7668. Go I pray, ye that are young men, and serve Jehovah. That this signifies that they who are in confirmed truths shall be left, so that they may worship the Lord, is evident from the signification of "go ye," as being that they shall be left (as above, n. 7658); from the signification of "young men," as being truths confirmed (of which in what follows); and from the signification of "serving Jehovah," as being to worship the Lord (as above, n. 7654, 7658, 7664). That "young men" denote those who are in confirmed truths, is because by "sons," "boys," "young men," "men," and "old men" are signified the things that are of intelligence and wisdom in their order. Such things are meant in heaven instead of men of these ages; for they who are in heaven are in spiritual ideas, into which what is of mere nature and the world cannot enter, but is instantly put off and passes into what is conformable to the wisdom of heaven and to angelic thought; hence by "sons," "boys," "young men," "men," and "old men," in the spiritual sense cannot be signified those who are so called; but corresponding spiritual things, which are those which pertain to intelligence and wisdom; that these are signified is very manifest from the internal sense in the Word where they are mentioned.
[2] By "young men" in the Word are meant those who are intelligent, or according to abstract angelic ideas, intelligence; and because intelligence is meant, therefore by them confirmed truth is also meant, for this pertains to intelligence. Moreover, the word by which "young men" is here expressed in the original tongue is derived from the strength and power which truth has from good, thus which confirmed truth has; whence this name is attributed to the Lord. In Zechariah:
O sword, rise up against My shepherd, and against the man (young man) My neighbor; smite the shepherd, and let the sheep be scattered (Zech. 13:7);
but these words were spoken of the Lord, see Matt. 26:31. And also in Jeremiah:
How long dost thou wander about, O thou backsliding daughter? For Jehovah hath created a new thing in the earth, a woman hath encompassed a [young] man (Jer. 30:1).
[3] "Young men" in another word in the original tongue denote intelligence, thus its truth, in Amos:
I have sent among you the pestilence in the way of Egypt; your young men have I slain with the sword, with the captivity of the horses (Amos 4:10);
where "the way of Egypt" denotes memory-knowledges perverted; the "young men who were slain," the truths thence destroyed; "the captivity of the horses," the intellectual seduced.
[4] In the same:
They shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even unto the east; they shall run to and fro to seek the word of Jehovah, and shall not find it. In that day shall the fair virgins and the young men faint for thirst (Amos 8:12-13);
where "fair virgins" denote the affection of truth; "young men" intelligence; "to faint for thirst" denotes to be deprived of truth; therefore it is said, "they shall run to and fro to seek the word of Jehovah and shall not find it." That fair virgins are not meant, nor young men, nor faintness by reason of thirst, is plain. In Jeremiah:
Death is come up through our windows, it is entered into our palaces; to cut off the babe from the street, the young men from the avenues (Jer. 9:21).
How is the city of glory not forsaken, the city of my joy? Wherefore her young men shall fall in her streets (Jer. 49:25-26; 50:30).
Hear, I pray, all ye peoples, see my grief; my virgins and my young men are gone into captivity (Lam. 1:18).
In these passages "young men" denote the truths which are of intelligence.