[2] How to understand all this must also be stated briefly. When a person is in the first state, that is to say, when his actions spring from truth but not as yet from good, that is, when they spring from faith but not as yet from charity, he is in the state in which temptations have to be undergone. By means of these he is brought step by step to the second state – to the one in which his actions spring from good, that is, from charity and the affection belonging to it. When therefore he is getting near to that state he is said ‘to be encamped at the mountain of God’, that is, at the good from which his actions later on spring. This is said because what follows refers to a new arrangement or re-ordering of truths for entrance into that state, to which members of the Church also come after they have undergone temptations and before God’s law is written on their hearts. In what has gone before temptations have been the subject, and in what now follows the subject is the law issued from Mount Sinai, ‘Mount Sinai’ being good which holds truth within it.
‘And he said to Moses’ means influx and resulting perception. ‘I your father-in-law Jethro come to you, and your wife, and her two sons with her’ means levels of God’s good in their order. ‘And Moses went out to meet his father-in-law’ means God’s truth being brought to Divine Good. ‘And bowed down’ means being brought into contact with it. ‘And kissed him’ means being joined to it. ‘And they asked, a man his companion, as regards peace’ means the mutual, Divine celestial state. ‘And they came into the tent’ means the holiness of union.
* i.e. they asked each other about their welfare
‘And Moses told his father-in-law all that Jehovah had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians’ means perception at this time from God’s truth* regarding the power of the Lord’s Divine Human against those who were steeped in falsities and engaged in molestation. ‘For Israel’s sake’ means for those belonging to the spiritual Church. ‘All the distress that had come upon them on the way’ means the toil in temptations. ‘And how Jehovah had rescued them’ means deliverance by the Lord’s Divine aid. ‘And Jethro rejoiced over all the good which Jehovah had done for Israel’ means the state of Divine Good when all things go well. ‘Who had rescued them from the hand of the Egyptians’ means because of their deliverance from attack by the molesters. ‘And Jethro said, Blessed be Jehovah’ means that the Lord is the source of all Good**. ‘Who has rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of Pharaoh’ means deliverance from attack by the molesters. ‘Who has rescued His people from under the hand of the Egyptians’ means mercy towards those governed by the good of truth and guided by the truth of good. ‘Now I know that Jehovah is greater than all gods’ means the Lord, that there is no God besides Him. ‘For this reason, that they behaved proudly over them’ means because of the endeavour and the force used to exercise control over those belonging to the Church.
* i.e. perception resulting from the influx of that truth into Divine Good
** Reading quod a Domino omne bonum (that the Lord is the source of everything good), as in 8674, for Divinum Bonum (Divine Good). In his rough draft of 8674 Sw. first wrote Divinum Bonum, then amended to what appears in the printed edition.
How have you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the Dawn? You have been cut down to the earth, you have been weakened below the nations. And you said in your heart, I will go up the heavens, above the stars of God I will raise my throne, and I will sit on the mount of assembly, in the furthest parts of the north; I will go up above the heights of the clouds, and I will make myself like the Most High. But you have in truth been sent down to hell, to the sides of the pit. You have been cast out of the sepulchre like an abominable branch, [like] a garment of the killed, [like] those pierced with the sword, who go down to the stones of the pit like a dead body trodden underfoot. Isa. 14:12-19.
[2] The fact that pride of heart, which is self-love, drives the Divine away from itself and puts heaven away from itself becomes perfectly clear from that state in which the Divine and heaven find acceptance, which is a state of love towards the neighbour and a state of humility towards God. To the extent that a person can humble himself before the Lord, to the extent that he can love his neighbour as himself, and – as they do in heaven – above himself, he accepts the Divine and for that reason lives in heaven. From this one can see what the state is of those who love themselves more than their neighbour, and who behave proudly towards him, that is, who are ruled by self-love. One can see that it is a state in which they are opposed to heaven and to the Divine; it is therefore the state in which those in hell live. See what has been stated and shown about self-love in 2041, 2045, 2051, 2057, 2219, 2363, 2364, 2444, 3413, 3610, 4225, 4750, 4776, 4947, 5721, 6667, 7178, 7255, 7364, 7366-7377, 7488-7492, 7494, 7643, 7819, 7820, 8318, 8487.
‘And Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God’ means worship springing from the good of love and the truths of faith. ‘And Aaron and all the elders of Israel came’ means the things which in the Church are primary. ‘To eat bread with the father-in-law of Moses before God’ means making their own these things coming from Divine Good.
You are to present, your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of Jehovah your God; the blood of the sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of Jehovah your God, and the flesh you shall eat. Deut 12:27.
The reason why those two realities were represented by the burnt offerings and sacrifices is that burnt offerings and sacrifices represented all worship of God in general, 9?3, 6905; and worship of God in general is founded on love and faith. Without these it is not worship, only ritual such as is performed by the external man who has no internal and so no life within him.
* lit. make
The reason why the flesh of the sacrifices was eaten was in order that making heavenly good one’s own might be represented, as well as togetherness in love. The flesh of a sacrifice, eaten by them then, meant the good of love, which was why this was for them a sacred feast. For the meaning of ‘flesh’ as the good of love, see 7850. From this one can see what the Lord meant when He said that they were to eat His flesh, John 6:53-56, and also, when He instituted the Holy Supper, that the bread was His body, Matt. 26:26. No one can possibly know what He meant then unless he knows that His words have an inner sense, and that in this sense celestial and spiritual realities are meant instead of natural things, and that natural things correspond to those realities and have spiritual meanings in keeping with correspondences. Without knowledge of these things no one could ever know why the Holy Supper was instituted, what is holy about the bread, why the bread is the body and is the flesh, and countless other questions besides these.
‘And so it was, on the morrow’ means what is eternal. ‘That Moses sat to judge the people’ means the arrangement, effected by God’s truth, with those belonging to the spiritual Church in the state before their actions sprang from good. ‘And the people stood before Moses’ means obedience at that time to God’s truth. ‘From morning until evening’ means in every state at that time, inwardly and outwardly. ‘And the father-in-law of Moses saw all that he was doing for the people’ means the complete knowledge Divine Good possessed. ‘And he said, [What is this thing that you are doing for the people?] Why do you sit alone?’ means that it existed without any truth from good flowing in from another source. ‘And all the people are standing before you from morning until evening’ means that at this time it was the source of every act of the will which those belonging to the spiritual Church possessed, in every state. ‘And Moses said to his father-in-law’ means reciprocation in response. ‘Because the people come to me to inquire of God’ means that nothing else governs their will and actions than that which the Word has declared to be so. ‘When they have a matter’ means in everything that comes about. ‘They come to me, and I judge between a man and his neighbour’ means that revealed truth at this time brought about the arrangement existing among them. ‘And I make known the judgements of God and His laws’ means that it teaches them what truth is and what good is.
* lit. companion or fellow
[2] This is so in the state before their actions spring from good, as is clear from what follows. There are two states that the person who is being regenerated and coming to have the Church within him passes through. In the first state his actions spring from truth, in the second from good, regarding which states see 8516, 8539, 8643, 8648, 8658. In both states the person is led by the Lord, in the first however through direct influx, but in the second through influx both direct and indirect. Regarding the influx of goodness and truth from the Lord in direct and indirect ways, see 6472-6478, 6982, 6985, 6996, 7054-7058, 7270. Direct influx is represented by the situation in which Moses alone judged the people, and influx both direct and indirect by the situation in which the rulers of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens who had been chosen were themselves to judge small matters, and to refer large matters to Moses, spoken of further on. But these things are arcana which hardly anyone can understand unless he is enlightened by the Lord, and being enlightened has perception. Those kinds of influx and also the effects they produce can, it is true, be described. Nevertheless a person can have no proper understanding of them without perception from heaven; and perception from heaven comes only to those who have a love of truth springing from good, yet not even to them unless it is a love of truth springing from genuine good.
[2] The subject here is the first state a person passes through before regeneration. During this state he does good in a spirit of obedience and not as yet out of affection. But this good is truth as done by him, since he does it solely because it has been commanded, and so is still acting under compulsion, not in freedom. It is done by him in freedom when he does it out of affection; for everything that flows from love and affection is free. While a person passes through the first state the Lord flows in and leads him directly; but direct influx from the Lord does not come to be perceived because it is an influx into the inmost parts of a person’s being and does not therefore generate affection. But when the Lord’s influx is direct and at the same time indirect it does come to be perceived and generate affection, since it is an influx not only into the inmost parts of a person but also into the middle and outermost. This latter state is dealt with in the verses following below in this chapter, the former state in the present verses, where it says that Moses judged alone; see what has been stated above in 8685.
[2] The term ‘revelation’ is used to mean the light that comes when the Word is read, and perception then; for this is the way that people who are governed by good and desire truth are taught from the Word. But those who are not governed by good cannot be taught from the Word; they can only be made stronger in whatever they have learned since early childhood, whether that consists in truths or in falsities. The reason why revelation comes to those who are governed by good but not to those who are ruled by evil is that every single thing in the Word refers in the internal sense to the Lord and His kingdom, and the angels present with a person perceive this level of meaning in the Word. Their perception is communicated to the person governed by good who reads the Word and desires truth from an affection for it; through them comes the light he has and his perception. For with those governed by good and consequently by an affection for truth the understanding part of the mind has been opened into heaven, and their soul, that is, their internal man, is in fellowship with the angels. It is altogether different with those who are not governed by good and so do not desire truth out of an affection springing from that good. To these heaven is closed.
[3] But what that revelation is like which comes to those governed by good and consequently by an affection for truth is not easy to describe. It is not something overt, nor is it something altogether hidden; rather it is a kind of inclination, coming from within, to accept that a thing is true, or not to accept if it is not true. When it is the inclination to accept, the mind is at rest and is tranquil; and in that state there exists the acknowledgement that goes with faith. All this comes about as a result of the influx of heaven from the Lord. For from the Lord by way of heaven there comes the light which pours into the understanding, which is the eye of inward sight, and enlightens it. What are now made visible in that light are truths, for that light actually is Divine Truth which emanates from the Lord; and this Truth is the light in heaven, as has been shown often
‘And the father-in-law of Moses said to him’ means foresight. ‘The thing that you do is not good’ means that a change must take place. ‘You will surely wither away, both you and this people who are with you’ means that if it carries on as before the truth which has been implanted is going to perish. ‘For the task is too heavy for you’ means that it is not possible because it does not arise from true order. ‘You are not able to do it yourself alone’ means without any truth from good flowing in from another source. ‘Now hear my voice’ means agreement as a result of union. ‘I will counsel you, and God will be with you’ means that it comes from the Divine. ‘Be for the people with God’ means truth coming forth directly from the Lord. ‘And you are to bring matters to God’ means mediation and intercession. ‘And you are to teach them the statutes and the laws’ means that truth coming directly from the Lord is the source of external and internal aspects of goodness and truth in the Church. ‘And make known to them the way in which they must go’ means the light of intelligence and the life led as a result of it. ‘And the work they must do’ means faith put into action. ‘And you are to see out of all the people’ means the choice of subservient truths. ‘Men of vigour fearing God’ means to which the good from God can be joined. ‘Men of truth hating gain’ means because**** the truths are pure, devoid of any worldly end in view. ‘And you are to appoint from them rulers of thousands’ means first and foremost truths in the first degree below truth coming directly from God. ‘Rulers of hundreds’ means first and foremost truths in the second degree. ‘Rulers of fifties’ means first and foremost truths that are intermediary. ‘And rulers of tens’ means first and foremost truths in third place. ‘And let them judge the people at all times’ means arrangement in this order perpetually. ‘And it shall be, every great matter let them bring to you’ means that everything exists from the truth going forth directly from God. ‘And every small matter let them judge themselves’ means the appearance that some particular and specific things derive from another source. ‘And roll down [the burden] from upon yourself, and let them bear [it] with you’ means thus assigning them functions and duties. ‘If you do this thing and God has commanded you’ means since it is so ordained by God … ‘You will be able to stand fast’ means, it accordingly has a dwelling place with them. ‘And also all this people will come upon their place in peace’ means that those belonging to the spiritual Church will thus be governed by good and led by good.
* lit. word or matter
** i.e. Represent the people before God, and bring their difficulties to Him.
*** i.e. select
**** The Latin here is quibus (to which), but at 8711 it is quia (because).
[2] The reason why it is not possible because it does not arise from true order is that in the next life everything is possible which arises from order, and everything is impossible which does not arise from order. Divine Truth, which emanates from the Lord, is what makes order, indeed is order. Consequently everything that is in keeping with Divine Truth, being in keeping with order, is possible; and everything that is contrary to Divine Truth, being contrary to order, is impossible. Let some examples serve to show plainly that this is so. It is in keeping with order that people who have led good lives will be saved, and those who have led bad ones will be condemned. Therefore it is impossible to send to hell those who have led good lives, or to raise to heaven those who have led bad ones. Consequently it is impossible for those in hell to be brought, by the Lord’s pure mercy, out of there into heaven and to be saved. For it is the acceptance of the Lord’s mercy when they lived in the world that saves everyone. Those who accept it in the world are open to the Lord’s mercy in the next life, for there they have the ability to accept it. Imparting it to others, and doing so at will to all and sundry provided that they possess faith and so believe they have been cleansed from sins, is impossible because it is contrary to true order, that is, contrary to the Divine, who is order.
[3] It is in keeping with order that faith and charity should be implanted in freedom and not under compulsion, and that faith and charity that has been implanted in freedom should remain, but not if implanted under compulsion. The reason for this is that when they are implanted in freedom they are instilled into the person’s affection and so into his will, and are accordingly made his own, but not so if they are implanted under compulsion. Consequently it is impossible for a person to be saved unless, having been born in evil, he is left in freedom to do evil or to refrain from it. When with that freedom he refrains of his own accord from evil, an affection for truth and goodness is instilled by the Lord; and this gives him freedom to receive insights belonging to faith and desires belonging to charity; for freedom exists as a result of affection. From this it is evident that it is impossible for a person to be saved under compulsion; were it possible all people in the world would be saved.
[4] It is in keeping with order in the next life for all to be formed into different communities according to the life they acquired in the world, the evil living in association with the evil, and the good with the good. It is not possible therefore for the evil and the good to be together, nor is it possible for the evil to be governed by good; for good and evil are opposites and one destroys the other. From this it is also evident that it is not possible for those in hell to be saved, so that salvation by mercy alone, regardless of the life a person has been leading, is an impossibility. Those who are in hell and suffer torment there attribute the torments there to the Divine. They say that since the Divine is all-powerful He is able, if He is willing, to take their torment away, but that He is not willing, and that for this reason He is responsible for it. For they say that he who is able yet unwilling to take it away is the one who is responsible for it. But it is impossible for such things to be taken away because that is contrary to order. If they were taken away the evil would rise up against the good; they would overpower the angels themselves and destroy heaven. But the Divine desires only what is good, that is to say, the happiness of those who are good, and those torments only because they restrain and at the same time correct the wicked. Since this is the end in view, being the end that Divine Love and Mercy itself has in view, it is not possible for the torments suffered by those in hell to be taken away. From these examples it becomes clear that everything is impossible which is contrary to order, however possible it may seem to be to those unacquainted with the arcana of heaven.
[2] In general it should be recognized that not until his actions spring from an affection for good has a person been regenerated, for then his will desires what is good, and he finds delight and bliss in doing it. When he attains this state his life is a life of good, and he is in heaven since good reigns throughout heaven. Truth however that composes faith leads a person towards good, and so towards heaven; but it does not place him in heaven. The reason for this is that in the next life all are formed into different communities according to the life of the will, not according to the life of the understanding; for where the will is, there the understanding is, but not vice versa. This is so in heaven, and it is so in hell. Those who are evil are not sent to hell until the evil of their life takes control of them; for when this takes control of them, so too does the falsity accompanying their evil, even as those who are governed by good are also governed there by the truth accompanying their good. All in the next life are brought at last into a state in which their mind is single, that is to say, the intentions of their will are in tune with their thoughts and not at variance with them. The situation is different in the world. There what a person thinks, indeed sees in his understanding, can be at variance with his intentions. But this enables him to be reformed; that is to say, he can understand what good is even though he intends evil, and so can be led by means of his understanding to intend what is good. But in the next life each person is led in accordance with the intentions he acquired when in the world.
