“Drawing” is used a number of different ways in the Bible, generally in the sense of pulling, leading or moving: People commonly draw water, draw near to others, draw things out, draw swords and draw breath, among others. These all, according to Swedenborg, have separate meanings, though they are all active and all involve a desire for something spiritual.
To draw near to someone represents a communication between different spiritual levels, usually bringing our externals – our day-to-actions and the thoughts and feelings connected to them – into communication with our internals, or the deeper principles and motivations that drive us spiritually.
To draw water represents a state of learning and instruction, which makes sense because water represents truth in general, especially more basic true ideas about how to live in external life.
To draw things out from somewhere – which is at various times used in relation to people, animals and objects – represents a state of compulsion, in which a spiritual state or knowledge is being forced on someone.
Swords represents true ideas in battle, or in the opposite sense false ideas in battle. So drawing a sword means either attacking true ideas by means of false ones, or else attacking false ideas by means of true ones.
Drawing breath, finally, represents gathering in ideas of the most basic sort, ideas on how to apply the concepts we accept at face value. For instance, we might accept the concept that it’s important to be polite, and from that gather in the idea that we should use the words “please” and “thank you.” These are things we accept without much examination, and they are important to external life even if they have little internal importance.
Passages from Swedenborg
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 7914
‘Draw out’ means that they should compel themselves. This is clear from the meaning of ‘drawing out’, when used in reference to the good of innocence which those belonging to the spiritual Church are to receive, as compelling themselves. The good of innocence, which is the good of love to the Lord, is not received by one who belongs to the spiritual Church unless he exercises self-compulsion; for the belief that the Lord is the only God, and also that His Human is Divine, does not come easily to him. Therefore, since he is short of faith, no love to Him, or consequently any good of innocence, can be present in him unless he exercises self-compulsion. The fact that a person ought to exercise self-compulsion, and that when he does he is in freedom but not when subject to compulsion from without, see 1937, 1947. This is what is meant by ‘drawout’, that is to say, the Passover animal. Drawing out that animal, it is self-evident, holds an arcanum within it that is not perceptible in the sense of the letter.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 3058
The reason ‘drawing water’ means instruction and also consequent enlightenment, as in later verses of this chapter, is that ‘water in the internal sense means the truths of faith, 2702. Thus ‘drawing water’ is nothing else than receiving instruction in the truths of faith and so being enlightened, as is also the meaning elsewhere in the Word, as in Isaiah,
With joy you will draw water from the springs of salvation, and [you will say] or that day, Confess Jehovah. Isa. 12:3, 4.
‘Drawing water’ stands for receiving instruction, having intelligence, and being wise. In the same prophet,
To the thirsty bring water, O inhabitants of the land of Tema. Isa. 21:14.
‘Bringing water to the thirsty’ stands for giving instruction. In the same prophet,
The wretched and the needy are seeking water, and there is none; their tongue is parched with thirst. Isa. 41:17.
‘Those seeking water’ stands for those desiring instruction in truths, ‘and there is none’ stands for the fact that nobody had any. In addition ‘drawers of water’ in the Jewish Church represented those who constantly seek to know truths but to no other end than just knowing them, and who consequently pay no attention to their purpose. Such persons were rated among the lowest of all. The Gibeonites mentioned in Josh. 9:21, 23, 27, represented them.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 6843
‘And He said, Do not draw near here’ means that in thinking about the Divine he should not do so as yet with the powers of the senses. This is clear from the meaning of ‘drawing near Jehovah’ as thinking about the Divine. The reason why the expression ‘drawing near’ when used of a person’s approach to the Lord means thought about the Divine is that a person cannot draw near the Divine physically in the way one person draws near another, only mentally, that is, in thought and will. No other kind of approach can be made to the Divine, for the Divine is above the things that belong to space and time and is present in those things with a person which are called states, that is to say, states of love and states of faith, thus states of both powers of the mind – will and thought. It is by means of these that a person can draw near the Divine. This explains why here ‘Do not draw near here’ means that in thinking about the Divine he should not do so with his outward sensory powers, meant by his shoes which he had first to take off. The expression ‘as yet’ is used because the outward sensory powers of the natural are regenerated last and so are the last to receive influx from the Divine. And the state which is the subject here was not yet such that the sensory powers could receive the things that flowed in. Regarding the powers of the senses see what is said immediately below.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 5883
‘Draw near to me, I beg you’ means a more internal communication. This is clear from the meaning of ‘drawing near’ as communicating in closer proximity, which, in the context of the external in relation to the internal, is communicating on a more internal level.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 9281
‘And your female slave’s son and the sojourner may draw breath’ means the state of life of those governed by truths and forms of good outside the Church. This is clear from the meaning of ‘female slave’s son’ as those with an affection for external truth, for ‘son’ means truth, 489, 491, 533, 1147, 2623, 2803, 2813, 3373, 3704, 4257, and ‘a female slave’ means an external affection, 1895, 2567, 3835, 3849, 7780, 8993; from the meaning of ‘the sojourner’ as those who wish to receive instruction in the Church’s truths and forms of good, dealt with in 1463, 8007, 8013, 9196, the reason why ‘female slave’s son and the sojourner’ here means those outside the Church being that the preceding words in the present verse have referred to those within the Church, and therefore those outside the Church are meant by ‘a female slave’s sons’ and those not born within the Church by ‘sojourners’ (the former are such because they are the offspring of an inferior marriage, the latter because they descend from an alien stock); and from the meaning of ‘drawing breath’ as the state of life in respect of the truths and forms of the good of faith. ‘Drawing breath’ means that state of life because the lungs, whose function is breathing, correspond to the life of faith springing from charity, which is spiritual life, 97, 1119, 3351, 3635, 3883-3896, 9229.
