If we think about adolescent boys — teenagers, roughly — it’s fair to say that typically their emotional maturity lags a bit behind their intellectual maturity. They are often capable of vacuuming up huge amounts of information about subjects of interest, and are often adept at constructing rational, legalistic arguments for what they believe. Yet what they believe has a tendency to be lacking in softness, warmth, caring, empathy. It’s like they’re trying to use logic to interpret a world that is a bit more subtle and complex than they realize.
So it follows in a way that Swedenborg says that “youths” or “young men” in the Bible generally represent intelligence, the understanding of what is true, or truth itself. These are good things, and full of promise, but need to be blended with affection and caring in order to mature into true wisdom.
Passages from Swedenborg
Arcana Coelestia (Potts) n. 7724
7724. Your babe also shall go with you. That this signifies that they should worship from truth, is evident from the signification of “babe” here, as being truth; for by “babe” are meant boys, youths, young men, in a word, sons, by whom are signified whatever is of intelligence, thus truths (see n. 7668); and from the signification of “going with you,” as being that they were to be left so that they may worship the Lord their God.
Arcana Coelestia (Potts) n. 5037
3] Again:
All the youths are hid in prison houses; they are made for a prey, and none rescueth, and none saith, Bring forth (Isa. 42:22);
“youths” in the internal sense are the truths of faith, which are said “to be hid in prison houses,” and “to be made for a prey,” when they are no longer acknowledged.
Apocalypse Explained 863 (Whitehead):
From Lamentations:
The ways of Zion do mourn because they come not to the feast; all her gates are devastated, her priests moan, her virgins are sad, and she herself is in bitterness. The Lord hath cast down all my mighty in the midst of me; He hath proclaimed against me an appointed time for breaking my youths. The Lord hath trodden the wine-press for the virgin daughter of Zion.* Hear, I pray, all ye people, and behold my grief; my virgins and my youths have gone into captivity (1:4, 15, 18).
This describes the devastation of Divine truth in the church, “Zion” of which this is said signifying the church, where the Lord reigns by the Divine truth. “The ways of Zion do mourn” signifies that Divine truths are no longer sought; “no one comes to the feast” signifies that there is at that time no worship; “all her gates are desolated” signifies that there is no approach to truths; “her priests moan, her virgins are sad,” signifies that affections of good and affections of truth are destroyed; “He hath cast down all my mighty in the midst of me” signifies that all power of truth against falsities has perished; “He hath proclaimed against me an appointed time” signifies its last state, when the Lord is about to come; “for breaking my youths” signifies when there is no longer any understanding of truth; “the Lord hath trodden the wine-press for the virgin daughter of Zion”* signifies when all the truths of the Word are falsified; “my virgins and my youths have gone into captivity” signifies when all the affection of truth and the understanding of truth have perished by falsities.
[3] In the same:
The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the earth; they keep silence; they have cast up dust upon their head; they have girded themselves with sackcloth; the virgins of Jerusalem have made their head to go down to the earth. What shall I testify unto thee, to what shall I liken thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? They have lain in the streets, the boy and the old man; my virgins and my youths have fallen by the sword (Lam. 2:10, 13, 21).
These words, too, describe the devastation of Divine truth in the church, “the daughter of Zion” being the church in which the Lord reigns by Divine truth; grief on account of its devastation is described by “sitting on the earth,” “the elders being silent,” “casting up dust upon the head,” “girding themselves with sackcloth,” and “making the head to go down to the earth.” “The elders of the daughter of Zion” signify those who have been in Divine truths; “the virgins of Jerusalem” signify those who have taught truths from the affection of truth; “they have lain in the streets, the boy and the old man,” signifies that innocence and wisdom have been destroyed, together with Divine truths; “my virgins and my youths have fallen by the sword” signifies that all the affection of truth and all the understanding of truth have perished by falsities, “virgin” being the affection of truth, “youth” the understanding of truth, and “to fall by the sword” is to perish through falsities.