Since the opportunity is provided, the nature of the Lord’s mediating and interceding will be stated here. People who believe that three persons constitute the Godhead, yet taken together are called one God, derive from the literal sense of the Word no other idea of mediation and intercession than this: The Lord sits on His Father’s right hand and speaks to Him in the way that one human being does to another, bringing people’s supplications to Him, and asking the Father for His sake, because He endured the Cross for the human race, to pardon and have mercy. An idea of intercession and mediation such as this every simple person derives from the literal sense of the Word.
[2] But it should be recognized that the literal sense accords with simple people’s level of understanding, in order that they may be led into more internal truths which are actual truths. The simple cannot picture the heavenly kingdom except as an earthly kingdom, the Father except as a king on earth, and the Lord except as the king’s son who is heir to the throne. The fact that such ideas are what simple people possess is plainly evident from the ideas the Lord’s actual apostles had regarding His kingdom. Initially they believed, like all other Jews, that since He was the Messiah the Lord was going to be the greatest king on earth and was going to exalt them to a position of glory above all the nations and peoples throughout the entire world. But when they heard from the Lord Himself that His kingdom was not on earth but in heaven they could do no other than think that His kingdom in heaven was going to be exactly like a kingdom on earth. This also explains why James and John asked that they might sit one on His right and the other on His left in His kingdom, and why the rest of the apostles, who also wished to become great in that kingdom, were angry and argued with one another about which of them was to be the greatest there; and since such ideas were firmly fixed in them and could not be rooted out the Lord also told them that they would sit on twelve thrones and judge the twelve tribes of Israel, see Mark 10:37, 41; Luke 22:24, 30; Matt. 19:28. But they did not at that time know what the Lord really meant by ‘twelve thrones’, ‘the twelve tribes’, and ‘judging’.
[3] From all this one may now see what people’s ideas about the Lord’s mediating and interceding with the Father are like, and where they come from. But anyone who is acquainted with the more internal truths of the Word has an altogether different conception of the Lord’s mediation and of His intercession. They conceive of Him interceding not as a son does on earth with his king and father, but as the Lord of all things with Himself, and as God by Himself; for the Father and He are not two but one, as He Himself teaches, John 14:8-11. The reason why He is called Mediator and Intercessor is that ‘the Son’ is used to mean Divine Truth, and ‘the Father’ Divine Good, 2803, 2813, 3704, and mediation is done by Divine Truth, through which lies access to Divine Good Divine Good, being like the fire of the sun, is unapproachable; but Divine Truth, being like the light from the sun, is approachable. It provides a person’s inner eye – the eye of faith – with a means and access to [Divine Good], 8644. From this one may see what mediation and intercession are.
[4] Something must also be said now about how the Lord, who is Himself Divine Good and the Sun of heaven, comes to be called One who mediates and intercedes with the Father. While He was in the world, before He was fully glorified, the Lord was Divine Truth; during that time therefore mediation took place, and He interceded with the Father, that is, with Divine Good itself, John 14:16, 17; 17:9, 15, 17. But now, ever since His Human has been glorified, He is called the Mediator and Intercessor because no one can think of the Divine Himself unless he envisages Him as a Divine Man (Homo). Still less can anyone be joined in love to the Divine Himself unless He is envisaged as such. The ideas of anyone who thinks of the Divine Himself without envisaging Him as a Divine Man, lack definition, and an idea in which nothing definite is seen is not an idea. Alternatively, to conceive of the Divine he may think of the visible universe stretching out endlessly or ending in obscurity. Such an idea ties up with that which worshippers of nature have; it also reduces the idea of the Divine to nature, and so ceases to be an idea of Him. From this it is evident that nobody with such ideas could be joined to the Divine through faith, or through love. Any joining together requires an object, and such joining depends on the essential nature of the object. So it is that in respect of the Divine Human the Lord is called Mediator and Intercessor, though He mediates and intercedes with Himself. The truth that no ideas can be formed to picture the Divine Himself is clear from the Lord’s words in John,
Nobody has ever seen God; the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known. John 1:18.
And in the same gospel
You have never heard the Father’s voice nor seen His shape. John 5:37.
[5] However, it is a remarkable fact that none of those whose thought about God springs from self or the flesh have any definite mental picture of Him when they think about Him, whereas those whose thought about God does not spring from self or the flesh but from the spirit do have a definite mental picture when they think about Him, that is, they envisage the Divine within a human shape. That is the way in which the angels in heaven think about the Divine, and it was the way in which the wise people of old thought about Him. Furthermore whenever the Divine Himself appeared to them He did so as Divine Man; for the Divine as He passes through heaven is Divine Man. The reason for this is that heaven is the Grand Man, as has been shown at the ends of quite a number of chapters. From all this one may see what the intelligent in the world are like and what the intelligent in heaven are like. That is to say, one may see that the intelligent in the world dismiss the idea of the human; as a result of this no mediation takes place between their mind and the Divine, and they are therefore in thick darkness. But the intelligent in heaven picture the Divine within the Human; thus for them mediation resides in the Lord, and their minds as a result have light.
* The Latin word rendered rulers in the present chapter is variously translated elsewhere, such as princes, chiefs, or governors.
The placement of the rulers over a thousand, over a hundred, or over ten, represented in the abstract sense, separately from any idea of numbers, many truths in first, second, and third degrees. This use of the numbers is like that found elsewhere in the Word, for example where the Lord said of the servant that he owed ten thousand talents and that the fellow-servant owed him a hundred denarii, Matt. 18:24, 28, and where He speaks of the king, about to make war against another king, considering whether He was able with ten thousand to meet the other who was coming with twenty thousand, Luke 14:31. Likewise in John,
An angel coming down from heaven laid hold of the dragon, and bound him for a thousand years, and cast him into the abyss, so that he should not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years had come to an end. The rest of the dead did not live again before the thousand years came to an end. This is the first resurrection. Rev. 20:1-3, 5, 7.
Here ‘a thousand’ does not mean a thousand but much, without the idea of some number. Likewise in Moses,
Jehovah shows mercy to a thousand generations who love Him. Exod. 20:6; Deut. 5:9, 10; 7:9; Jer. 32:18.
In David,
The word He has commanded to a thousand generations. Ps. 105:8.
In the same author,
A thousand will fall at your side, and a myriad at your right hand; it will not come near you. Ps. 91:7.
In the same author,
The chariots of God are myriad on myriad!, thousands of peacemakers. Ps. 68:17.
In the same author,
Our flocks are thousands, and ten thousands in our streets. Ps. 144:13.
In the same author,
A thousand years in Your eyes are as a day. Ps. 90:4.
The situation is much the same with a hundred and with ten, for a smaller number or a factor is similar in meaning to the powers of that number, 5291, 5335, 5708, 7973. For the meaning of ‘a hundred’ and ‘ten’ also as much, see 3107, 4400, 4638.
* lit. two myriads
[2] The true nature of the matter here is that the Lord governs all things, even the most specific, through the truth that goes forth from Himself, not in the way a king governs in the world, but in the way God does so in heaven and over all creation. A king in the world takes only overall care of a country, while his chief ministers and officials take care of matters in particular. It is otherwise with God. God sees all things, knows all things from eternity, provides all things into eternity, and from Himself maintains all things in their order; from which it is clear that the Lord takes not only overall care but also particular and individual care of all things, unlike a king in the world. His regulation of things is achieved directly by means of God’s truth that is going forth from Himself and also indirectly by means of heaven. Yet the indirect regulation by means of heaven is also tantamount to direct regulation by Him; for what comes from heaven comes by way of heaven from Him. This the angels in heaven not merely know to be so; they also perceive it within themselves. Regarding the Lord’s Divine regulation of things or His providence, that it operates in all things generally and specifically, indeed in the most specific of all, however different from this it may seem to a person to be, see 4329, 5122 (end), 5904 (end), 6058, 6481-6487, 6490, 6491.
[3] But it is difficult for this subject to find a place in any person’s way of thinking, least of all in that of those who trust in their own prudence; for they attribute to themselves all things that turn out beneficially for themselves, and ascribe everything else to luck or chance. Few ascribe them to God’s providence. Accordingly they attribute things which happen to dead causes, not to a living cause. When things go well they do, it is true, say that this has been done by God, also that there is nothing which is not done by Him; but few, scarcely any, believe it in their hearts. Much the same is done by those who suppose that complete happiness lies in worldly and bodily acquisitions, that is to say, in important positions and wealth; they believe that these alone are Divine blessings. When therefore they see that very many of those who are bad possess these things in abundance, and not so the good, they cast away from their hearts and deny the existence of God’s providence in anything specific. They are not prepared to think that being blessed by God means being made happy into eternity, and that the Lord regards what is by nature transient – which worldly things are, relatively – only as a means to what is eternal. Therefore also the Lord provides the good, who accept His mercy during their time in the world, with such things as contribute to the happiness of their eternal life. He confers wealth and important positions on those to whom they can do no harm, and withholds wealth and important positions from those to whom they can do harm. To the latter nevertheless, during their time in the world, He imparts the ability to be glad with a few things instead of important positions and wealth, and to be more content than those who have wealth and important positions.
‘And Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law, and did all that he said’ means that the arrangement ordained by Divine Good was put into effect. ‘And Moses chose men of vigour from all Israel’ means the choice of truths to which good could be joined among those belonging to the spiritual Church. ‘And made them heads over the people’ means influx into those truths. ‘Rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens’ means successive levels of first and foremost truths below the truth coming forth directly from God. ‘And they will judge the people at all times’ means unceasing dependence on the level above. ‘A difficult matter they will bring to Moses’ means mediation and intercession. ‘And every small matter they will judge themselves’ means the appearance that some particular and specific things derive from another source. ‘And Moses sent his father-in-law away’ means the fully adjusted state of God’s truth. ‘And he went his way to his own land’ means to the Divine Himself.
Jesus said, The Son cannot do anything of Himself, unless He sees the Father doing it; for what He does, this also the Son in like manner does. As the Father has life in Himself, so He has also granted the Son to have life in Himself. John 5:19, 26.
Again in the same gospel,
The Holy Spirit was not yet because Jesus was not yet glorified. John 7:39.
And elsewhere,
If I do not go away the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go away I will send Him to you. He the Spirit of Truth will not speak from Himself, but whatever He hears He will speak; He will glorify Me, because He will take of what is Mine. John 16:7, 13, 14.
And there are many other statements like these.
A person who is being regenerated is led first by means of truth that is the truth of faith; but when he has been regenerated he is led by means of good that is the good of charity, 8643, 8648, 8658, 8685, 8690, 8701.
In the first state, when he is led by means of truth, the Lord flows in by means of God’s truth that is going forth directly from Himself; but in the second state, when he is led by means of good, the Lord flows in by means of truth that goes forth both directly and indirectly from Him, 8685, 8701. Indirect influx comes no less from the Lord than direct influx does, 8717.
These are the matters described by this verse in the internal sense. The actual influx of the truth coming indirectly from God is meant by the words ‘Moses made them heads over the people’.
Since they correlate in the Grand Man with the ability to form mental images spirits belonging to the planet Jupiter engage to only a small extent in speaking and to a large extent in thinking. When they do engage in speech it is non-verbal, differing from other spirits’ kinds of speech in that it is contained not so much in audible sound as in a kind of subdued murmur which is inwardly fluent. Thought itself is converted into speech in this kind of way. The reason why is that by disposition they come between those who are spiritual and those who are celestial. For the speech of those who are spiritual is contained in audible sound; and they translate the whole of their thought into such speech. To know their thought therefore one must gather it from spoken words. But this is not so with those who are celestial. Instead, what is in their will employs something of thought to roll itself into a kind of wave, which then makes an impact on and stirs another’s will according to the state of the subject.
On the lower earth beneath the soles of the feet there are also those who have regarded good deeds and works to be meritorious. Many of these appear to themselves to be cutting pieces of wood. The place where they are is quite a cold one, but they seem to themselves to find warmth in the work they do. I talked to these people too and was allowed to ask them whether they wished to leave that place. Their replies were that they had not done enough meritorious work. But once this stage is completed they are released from there. These people likewise are natural, for the desire to earn salvation through merit is not a spiritual desire, since it begins in self, not in the Lord. What is more, they regard themselves to be those who are superior to others, and some of them are also contemptuous of others. If in the next life they do not receive greater joy than all others, they are angry with the Lord, which explains why [sometimes] when they are cutting pieces of wood, it appears as though something of the Lord is underneath their pile of wood – their anger being that which produces this appearance. But because they have led a devout life and have acted in the ways they did out of ignorance that had some degree of innocence within it, angels are therefore sent to them periodically to console them. Sometimes, in addition, something that looks like a sheep appears from above on the left, and from this too they receive consolation when they see it.
See also 1110.
TEACHINGS ABOUT CHARITY
Everyone has an internal man and an external man, the internal being called the spiritual man, and the external the natural man. Both must be regenerated, if a person is to become regenerate.
EXODUS 19
1 In the third month from the going of the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, on this day they came to the wilderness of Sinai.
2 And they travelled from Rephidim, and came to the wilderness of Sinai, and encamped in the wilderness; and there Israel encamped beside the mountain.
3 And Moses went up to God, and Jehovah called to him from the mountain, saying, Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel,
4 You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and [how] I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself.
5 And now, if you will indeed hear My voice and keep My covenant, you will be to Me a peculiar treasure* more than all peoples; for all the earth is Mine.
6 And you will be for Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.
7 And Moses came and called the elders of the people, and set before them all these words which Jehovah commanded him.
8 And all the people answered together and said, All that Jehovah has spoken we will do. And Moses brought back the people’s words to Jehovah.
9 And Jehovah said to Moses, Behold, I am coming to you in the thickness of a cloud, in order that the people may hear when I speak to you, and also will believe in you forever. And Moses told the people’s words to Jehovah.
10 And Jehovah said to Moses, Go to the people, and sanctify them today and tomorrow; and let them wash their garments.
11 And they will be ready by the third day; for on the third day Jehovah will come down before the eyes of all the people onto Mount Sinai.
12 And you are to set bounds for the people round about, saying, Take care not to go up into the mountain or to touch the border of it; everyone touching the mountain will surely die.
13 Let no hand touch it, for he will surely be stoned or will be killed by being shot with arrows; whether it is a beast or a man, it shall not live. When there is a long sounding with the jobel** they shall go up into the mountain.
14 And Moses went down from the mountain to the people, and sanctified the people; and they washed their garments.
15 And he said to the people, Be ready by the third day; do not go near a woman.
16 And so it was on the third day, when it came to be morning, that there were voices*** and lightnings, and a heavy cloud on the mountain, and the voice of a trumpet extremely loud; and all the people who were in the camp trembled.
17 And Moses caused the people to go out of the camp to meet God; and they stood at the foot**** of the mountain.
18 And Mount Sinai was smoking, the whole of it, because Jehovah came down onto it in fire; and its smoke went up like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain began to tremble greatly.
19 And the voice of the trumpet grew louder and louder*****; Moses spoke, and God answered him by a voice.
20 And Jehovah came down onto Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain; and Jehovah called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.
21 And Jehovah said to Moses, Go down, warn the people so that they do not perhaps break through to Jehovah to see [Him], and many of them fall.
22 And also the priests coming near Jehovah must sanctify themselves, so that Jehovah does not perhaps make a breach in them.
23 And Moses said to Jehovah, The people cannot go up to Mount Sinai; for You have warned us, saying, Set bounds to the mountain and sanctify it.
24 And Jehovah said to him, Go! go down; and you are to come up, you and Aaron with you. And do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to Jehovah, so that He does not perhaps make a breach in them.
25 And Moses went down to the people and told them.
* peculiar treasure translates peculium, a word denoting a private or exclusive possession.
** i.e. the ram’s horn or the trumpet
*** i.e. claps of thunder
**** i.e. in the lower parts
***** lit. was going forth and making itself exceedingly strong
The subject in what follows now is in the internal sense the revelation of God’s truth that is going forth from the Lord out of heaven. The present chapter deals with the preparation to receive that truth.
