757. And the hold of every unclean spirit, and the hold of every unclean and hateful bird, signifies that the evils of the will and thence of the deed, and the falsities of thought and thence of design, of those who are in those hells, are diabolical, because they are turned away from the Lord to themselves. By "a hold" is signified hell, because there they are imprisoned; by "spirit" is signified everything that is of the affection or the will and thence of the deed; and by "bird" is signified everything that is of the thought or the understanding and thence of the design. Therefore by "unclean spirit" and "unclean bird" are signified all the evils which are of the will and thence of the deed, and all the falsities which are of the thought and thence of the design. And because these are with them in the hells, it is therefore signified that they are diabolical; and because they are turned away from the Lord to themselves, it is also called, "a hateful bird." Babel is described by similar things in the prophets; thus in Isaiah:
Babel shall be as God's overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah; it shall not be inhabited to eternity, so that the Arab shall not tarry there; the ziim shall lie down there, and their houses shall be filled with ochim, and the daughters of the owl shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there; the ziim also shall answer in her palaces, and the dragons in her palaces of luxuries (Isa. 13:19-22).
In the same:
I will cut off from Babel the name and remnant; I will make her an inheritance for the bittern (Isa. 14:22-23).
And in Jeremiah:
In Babel shall dwell the ziim and ijim and daughters of the owl, according to God's overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and its villages; no son of man shall dwell there (Jer. 50:39-40).
It is manifest from these passages, that by "the hold of every unclean spirit, and of every unclean and hateful bird," is signified that the evils of the will and thence of the deed, and the falsities of the thought and thence of the design, of those who are in those hells, are diabolical, because they are turned away from the Lord to themselves.
[2] It is manifest from the Word, that "birds" signify such things as are of the understanding and thought and thence of design, in each sense, both evil and good. In the evil sense they are mentioned in these passages:
In the midst of the week I will make the sacrifice to cease, at length upon the bird of abominations shall be desolation, unto the consummation it shall drop upon the devastation (Dan. 9:27).
The cormorant and the bittern shall possess the land, the screech owl and the raven shall dwell in it (Isa. 34:11).
Nothing else but infernal falsities are signified by "the ochim," "the ziim," "the daughters of the owl," and "the dragons," in the passages adduced above; also by:
The birds which came down upon the carcasses, which Abram drove away (Gen. 15:11).
By the birds to which their carcasses should be given for food (Jer. 7:33; 15:3; 16:4; 19:7; 34:20; Ezek. 29:5; Ps. 79:1-2);
Also by the birds which devour that which was sowed (Matt. 13:3, 4).
[3] In the good sense, in these passages:
Let the creeping thing and the bird praise the name of Jehovah (Ps. 148:10).
I will make a covenant for them in that day with the bird of the heavens and the creeping thing of the earth (Hos. 2:18).
Ask the beasts and they shall teach thee, and the birds of heaven and they shall declare unto thee; who from all these hath not known that the hand of Jehovah doeth it? (Job 12:7-9)
I saw, when, behold, there was no man, every bird of the heavens flew away (Jer. 4:25).
From the bird of the heavens even to the beast they are fled, because I will make Jerusalem heaps, the habitation of dragons (Jer. 9:10-11; 12:9).
There is no truth, no mercy, no knowledge of God; therefore the land shall mourn as to the beast of the field and as to the bird of the heavens (Hos. 4:1, 3).
I am God, that calls the bird from the east, the man of My counsel out of a land afar off (Isa. 46:9, 11).
Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon; all the birds of the heavens nested in its branches, and in its shadow dwelt all great nations (Ezek. 31:3, 6).
[4] Things similar to this are said of Ashur as a cedar elsewhere, as Ezek. 17:23; Dan. 4:10-14, 20, 21; Matt. 13:31-32; Mark 4:32; Luke 13:19:
Say to the bird of every wing, and to every beast of the field, come to the great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel; so will I give My glory among the nations (Ezek. 39:17, 21; Rev. 19:17; besides other places, as Isa. 18:1, 6; Ezek. 38:20; Hos. 9:11; 11:9, 11; Zeph. 1:3; Ps. 8:6-8; 50:11; 104:10, 12).
That "birds" signify the things which are of the understanding and thence of thought and design is clearly manifest from the birds in the spiritual world, where there appear also birds of every genus and every species; in heaven most beautiful ones, birds of paradise, turtledoves, and doves, in hell dragons, screech owls, horned owls, and other similar ones; all of which are representations to the life, of thoughts from good affections in heaven, and of thoughts from evil affections in hell.