864. 20:10 Then the devil who led them astray was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. This symbolically means that people who were caught up in evils in the way they lived and in falsities as regards their doctrine were cast into hell, where they will be inwardly afflicted by the love of their falsity and lusts of their evil continually to eternity.
The devil who led them astray means the dragon, as is apparent from what has gone before, and the dragon means people in general who are caught up in evils in the way they live and in falsities as regards their doctrine (no. 841). We are told that the devil led them astray, in order to make known that the devil was the dragon, because it was the dragon that led astray, as is apparent from verses 2, 3, 7, 8 in this chapter. The lake of fire into which it was cast symbolizes the hell where their loves of falsity and lusts for evil are found (no. 835). The beast and the false prophet symbolize people caught up in faith alone as to both life and doctrine, the unlearned as well as the learned - the unlearned being symbolized by the beast and the learned by the false prophet (no. 834). To be tormented day and night means, symbolically, to be inwardly afflicted continually, and forever and ever means to eternity. Moreover, because we are told that they were cast into a lake of fire and brimstone, and this symbolizes a place where loves of falsity and lusts for evil are found (no. 835), it is by these that they will be inwardly afflicted. For everyone in hell is tormented by his own love and its lusts, as these form everyone's life there, and it is the life that is tormented. Consequently there are degrees of torment in hell in accordance with degrees in the inhabitants' love of evil and its accompanying falsity.