Verses 1, 2 In the third month from the going of the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, on this day they came to the wilderness of Sinai. And they travelled from Rephidim, and came to the wilderness of Sinai, and encamped in the wilderness; and [there] Israel encamped beside the mountain.
‘In the third month’ means fullness of state. ‘From the going of the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt’ means after those belonging to the spiritual Church were delivered from molestations. ‘On this day’ means that at this point … ‘They came to the wilderness of Sinai’ means, they entered a state of good in which the truths of faith were to be implanted. ‘And they travelled from Rephidim’ means a continuation of life from the first state. ‘And came to the wilderness of Sinai’ means to a state of good in which truths were to be implanted. ‘And encamped in the wilderness’ means the arrangement within that state of good. ‘And Israel encamped beside the mountain’ means an arrangement effected by Divine heavenly good among those belonging to the spiritual Church.
[2] What fullness of state is must be mentioned briefly. Every state has its beginning, period of development, and end. When a state reaches its end it is full or complete, and it is called fullness. In the next life all things are measured by the stages of development that their states undergo, and by the consecutive changes of those things from beginning to end, just as in the world they are measured by periods of time. This is so because in heaven there are no periods of time; instead there are states. The reason for this is that in the next life the Sun, which is the Lord, remains constantly in its place. It does not make apparent daily advances like the sun in the world, dividing the day into morning, midday, evening, and night, nor apparent yearly advances, dividing the year into spring, summer, autumn, and winter. So it is that in heaven there are no periods of time, but states instead. However, since within the inmost sphere of heaven a kind of advance or development takes place in accordance with the Divine heavenly form, which no one is capable of perceiving, and since the states of all in heaven change in accordance with that process of development, angels there pass through a cycle of states in which the good of love, the truth of faith, or obscurity in respect of both predominates. From this there arises the correspondence of states in heaven with periods of time in the world, that is to say, the state of the good of love with morning, the state of the truth of faith with midday, and the state of obscurity with evening and night. Furthermore the heat too that is radiated by the sun there is the good of love, while the light radiated by the sun there is the truth of faith. From this also there arises the correspondence of heat in the world with love, which is for that reason called spiritual heat, and of light in the world with faith, which is for this reason called spiritual light.
[3] In general there are two states of life – the state of thought, a state which belongs to the understanding; and the state of affection, a state which belongs to the will. The state of thought belonging to the understanding is connected with the truth of faith. This state is one that is enlightened by light from the Sun of heaven, which is the Lord, even as this light is the source of light in the human understanding. But the state of affection belonging to the will is connected with the good of charity, even as the heat radiating from the Sun in heaven, which is the Lord, is the source of heat in the will, which is love. From all this one may now see the nature of the states and their changes in the next life, and what is implied by fullness of state, meant by ‘the third month’. The state to which fullness is ascribed here is the first state which those belonging to the spiritual Church underwent; for these people undergo two states, the first being when the Lord leads them by means of truth, the second when He does so by means of good, see 8643, 8648, 8658, 8685, 8690, 8701. Here the fullness of the first state is meant, the state which has been described in what has gone before; now the second state is described.
[2] As regards ‘Mount Sinai’, in the highest sense it means Divine Truth emanating from Divine Good, Divine Good being meant by ‘mountain’ and Divine Truth by ‘Sinai’. In the internal sense it means the truth of faith springing from good, in this instance the truth of faith that is to be implanted in good since the Law had not as yet been declared from there. The reason why ‘Mount Sinai’ has these meanings is that the Law was declared from there by the Lord, and the Law is Divine Truth emanating from Divine Good, and also is the truth of faith springing from good, 6752, 7463, 8695. This explains why the children of Israel encamped in the wilderness beside this mountain; for not only the Ten Commandments, which are the Law in a restricted sense, were declared from there, but also all the statutes of the Church, which, being representative, held within themselves the spiritual and celestial truths and forms of good of the Lord’s kingdom. The fact that the Law was declared from that mountain is clear from Chapter 20 below; and the fact that the statutes of the Church were as well is clear from Exodus 21 and following chapters; and Lev. 7:37, 38; 27:34. ‘Sinai’ has the same meaning in David,
O God, when You went out before Your people, when You marched in the wilderness, the earth trembled; the heavens also dropped [rain] before God. This Sinai [trembled] before God. the God of Israel. You cause a rain of blessings to drop down, O God. Ps. 68:79.
Here ‘Sinai’ stands for truth which springs from good, for these are meant by ‘the heavens dropped [rain] before God’ and by ‘God dropped a rain of blessings’.
[3] In the Book of Judges,
O Jehovah, when You went forth from Seir, when You set out from the field of the earth trembled, the heavens also dropped, the clouds indeed dropped water, the mountains flowed down before Jehovah, Sinai itself before Jehovah God of Israel. In the days of Shamgar, son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the roads ceased to be, and those who went along by pathways kept to twisting roads; the streets in Israel ceased to be. They ceased until I, Deborah, arose, until I arose a mother in Israel. Judg. 5:4-7.
Here also ‘Sinai’ stands for the Law or Divine Truth emanating from Divine Good, from which the truths of faith were implanted in the good of faith, those truths also being meant by ‘the heavens dropped, and the clouds dropped water’. A lack of the truths of faith and the perversion of them is meant by ‘the roads ceased to be, and those who went along by pathways kept to twisting roads’, truths being meant by ‘roads’ or ‘ways’, ‘pathways’, and ‘streets’, see 627, 2333, 3123, 3477. For the theme of this prophetic song, which is the Song of Deborah and Barak, is the perversion of the Church’s truth and the renewal of it.
[4] In Moses,
Jehovah came from Sinai, He dawned from Seir upon them; He shone from Mount Paran, and came out of myriads of holiness. From His right hand came a fiery law for them. Deut. 33:2.
Here the children of Jacob are blessed by Moses before his death. He begins the prophetic utterance in his blessing with Jehovah came from Sinai, and in this instance ‘Sinai’ means the truths of faith in their entirety. The reason why he begins with these words is that all the truths and forms of the good of faith are meant by ‘the children of Jacob’, 3858, 3862, 3926, 3939, 6335, and in a similar way by ‘the children of Israel’, 5414, 5951, 5879.
‘And Moses went up to God’ means the truth from God which was below heaven joining itself to Divine Truth in heaven. ‘And Jehovah called to him from the mountain’ means the union of Divine Good in heaven with Divine Truth there. ‘Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel’ means the salvation of those belonging to the spiritual Church, external and internal. ‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians’ means remembrance of all that happened to the evil who engaged in molestation. ‘And [how] I bore you on eagles’ wings’ means and that as a result they were raised by means of truths to heavenly light. ‘And brought you to Myself’ means thus to the good of love existing in heaven. ‘And now, if you will indeed hear My voice’ means the acceptance of truth. ‘And keep My covenant’ means thus leading a good life, and as a consequence being joined [to the Lord]. ‘You will be to Me a peculiar treasure from among all peoples’ means that at that time Divine Truth will exist with them more than with others. ‘For all the earth is Mine’ means that all power is the Lord’s in heaven and on earth. ‘And you will be for Me a kingdom of priests’ means that at that time the good of truth will be with them. ‘And a holy nation’ means thus the spiritual kingdom. ‘These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel’ means influx in order that truths may be received within good. ‘And Moses came and called the elders of the people’ means the choice of those who ranked first in the understanding of truth. ‘And set before them all these words’ means a proposition, together with influx. ‘Which Jehovah commanded him’ means from the Divine. ‘And all the people answered’ means receptivity. ‘And said, All that Jehovah has spoken we will do’ means in accord with the influx from the Divine. ‘And Moses brought back the people’s words to Jehovah’ means correspondence and being joined together.
* peculiar treasure translates peculium, a word denoting a private or exclusive possession.
[2] The expression Divine Truth in heaven is used, and then Divine Good in heaven, because the Divine Himself is far above the heavens; not only Divine Goodness itself is far above them but also Divine Truth itself which goes forth directly from Divine Good. The reason why they are far above heaven is that in Himself the Divine is the Infinite, and the Infinite cannot be joined to finite beings, thus not even to angels in heaven, unless He puts on some finite clothing and in that way adapts Himself for reception. Also Divine Good as it exists in itself is a flame of infinite intensity or love, a flame which no angel in heaven can bear; for he would be devoured by it, as a person in the world would be if the flame of the sun were to reach him without anything between them to moderate it. The light also from the flame of God’s love, which is Divine Truth, would blind all who are in heaven if it were to flow in without abatement of its fiery brightness. All this goes to show what the difference is between Divine Good and Divine Truth that are above the heavens and Divine Good and Divine Truth in the heavens, which are the subject here.
[2] But with every member of the Church both aspects must be present, the external and the internal. Unless both are present spiritual life does not exist with him; for the internal is so to speak the soul, and the external so to speak the body housing the soul. Those however who belong to the external Church are plainly concerned with external things of the Church and only vaguely with internal ones, whereas those belonging to the internal Church are plainly concerned with internal things and vaguely with external ones. But those concerned only with external things and not at the same time with internal do not belong to the Church. A concern for both exists with all who lead a good life in accordance with the teachings of their Church. But a concern for external things alone without internal exists with those who engage in acts of worship yet do not at the same time lead a good life in accordance with the teachings of their Church. There are few who know this; and the reason why few know it is that people consider worship and therefore salvation to consist wholly in faith, and not at all in charity. So it is also that those who think about eternal salvation consider it to consist in the religious life and not at all in the life of charity, regarding which kinds of life see 8252-8257.
[2] The reason why ‘wings’ are spiritual truths is that birds in general mean intellectual concepts and thoughts, 40, 745, 776, 3219, 5149, 7441, and therefore ‘wings’ are spiritual truths since all real understanding is formed from them. An understanding formed from falsities, no matter how clear and sharp-sighted it may seem to be, is no real understanding. Real understanding sees in the light of heaven, and the light of heaven is spiritual truth, that is, the truth of faith. Consequently where the truth of faith does not exist there is no light, only thick darkness; and an understanding set in thick darkness is no understanding at all. ‘Wings’ are also power, which spiritual truth possesses, derived from its good; for the wings on birds are like the hands and arms on a human being, and ‘arms’ and ‘hands’ mean power, 878, 3387, 4931-4937, 5327, 5328, 5544, 6292, 6947, 7538, 7673, 8050, 8153, 8281, 8305. Regarding the power which spiritual truth possesses, derived from good, see 3563, 4931, 5623, 6344, 6423.
[3] The fact that ‘wings’ are spiritual truths or the truths of faith, possessing power derived from good, is evident from places elsewhere in the Word. Consequently when wings are attributed to the Divine, Divine Truth possessing almighty power is meant by them, for example where they are attributed to cherubs, by whom the Lord’s providence is meant, as in Ezekiel,
Each cherub had four faces, and each one had four wings. Their wings were straight up, [the wing] of one towards [that of I the other; each had wings covering their bodies. I heard the sound of [their] wings, like the sound of great waters, like the voice of Shaddai, when they were coming, the sound* of tumult, like the sound* of a camp. When they stood they let down their wings. I heard the sound* of their wings, brushing together**, [the wing] of one towards [that of] the other, and the noise* of the wheels beside them. The sound* of the wings of the cherubs was heard even in the outer court, like the voice of God Shaddai. The likeness of the hands of a human being was under their wings. Ezek. 1:4, 6, 23, 24; 3:13; 10:5, 21.
[4] ‘Wings’ here are God’s truth. This is clear from the details contained in the description, both from the detail that the wings were straight up, one towards the other, and that they covered their bodies, as well as the details that the sound of them when it was heard was like the sound of great waters, like the noise of the wheels, and like the voice of Shaddai, and also the detail that the likeness of the hands of a human being was under their wings. The wings going straight up, one towards the other, represented the fellowship of all in the Divine. Their covering the cherubs’ bodies was a sign that Divine Truth clothed Divine Good from which it comes forth; for Divine Good is the flame, and Divine Truth is the light emanating from it. This light encircles and so clothes that flame all round. The actual flame is not visible in heaven, only the light containing the flame, which is thereby felt as heat, which is rave. The sound heard ‘like the sound of many waters’ means the nature of Divine Truth as it exists in heaven; and the like is meant by the sound of it being like the noise of the wheels and like the voice of Shaddai. For ‘sound’ and ‘voice’ are attributed to Divine Truth. This explains why the words ‘the sound of great waters’ are used, for ‘waters’ are truths, 2702, 3058, 3424, 4976, 5668, 8137, 8138, 8568; also the words ‘the noise of the wheels’, for ‘wheels’ are truths belonging to religious teachings, since ‘chariots’ are teachings that uphold truth, 5321, 5945, 8146, 8148, 8215; as well as ‘the voice of God Shaddai’, for ‘God Shaddai’ is truth rebuking in temptations and subsequently bringing comfort, 1992, 4572, 5628. ‘The likeness of the hands of a human being under their wings’ was a sign of the almighty power that Divine Truth possesses, for ‘hands’ are power, and in the highest sense almighty power when they are attributed to the Lord.
[5] From all this one may see what was represented by the wings of the cherubs who were over the mercy seat which was over the ark of the covenant, and by their being spread out upwards and covering the mercy seat, Exod. 25:20; also what the cherubs on the curtains of the tabernacle and on the veil represented, and in Solomon’s temple too. In a similar way one may see what those all around within the new house represented, as described in Ezekiel 41:18-20; likewise what is meant by the four living creatures around the throne, each one of which had for itself six wings round about, Rev. 4:8, and what by the seraphim standing above the throne, each of which had six wings, Isa. 6:1, 2.
[6] The fact that ‘wings’ in the internal sense are spiritual truths or the truths of faith is clear in Ezekiel,
Thus said the Lord Jehovih, A great eagle with great wings with long pinions full of feathers,*** in its embroidery, came on Lebanon and took a twig of the cedar. He carried it into a land of commerce. After that he took some of the seed of the land and planted it in a seed field; he took it to great waters. It sprouted and became a spreading vine. And there was another eagle with great wings and full of feathers,**** and behold, the vine directed its roots towards it, and sent out its branches to it, in a good field, by many waters. It was planted to produce branches, and to bear fruit, in order that it might become a magnificent vine. Ezek. 17:1-8.
This prophecy describes the establishment of the spiritual Church by the Lord. ‘The eagle’ referred to here is faith, ‘its great wings and long pinions’ are the truths of faith, and ‘its embroidery’ is factual knowledge. Growth out of all this is described by ‘a twig of the cedar from Lebanon, by ‘a land of commerce’, and ‘the seed of the land in a seed field, [taken] to great waters’, the actual Church arising from this being ‘a vine’. For the meaning of ‘a vine’ as the spiritual Church, see 1069, 5113, and as the external Church, 6375. But ‘a magnificent vine’ planted by another eagle is the internal Church, 6376; for the external aspect of the Church is described by the one eagle, and the internal aspect of it by the other. The prophet describes later on in the same chapter how this Church established among the Ancients was perverted among the Jews.
[7] The truth of faith is in like manner meant by ‘wings’ in David,
If you lie between the rows,***** [you will be like] the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her pinions with the yellow of gold. Ps 68:13.
‘The wings of a dove’ are the truths of faith, ‘dove’ meaning faith, see 870. They are said to be ‘covered with silver’ because ‘silver’ is truth derived from good, 1551, 2954, 5658, 6914, 6917, 7999.
[8] The meaning of ‘wings’ as God’s truth is in addition clear from the following places: In Isaiah,
Those who await Jehovah are renewed with strength; they mount up with wings like eagles. Isa. 40:31.
In David,
God rode on a cherub, and flew; He was borne on the wings of the wind. Ps. 18:10; 104:3.
This refers to Divine Truth and its power. In the same author,
Jehovah will cover you under His wing, and under His wings will you put your trust. Truth is a shield and buckler. Ps. 91:4.
‘Being covered by Jehovah’s wing, and putting one’s trust under His wings’ stands for protection and trust that belong to faith. The like is meant by being hidden under the shadow of God’s wings, Ps. 17:8; trusting in the shadow of His wings, Ps. 36:7; 57:1; 61:4; singing in the shadow of His wings, Ps. 63:7.
