Swedenborg says that to strike or smite, when used in the Bible, means to attack, harm or destroy, and is usually in reference to an attack on someone’s knowledge and intellect. This is actually true both when evil people strike good people, trying to destroy their understanding of spiritual things, and when the Lord is pictured as striking people (with plagues in Egypt, for example), which most often represents the dulling of the intellect and destruction of knowledge in evil people to prevent them from doing spiritual harm to others.
Passages from Swedenborg
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 1487
1487. That ‘Jehovah struck Pharaoh with great plagues’ means that facts were destroyed is clear from the meaning of ‘Pharaoh’ as knowledge in general, and therefore as the facts that constitute that knowledge, and from the meaning of ‘being struck by plagues’ as being destroyed.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 6758
6758. ‘And he saw an Egyptian man striking a Hebrew man’ means alienated factual knowledge trying to destroy the Church’s truth. This is clear from the meaning of ‘an Egyptian man’ as factual knowledge alienated from truth, dealt with in 6692; from the meaning of ‘striking’ as destroying, here trying to destroy, since falsities are unable to destroy truths; and from the meaning of ‘a Hebrew man’ as the Church’s truth, ‘a man’ meaning truth, 3134, and ‘Hebrew’ the Church, 6675, 6684.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 6765
6765. ‘And he said to the one in the wrong, Why are you striking your companion?’ means a rebuke, deploring that one person should wish to destroy another’s faith. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the one in the wrong’ as a person who does not uphold the truth of faith and yet is within the Church (for within the Church there are those who uphold the truth of faith and there are those who do not, as the existence of various heresies goes to prove; and those who subscribe to heresy, that is, who do not uphold the truth of faith, are meant here by ‘the one in the wrong’); from the meaning of ‘striking’ as destroying, as above in 6758; and from the meaning of ‘companion’ as a person who upholds the truth of faith. For when ‘the one in the wrong’ means a person who does not uphold the truth of faith, ‘companion’ means one who does uphold it.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 7330
7330. ‘And he lifted up the rod and struck the waters which were in the river’ means strong power directed against falsities. This is clear from what has been stated above in 7316. Strength is meant by his lifting up the rod and striking in that manner.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 7871
7871. ‘And will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt’ means the damnation of those governed by faith separated from charity. This is clear from the meaning of ‘striking’ as damnation, for striking is killing or putting to death, and ‘death’ in the spiritual sense means damnation, see 6119; from the meaning of ‘the firstborn’ – when used in reference to the Egyptians, who represent those steeped in falsities arising from evil – as faith separated from charity, 3325, 7039, 7766, 7778, 7779. In the genuine sense the expression ‘the firstborn’, when it describes a feature of the spiritual Church, means faith that is wedded to charity, see 367, 2435, 3325, 3494, 6344, 7035; therefore in the contrary sense ‘the firstborn’ is faith devoid of charity.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 9007
9007. ‘Anyone striking a man – and he dies’ means injury done to the truth of faith, and consequent loss of spiritual life. This is clear from the meaning of ‘striking’ as injuring by means of falsity, dealtwith in 7136, 7146; from the meaning of ‘a man’ as the truth of faith, dealt with below; and from the meaning of ‘dying’ as loss of spiritual life, dealt with in 5407, 6119, 7494, no other kind of life being meant in the internal sense, though natural life is meant in the external sense. The reason why injury done to the truth of faith leads to the destruction of spiritual life is that good united to truth composes that life, and therefore when truth is snatched away good falls to the ground, and so does spiritual life.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 9034
9034. ‘And when a man strikes his male slave or his female slave [with a rod]’ means if anyone within the Church mistreats a factual truth or an affection for it from his own power. This is clear from the meaning of ‘striking’ as mistreating, for ‘striking’ refers to inflicting any kind of hurt; from the meaning of ‘a man’, here a man from among the children of Israel, as a member of the Church and therefore one in possession of spiritual truth, which is truth derived from the Word and contained in the teachings and belief of the Church, dealt with in 6426, 6637, 6862, 6868, 7035, 7062, 7198, 7201, 7215, 7223, 7957, 8234, 8805; from the meaning of ‘male slave’ as factual truth, which is truth belonging to the Word, as stated in its literal sense, dealt with below; from the meaning of ‘a female slave’ as a natural affection, thus an affection for known facts, since these reside in the natural, dealt with in 1895, 2567, 3835, 3849, 8993, 8994; and from the meaning of ‘a rod’ as the power of the natural, dealt with in 4876, 4936, 6947, 7011, 7026, at this point a person’s own power, since it is speaking in regard to a slave who had been bought. From all this it is evident that ‘when a man strikes his male slave or his female slave’ means if anyone within the Church mistreats a factual truth in the Word or an affection for it.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 9081
9081. ‘If the ox strikes a male slave with its horn, or a female slave’ means if the affection for evil destroys truth or good in the natural. This is clear from the meaning of ‘a male slave’ as truth in the natural, dealt with in 3019, 3020, 5305, 7998; from the meaning of ‘a female slave’ as an affection for truth there, dealt with in 1895, 2567, 3835, 3849, 8993, 8994; and from the meaning of ‘striking with the horn’ as destroying. The words ‘striking with the horn’ in the Word refer to the destruction of falsity by the power of truth, and in the contrary sense to the destruction of truth by the power of falsity. They do so because ‘a horn’ means the power of truth that springs from good, or the power of falsity that springs from evil, 2832, as in Ezekiel,
You push with side and shoulder, and strike with your horns all the weak [sheep]. Ezek. 34:21.
