhibited from a higher place, the better people were then separated from the evil by the angels, by the Lord, and the better went out of the city. And then this great city, brought together in this way, sank down, the center of it deeply, almost as when water goes down through a hole in a spiral. Then the rest of the great city sank down. When the homes [that were] there before sank down, they were demolished, and then they began to rebuild the city, but now in a different arrangement, about which elsewhere. The arrangement is such that the worst are in the center, and those who are not so evil are in the surrounding areas. But what the nature of this arrangement is cannot be grasped by those there, but by the angels from the Lord, because it is done in agreement with all the differences in the nature of the evil, and from this the falsity, that they have.
5039. When that knife and scissors were exhibited from a higher place, the better sort were separated from the evil, by angels from the Lord; the better ones, also, departed from the city; and then that great city, thus compounded, sank down: its midst, deeply; and the rest of the great city sank down, nearly like when water descends, vertically, through an orifice. When they sank down, the houses were first overthrown; and then they began to build the city anew there, but this time in another order, of which mention is made elsewhere. 1The order is, that the worst sort are in the middle and those who are not so evil in the circumferences. But of what nature the arrangement is, cannot be known to those who are there, but [only] by angels from the Lord; for it occurs according to all the variety of their evil, and consequently false, nature.
Footnotes:
1. See n. 5034, above.
5039. Cum culter ille et forceps ostensi e loco superiori, tunc separati sunt ab angelis, a Domino, meliores a malis, et meliores exibant ex urbe, et tunc magna illa urbs ita consociata subsidit, medium ejus profunde, paene sicut cum aqua per foramen delabitur per gyrum, reliquum urbis magnae subsidebat: cum subsiderunt, domus priores subrutae sunt, et tunc ibi e novo urbem aedificare coeperunt, sed tunc in alio ordine, de quo alibi; ordo est, quod pessimi in medio sint, et non ita mali in circumferentiis, sed qualis dispositio est, non possunt scire illi qui ibi, sed ab angelis a Domino, nam fit cum omni varietate naturae mali et inde falsi apud illos.