[9] Most things also have a contrary meaning, and this is no less so with ‘wings’. In that contrary sense ‘wings’ means falsities, as in John,
From the smoke of the pit of the abyss there went out locusts, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of many chariot horses running to war. Rev. 9:3, 9..
Here ‘wings’ are falsities fighting against truth, for ‘locusts’ are falsities in the things that are outermost, 7643.
* lit. voice
** lit. kissing
*** lit. A great eagle, great with wings, long with pinions, and full with
feathers
**** lit. another eagle, great with wings, and full with feathers
***** What Sw., following the Latin version of Sebastian Schmidt, understands the Hebrew to mean here is uncertain.
[2] People who suppose that salvation lies in faith alone, and not at the same time in the life of faith, that is, in the life of charity, believe that anyone can enter heaven and come to the Lord, irrespective of the life he has led. They do not know what the life of man is; and not knowing what this is they imagine that the life is of no importance at all. Consequently if they are asked whether a bad person is able to be among the good, they say that by God’s mercy he can be, since it is the work of an almighty power. Indeed if they are asked whether the devil is able to become an angel of heaven, they say Yes, provided that he wishes to receive faith. Nor are they in any doubt about his ability to receive it. But if they are told that evil is not able to be turned into good, nor thus hell into heaven with a person, and that such a conversion is impossible because it is contrary to order, therefore contrary to God’s truth, and so contrary to God Himself who is order, they reply that such ideas are false reasonings about salvation that do not interest them. All these and countless other considerations go to show how great a blindness regarding salvation and eternal life is caused by teachings about faith alone.
Jah has chosen Jacob for Himself, and Israel to be His peculiar treasure. Ps 135:4.
‘Jacob’ and ‘Israel’ are plainly those who belong to the Church, among whom the Word exists. Likewise in Moses,
You are a holy people to Jehovah your God; Jehovah your God has chosen you to be for Himself a people who are a peculiar treasure,* from among all peoples who are on the face of the earth. Deut. 7:6; 14:2.
[2] The reason why those who have the Word are more than others a peculiar treasure [to the Lord] and especially His own is that they are acquainted with the truths and forms of the good of faith. This being so, they are able more than others to lead the life of heaven and so be joined to the Lord. For the good that constitutes heaven with a person receives its specific quality from the truths of faith. Thus good becomes more heavenly or more Divine among those who possess genuine truths, which are truths drawn from the Word, though only if they keep them, that is, lead a life in accordance with them. This is shown to be so in Moses,
Today you have declared that Jehovah is your God, and that you will go in His ways, and will keep His statutes, and His commandments, and His judgements, and will obey His voice. And Jehovah declares to you today that you are for Him a people who are a peculiar treasure,* as He has told you, and that you should keep all His commandments. Deut. 26:17, 18.
* lit. the people of a peculiar treasure
[2] In the representative Church among the descendants of Jacob there was first a kingdom ruled by judges, after that a kingdom ruled by priests, and finally a kingdom ruled by kings. The kingdom ruled by judges represented Divine Truth emanating from Divine Good, whereas the kingdom ruled by priests, who were also judges, represented Divine Good from which Divine Truth emanates, and the kingdom ruled by kings represented Divine Truth without Divine Good. But when the office of king also had some of the priestly functions attached to it, kings then also represented Divine Truth containing good in the measure that priestly functions were linked to the office of king.
[3] All this was brought about in the Jewish Church to the end that the states of heaven might thereby be represented. For in heaven there are two kingdoms, one being called the celestial kingdom, and the other being called the spiritual kingdom. The celestial kingdom is what is called the Lord’s Priesthood, and the spiritual kingdom is what is called His Kingship. In the latter Divine Truth reigns, in the former Divine Good. And since the representation of the celestial kingdom began to perish when the people asked for a king, therefore – to ensure that something representing the Lord’s kingdom in the heavens might nevertheless continue to exist – the Jews were separated from the Israelites. The Jewish kingdom then represented the Lord’s celestial kingdom, and the Israelite kingdom His spiritual kingdom.
[4] If people know these things they are able to know why the changes in forms of government took place one after another among the descendants of Jacob. They are also able to know why, when the people asked for a king, they were told by Jehovah through Samuel that in doing so they rejected Jehovah so that He should not reign over them, I Sam. 8:7, and why they were told then about ‘the right of the king’, I Sam. 8:11 and following verses, which describes Divine Truth without Divine Good. If people know the things mentioned above they can also know why some priestly functions were conferred on David, and also why after Solomon’s time the kingdom was divided into two, into the Jewish kingdom and the Israelite kingdom. Regarding the two kingdoms in heaven, see 3635, 3883-3896, 4112, 4113, 4138.
[2] From this it is evident that spiritual life is acquired only through the truths of faith. This life – spiritual life – is acquired first by knowing the truths of faith, after that by acknowledging them, and at length by believing them. When they are merely known they are so to speak at the front door; when they are acknowledged they are in the hall; but when they are believed they are in the room. Thus they pass in stages from the outer to the inner parts of the mind. In a person interiorly there exists good which flows in constantly from the Lord; and there it joins itself to truths, turning them into faith, and then into charity. That good draws truths to itself; for it desires them so that through them it may obtain for itself a specific quality, and in this condition manifest itself.
[3] When therefore those truths have been joined to the good, the person has been regenerated; for the standpoint from which he sees what he ought to believe and what he ought to do is no longer truths but good. This is because he has absorbed truths, and these now reside within him; and he has no interest in truths from any source except those which he can see from his good. He is all the time seeing more truths, which are produced from that good like offspring from their parents. These offspring arise from such a marriage of goodness and truth, which is called the heavenly marriage. Truths which are products of the marriage hold good within themselves, because good gives birth to them. They enter into good in a continuous series, enlarging it and perfecting it; and they go on doing so for evermore. All this too goes to show the nature of the two states that a person who is being regenerated passes through, the states spoken of previously in 7992, 8643, 8648, 8658, 8685, 8690, 8701, and also in 8516, 8539, 8722.
[2] What correspondence and receptivity through correspondence are becomes clear from what has been shown at the ends of quite a number of chapters regarding the correspondence of all things present in the human being with the things that exist in heaven. It has also been shown in those places that all joining of natural things to spiritual ones, and in general of lower things to higher ones, is accomplished through correspondence. Such correspondence does not exist unless the lower things are placed in subordinate positions and made subject to the higher ones; and when the lower have been made subject, the higher ones act on them altogether as a cause does on its effect. From all this one may see what reciprocity on man’s side is when the Divine flows in, and what the consequent joining together is, which is described in the sense of the letter here by the method used to make covenants, which is that Jehovah speaks to the people through a messenger, and the messenger brings their reply back to Jehovah. For this is how a person can grasp the concept of being joined to the Divine.
‘And Jehovah said to Moses’ means an influx of the Divine through the truth from God, regarding revelation. ‘Behold, I am coming to you in the thickness of a cloud’ means that it will be made in a form utterly natural. ‘In order that the people may hear when I speak to you’ means in order that those belonging to the spiritual Church may have some understanding of Divine things. ‘And also will believe in you forever’ means in order that a faith composed of truth may exist, a faith that is going to be permanent. ‘And Moses told the people’s words to Jehovah’ means correspondence and being joined together.
[2] Revelation here does not mean in the internal sense the kind of revelation made to the Israelite people from Mount Sinai, that is to say, when the Lord spoke with an audible voice and the people standing round heard it. Rather it means a revelation that is not made with an audible voice but is received by a person inwardly. This revelation is made through enlightenment of inner sight, which is the understanding, when a person with an affection for truth springing from good reads the Word. That enlightenment is brought about by the light of heaven, which flows from the Lord as the Sun there. That light enlightens the understanding in much the same way as outward sight, which is that of the eye, is enlightened by the light which flows from the sun in the world. When the understanding is enlightened by that Divine light it perceives that to be the truth which is the truth, inwardly acknowledges it, and so to speak sees it. This is what the revelation is like which is received by those with an affection for truth springing from good, when they read the Word.
[3] But those with an affection for truth springing from evil – that is, those who wish to know truths solely for the sake of important positions, monetary gain, reputation, and the like – do not see truths. All they see are corroborations of things taught by their Church, whether those things are true or false. The light which enlightens them then is not Divine light from heaven; instead it is the light belonging to the senses, such as those in hell also possess, a light which becomes complete and utter darkness at the presence of heavenly light. When these people read the Word they are altogether blind to truth if it does not make one with their religious teachings. When for example those who make salvation consist in faith alone read the Word they pay no attention whatever to the things said there about love and charity; they do not even see them since those things fall within the obscured parts of their field of vision, like objects well off to the side or behind one’s back. It is much the same with the Jewish nation, which sets itself up above all others in the whole world. They do not see that the Lord is the One who is meant in the Prophets, no matter how plainly this may be stated. [4] The reason why is that they see nothing except corroborations of their teachings about the Messiah, which are that He is going to come as a mighty hero, perform greater miracles than Moses, and lead them into the land of Canaan, at which time they are all going to proceed in grandeur, listening to the appeals made by gentiles taking hold of the hem of their garments to let them join their company. Since these are the ideas that compose what they teach they see nothing whatever regarding the Lord; anything regarding Him is to them as thick darkness. The situation is the same with all other errors. All this goes to show what the situation is so far as the revelation of truth from the Word is concerned.
* i.e. either a dining-room or the couch around the table in a dining-room
If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how [will you believe] if I tell you heavenly things? John 3:12.
Still less would those who lived before the Lord’s Coming have believed them. They were eventually so blind that they knew nothing, because they did not wish to know anything, about the life after death, about the internal man, about charity and faith, or about any heavenly reality. They rejected these because they had no liking for them, for those who have earthly and worldly things as their end in view, that is, love them more than anything else, have no liking for spiritual things; they virtually detest the very mention of them. Those things would suffer almost the same rejection at the present day. Learned people in the world do indeed believe that they would be better able to receive the Word if heavenly things were made plainly visible in it and if it were not written in so simple a style. But they are very much mistaken. They would reject it more than simple people, and would see no light in it, only complete and utter darkness. This darkness is brought about by human learning among those who trust in their own intelligence and therefore set themselves up above others. The Lord teaches that such things have been hidden from the wise and revealed to young children, that is, to the simple, in Matthew 11:25, 26, and Luke 10:21. This is also perfectly clear from the consideration that those who are atheists and nature-worshippers, as they are called, are people who are learned. The world knows this, and they themselves know it.
‘And Jehovah said to Moses’ means revelation regarding preparation. ‘Go to the people’ means a joining together. ‘And sanctify them today and tomorrow’ means covering over their interiors in order that those people may appear now and subsequently in the holiness of faith. ‘And let them wash their garments’ means the purification of truths. ‘And they will be ready by the third day’ means thus full and complete preparation. ‘For on the third day’ means because at the end, when they have been prepared to receive … ‘Jehovah will come down before the eyes of all the people’ means, the coming of the Lord will occur, and enlightenment at that time. ‘Onto Mount Sinai’ means into the good in which truth is to be implanted. ‘And you are to set bounds for the people round about’ means not extending into heaven beyond the spiritual spheres of good. ‘Saying, Take care not to go up into the mountain’ means that there must be no extension whatever to celestial communities which have the love of good. ‘Or to touch the border of it’ means that there must be no extension even to intermediate parts. ‘Everyone touching the mountain will surely die’ means that anyone belonging to the spiritual Church who forces his way through to celestial communities will be destroyed. ‘Let no hand touch it’ means those who have enough arrogant self-confidence to force their way through. ‘For he will surely be stoned’ means that as a result the truths of faith which they possess will be destroyed. ‘Or will be killed by being shot with arrows’ means that spiritual good too [will be destroyed] ‘Whether it is a beast or a man, it shall not live’ means that goodness and truth will lose their spiritual life. ‘When there is a long sounding with the jobel’ means those who have a general perception of celestial good. ‘They shall go up into the mountain’ means extension all the way to those who are celestial.
* i.e. the ram’s horn or the trumpet
All this makes clear what one should understand by ‘sanctifying’, namely covering over their interiors in order that those people may appear in the holiness of faith, though not to themselves, only to the angels present with them. See what has been shown already about this people and the establishment of the Church among them, in 4208, 4281, 4288, 4289, 4293, 4307, 4314, 4316, 4317, 4429, 4433, 4444, 4459, 4844, 4847, 4865, 4899, 4911, 4912, 4500, 7048, 7051, 8588. The fact that sanctification among them amounted to no more than an appearance of holiness in externals, since they themselves had no holiness within them, becomes clear from the ceremonies by which they were sanctified, that is to say, by sacrifices, washings, sprinklings of blood, and anointings, which do not in any way whatever touch internal things.
[2] No one can know except from revelation what to understand by extension into heaven as far as the spiritual spheres of good. The situation is this: Any good imparted to a person through regeneration by the Lord extends itself to communities in heaven. The amount and the nature of this extension varies with each person; it varies in amount as it advances towards more distant boundaries in heaven, and in nature as it shifts more towards the internal parts of heaven or more towards the external parts. The actual good residing with a person flows in from the Lord by way of the communities of heaven that are round about; good that does not flow in by way of those communities is not possible. The communities of heaven exist round about, closely joined together without a break; not a break between them appears anywhere. It is the same with every single thing that is connected with good and constitutes its essential nature. Therefore when a person is being regenerated his enrichment in good is nothing other than being introduced into angelic communities, and in this way being joined to them. See also 4067, 4073, 4077, 6598-6613
[3] This has also been demonstrated to me quite a number of times by actual experience. Sometimes contact with certain communities has been withdrawn from me, and then the amount and the nature of life that remained were determined by the amount and nature of extension into the communities that were left. And when more communities were taken away, my life suffered and began seemingly to be snuffed out. Every angel, spirit, and man has a spiritual sphere, and its nature is determined by its extension into different communities. It extends not into the actual communities, but into the spheres emanating from their good. These matters are arcana that are unknown to anyone in the world but are very well known indeed in the next life. The reason why they are unknown to anyone in the world is that a person at the present day believes that he has life in himself, and consequently that he lives without association with spirits and angels, and so without being linked to heaven. But in this he is altogether mistaken; for all the life a person has comes from the Lord by way of communities [in the spiritual world].
[4] In addition it should be recognized that the life emanating from those belonging to the spiritual Church reaches as far as the angelic spheres in the second heaven, called the spiritual heaven, but not as far as the third heaven, where those who are celestial are. The reason for this is that a member of the spiritual Church cannot receive the Divine as He exists in the inmost or third heaven where those who are celestial are, except in so general a way that he does not even notice it. And the reason for this is that those who are spiritual cannot reach even the outer doorstep of the good governing those who are celestial, 2718, 3833, 6500, 8521. All this shows what should be understood by not extending into heaven beyond the spiritual spheres of good, meant by the injunction ‘you are to set bounds for the people round about’, and also what should be understood by the words that follow it.
[5] It should also be recognized that just as those governed by good have an extension into angelic communities according to the nature and amount of their good, so those ruled by evil have an extension into hellish communities according to the nature and amount of their evil. And in addition to this, everyone in the next life comes among those with whom he had been in contact during his lifetime. His ruling love determines this; for that love is what constitutes the sphere emanating from each person’s life, and extends as far as the nature and amount of it determine.
[2] The situation here is that those belonging to the Lord’s spiritual kingdom cannot flow into the celestial kingdom since this is higher or more internal and the spiritual kingdom is lower or more external; for what is more external or lower cannot flow into what is higher or more internal, 5259, 5779. However it sometimes happens that those in a lower heaven seek to go up into a higher heaven; they seek to do so because of a wrong desire that has its origin in pride, dominion, or envy. Those who have that desire and venture up are also let in now and again; but then they suffer badly. They are seized by anxiety, at length by pain, and also by blindness; their intelligence is destroyed, and their happiness. On account of all this they cast themselves down from there as if they are about to die, and do not revive until they have been cast down out of heaven.
[3] Such is the fate of those belonging to a lower heaven who force their way through to a higher heaven from a desire born of pride, dominion, or envy. The reason why they suffer badly is that the good of love in the higher heaven is comparatively like a devouring fire, and the truth of faith there is like fiery light blinding the sight of those coming up from below. These are the things that are meant in the internal sense by the Israelite people’s being forbidden to touch Mount Sinai where Jehovah was. A similar fate would await those belonging to the celestial kingdom if they perhaps tried to go up above to the Divine. It also awaits those who are below heaven if they desire to go up into heaven; they too suffer badly, see 4225, 4226, 4299, 5057, 5058.