[4] In the same:
Our skins are become black like an oven because of the tempests of famine; the women in Zion have been ravished, the virgins in the cities of Judah; the princes have been hanged up by their hand; the faces of the elders have not been honored (Lam. 5:10-12).
In this like things are involved. What is signified by “the women in Zion,” “the virgins in the cities of Judah,” and “the princes and old men,” has been explained above (n. 540, 555, 655).
In Amos:
Behold the days shall come in which I will send a famine in the land, not a famine for bread nor a thirst for waters, but for hearing the words of Jehovah. In that day shall the beautiful virgins and the youths faint for thirst (8:11, 13).
This describes the lack of Divine truth. That lack is meant by “famine” and by “thirst;” therefore it is said, “not a famine for bread nor a thirst for waters, but for hearing the words of Jehovah.” That the affection of truth and the understanding of truth will cease because of this lack is signified by “in that day shall the beautiful virgins and the youths faint for thirst.”
[5] In Isaiah:
Blush, O Zidon, the sea hath said, the stronghold of the sea, saying, I have not travailed, neither brought forth; I have not trained up youths, I have not brought up virgins (23:4).
“Zidon and Tyre” mean the church as to the knowledges of good and truth; and the “sea” and “the stronghold of the sea” mean the natural where such knowledges are. That none are reformed by those knowledges is signified by “I have not travailed, neither brought forth;” and that consequently there is no understanding of truth and no affection of truth is signified by “I have not trained up youths, I have not brought up virgins.”
[6] In David:
God shut up His people to the sword, and was wroth with His inheritance. The fire hath devoured her youths, and her virgins are not wedded. Her priests have fallen by the sword (Ps. 78:62-64).
This, too, treats of the devastation of the church by falsities and evils. “God shut up His people to the sword, and was wroth with His inheritance,” signifies that the church perished through falsities and evils, the “sword” signifies the destruction of truth by falsities, “to be wroth” destruction by evils, the “people” those of the church who are in truths, and “inheritance” those who are in goods, but here those who are in falsities and evils. “The fire hath devoured her youths” signifies that the love of self and thence the pride of self-intelligence have destroyed the understanding of truth; “her virgins are not wedded” signifies that the affections of truth have perished through non-understanding of truth; “her priests have fallen by the sword” signifies that the goods of the church, which are the goods of works, of charity, and of life, have been destroyed by falsities.
Apocalypse Explained 386 (Whitehead)
Because “famine and thirst” signify a lack of the knowledges of good and truth, therefore it is also said “in that day shall the beautiful virgins and the youths faint for thirst,” “the beautiful virgins” meaning the affections of truth from good, and “youths” the truths themselves that are from good, “the thirst for which they shall faint” meaning the lack of these.
Apocalypse Revealed 620 (Whitehead)
[3] Similar affections are signified by “virgins” in other parts of the Word, where mention is made at the same time of “young men,” because “young men” signify truths, and “virgins” the affections thereof; as in the following passages:
Behold, the days come, in which I will send a famine in the land, not a famine for bread, nor a thirst for water, but for hearing the words of Jehovah; in that day shall the beautiful virgins and the young men faint for thirst (Amos 8:11, 13).
Be thou ashamed, O Zidon; for the sea hath said, I travail not, nor bring forth, neither do I nourish young men, nor bring up virgins (Isa. 23:4).
The Lord hath trodden the virgin, the daughter of Judah, as a wine-press; behold my sorrow, the virgins and the youngmen have gone into captivity (Lam. 1:4, 15, 18).
How great is His goodness and how great is His beauty; corn shall make the young men grow up, and new wine, the virgins (Zech. 9:17).
And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof (Zech. 8:5).
The virgins of Jerusalem sit on the earth; to what shall I liken thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? My virgins and young menlie in the streets (Lam. 2:10, 13, 21; besides other passages, as Jer. 51:20-23; Lam. 5:10-12; Ezek. 9:4, 6; Ps. 78:62-64; Deut. 32:25).