[2] The human being breathes outwardly and he breathes inwardly; outwardly he draws breath from the world, but inwardly from heaven. When a person dies he ceases to breathe outwardly, but his inward breathing, which is soundless and is undetectable by him while he lives in the world, continues. This breathing is regulated altogether by his affection for truth, thus by the life of his faith. Those without any faith at all, as those in hell are, do not draw breath from an inner source but from an outward one, thus from an opposite direction. Therefore also when they come near an angelic community, which draws breath from an inner source, they start to be suffocated and to become like deathmasks, 3894. As a result of this they hurl themselves headlong back into their hell, where they regain their former manner of breathing that is the opposite of the heavenly manner.
[3] Since breathing corresponds to the life of faith, this life is also meant by anima – a word for soul or breath, 9050 – because of the animation or life-giving power that lies in breathing. Breathing is referred to additionally as spiritus – which also means ‘spirit’ – in such phrases as ‘taking a breath’ and ‘letting out breath’, and therefore also the word for spirits in the original language comes from a word for ‘wind’, and in the Word they are compared to wind, as in John,
The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its voice; but you do not know where it comes from, or where it goes away to. So is everyone who is born from the spirit. John 3:8.
From this also it is evident what the meaning is when it says that after the Resurrection, when the Lord spoke to the disciples, He breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit, John 20:22.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 8294
‘I will unsheathe the sword’ means unceasing conflict on the part of falsity arising from evil. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the sword’ as truth engaged in conflict against falsity and evil, and in the contrary sense as falsity engaged in conflict against truth and good, dealt with in 2799, 4499; and from the meaning of ‘unsheathing’, or baring it, as unceasing conflict until the enemy has been laid low. Unceasing conflict is likewise meant by an unsheathed or drawn sword in Moses, I will scatter you among the nations, and unsheathe a sword after you. Lev. 26:33.
In Ezekiel,
I will scatter to every wind all his troop; and I will unsheathe the sword after them. Ezek. 12:14.
In the same prophet,
Thus said Jehovah, Behold Me against you; I will draw mysword out of its sheath, and will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked. My sword will go out of its sheath against all flesh from south to north; so that all flesh may know that I Jehovah have drawn My sword out of its sheath, and it is not going to return any more. Ezek. 21:3-5.
Here ‘unsheathing’ or ‘drawing the sword’ stands for not ceasing to engage in conflict until enemies have been laid low, and so stands for unceasing conflict. Unceasing conflict against evils and falsities is also meant by the unsheathed sword of the Prince of the army of Jehovah whom Joshua saw when he entered the land of Canaan, Josh. 5:13. It was a sign to them that they were to fight the nations there and to destroy them. By ‘the nations’ in possession of the land of Canaan at that time are meant those who before the Lord’s Coming occupied the region of heaven which was subsequently given to members of the Lord’s spiritual kingdom, 6914, 8054.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 7102
[6] In Ezekiel,
Therefore because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your abominations, a third part of you will die from pestilence, and be annihilated [by famine] in your midst; then a third will fall by the sword around you; finally I will scatter a third to every wind, so that I will draw out a sword after them. Ezek. 5:11, 12.
‘Famine’ stands for the damnation of evil, ‘sword’ for the damnation of falsity. ‘Scattering to every wind’ and ‘drawingout a sword after them’ stand for getting rid of truths and seizing on falsities.
Apocalypse Explained n. 537
[16] In Ezekiel:
“Behold, therefore I will bring strangers upon thee, the violent of the nations; and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and they shall profane thy brightness. They shall let thee down into the pit, and thou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the heart of the seas” (xxviii. 7, 8).
These things are spoken of the prince of Tyre, by whom are meant those who from their own intelligence hatch falsities, which destroy the cognitions of truth and good. Their destruction by their own falsities, is signified by, behold, therefore I will bring strangers upon thee, the violent of the nations, strangers denoting falsities which destroy truths, and the violent of the nations, evils which destroy goods. That they shall be destroyed by the falsities which originate in [their] own intelligence, is signified by the words, they shall drawtheir swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and they shall profane thy brightness. Swords denote falsities which destroy truths.