[2] The words ‘those who have a general perception of celestial good’ are used to mean the intermediaries who are positioned between the Lord’s celestial kingdom and His spiritual kingdom, and who are therefore those through whom influx, communication, and joining together are accomplished, see just above in 8787, 8796. They have extension all the way into celestial communities, meant by the words ‘they shall go up into the mountain’. These intermediaries are represented by ‘Moses’, 8787, and also by ‘Aaron’, who were allowed to go up into the mountain, verse 24 below. What extension into the spheres of angelic communities is, and that the nature of each person’s extension is determined by his good, see above in 8794. A general perception exists with those who are governed by spiritual good and are able to receive a general influx of good from a higher heaven, in this instance the inmost heaven. Such are meant by those who shall go up [into] the mountain when the jobel is heard.
‘And Moses went down from the mountain to the people’ means application and preparation by the truth from God, in order that truths may be received within good. ‘And sanctified the people’ means covering over their interiors in order that those people may appear in the holiness of faith. ‘And they washed their garments’ means purification of the truths of faith. ‘And he said to the people, Be ready by the third day’ means complete preparation. ‘Do not go near a woman’ means purification of the good of faith.
[2] Specifically Mount Sinai means heaven, out of which truths flow in from the Lord. Consequently ‘Jehovah came down onto that mountain’ means His presence in heaven. And since heaven – in which Jehovah, that is, the Lord, is present – is meant by ‘Mount Sinai’, Divine Good united to Divine Truth there is also meant by it; for these are what make it heaven.
[3] But The People Israel beside this mountain represent the spiritual Church in respect of good in which the truths of faith are to be implanted. It has been shown already that those belonging to the spiritual Church pass through two states. The first is when they are led by means of truths to good, and the second state is when they are governed by good and consequently by truths. At this point the state is one when they are governed by good in which truths are to be implanted, which state is an intermediate state that comes between those first and second ones. The truths that are implanted within good are contained in those which were declared by the Lord from Mount Sinai and conveyed by Moses to the people.
[4] Moses in this and subsequent chapters represents the truth from God below heaven joined to God’s truth in heaven. He therefore represents the intermediary between the Divine in heaven and the good in which truths are to be implanted, the spiritual Church’s good, and so represents the intermediary between the Lord and the people.
It is important to know these things for the understanding of what follows below in the Book of Exodus. All this also shows that ‘Moses went down from the mountain to the people’ means application and preparation through the truth from God for truths to be received within good.
[2] But since ‘the children of Israel’ is used here to mean those belonging to the spiritual Church, something brief will be stated about how to understand sanctification among those people. Those belonging to the spiritual Church, those who lead a life of truth, and go on to lead a life of good, are withheld from evils and maintained in good by the Lord. The good they have from the Lord is the holiness with them. Consequently in the measure that they receive good from the Lord they are holy; and the measure of good they receive from the Lord, that is, the measure in which they are holy, is determined by how far they lead a life of good in keeping with the genuine truths of faith, and by how far at that time they believe that all the good they think and do then begins in the Lord. When they do these things the evils present with them are separated so that they do not at all appear, especially the evils they have derived by heredity from their parents, which are foul, because they have been accumulated from many ages back by successive generations of parents and accordingly heaped up in offspring. These are the interiors which with those belonging to the spiritual Church have been hidden away and so to speak covered over, 966, 1667, 2307, 2308, 3701, 4317, 8550. So it is that the entire will they receive by heredity has been corrupted. As a consequence of this they have a new will which the Lord forms in the understanding part of the mind by means of the truths of faith. This explains why they are led by means of truths to good while they are being regenerated, and after that, when they have been regenerated, from good into the truths of good. This shows plainly how their new will is created by the Lord. Regarding its formation in the understanding part of the mind with those belonging to the spiritual Church, see 863, 875, 895, 927, 1023, 1043, 1044, 1555, 2256, 4328, 4493, 5113, 6125.
‘And so it was on the third day’ means at the end of purification. ‘When it came to be morning’ means a state when they were governed by good. ‘That there were voices and lightnings’ means a Divine state in which revelation took place. ‘And a heavy cloud on the mountain’ means the Divine state in relation to those about to receive. ‘And the voice of a trumpet extremely loud’ means a celestial state which was round about. ‘And all the people who were in the camp trembled’ means a holy quivering by those about to receive. ‘And Moses caused the people to go out of the camp to meet God’ means the power of the truth from God to make them ready to receive the Divine in the good they had. ‘And they stood at the foot of the mountain’ means a long way off from the good of celestial love. ‘And Mount Sinai was smoking, the whole of it’ means the appearance of celestial good in the greatest obscurity. ‘Because Jehovah came down onto it in fire’ means since the Divine was there in celestial love. ‘And its smoke went up like the smoke of a furnace’ means obscurity like the obscurity resulting from evil desires. ‘And the whole mountain began to tremble greatly’ means heaven, shaking violently. ‘And the voice of the trumpet grew louder and louder’ means revelation in its general aspects, which comes through the angelic heaven. ‘Moses spoke, and God answered him by a voice’ means through the influx of the truth from God, having the Divine Himself within it.
* i.e. claps of thunder
** i.e. in the lower parts
*** lit. was going forth and making itself exceedingly strong
[2] All this goes to show what kind of effects the fire and also the light coming from the sun in the world produce, and what kind of effects the fire and light coming from the sun of heaven produce. The sun in the world provides heat and light without life, whereas the sun in heaven provides heat and light together with life. The latter, being provided by the sun of heaven, are therefore called spiritual, because they hold life within them, whereas the former, which are provided by the sun of the world, are called natural and do not hold life within them. The life in living things that is recognized in their heat and indicated by it does not come from the heat of the sun in the world but from the heat of the sun in heaven. When the latter heat enters heat in the world it produces that effect; the body feels it as elemental heat, but this has vital heat in it, which has its origin in the love that is heat from the sun of heaven. The truth that vital heat springs from a source other than the sun in the world, and that it owes its origin to love and exists according to the amount and the character of that love within it, anyone is able to know provided that he is prepared to think about it properly. Anyone can know except those who do not acknowledge anything internal in the human being and attribute everything to natural forces.
[3] Since therefore heat from the sun in heaven, which is the Lord, is the good of love, and the light from it is the truth of faith, one may see what is meant by ‘morning’, and what by ‘midday’, ‘evening’, and ‘night’ in the next life. They are states of good and truth or love and faith, ‘morning’ being a state of the good of love, ‘midday’ a state of the truth of faith, ‘evening and night’ a deprivation of them, which is ignorance and blindness in insights that belong to faith, and also slowness and coldness in feelings that belong to heavenly love.
[4] Furthermore the situation with the sun of heaven is as it is with the sun in the world, in that it is motionless and does not bring about those states by any wheeling round of its own. Rather the things around it bring them about, just as a planet travelling round the sun and at the same time rotating on its axis produces changes. The appearance therefore is that those changes are attributable to the sun, but in reality they are not attributable to the sun, only to the planet going round it. So also in heaven. Changes of state there, to which morning, midday, evening, and night correspond, are not attributable to the sun there, for that sun is always radiating heat and light, that is, the good of love and the truth of faith. Instead those changes are attributable to the recipients, that is to say, to the angels and spirits, who move through a regular cycle of such changes as their life progresses. At one point it is morning, that is, they are filled with the good of love; at another it is midday, that is, they are enlightened with the truth of faith; and at yet another it is evening and night, that is, these gifts become vague and dull with them.
[5] The reason why the situation in the world is as it is in heaven, except for the difference that in the world the regular cycle consists of states belonging to the fumes of day, while in heaven it consists of states of life, is that all things in the world have been created in the image of those in heaven. For natural things arise from spiritual ones as effects from their causes. Consequently there is a correspondence of all things in the world with those in heaven, and therefore the whole natural order is nothing other than a theatre representative of the Lord’s kingdom, 3483, 4939, 8211.
The clouds dropped water, the skies gave voice; and Your arrows went out The voice of Your thunder went into the world,* the lightnings lit up the earth, the earth was shaken violently and quaked. Ps. 77:17, 18.
Here ‘the voice of thunder’ stands for God’s truth, 7573, ‘lightnings’ for its brilliance, and ‘the earth’ for the Church. Consequently ‘ the lightnings lit up the earth’ stands for the enlightenment of the Church by God’s truth.
[2] Something similar occurs in the same author,
His lightnings will enlighten the earth, the earth will see and fear; the mountains will melt like wax before Jehovah. Ps. 97:4, 5.
In the same author,
What Jehovah wills He does in heaven and on earth, in the seas and in all deep places. He causes the vapours to go up from the ends of the earth, He makes lightnings for the rain. Ps. 135:6, 7; Jer. 10:13; 51:16.
‘Lightnings for the rain’ stands for the brightness of the truth coming down from heaven. In John,
There were lightnings, voices, and thunders. Rev. 11:19; 16:18.
‘Voices, lightnings, and thunders’ stands for God’s truths which enlighten the good and terrify the evil.
[3] In Ezekiel,
The appearance of the living creatures (who were cherubs) was like burning coals of fire, Like the appearance of lamps. It was moving between the living creatures, so that there was the brightness of fire, and out of the fire went forth lightning. And the living creatures ran forth and back, in appearance like a flash of lightning. Ezek. 1:13, 14.
Here ‘fire’ stands for the good of love, and ‘out of the fire went forth lightning’ for God’s truth derived from that good. The Lord’s Divine providence, which is God’s truth emanating from the Lord’s Divine Good, is described here by ‘the cherubs’.
[4] In Daniel,
behold, one clothed in linen whose loins were girded with gold of Uphaz, and his body was like tarshish;** his face was like the appearance of lightning, and his eyes were like fiery torches. Dan. 10:5, 6.
‘A face like the appearance of lightning’ stands for the love of truth; for truth radiated by love carries with it a characteristic, meant by ‘lightning’, which is like a flame flashing from fire.
[5] In Zechariah,
Jehovah will appear over them, and His arrow will go forth like lightning; and the Lord Jehovih will sound a blast on the trumpet, and move forward in storms of the south. Zech. 9:14.
‘The arrow which will go forth like lightning’ stands for God’s truth which strikes and penetrates, ‘an arrow’ being truth coming from doctrine, see 2686, 2709, so that ‘an arrow from Jehovah’ is truth coming from God.
[6] In Nahum,
The glitter of the sword, the lightning-flash of the spear,*** and the multitude of the slain. Nahum 3:3
In Moses,
I will sharpen My flashing sword****. Deut 32:41.
This stands for the penetration of God’s truth as experienced by the evil, ‘sword’ standing for truth engaged in conflict, 2799, 8294, and ‘lightning’ for its brightness which strikes the understanding and deprives it of the ability to see truth. Something similar occurs in Ezekiel 21:15, 28. From all this it is also evident that ‘lightning’ is used to mean God’s truth in Matthew 28:3, and Luke 17:24.
* The Hebrew, word here means a wheel or a whirlwind.
** A Hebrew word for a particular kind of stone, possibly a beryl.
*** lit. The brightness of the sword, the lightning of the spear
**** lit. the lightning of My sword
Jehovah will appear over them, and His arrow will go forth like lightning; and the Lord Jehovih will sound a blast on the trumpet, and move forward in storms of the south. Zech. 9:14.
And in David,
God has gone up with a blast, Jehovah with the voice of a trumpet. Ps 47:5
‘A blast’ stands for the truth of spiritual good, ‘the voice of a trumpet’ for the truth of celestial good.
[2] Divine Truth passing through heaven is also meant by the trumpets on which the angels blasted in Rev. 8:2, 6-8, 12, 13; 9:14. God’s truth from heaven was represented too by the seven trumpets on which the seven priests blasted before the Ark or in front of Jehovah when the walls of the city of Jericho fell down, Joshua 6; and also by the trumpets with which the three hundred men accompanying Gideon made a noise around the camp of Midian, Amalek, and the Sons of the East, Judges 7. The reason why the trumpets achieved that effect was that they represented God’s truth passing through the heavens. This truth is such that it perfects the good but destroys the evil. It perfects the good because they receive Divine Good present within Truth, but it destroys the evil because they do not receive Divine Good present there. ‘The walls of Jericho’ meant the falsities that defended evils, and ‘Midian, Amalek, and the Sons of the East’, around whose camp Gideon’s three hundred men blasted on their trumpets, meant those immersed in evils and in falsities arising from them
The appearance of the glory of Jehovah was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain, before the eyes of the children of Israel. Exod. 24:16, 17.
In the same author,
You came near and stood at the foot of* the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire even to the heart of heaven; there was darkness and cloud and thick darkness. And Jehovah spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. Deut. 4:11, 12; 5:22.
And in the same author,
It happened, when you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, and the mountain was burning with fire, that you came near to Me and said, Why should we die? For this great fire will devour us; if we hear the voice of Jehovah our God any more we shall die. Deut. 5:23-25.
[2] The reason why this should be so is that no person can help seeing God from such things as are present in himself. The person who is ruled by hatred, for example, sees Him from hatred; and one who is ruled by ruthlessness sees Him in ruthlessness. And on the other hand, the person who is governed by charity and mercy sees Him from these virtues and in them. It is like rays of light, which are converted into hideous colours when they fall on hideous forms, but into beautiful colours when they fall on beautiful forms. The meaning of ‘smoke’ as the obscurity of truth, and also as the thick darkness belonging to falsity, is clear in Isaiah 9:18, 19; 34:9, 10; Joel 2:30, 31; Hosea 13:1, 3; Revelation 9:17, 18; 18:2, 18; 19:3.
* lit. stood under
Go out, and stand on the mountain before Jehovah. Behold, Jehovah was passing by, so that a great and strong wind was breaking apart the mountains, and shattering the rocks before Jehovah; Jehovah was not in the wind. Then after the wind, an earthquake; but Jehovah was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake, a fire; Jehovah was not in the fire. Finally after the fire, a slight whisper.* 1 Kings 19:11, 12.
* lit. a thin voice of silence
‘And Jehovah came down onto Mount Sinai’ means the Lord’s presence in heaven. ‘To the top of the mountain’ means in the inmost. ‘And Jehovah called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up’ means the joining of the truth from God there. ‘And Jehovah said to Moses’ means admonition from the Divine. ‘Go down, warn the people so that they do not perhaps break through to Jehovah to see [Him]’ means that those belonging to the spiritual Church should not desire to go up to the heaven where the Divine celestial is. ‘And many of them fall’ means that in so doing they would perish. ‘And also the priests coming near Jehovah must sanctify themselves’ means that those governed by spiritual good, which has the Divine within it, are to be covered over. ‘So that Jehovah does not perhaps make a breach in them’ means a consequent separation from good. ‘And Moses said to Jehovah’ means thought engaged in by the truth from God. ‘The people cannot go up to Mount Sinai’ means that they are unable to raise themselves to the celestial kingdom. ‘For You have warned us’ means because the Divine has cautioned them. ‘Saying, You are to set bounds to the mountain’ means by declaring that the spiritual sphere of good comes to an end below [the celestial kingdom]. ‘And sanctify it’ means that they are thereby held back from the Divine. ‘And Jehovah said to him’ means further admonition. ‘Go! go down’ means influx. ‘And come up, you and Aaron’ means being joined to the truth from God, inward and outward. ‘And do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to Jehovah’ means that those governed by spiritual good and truth should not desire to go up into the celestial heaven. ‘So that He does not perhaps make a breach in them’ means separation from truth and good. ‘And Moses went down to the people’ means influx of the Divine through the truth from God. ‘And told them’ means admonition through it.
There are also spirits among those belonging to Jupiter whom they call chimney-sweeps, because their clothes look like those of chimney-sweeps, as do their faces. They belong among those spoken about in 7801-7812 who reprimand people on their planet and after that instruct them. What such spirits correlate with in the Grand Man, and what they are like, may be seen from the description of them above in 5056; which let me reproduce here.