This refers to those who with all their force and power destroy the Church’s truths and forms of good by means of fallacious reasonings based on sensory evidence, ‘pushing with side and shoulder’ meaning with all their force and power, 1085, 4931-4937. From this it is evident why the words ‘striking with the horn’ are used in Moses,
The firstborn of his cattle has honour, and his horns are unicorn horns.* With these he will strike the peoples together to the ends of the earth. Deut. 33:17.
This occurs in Moses’ prophetic utterance concerning Joseph, in which ‘Joseph’ in the internal sense means the Lord’s Divine Spiritual, and in
the representative sense His spiritual kingdom ‘Unicorn horns’ means forms of power received from the good and truth of faith; ‘striking the peoples’ means destroying falsities by means of truths; and ‘to the ends of the earth’ means on every side where the Church is. In David,
You Yourself are my King. O God; through You we will strike our enemies with the horn. Ps. 44:4, 5.
‘Striking enemies with the horn’ again means destroying falsities by means of the power of the truth and good of faith. Who can fail to see that in these places the words ‘striking with the horn’ would not have been used, since the action is performed by human beings, but for the meaning of ‘horn’ as power?
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 9126
9126. ‘And is struck, and he dies’ means if in this situation harm is done to it, so great that it is wiped out. This is clear from the meaning of ‘being struck’, when said of truth or good, as being injured or suffering harm, as in 9034, 9058; and from the meaning of ‘dying’ as being wiped out.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 10510
10510. ‘And Jehovah struck the people’ means the ruination of truth and good among the Israelite nation. This is clear from the meaning of ‘striking’ as destroying, as in 6761, and ‘destroying’ in the spiritual sense means depriving someone of the truths and forms of the good of faith and love, which in the Word is called desolating and laying waste. The reason why ruination is meant here by ‘striking’ is that the present chapter has dealt with the shutting off of the internal among the Israelite nation, and the shutting off of the internal constitutes ruination so far as truth and good are concerned.
Apocalypse Revealed (Rogers) n. 498
498. And to strike the earth with every plague, as often as they desire. This symbolically means that people who wish to destroy these two essential elements of the New Church propel themselves into evils and falsities of every kind, as often as, and in the measure that, they do so.
The earth symbolizes the church (no. 285), and a plague symbolizes evil and falsity (no. 456). Thus to strike the earth with every plague means, symbolically, to ruin the church with evils and falsities of every kind.
Still, as in the case of earlier interpretations, this has to be understood, namely, that when people wish to strike these two essential elements of the New Church with plague, that is, when they wish to destroy them, which they are moved by evil to do by means of falsities, they propel themselves into evils and falsities of every kind. Moreover, because the natural sense is turned around when it becomes spiritual, therefore this statement, too, “as often as they desire,” is similarly changed into “as often as and in the measure that they do.” The reason is that to the extent someone destroys these two essential elements, to the same extent he destroys the truths of the Word, and to the extent he destroys the truths of the Word, to the same extent he propels himself into evils and falsities. For these two essential elements are truths of the Word, as may be clearly seen from two books containing the doctrine of the New Jerusalem, one being The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord, and the other titled The Doctrine of Life in Accordance With the Precepts of the Decalogue.