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 7668
7668. ‘Go now, you young men, and serve Jehovah’ means that those guided by truths that have been corroborated will be left alone, in order that they may worship the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of the command ‘go’ as the intimation that they will be left alone, as above in 7658; from the meaning of ‘young men’ as corroborated truths, dealt with below; and from the meaning of ‘serving Jehovah’ as worshipping the Lord, as above in 7654, 7664. The reason why ‘young men’ means those guided by truths that have been corroborated is that by sons, boys, young men, men, and old men’ are meant aspects of intelligence and wisdom in their true order. Such aspects instead of those male persons are understood in heaven; for those in heaven possess spiritual ideas which are such that images from the purely natural order or the world cannot enter them without being instantly sloughed off and transformed into the kinds of images that are more in keeping with the wisdom of heaven and with angelic thought. This is why ‘sons, boys, young men, men, and old men’ cannot in the spiritual sense mean those male persons, only corresponding spiritual realities, which are aspects of intelligence and wisdom. The fact that these are meant is plainly evident from the internal sense of the places in the Word where they are mentioned.
[2] In the Word ‘young men’ is used to mean those who have intelligence, or – on the level of abstract ideas on which angels think – intelligence itself. And since intelligence is meant by them, so is firmly established truth since this belongs to intelligence. Also the expression which is used here in the original language to denote young men is derived from strength and power, which truth receives from good, and so which firmly established truth receives. And this name is therefore applied to the Lord in Zechariah,
O sword, rise up against My shepherd, and against the (young) man, My neighbour. Strike the shepherd, and the sheep are scattered. Zech. 13:7.
These words were spoken in reference to the Lord, see Matt. 26:31. And also in Jeremiah,
How long do you wander around, O estranged daughter? Jehovah has created a new thing on the earth, a woman has surrounded a (young) man. Jer. 31:22.
[3] Another word for ‘young men in the original language stands for intelligence, and so for the truth that belongs to it, in Amos,
I have sent the pestilence upon you in the way of Egypt, I have killed your young men with the sword, along with captured horses.* Amos 4:10.
‘The way of Egypt’ stands for perverted factual knowledge, young men who have been killed’ for truths which have as a result been destroyed, and ‘captured horses’ for an understanding that has been led into error.
[4] In the same prophet,
They will wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they will run to and fro to seek the Word of Jehovah, and will not find it. On that day the beautiful virgins and the young men will faint from thirst. Amos 8:12, 13.
‘The beautiful virgins’ stands for the affection for truth, ‘the young men’ for intelligence, and ‘fainting from thirst’ for being deprived of truth; and this is why it says ‘they will run to and fro to seek the Word of Jehovah, and will not find it’. The fact that neither beautiful virgins, nor young men, nor fainting because of thirst are meant here is self-evident.
In Jeremiah,
Death has come up through our windows, it has entered our palaces, cutting off the young child from the street, young men from the lanes. Jer. 9:11.
In the same prophet,
How is the city of glory not forsaken, the city of My joy? Therefore her young men will fall in her streets. Jer. 49:25, 26; 50:30.
In the same prophet,
Hear now, all peoples, see my sorrow; my virgins and my young men have gone into captivity. Lam. 1:18.
In these places ‘young men’ stands for the truths that belong to intelligence.
* lit. the captivity of horses
Arcana Coelestia (Potts) n. 9390
9390. And he sent youths of the sons of Israel. That this signifies the things of innocence and charity, is evident from the signification of “youths of the sons of Israel,” as being the things of innocence and charity with those who are of the church; for by “sucklings,” “little children,” and “youths,” are signified those who are in innocence and charity, or abstractedly from persons, the things of innocence and charity (see n. 430, 5236); and by “the sons of Israel” are signified those who are of the church, or abstractedly from persons, the things of the church (n. 9340).