765. [verse 8] 'On account of this in one day her plagues will come, death and mourning and hunger' signifies that on account of this at the time of the last judgment the penalties for the evils that they have done are going to return upon them, these being a 'death' that is infernal life and the inward (intestinus) grief resulting from the casting down from dominion, a 'mourning' that is the internal grief resulting from destitution and misery in the place of opulence, and a 'hunger' that is the deprivation of the understanding of everything true. By 'on account of this' is understood because she has said in her heart 'I sit a queen and am not a widow, and shall not see mourning', of which just above (n. 764). By 'in one day' is signified at the time of the last judgment, which is indeed called 'the day of judgment'. By the 'plagues' are signified the penalties for the evils that they have done in the world, which are then going to return upon them. By 'death' is signified the infernal life and inward grief resulting from the casting down from dominion which was above (n. 763) called torment, concerning which death something follows. By 'mourning' is signified the internal grief resulting from destitution and misery in place of opulence, as also above (n. 764). By 'hunger' is signified the deprivation of the understanding of everything true. Into these three 'plagues' or penalties come those of that form of religion who have had a dominion resulting from the love of self and no love of uses except for the sake of self. These are also atheists at heart, since they attribute all things to the prudence of the proprium and to nature. The rest of that kind, who are such but do not think interiorly in themselves, are idolaters. That by the plague or penalty that is called 'hunger' is understood the deprivation of the understanding of everything true may be seen above (n. 323). Every man indeed, so long as he is living in the world, has rationality, that is, the faculty of understanding what is true. This faculty remains with every man after death. Yet those who out of the love of self and the pride of self-intelligence have absorbed untruths of religion in the world are not willing after death to understand what is true; and to be unwilling is as it were not to be able. This inability resulting from unwillingness is with all such and is increased for this reason, that out of the delight of the lust for untruth for the sake of dominion they continually absorb new confirming untruths, and thus become nothing but untruths and remain so to eternity. Similar things are understood by these words concerning Babel in Jeremiah:-
Your mother has been exceedingly ashamed, she who bare you has blushed with shame; behold the outcome is a wilderness, a dryness and a desert. From the wrath of Jehovah it shall not be inhabited, but shall be a total devastation. Every one passing by Babel shall be astonished, and shall hiss over all her plagues Jer. 1 12, 13.