[2] I was told that this is what people of this sort are like initially, before they are received among those who constitute the province of the seminal vesicles. For in these vesicles sperm (semen) is gathered together, where it is clothed with a suitable substance which is just right to preserve it from being dissipated and which can be shed at the cervix, so that the sperm stored inside may serve to bring about conception, that is, impregnation of the ovum. Therefore also that seminal substance holds within it the endeavour and so to speak burning desire to shed itself and leave the sperm to fulfill its purpose. Something similar was seen to happen to that spirit. He returned to me, but now he was dressed in humble clothing. He again said he had a burning desire to enter heaven and now recognized that he was in a fit state to remain there. But I was led to say to him that this was perhaps a sign that he would be received there shortly. At this point angels told him to cast aside his clothing, which in his desire to do so he cast aside so quickly that hardly anything could have been done more quickly. This represented the nature of the desires of those in the province to which the seminal vesicles correspond.
TEACHINGS ABOUT CHARITY
In everyone there is something his own which he loves above all things. It is called that which is dominant or, if you will, that which reigns universally with him. It is unceasingly present in his thought and also his will; and it composes his very life.
* Deut. 6:5, 8
EXODUS 20
1 And God spoke all these words, saying,
2 I am Jehovah your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slaves.
3 You shall not have other gods before My face.
4 You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness [of things] which are in the heavens above, and which are on the earth beneath, and which are in the waters under the earth.
5 You shall not bow down to them, and you shall not serve them; for I am Jehovah your God, a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the sons,* on the third and on the fourth [generations] of those who hate Me,
6 And showing mercy to thousands who love Me and keep My commandments.
7 You shall not take the name of Jehovah your God in vain; for Jehovah will not render him innocent who takes His name in vain.
8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days you shall labour and do all your work;
10 And the seventh day is a sabbath to Jehovah your God. You shall not do any work – you, nor your son, nor your daughter; your male slave, nor your female slave, nor your beast, nor your sojourner who is within your gates.
11 For in six days Jehovah made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore Jehovah blessed the sabbath day, and sanctified it.
12 Honour your father and your mother, in order that your days may be prolonged on the land which Jehovah your God gives you.
13** You shall not kill.
14 You shall not commit adultery.
15 You shall not steal.
16 You shall not answer as witness of a lie against your neighbour.
17 You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, nor his male slave nor his female slave, nor his ox nor his ass, nor anything that is your neighbour’s.
18 And all the people saw the voices and torches,*** and the voice of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and the people saw and were violently shaken, and stood afar off.
19 And they said to Moses, Speak yourself to us, and we will hear; and do not let God speak to us, lest perhaps we die.
20 And Moses said to the people, Do not fear, for God has come in order to test you, and in order that His fear may be before your faces, so that you do not sin.
21 And the people stood afar off; and Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was.
22 And Jehovah said to Moses, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, You have seen that I have spoken to you from heaven.
23 You shall not make [to be] with Me gods of silver and gods of gold; you shall not make [them] for yourselves.
24 An altar of soil**** you shall make for Me, and shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your eucharistic offerings, your flocks and your herds; in every place where I shall put the memory of My name I will come to you and bless you.
25 And if you make for Me an altar of stones, you shall not build it with hewn ones; for if you move your chisel over it you will profane it.
26 And you shall not go up to My altar by steps, in order that your nakedness may not be revealed on it.
* or the children
** In the Latin an alternative numbering of verses is used from here to the end of the chapter.
*** i.e. thunder and lightning
**** lit. the ground (humus)
This chapter deals in the internal sense with God’s truths that are to be implanted in the good which governs those belonging to the Lord’s spiritual Church. The Ten Commandments are those truths; and the commandments that follow them in this chapter, regarding sacrifices and the altar, are outward truths concerned with worship.
Verse 1 And God spoke all these words, saying means God’s truths for those in heaven and for those on earth.
[2] Since this kind of sight does not see natural but spiritual things it has truths as its objects. On the level of the understanding it has spiritual ones, called the truths of faith. But on the natural level it has as its objects the truths concerning a person’s role as a citizen, which are truths about what is right; also the truths concerning a person’s role in private life, which are truths about what is honourable; and lastly the natural truths that are conclusions formed on the basis of objects perceived by the outward senses, in particular that of sight. From all this one may see in what order truths follow one another, and that all collectively and individually have their origin in God’s truths, which are the inner beginnings of all truths. The forms also in which they exist have the same origin, since such forms have been created to receive and contain them. This shows how the teaching in John 1:1-3, that all things were created through the Word, should be understood; for God’s truth is the supreme essential entity, the one true substance, through which all things come into being.
[2] The truth of this may be seen from the consideration that the Word, sent by the Divine Himself, has passed from Him through heaven to earth. When it reaches earth it is truth made suitable for the human race, which lives amid earthly and bodily things. But as it exists in heaven it is made suitable for angels, who live amid spiritual and celestial things. Because it is like this the Word is in itself holy; for it contains what is heavenly and Divine within it. This is perfectly clear from the Ten Commandments. Anyone can see that those commandments are the kind of laws that are well known everywhere on earth – that one should honour parents, that one should not kill, commit adultery, or steal, and that people should not answer as false witnesses. Consequently the Israelite nation could have known these laws from natural enlightenment alone; for is there any nation that does not know them? And yet Jehovah Himself came down to declare them; and He declared them out of fire that was burning ‘even to the heart of heaven’.* From this it becomes clear that those commandments contain more within them than is apparent in the letter; that is to say, they contain truths such as are intended at the same time for heaven and which fill heaven. Everything in the Word is like this since it comes from the Divine. All this shows why the Word is holy and what should be understood by statements about the inspiration of the Word even to every jot and tattle, and to every small part of a letter, Matt. 5:18; Luke 16:17. The nature therefore of the Ten Commandments in the spiritual sense, that is, as they exist in heaven, will be seen in what is to follow.
* Deut. 4:11
‘I am Jehovah your God’ means the Lord in respect of the Divine Human reigning universally, in every single aspect of goodness and truth. ‘Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slaves’ means deliverance by Him from hell. ‘You shall not have other gods before My face’ means that there must be no thought about truths from any source other than the Lord. ‘You shall not make for yourself a graven image’ means no product of self-intelligence. ‘Or any likeness’ means a resemblance of those things which are from God. ‘Which are in the heavens above, and which are on the earth beneath’ means which exist in spiritual light, and which exist in natural light. ‘And which are in the waters under the earth’ means which exist on the level of the bodily senses. ‘You shall not bow down to them, and you shall not serve them’ means that no Divine worship must be offered to them. ‘For I am Jehovah your God’ means that the Divine from the Lord is in every single thing. ‘A jealous God’ means that as a result there is falsity and evil. ‘Visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the sons’ means the consequent propagation of falsity from evil. ‘On the third and on the fourth [generations]’ means in a long sequence, and joined together. ‘Of those who hate Me’ means those who completely reject the Lord’s Divinity. ‘And showing mercy to thousands’ means goodness and truth imparted to them for evermore. ‘Who love Me’ means who receive the good of love. ‘And keep My commandments’ means who receive the truths of faith. ‘You shall not take the name of your God in vain’ means instances in which the truth or the good of faith is profaned or blasphemed. ‘For Jehovah will not render him innocent who takes His name in vain’ means that these things cannot be forgiven.
* or the children
[2] The reason why the Lord’s Divine Human is meant by ‘Jehovah God’ is that the Divine Itself which is within the Lord cannot be seen in heaven or even perceived, thus cannot be received in faith and love; only the Divine Human can. The truth that the Divine Itself cannot be communicated to angels in heaven, still less to people on earth, except through the Divine Human is well known in the Churches from the Lord’s words in the Gospels, where He says that He is the Door; that He is the Mediator; that nobody can come to the Father except through Him; that no one except Himself knows the Father; and that no one has seen the Father, not even some shape He might take. From all this it is evident that it is the Lord who is meant here by ‘Jehovah God’. It is also well known that He is also the one who has redeemed the human race and delivered them from hell.
This truth is meant by the words that follow, by ‘I brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slaves’. From all this it is now evident that Jehovah God, who spoke from Mount Sinai, is the Lord in respect of the Divine Human.
[3] The reason why this is the first truth to be stated by the Lord from Mount Sinai is that it must be present, reigning universally in each and every truth that follows. For what is stated first must be held in mind and must be seen to reside universally in everything that follows. What ‘universally reigning’ describes will be seen below. The truths which were stated by the Lord are all of this nature. That is to say, truths stated first must reign in those stated next and incorporate them; these in turn must reign in and incorporate those after that, and so on sequentially. In the present chapter the truths stated next are the Ten Commandments, which are inward truths, and after these the statutes, which are outward truths. The latter and the former must have the Lord – His Divine Human – reigning within them, for they spring from Himself, and are Himself. For, to be sure, truths which are truths all emanate from Him; and the things which emanate from Him are Himself. The truth that the Lord’s Divine Human is what must reign in every single part of faith is also well known in the Churches; for they teach that there is no salvation without the Lord, and that all the truth and good of faith comes from Him. Thus since He is the source of faith He is the faith present with a person; and if He is the faith He is also all the truth contained in teachings about faith that are drawn from the Word. This also is the reason why the Lord is called ‘the Word’.
[4] The truth that what comes first must reign in what comes next, and so on sequentially, as stated above, is clear from the individual parts of the things spoken by the Lord, in particular from His prayer called the Lord’s Prayer. All its parts follow one another in such a sequence that they constitute a pillar so to speak, widening from the top down to the base and holding inside itself the things that appear earlier in the sequence. What is first there is inmost, and what comes after in sequence adds itself gradually to the inmost and in that way grows wider. What is inmost then reigns in all the surrounding parts; it reigns universally, that is, in every detail, for it is essential to the existence of them all.
[2] In addition it should be recognized that the kind of spirits or the kind of angels who are present with a person is determined by the nature of what reigns universally in him. The reason for this is that what reigns universally is the being (esse) of anyone’s life, 8853, 8858. All the cheerfulness and all the contentment a person has, even when thinking about other matters, springs from it. For in it the angels and spirits present with him reside and so to speak have a dwelling-place; their gladness enters the person and creates the cheerfulness and contentment. The person does not realize that they are the source of it because a person does not know that his life flows in, or that what reigns universally constitutes his life, or that when something touches this core of his life the effect is like that which visual objects have on the pupil of the eye, that is, pleasure when they are beautiful and pain when they are not beautiful. The term ‘universally’ is used because it implies every single thing within the whole, so that what reigns universally is that which exists in each individual part, see 1919 (end), 5949, 6159, 6338, 6482, 6483, 6571, 7648, 8067.
If anyone says, Behold, here is the Christ! or There! do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will arise, and they will show great signs and wonders, so as to lead into error, if possible, even the elect. Matt. 24:23-26.
See 3900. And in Luke,
See that you are not led astray. For many will come in My name, saying, I am He; The time is near. Therefore do not go after them. Luke 21:8.
[2] Truths which come from the Lord never cease to be truths from the Lord in their inward form. But truths which do not come from the Lord appear to be truths only in their outward form, not in their inward form – for inwardly they are either empty, false, or evil. To be the truth, truth must have life within it; for truth devoid of life is not the truth of faith with a person, and life comes from no other source than good, that is, from the Lord by way of good. If therefore the Lord is not within truth it is truth devoid of life, and so is not truth. And if there is falsity or evil within it the actual truth with a person is falsity or evil. For what exists inwardly constitutes its essential nature, and also in the next life shines through the outward appearance. From all this one may now see how to understand the explanation that there must be no thought about truths from any source other than the Lord.
[3] Since few know about the nature of truths which are truths in their inward form, and so which have life from the Lord, something will be said from experience regarding them. In the next life when anyone speaks there others perceive plainly what lies concealed in the words he utters, such as whether inwardly it is closed or open, and also what kind of affection there is within it. If there is an affection for good it is inwardly soft, if there is an affection for evil it is inwardly hard; and so on. With the angels of heaven the whole content of what they say is open all the way to the Lord. This is not only clearly perceived to be so but is audible from the softness of their speech, indeed from the particular nature of its softness. From this too what lies concealed inwardly in truths is known, whether it is the Lord or not. Truths which have the Lord within them are truths that have life, but truths which do not have the Lord within them are truths that have no life. Those which have life are truths of faith grounded in love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour. Those which have no life are not truths, because inwardly they have self-love and love of the world in them. In this way spirits or angels in the next life can be told apart, for each individual’s possession of truth is determined by the life he leads, that is, by that which reigns universally in him.
[2] The fact that those things are meant by ‘graven images’ in the Word is clear from places where they are mentioned, as in Jeremiah,
Every person has been made stupid by knowledge; every metal-caster has been filled with shame by his graven image, for his molded image is a lie; and there is no spirit in those things. Jer. 10:14; 51:17.
Because ‘a graven image’ means that which does not originate in the Lord but is a product of self-intelligence, the words ‘every person has been made stupid by knowledge’ and ‘every metal-caster has been filled with shame by his graven image’ are therefore used. And because what is hatched from self-intelligence does not have within it any spiritual life, which comes solely from the Lord, the words ‘and there is no spirit in those things’ are also therefore used.
[3] In Habakkuk,
What profit is a graven image since its image-maker has graven it, a molded image and a teacher of lies, since the image-maker trusts in the thing he himself has made, when he makes dumb gods? It has no breath in it.* Hab. 2:18-20.
Here ‘a graven image’ stands for what is hatched from self-intelligence and has no life at all from the Lord within it.
[4] In Jeremiah,
A drought on its waters, and they will dry up! For it is the land of graven images, and they glory in idols.** Therefore the ziim dwell with the iim, and the daughters of the owl dwell in it. Jer. 50:38, 39.
This refers to Chaldea and Babel. ‘A drought on its waters, and they will dry up’ stands for truths that have no life at all in them, ‘the ziim and the iim and the daughters of the owl dwell’ stands for evils and falsities, and so for things which inwardly belong to death This is why the words ‘the land of graven images’ are used.
[5] In Isaiah,
Makers of the graven image, all are vanity; and their most desirable things are profitless. And they are their own witnesses; they do not see, nor do they know. Isa. 44:9-11.
‘Makers of the graven image’ stands for those who hammer out teachings which are not products of truths from the Word but products of self-intelligence, in reference to which teachings the words ‘their most desirable things are profitless’ and ‘they do not see, nor do they know’ are used. Verses 12-16 of that chapter go on to refer to the art of conceiving ideas and of using reasonings to hatch them from self-intelligence – ideas which they wish to be recognized as Divine. Regarding these the following is said finally,
The rest of it he makes into a god, his graven image. He venerates it, bows down [to it]. And yet they do not know or understand; and their eyes do not see, so that their hearts do not understand. Isa. 44:17, 18.
‘They do not know, do not understand, and do not see’ stands for the absence of truths and forms of good within; for inwardly nothing that is the outcome of self-intelligence has either truths or forms of good in it, only falsities and evils, since it is the outcome of the person’s proprium. The fact that the proprium is fundamentally evil, see 210, 215, 694, 874-876, 987, 1023, 1044, 1047, 1581, 3812 (end), 4328, 5660, 5786, 8480.
[6] In the same prophet,
To whom will you liken God, and what image will you compare with Him? The craftsman casts a graven image, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts silver chains for it. Whoever is too impoverished to make this oblation*** chooses a piece of wood that will not rot; he seeks for himself a wise craftsman to make ready a graven image that is immovable. Isa. 40:18-20.
‘A graven image’ cast by a craftsman stands for false teachings that spring from the self, and ‘a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts silver chains for it’ stands for the fact that it uses reasonings to make the falsities in those teachings look like truths.
[7] In the same prophet,
I Jehovah have called You in righteousness, to open the blind eyes, to bring the bound out of prison, out of the dungeon-house those who sit in darkness. I am Jehovah, that is My name; and My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to graven images. Isa. 42:6-8.
These words refer to the Lord. They declare that He is Jehovah, that He is the Source of all wisdom, and that none at all springs from man. Their reference to the Lord is self-evident, as is the truth that He is Jehovah; for they declare that Jehovah has called Him in righteousness, and then ‘I am Jehovah, that is My name; and My glory I will not give to another’. The truth that He is the Source of all wisdom which has to do with life is meant when it says that He is to open the blind eyes, bring the bound out of prison, and out of the dungeon-house those who sit in darkness; and the truth that no wisdom at all springs from man is meant by ‘My praise I will not give to graven images’.
