To “break” something creates an image that is much different from “attacking,” “destroying,” or “shattering.” It is less emotional, less violent in its intent (or even accidental); it is somewhat matter-of-fact.
It is fitting, then, that “break” is, according to Swedenborg, used in the Bible primarily to illustrate the Lord’s destruction of evil desires and false ideas – something hard for us to go through, but something that must be done to preserve us from harm and certainly not something done with malice.
Passages from Swedenborg
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 2162
[13] Similarly representative was the prohibition that no man among Aaron’s descendants who had a broken foot or a broken hand should draw near to offer fire-offerings to Jehovah, Lev. 21:19, 21. ‘Broken feet and hands’ represented those people whose external worship was perverted.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 2851
[7] In the same prophet,
The city of hollowness will be broken down, every house will be shut up to prevent it being entered. There will be an outcry in the streets over [the lack] of wine, all joy will be made desolate, the gladness of the earth will be banished. What is left in the city will be desolation, and the gate will be smitten with vastation, for thus will it be in the midst of the earth, in the midst of the peoples. Isa. 24:10-13.
‘The city of hollowness’ which ‘will be broken down’ stands for the human mind deprived of truth. ‘Every house will be shut up’ stands for lack of good – ‘house’ meaning good, 2233. ‘An outcry in the streets over [the lack of] wine’ stands for a state of falsity – ‘outcry’ having reference to falsities, 2240. ‘Wine’ means truth over which there will be an outcry because there is none, 1071, 1798, and ‘streets’ means the things that lead to truths, 2336. ‘The joy which is being made desolate’ has reference to truth, ‘the gladness of the earth that is being banished’ to good. All this shows what is meant by ‘what is left in the city will be desolation’ and ‘the gate will be smitten with vastation’. The gate is said to be vastated when nothing but evils and falsities reign.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 3812
[8] Because ‘bone’ meant the understanding side of the proprium, or the proprium as regards truth, and in the highest sense meant Divine Truth, which was the Lord’s Proprium, it was therefore required at the Passover not to break any bone of the paschal lamb. This is referred to in Moses as follows,
It shall be eaten in one house; you shall not bring any of the flesh outside the house; and you shall not break a bone in it. Exod. 12:46.
And elsewhere in Moses,
They shall not leave any of it until morning, and they shall not break a bone of it. Num. 9:12.
‘Not breaking a bone’ stands in the highest sense for not offering violence to Divine truth, and in the representative sense for not offering violence to the truth connected with any good at all, for the nature of good and the form it takes depend on truths, and truth is the mainstay of good, as the bones are of the flesh.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 8282
8282. ‘With Your right hand, O Jehovah, You break the enemy in pieces’ means the effect almighty power has on evils and resulting falsities, whose power is eliminated. This is clear from the meaning of ‘Jehovah’s right hand’ as the Lord’s almighty power, dealt with immediately above in 8281; from the meaning of ‘breaking in pieces’ as eliminating; and from the meaning of ‘the enemy’ as evils and falsities, since nothing else is meant in the spiritual sense of the Word by those who are enemies, foes, and haters. The reason why the terms enemies, foes, and haters are used, is not that the Lord is an enemy to them or hates them, but because they hate and are hostile towards the Divine. When however they undergo vastation which they themselves bring about, and cast themselves into damnation and into hell, it appears as though the Divine is responsible for what is happening to them.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 9348
[3] In Isaiah,
They will go and stumble* backwards, and be broken, and snared, and caught. Isa. 28:13.
‘Falling backwards’ stands for turning oneself away from goodness and truth; ‘being broken’ stands for dispensing with truths and forms of good; ‘being snared’ stands for being enticed by the evils of self-love and love of the world; and ‘being caught’ stands for being carried away by them.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 10461
10461. ‘And threw the tablets out of his hand and broke them beneath the mountain’ means that the outward sense of the Word was altered and made different on account of that nation. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the tablets’, on which the Law had been written, as the outward sense of the Word or its literal sense, dealt with above in 10453; from the meaning of ‘throwing them out of his hand and breaking them’ as destroying the true outward sense, and so also changing it and making it different (that the outward sense of the Word was altered and made different on account of the Israelite nation, see above in 10453); and from the meaning of ‘Mount Sinai’ as heaven, from which Divine Truth comes, dealt with in 9420, the expression ‘beneath the mountain’ being used because the outward sense of the Word exists beneath heaven, whereas the inward sense exists in heaven.
Apocalypse Explained (Tansley) n. 177
177. As the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to pieces. That this signifies the total dispersion of falsities is evident from the signification of a potter’s vessels, as being those things in the natural man that are from man’s own intelligence (concerning which we shall speak presently); and from the signification of being broken to pieces, as being to be dispersed; for dispersing is said of falsities, as breaking to pieces is said of a potter’s vessels.
