On the surface, it appears that Swedenborg gives two different meanings for “weariness.” In discussing Genesis – where Esau and later Jacob are described as “weary” – Swedenborg says it represents a state of temptation, an interior spiritual conflict. In discussing passages from several other places, however, Swedenborg says “weariness” represents a lack of truth, having no concept of how to be good.
But these two ideas are not as disconnected as they seem. Temptation arises when the interior, rational parts of our minds – which can be elevated to grasp deeper truths about life and the Lord – come into conflict with the exterior, natural parts of our minds, where we are driven by bodily desires and cling to false ideas that support those desires. Part of the process is clearing those falsities out of the lower parts of our minds so that the deeper truths can enter in. In that in-between stage, when the falsities are being driven away but we have not embraced the deeper truth yet, we can feel pretty empty.
Those who have been through serious temptations will likely relate to this – at some point along the way you feel like you have no idea what is right and what is wrong. If at those moments we can give up trying to figure it out and trust in the Lord, we’ll be OK – but we will likely be pretty tired, too.
Passages from Swedenborg
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 3318
3318. ‘And he was weary’ means a state of conflict. This becomes clear from the meaning of ‘weary’ or weariness as the state following conflict. Here however, because the subject is a state of conflict in which good and truth within the natural man are joined together, the state of conflict itself is meant. As regards ‘weary’ here meaning a state of conflict, this is not apparent except from the train of thought in the internal sense, and in particular from the fact that without conflicts, or what amounts to the same, without temptations, good is unable to be joined to truth in the natural man.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 3321
3321. ‘For I am weary’ means a state of conflict. This is clear from the meaning of ‘weary’ or weariness as a state of conflict, dealt with above in 3318. A second reference occurs here to his being weary so as to confirm the point that the joining together of good and truth within the natural is effected by means of spiritual conflicts, that is, by means of temptations. With regard to the joining together of good and truth in the natural, the position in general is that man’s rational receives truths before his natural receives them, the reason being that the Lord’s life which, as has been stated, is the life of His love, may be able to flow in by way of the rational into the natural, bring order into it, and make it submissive. For the rational is purer, and the natural grosser, or what amounts to the same, the former is interior, the latter exterior. It is according to order – an order that one can know – that the rational is able to flow into the natural, but not the natural into the rational.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 4182
4182. ‘My affliction and the tiredness of my hands God has seen, and has given judgement last night’ means that all things were effected by Him by His own power. This is clear from the meaning of ‘affliction and tiredness of hands’ in this case as temptations. And since by temptations and victories the Lord united the Divine to the Human and made the Human Divine too, doing so by His own power, these things are therefore meant by these same words. By temptations and victories the Lord united the Divine to the Human, and made the Human Divine by His own power, see 1661, 1737, 1813, 1921, 2776, 3318 (end). ‘Palms or hand means power, 878, 3387, and therefore ‘my palms’ or ‘my hands’ means one’s own power. ‘God has seen, and has given judgement’ means that the Lord’s Divine – the Divine within Him and which is His – effected it.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 8568
[9] In David,
O God, [You are] my God; in the morning I seek You. My soul thirsts for You; my flesh in a dry land longs for You, and I am weary without water. Ps. 63:1.
Here ‘thirsting’ has reference to truth, and ‘I am weary without water’ stands for the fact that there are no truths.
Apocalypse Revealed (Rogers) n. 81
81. “‘And have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary.'” This symbolizes their effort and work in acquiring for themselves and also teaching the constituents of religion and its accompanying doctrine.
Apocalypse Explained (Tansley) n. 315
[17] In Jeremiah:
“I have heard the voice of the daughter of Zion; she sigheth and spreadeth her hands, for my soul is wearied by the slayers” (iv. 31).
Thus is described the grief of the church falling from truths into falsities. The daughter of Zion denotes the church, “She sigheth and spreadeth the hands,” signifies grief; “For my soul is wearied by the slayers,” signifies by the falsities which extinguish spiritual life, slayers denoting those falsities.
Apocalypse Explained (Tansley) n. 386
[4] In the same:
Who formeth a God, and casteth a molten image, and it profiteth not. “He worketh the iron with the tongs, and operateth upon it with the coal, and he formeth it with pointed hammers; so he worketh it by the arm of his strength; he is even hungry until his strength faileth, neither doth he drink until he is weary” (xliv. 10, 12).
The formation of doctrine from the proprium, both from the intellect and the love, is described by these words. By forming a God, is signified doctrine from [one’s] own understanding; and by casting a molten image, from self-love. By working the iron with the tongs, and operating upon it with the coal, is signified the falsity which he calls truth, and the evil which he calls good; iron denoting falsity, and a fire of coal denoting the evil of self-love. By, “he formeth it with pointed hammers,” is signified by ingenious reasonings from falsities that they may appear to be coherent; by, “so he worketh it by the arm of his strength,” is signified from the proprium; by, “he is even hungry until his strength faileth, neither doth he drink until he is weary,” is signified that there is nowhere anything of good or anything of truth; to hunger signifies the deprivation of good, and not to drink the deprivation of truth. And until his strength faileth, and until he is weary, signifies till nothing of good and nothing of truth remains.