[8] Ideas belonging to self-intelligence are also meant by ‘graven images’ in the following places: In Isaiah,
And there came the chariot of a man (vir), a pair of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babel has fallen; and all the graven images he has broken to the earth. Isa. 21:9.
In the same prophet,
Then you will judge unclean the covering of the graven images of your silver, and the clothing of the molded image of your gold. You will throw them away like a menstruous rag; a piece of dung it will be called. Isa. 30:22.
In Jeremiah,
Why have they provoked Me to anger through their graven images, through foreigners’ idols?**** Jer. 8:19.
In Hosea,
[As] they have called themselves, so they have gone for the sake of themselves. They sacrifice to the baals, and burn incense to graven images. Hosea 11:2.
In Moses,
Cursed is the man who makes a graven or a molded image, an abomination to Jehovah, the work of a craftsman’s hands. Deut. 27:15.
* lit. No spirit is in the midst of it.
** lit. horrible things
*** lit. The destitute of the oblation
**** lit. Vanities
[2] How a resemblance of those things which are from God should be understood must be stated here, since they are the subject in the rest of the present verse and in the first part of the next. A resemblance of those things which are from God is produced when people speak God’s truths with their lips and also perform the kinds of deeds which have been commanded by God, and in so doing lead others to believe that they are governed by what is good and true, when yet at heart they think in a completely different way, and are intent only on what is bad. Such people are pretenders, hypocrites, and deceivers. These are the ones who produce a resemblance of those things which are from God. In the next life evil spirits produce a resemblance of those things which are from God; they present a likeness and appearance in externals, which inwardly have nothing at all of God in them. Pretenders, hypocrites, and deceivers in the next life learn to behave in this way, as in general do all who by frequent practice have become habituated to saying one thing while thinking another, and to doing one thing while being intent on another. People who engage in such presences wish to earn a reputation, some in order that they may seem to be good, and so may mislead other people, others in order that they may exercise dominion.
[3] Such things there are also misuses of correspondences. But the externals by means of which they have performed deeds that simulate acts of charity and faith are gradually removed from them, and then the internals, which are wicked and horrid, are laid bare. For as a result of this those people are led to act out their true nature which they acquired in the world, and no longer some presence or hypocrisy. When people like these realize that externals are to be taken away from them they say that if the externals were left with them they could mix with companions in the next life and seemingly perform good deeds just as well as when they had previously been in the world. But this is impossible. Their externals which are seemingly good would place them in contact in some way with heaven – that is to say, with those who are in the outskirts there and are simple, who correspond to skin in the Grand Man – while their internals would place them in contact with hell. And since the evil desires within predominate because they occupy the will, and the simulations of good deeds in externals serve to acquire dominion for the evil, it is contrary to Divine order to leave those people free to dissemble and act hypocritically as they did in the world. Therefore such things are taken away from them, and they are left to the evil itself present in the intentions of their will.
[2] Further description of these matters is contained in the following words in Moses,
… lest you make for yourselves a graven image in the form of any likeness, the figure of a male or a female, the figure of any beast which is on the earth, the figure of any winged bird which flies under heaven, the figure of any creeping thing on the earth, of a fish which is in the waters under the earth; and lest perhaps you lift your eyes to heaven and you look at the sun and moon and stars, all the host of heaven, and you are drawn away and bow down to them and serve them. Take care, lest you forget the covenant of Jehovah your God which He has made with you, and you make for yourselves a graven image of any figure. For Jehovah your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God. When you beget children and children’s children, and grow old in the land, and corrupt yourselves and make a graven image of any figure, I call heaven and earth today as witnesses against you, that you will altogether perish quickly from upon the land. Jehovah will scatter you among the peoples, where you will serve gods, the work of man ‘s hands – wood and stone. Deut. 4:16-19, 23-28.
[3] The chief reason why making a likeness of anything in the heavens or on the earth was so strictly forbidden was that this people descended from Jacob were most prone to worshipping external objects. The reason for that proneness was that they had no wish to know anything whatever about the internal aspects of the Church, which are those of faith and love to the Lord, and of charity towards the neighbour. If therefore they had been allowed to make likenesses of things they would have bowed down to them and worshipped them as gods. This is plainly evident from the golden calf which they made for themselves in the midst of so many miracles, and also from their frequent apostasy, when they forsook the worship of God for idolatrous worship. Nevertheless such actions by them are not meant in the internal sense but the things which have been explained above.
[2] From all this it is evident why ‘jealous’ means falsity and evil, and why ‘zeal’ means anger. See what has been shown already about them, that is to say, in the following places,
Wrath and anger are attributed to the Lord, when in fact they exist with those who are ruled by evil or who are full of anger against the Divine, 5798, 6997, 8284, 8483.
Evil things, punishments, and times of vastation are in a similar way attributed to the Lord, when in fact nothing except love and mercy reside with the Lord, 2447, 6071, 6559, 6991, 6997, 7533, 7632, 7643, 7679, 7710, 7877, 7926, 8214, 8223, 8226-8228, 8282, 8632.
Through their endeavour to destroy goodness and truth the evil bring about their own devastation and cast themselves into damnation and hell, 7643, 7679, 7710, 7926, 7989.
The way in which everyone sees the Lord is determined by what he is within himself, 1861 (end), 6832, 8197.
[3] The places in the Word which are quoted below will show that ‘the zeal of the Lord’ is love and mercy, and that when the Lord protects the good against the evil it seems like hostility, and also like anger.
The zeal of the Lord is love and mercy.
In Isaiah,
Look out from heaven, and see from the dwelling-place of Your holiness and of Your glory. And where are Your zeal and Your might? The yearning of Your loins,** and Your compassion,*** towards me have held themselves back. Isa. 63:15.
‘Zeal’ here stands for mercy, which is ‘a yearning of the loins’ and has reference to good. For where it says ‘Your zeal and Your might’ the word ‘zeal’ has reference to good, and the word ‘might’ to truth; and ‘the yearning of the loins’ likewise has reference to good, and ‘compassion’ to truth. In a like manner ‘the dwelling-place of holiness’ stands for the heaven where members of the celestial kingdom live, and ‘the dwelling-place of glory’ for the heaven where members of the spiritual kingdom live. From this too it is evident that where good is referred to in the Word, truth is referred to as well, on account of the heavenly marriage, which is the marriage of good and truth, in every individual part of the Word. This is so in the case of the Lord’s two names Jesus and Christ; they are a sign of the Divine marriage within the Lord. Regarding these matters, see 683, 793, 801, 2516, 4138 (end), 5138, 5502, 6343, 7945, 8339 (end).
[4] In the same prophet,
To us a Boy is born, to us a Son is given, and the government will be upon His shoulder; and His name is called’**** Wonderful, Counsellor, God, Hero, Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and of peace there will be no end. The zeal of Jehovah will do this. Isa. 9:6, 7.
This refers to the Lord and His Coming. ‘The zeal of Jehovah will do this’ stands for His acting from a love that burns to save the human race. In the same prophet,
Out of Jerusalem will go a remnant, and those who escape from Mount Zion. The zeal of Jehovah will do this. Isa. 37:32.
‘The zeal of Jehovah will do this’ stands for His acting out of love and mercy.
[5] In Ezekiel,
Thus said the Lord Jehovih, Now I will bring back the captives of Jacob, and have mercy on the whole house of Israel; and I will be jealous for My holy name.***** Ezek. 39:25.
‘Being jealous’ stands for having mercy. In David, The zeal of Your house has devoured me. Ps. 69:9.
This refers to the Lord. ‘The zeal of Jehovah’s house’ stands for love towards those who receive goodness and truth; for they are Jehovah’s house.
[6] The Lord’s zeal or mercy when He protects the good seems like hostility.
In Isaiah,
Jehovah will go forth as a mighty man, as a man of war He will arouse zeal; He will shout aloud and cry out, He will prevail over His enemies. Isa. 42:13.
And in Joel,
Jehovah will be jealous for His land, and spare His people. Joel 2:18.
[7] The Lord’s zeal is called anger and wrath because mercy is seen as such by the evil.
In Moses,
You shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the peoples who are round about you (for Jehovah your God in the midst of you is a jealous God), lest perhaps the anger of Jehovah your God flare up against you and destroy you from the face of the earth. Deut. 6:14, 15.
In the same author,
They provoked Him to jealousy through foreign [gods]; through abominations they made Him angry. They sacrifice to demons. They have moved Me to jealousy,****** by what is not god, they have provoked Me to anger with their idols.******* Deut. 32:16, 17, 21.
In Ezekiel,
When My anger is accomplished and I make My wrath rest on them, I will repent, so that they may know that I Jehovah have spoken in My zeal, when I have accomplished My wrath on them. Ezek. 5:13.
In Zechariah,
The angel of Jehovah [speaking] in me said to me, Cry out, saying, Thus said Jehovah Zebaoth, I have been jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with great zeal. For I have become extremely indignant against the nations that feel secure. Zech. 1:14, 15; 8:2.
In Zephaniah,
I will pour out onto them My indignation, all My fierce anger,******** for in the fire of My zeal the whole earth will be devoured. Zeph. 3:8.
In Moses,
Jehovah will not be pleased to pardon him; but then the anger of Jehovah, and His zeal, will smoke against that man, and every curse will rest on him Deut. 29:20.
In David,
How long, O Jehovah; will you be angry forever? Will your jealousy burn line fire? Pour out Your anger on the nations that do not know You. Ps. 79:5, 6.
Jehovah’s zeal is in like manner referred to as ‘anger’ in Ps. 38:1; Ezek. 16:42; 23:25; 38:19.
All this shows what is meant by ‘Jehovah’s zeal’ or ‘a jealous God’ – in the genuine sense love and mercy, but in the non-genuine sense, such as that understood by those immersed in evils and falsities, anger and ruination.
[8] It should be recognized that Jehovah, that is, the Lord, is called ‘jealous’ or ‘an avenger’ especially when what ought to reign universally with a member of the Church – that is to say, what is Divine and must be either loved, held in mind, or feared above all things – is being corrupted. When it has been corrupted or destroyed complete and utter darkness ensues in place of heavenly light; for that light no longer flows in from the Divine because there is no acceptance of it. This is why the commandment says, ‘I am Jehovah your God, a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the sons, on the third and on the fourth [generations] of those who hate Me’, which He would do if they worshipped other gods or made either a graven image or likenesses for themselves. For these corrupt what is Divine and ought to reign universally.
[9] Therefore similar declarations occur elsewhere in Moses,
Take care, lest you make for yourselves a graven image of any figure; for Jehovah your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God. Deut. 4:23, 24
And in the same author,
You shall not worship any other god; for Jehovah, whose name is Jealous, He is a jealous [God]. Exod. 34:14.
The reason why the Israelite nation was forbidden so strictly to do these things was that any adoration of other gods, graven images, and other images destroyed everything representative of the Church among them. For in heaven Jehovah, that is, the Lord, reigns universally; His Divine [Life] fills all things there and composes the life of all. If anything else had been worshipped instead of the Divine, everything representative, and so contact with heaven, would have perished.
* or jealousy. In Latin, as in Hebrew, the same noun may be rendered zeal or jealousy, and the same adjective may be rendered zealous or jealous.
**lit. The commotion of Your viscera
*** lit. compassions
**** lit. He has called His name
***** lit. the name of My holiness
****** lit. they have moved My jealousy (or zeal)
******* lit. vanities
******** lit all the wrath of My anger
Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy of the Spirit will not be forgiven people. If anyone speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but he who speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the one to come. Matt. 12:31, 32.
Also by these words in Luke,
When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person he passes through dry places seeking rest – and if he does not find any he says, I will return to my house out of which I came. And if when he comes he finds it swept and decorated, he goes away and brings seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter in and dwell there. And the last things of the person become worse than the first. Luke 11:24-26.
[3] By these words the Lord is describing the profanation of truth. ‘When the unclean spirit goes out’ is used to mean acknowledgement of and real belief in truth, ‘the house which has been swept’ to mean a life contrary to truths, and ‘his coming back with seven others’ to mean a state of profanation. These are the things which are meant by ‘taking God’s name in vain’. The fact that the person cannot be healed from such a condition and so receive forgiveness is also meant by the words following immediately after – ‘Jehovah will not render him innocent who takes His name in vain’ – which are used to mean that this thing cannot be forgiven. For more about what profanation is and with whom it exists, see 593, 1003, 1008, 1010, 1059, 1327, 1328, 2051, 2426, 3398, 3399, 3402, 3489, 6348, 6595, 6960, 6963, 6971, 8394
[4] ‘Taking God’s name in vain’ also means blasphemy, which takes place when fun is poked at those things which belong to the Word or to religious teachings and belief, thus which are holy, and they are dragged through the mud and thereby defiled, dealt with in 4050, 5390. But in respect of the Israelite nation, which did not acknowledge any good or truth of faith meant by ‘God’s name’, their use of Jehovah’s name, and also of the commandments and statutes they were commanded, in the worship of idols is meant by ‘taking God’s name in vain’. It was what they did in the wilderness when they worshipped the golden calf; they not only presented it burnt offerings and sacrifices, and ate of consecrated elements from them, but also called the day of that celebration ‘a feast to Jehovah’. This is recorded in Moses as follows,
Aaron made out of the gold a molded calf, and they said, These are your gods, O Israel. who caused you to come up out of the land of Egypt. When Aaron saw it he built an altar in front of it, and made a proclamation and said, Tomorrow there will be a feast to Jehovah. Therefore they rose up in the morning of the next day and presented burnt offerings and brought eucharistic offerings. Exod. 32:4-6.
Jehovah’s words at the time, concerning those who had taken the name of Jehovah God in vain by doing all this, make it clear that they could not be forgiven, meant by their not being rendered innocent. Those words spoken to Moses are,
Him who has sinned against Me I will blot out of My book. All the same, go, lead this people to the place of which I have spoken to you. But on the day of My visitation, I will visit them for their sin. Exod 32:33, 34.
‘Remember’ means what is perpetually in the thoughts. ‘The sabbath day’ in the highest sense means the union of the Lord’s Divine Itself and His Divine Human; in the internal sense it means the Divine Human joined to the heavens, and so means heaven and consequently the marriage of goodness and truth there. ‘To keep it holy’ means no violation in any way. ‘Six days you shall labour and do all your work’ means the conflict which comes before and is preparatory to that marriage. ‘And the seventh day is a sabbath to Jehovah your God’ means when good has been implanted, and so the marriage exists. ‘You shall not do any work – you, nor your son, nor your daughter; your male slave, nor your female slave, nor your beast, nor your sojourner who is within your gates’ means that at that time heaven and its blessedness are present in every single part of a person inwardly and outwardly. ‘For in six days Jehovah made heaven and earth, and the sea’ means regenerating and vivifying the things in the internal man and in the external. ‘And all that is in them’ means of all that are there. ‘And rested on the seventh day’ means that at that time peace and the good of love are present. ‘Therefore Jehovah blessed the seventh day’ means that at that time the heavenly marriage from the Lord exists. ‘And sanctified it’ means that in no way can it be violated.
[2] Within a person’s thoughts there are things which are there perpetually, that is, they reign universally there; these are his inmost things. From them the person regards others which are not perpetually there, that is, are not yet reigning universally, as being outside himself, and also as beneath himself and not as yet related to him. From these others he can at that time choose and link to himself ones which accord with the inmost; and when they have been linked to and at length combined with them, the inmost, that is, those reigning universally, are made stronger. This is done by means of new truths in the case of those who are good, and by means of new falsities, or by wrong application of truths, in the case of those who are bad.
[3] It should be recognized in addition that that which reigns universally is whatever has been instilled into the actual will, which is the inmost part of a person because it has been formed from his love. For whatever a person loves, that is what he wills; and what he loves above all he wills in his inmost being. The understanding however serves to make plain to others the things a person wills, that is, loves. But also it serves to bend other people’s wills; the person uses ideas formulated in various ways to make their wills comply with his own. When this happens love or affection also passes from the will into ideas in the understanding, and by means of a kind of inspiration breathes life and movement into them.