…
[7] Because the Jews and Israelites falsified all the truths of the Word by applying them to themselves, and to their own exaltation above all the nations and peoples in the universe, therefore their falsities are called broken vessels of a potter; as in Isaiah:
“They have said to the seers, See not; and to those who have vision, see not for us right things; speak unto us smooth things, see illusions, depart out of the way; therefore iniquity shall break them as the breaking of the bottle of the potters; in beating he shall not spare; whence there shall not he found in the fragment thereof a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to draw waters out of the pit” (xxx. 10, 11, 14).
That they wholly deprived themselves of truths and immersed themselves in falsities, is described by their saying to the seers, See not, and to them that have vision, See not for us right things, speak unto us smooth things, see illusions, depart out of the way. That they had thus immersed themselves in falsities so that nothing of truth remained, is described by the breaking of the potter’s vessel so that there should not be found in the fragments a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to draw waters out of the pit; by which is signified that there should not remain with them so much of truth as to enable them to perceive any good and truth from the Word. For fire signifies good, and water signifies truth; the hearth signifies the Word as to good, a pit the Word as to truth.
Apocalypse Explained (Tansley) n. 316
[17] That the power of falsity against truth is signified by a horn or horns, is also clear from the following passages: In Jeremiah:
“The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken” (xlviii. 25).
By Moab those are signified who are in spurious goods, and in falsified truths thence, which in themselves are falsities. The destruction of these falsities is signified by the horn of Moab being cut off, and the destruction of those evils by his arm being broken.
Apocalypse Explained (Tansley) n. 357
[27] In Jeremiah:
“Behold, I break the bow of Elam, the beginning of his power” (xlix. 35).
By Elam is meant the knowledge (scientia) of the natural man, and confidence therefrom; by his bow is signified knowledge from which he fights as from doctrine; and by the beginning of his power is signified confidence; for knowledge avails nothing if it does not serve the rational and spiritual man. That by Elam is meant the knowledge which belongs to the natural man, is evident from those places where it is named in the Word (as Gen. x. 22; Isa. xxi. 2; Jer. xxv. 24-26; xlix. 34-39; Ezek. xxxii. 24).
[28] In David:
Jehovah “maketh wars to cease even to the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear asunder; he burneth the chariots with fire” (Ps. xlvi. 10).
Because by wars are signified spiritual combats, which are here those of falsity against the truth and against the good which belong to the church, it is hence evident what is signified by, Jehovah shall make wars to cease even to the end of the earth, namely, that all combat, and all disagreement [should cease] from the first to the last of the truth of the church, the end of the earth signifying its last. That there shall be no combat of doctrine against doctrine, is signified by, He shall break the bow; that there shall be no combat from any falsity of evil, is signified by, He shall cut the spear asunder; and that everything of the doctrine of falsity shall be destroyed, by, He shall burn the chariots with fire.
[30] In Hosea:
“In that day will I make a covenant for them with the beast of the field, and with the bird of the heavens, and with the creeping thing of the ground; and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle from off the earth, and I will make to lie down safely” (ii. 18).
The Lord’s advent is here treated of, and then His conjunction with all those who are in truths from good. By the covenant with the beast of the field, with the bird of the heavens, and with the creeping thing of the ground, is signified conjunction with their affection of good, with their affection of truth, and with their affection for the knowledges of the truth and good that belong to the church; for the beast of the field signifies the affection of good; the bird of the heavens, the affection of truth; and the creeping thing of the ground, the affection for the knowledges of truth and good. That no beast, or bird, or reptile of the earth is here meant, every one sees; for how can any covenant be made with them? By, I will break the bow and the sword and the battle from off the earth, is signified that from conjunction with the Lord there shall exist no combat of falsity against truth; the bow here denotes doctrine, the sword denotes falsity, and the battle denotes combat.
Apocalypse Explained (Tansley) n. 418
[6] In Daniel:
“The he-goat of the goats magnified himself exceedingly; but when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and in its place came up four notable ones toward the four winds of the heavens” (viii. 8).
What is meant by the he-goat of the goats and by the ram in that chapter may be seen above (n. 316), namely, that by the he-goat of the goats is signified faith separated from charity, consequently, those who imagine that they are saved because they know the doctrinals and truths of the Word, and yet care nothing for a life according to them. Horns signify truths, and in the opposite sense, as here, falsities; the great horn signifies the dominant falsity, that merely knowing and thence believing is salvation. That the great horn was broken, and in its place four notable ones came up toward the four winds of the heavens signifies, that from that one source of faith alone many falsities conjoined with evils arise; the great horn denoting the dominant falsity that faith alone saves, and its being broken, signifies division into the many falsities which arise therefrom. “In its place, four” signifies, their conjunction with evils; “toward the four winds of the heavens” signifies, in regard to every detail pertaining to falsity and evil; for the four winds of the heavens signify every good and truth of heaven and the church, and their conjunction, but in the opposite sense, every evil and falsity and their conjunction. The reason why the four winds of the heavens signify also every evil and falsity is, that not only those who are in the good of love, and in truths thence, dwell in the four quarters of the spiritual world, but also those who are in evils and falsities thence, the hells being in the same quarters, but deep under the heavens, for the most part in caverns, dens, and vaults.