[4] In the case of people who are good those ideas in the understanding make one with affections belonging to the will. But in the case of people who are bad it is different. With them thought and will inmostly do indeed accord with each other; for the evil desired by the will occupies the understanding in the form of falsity according with that evil. But this agreement is not evident to people in the world; for they learn from earliest childhood to speak other than they think, and to do other than they will. In short they learn to separate their inner man from their outer man, to develop in the latter a will and also thought other than what is in the inner man, and so by means of their outer man to feign good that is altogether out of keeping with their inner man, which in the same instant desires evil and also imperceptibly is thinking it. But what the inner will and thought are like is evident in the next life, as in broad daylight; for there externals are taken away and internals are laid bare.
Six days you shall labour and do all your work; and the seventh day is a sabbath to Jehovah your God. You shall not do any work – you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days Jehovah made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore Jehovah blessed the sabbath day, and sanctified it.
From these words it is clear that ‘keeping the sabbath holy’ means not violating it in any way. But the internal sense of the commandment is that the realities meant by the sabbath must not be violated in any way, those realities being the union of the Lord’s Divine Essence with His Human Essence, also the union of His Human with the heavens, and the consequent joining together in them of goodness and truth, 8886. For if these realities are violated by anyone, spiritual life is ruined with that person. It becomes life on the natural level alone and after this on that of the senses, when falsity is seized on instead of truth, and evil instead of good, since these now reign universally with that person.
[2] Furthermore by the conflict which comes before and is preparatory to the heavenly marriage one should understand spiritual conflict or temptation. For before a person enters into the heavenly marriage, that is, before being regenerated, he is involved in conflict with the evils and falsities residing with him; these have to be removed before truth and good from the Lord can be received. They are removed – those evils and falsities – by means of the truths of faith; for a person not only learns through those truths what good is, but is also led to good by means of them. This state is the first that a person who is being regenerated passes through; and it is called the state which comes before and is preparatory to the heavenly marriage. But when the person is governed by good and is led by the Lord by means of good, he has entered into the heavenly marriage, and so is in heaven since the heavenly marriage is heaven. The first state is what is meant by the six days that come before the seventh, the second is what is meant by the seventh day. Regarding these two states with a person, see 7923, 8505, 8506, 8510, 8512, 8516, 8539, 8643, 8648, 8658, 8685, 8690, 8701, 8722.
[3] Since the heavenly marriage, which is heaven, is meant by ‘the sabbath’, the Lord’s kingdom in the heavens is called an everlasting sabbath, that is, everlasting rest and peace; and there the six days of labour are no more.
[2] The present verse deals with the sanctifying of the seventh day or institution of the sabbath, describing it as follows,
In six days Jehovah made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore Jehovah blessed the sabbath day, and sanctified it.
When people’s thinking does not extend beyond the sense of the letter they cannot do other than suppose that the creation described in the first and second chapters of Genesis is the creation of the universe, and that there were six days within which heaven, earth, the sea, and all that is in them were created, and at length the human being in God’s likeness. Yet is there anyone pondering on the details who fails to see that the creation of the universe is not what is meant there? For there are things in those chapters which common sense tells anyone are not literally true, for example, that days existed before the sun and moon, that light and darkness did so, and that plants and trees sprang up, when in fact it is through those [great] lights that light is given, light and darkness are divided, and so days come into being.
[3] Further on after these details, others of a similar nature follow which scarcely anyone who thinks more deeply will consider to have been literally possible, such as these: The woman was built out of the man’s rib; two trees were placed in paradise, the fruit of one of which they were forbidden to eat; a serpent spoke from one of them to the wife of man (homo), who had been the wisest of mortal beings; what it said – what came out of the serpent’s mouth – deceived them both; and the whole human race, numbering so very many thousands of thousands, was therefore condemned to hell. As soon as they are contemplated these and similar details there inevitably seem nonsensical to those who entertain any doubt about the holiness of the Word; and they lead to a denial of the Divine there. However it should be realized that every detail there down to the smallest is Divine; they all contain arcana which are clearly visible to angels in heaven, as in broad daylight. The reason why this should be so is that angels do not see the literal meaning of the Word but what lies within it, that is, spiritual and celestial realities, and Divine ones within these. When the first chapter of Genesis is read they perceive no other creation than the new creation of a human being, which is called regeneration. This is what is described there, ‘paradise’ being the wisdom of a person created anew. ‘The two trees in the middle of it’ are the two mental powers of that person, which are a will desiring good, meant by ‘the tree of life’, and an understanding seeing truth, meant by ‘the tree of knowledge’. And the reason why they were forbidden to eat from this tree was that a person who has been regenerated or created anew ought no longer to be led by an understanding that sees truth but by a will desiring good, or else his newness of life is destroyed. Regarding these matters, see 202, 337, 2454, 2715, 3246, 3652, 4448, 5895 (end), 5897 (end), 7877, 7923, 7992, 8505, 8506, 8510, 8512, 8516, 8539, 8643, 8648, 8658, 8690, 8701, 8722. Consequently Adam or Man and Eve his wife there are used to mean a new Church, and ‘eating from the tree of knowledge’ to mean the decline of that Church from good into truth, consequently from love to the Lord and towards the neighbour into faith without such love. And this came about through reasoning arising from self-intelligence, that reasoning being meant by ‘the serpent’, see 195-197, 6398, 6399, 6949, 7293.
[4] From all this it is evident that the historical narratives regarding creation, and regarding the first human being and paradise, are the descriptions of fictitious historical events, containing heavenly and Divine realities within them. Making up such stories was in keeping with the accepted custom in the ancient Churches; and the custom also spread from them to many outside the Church, who in a similar way produced descriptions of fictitious historical events, wrapping up arcana within them, as is evident from writers belonging to most ancient times. For the ancient Churches were well acquainted with what such things as exist in the world meant in heaven. Nor were great exploits of sufficient importance for them to write about, only the things of heaven. Things of heaven occupied their minds because they thought on a more internal level than people do at the present day and so were in contact with angels; and for this reason they gained a delight out of putting together such stories. But they were led by the Lord to images which would be held sacred in Churches. Out of these they composed stories in which everything had a correspondence
[5] All this shows what ‘heaven and earth’ is used to mean in the first verse of the first chapter of Genesis – the internal Church and the external Church. The fact that they are meant by ‘heaven and earth’ is also clear from places in the Prophets which speak of a new heaven and a new earth, by which a new Church is to be understood, see 82, 1411, 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118 (end), 3355 (end), 4535.
From all this it is now evident that ‘in six days Jehovah made heaven and earth, and the sea’ means regenerating and vivifying the things in the internal man and in the external man.
‘Honour your father and your mother’ means love for goodness and truth, in the highest sense for the Lord and His kingdom. ‘In order that your days may be prolonged on the land’ means the resulting state of life in heaven. ‘Which Jehovah your God gives you’ means where the Divine is, and influx from Him.
[2] Since these commandments were declared not only for those in the world but also for those in heaven they could not be understood in the same way in both places. That was so with this commandment that they should honour father and mother, in order that their days might be prolonged on the land that Jehovah God would give them. For in heaven parents and children do not come together as on earth; therefore the Lord is in place of ‘father’ there, and His kingdom in place of ‘mother’. Nor can it be said of those in heaven that their days would be prolonged, since they live there forever. Neither can ‘land’ there be taken to mean the land of Canaan, as it is in this commandment, but the heavenly Canaan instead which is heaven. Since ‘father and mother’ means the Lord and His kingdom this commandment is fourth in order, surpassing in holiness those that come after it. The commandment regarding the worship of Jehovah, that is, the Lord, is the first and second, because it is the holiest. After it comes the commandment regarding the sabbath, because in the highest sense the union within the Lord of the Divine Itself and the Divine Human is meant by it. Then follows the commandment about honouring parents, because love of the Lord is meant by it, and consequently the love of goodness and truth that come from the Lord. Since these things are meant by this commandment, treating parents with contempt is listed among the crimes meant by ‘shedding blood’, Ezek. 22:6, 7; and disobedient and stubborn sons were to be stoned, Deut. 21:18-21.
* In the Latin an alternative numbering of verses is used from here to the end of the chapter.
You have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgement. But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without cause will be liable to judgement. Whoever indeed says to his brother, Raca! will be liable to the Sanhedrin. And whoever says, You fool! will be liable to the Gehenna of fire. Matt 5:21, 22ff.
Hatred towards the neighbour is meant by ‘being angry without cause with his brother’, and degrees of greater hatred are described by saying to him, Raca! and calling him, You fool’ Regarding ‘anger’, that it is a turning away from charity and springs from evil, thus that it is hatred, see 357, 4164, 5034, 5798, 5887, 5888.
[2] The fact that ‘killing’ in the internal sense means taking the spiritual life away from anyone, consequently destroying faith and charity, is clear from almost all the places in the Word that mention ‘killing’, such as in Isaiah,
Behold, the day of Jehovah comes, cruel, and [full] of indignation and wrath and anger, to make the earth a waste, so that* He may destroy its sinners from it. At that time the stars of heaven and their constellations will not shine with their light. The sun will be darkened in its rising, and the moon will not cause its light to shine. I will visit the world for its malice, and the wicked for their iniquity I will make man (homo) more rare than pure gold, and the son of man than the gold of Ophir. Everyone that is found will be slain, and everyone that is gathered will fall by the sword. Their young children will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses will be plundered, and their wives will be ravished. Bows** will dash the young men to pieces; the eye** will not spare sons. Isa. 13:9ff.
This refers to the final period of the Church, when faith and charity do not exist any longer; that period is meant by ‘the day of Jehovah, cruel, full of indignation, wrath, and anger’. Anyone may see that something other is meant here than that which the words describe literally; yet what is meant cannot be known except from the meanings which the words carry in the spiritual sense. In the spiritual sense ‘the earth’ or ‘the land’ is the Church, see 566, 662, 1067, 1262, 1413, 1607, 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118 (end), 2928, 3355, 4447, 4535, 5577, 8011, 8732, so that ‘making the earth a waste, and destroying sinners from it’ means the members of the Church at that time, devoid of faith and charity.
[3] ‘Stars and constellations’ are cognitions or knowledge of truth and good, see 2120, 2495, 2849, 4697. These are said ‘not to shine with their light’ when they are no longer lit by the light of heaven which flows in through faith accompanying charity. ‘The sun’ is love to the Lord, and ‘the moon’ belief in Him, 2120, 2441, 2495, 3636, 3643, 4060, 4321 (end), 4696, 5097, 5377, 7078, 7083, 7171, 7173, 8644, 8812, so that ‘the sun being darkened in its rising’ means that love to the Lord cannot come to exist with a person and ‘the moon not causing its light to shine’ means that charity and faith cannot do so, thus that the person can no longer be regenerated.
[4] ‘Making man more rare than pure gold, and the son of man than the gold of Ophir’ means that good will not be seen any longer, and neither will truth; for ‘man’ means the Church’s good, 4287, 8547, and ‘the son of man’ truth springing from good, in the highest sense Divine Truth emanating from the Lord, 1729, 1733, 2813, 3704. ‘Everyone that is found will be slain’ means that all are going to be destroyed because of the evil of falsity, and ‘everyone that is gathered will fall by the sword’ means that all are going to be destroyed because of falsity. For the meaning of ‘being slain’ as being destroyed because of the evil of falsity, 4503; and for ‘falling by the sword’ as being destroyed because of falsity, 2799, 4499, 7102, 8294.
[5] ‘Young children being dashed to pieces’ means that they will completely annihilate innocence, for ‘young children’ are innocence, 430, 2126, 3183, 3494, 5608. ‘Wives will be ravished’ means that forms of the good of truth will be perverted by evils of falsity; for ‘wives’ are forms of the good of truth, 2517, 4510, 4823, 7022, and ‘being ravished’ is being perverted, 2466, 4865. ‘Bows will dash the young men to pieces’ means that the truths of good are going to be destroyed by false teachings arising from evil; for ‘a bow’ is teachings that are true, and in the contrary sense those that are false, 2686, 6422, 8800, and ‘young men’ are truths that have been corroborated, 7668. ‘The eye will not spare sons’ means that those who have an understanding of truths will nevertheless annihilate them; for ‘sons’ are truths, 489, 491, 533, 1147, 2803, 2813, 3373, 4257, 5542, and eye is the understanding seeing truth, 2701, 4403-4421, 4523-4534.
All this now makes plain what should be understood by the prophet’s words, namely that when the Church reaches its end all faith and all charity, that is, all truth and all good, are going to be destroyed. It is also evident that ‘being thrust through’ and ‘being dashed to pieces’, in short ‘being killed’, is the annihilation of faith and charity.
[6] In Jeremiah,
Drag them away like sheep for the slaughter, and destine them to the day of killing. How long will the land mourn and the plant of every field wither, on account of the wickedness of those who dwell in it? The beasts and the birds will be devoured. Jer. 12:3, 4.
‘The day of killing’ stands for the time when the Church has been laid waste, which is its final period when faith no longer exists because there is no charity. ‘The land will mourn’ stands for the Church; ‘the plant of every field will wither’ stands for the withering of every truth of the Church; and ‘the beasts and the birds will be devoured’ stands for the devourment of forms of good and truths. For the meaning of ‘the land’ as the Church, see just above; for ‘the plant of the field’ as the truth of the Church, 7571, ‘the field’ being the Church, 2971, 3310, 3766; for ‘the beasts’ as forms of good, and affections for good, 45, 46, 142, 143, 246, 714, 715, 719, 1823, 2179, 2180, 3218, 3519, 5198; and for ‘the birds’ as truths, and affections for truth, 5149, 7441. From all this one may see what the internal sense of those words is. One may also see that some spiritual and holy feature of the Church and of heaven is present in every detail, and that without the internal sense no one would have any understanding at all of what ‘the day of killing’ means, what ‘the land will mourn’ means, or ‘the plant of every field will wither’, or ‘the beasts and the birds will at that time be devoured’.
[7] In Zechariah,
Thus said Jehovah my*** God, Feed the sheep for killing, whose owners kill them and do not acknowledge themselves guilty. Zech. 11:4, 5.
‘The sheep for killing’ are those who are governed by simple good, with whom the truths of faith are annihilated not through their own fault but that of their teachers.
[8] In Isaiah,
Those who are to come Jacob will cause to take root Israel will blossom and flower, so that the face of the earth (orbis) may be filled with produce. Has he struck him as with the stroke of one who strikes? Has he been killed as at the slaughter of his killed ones? Isa 27:6, 7.
Behold, Jehovah is coming out of His place to visit the iniquity of the earth; at that time the earth (terra) will disclose her blood,**** and will not conceal her killed ones. Isa. 26:21.
This too refers in the internal sense to the final period of the Church, when a new Church will be raised up as the old is passing out of existence. ‘Jacob’ stands for those in the external part of the Church, ‘Israel’ for those in the internal part. ‘The face of the earth’ (orbis) stands for the Church in general, ‘the earth’ (terra) for the old Church, ‘the killed ones’ for those with whom there is no faith because there is no charity.
[9] In the same prophet,
You are cast out from your sepulchre like an abominable branch, [like] a garment of the killed, [like] those slain with the sword. You will not be united with them in the sepulchre, for you have destroyed your land, you have killed your people. Isa, 14:19, 20.
‘The killed’ stands for those who have been deprived of spiritual life, ‘you have killed your people’ stands for the destruction of the truths and forms of the good of faith. This is said in reference to Babel, by which the profanation of good is meant, 1182, 1283, 1295, 1306-1308, 1321, 1322, 1326, and also its being laid waste, 1327 (end).
[10] In Jeremiah,
I have heard the voice of the daughter of Zion; she sighs, she spreads out her hands, [saying,] Woe is me now, for my soul has been wearied by killers! Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem and see now, and take note, and search in its broad places, if you can find a man, if there is anyone executing judgement and seeking truth. Jer. 4:31; 5:1.
‘The daughter of Zion’ stands for the celestial Church, ‘killers’ for those who destroy forms of good and truths, ‘a man’ and ‘anyone executing judgement’ for those guided by truths rooted in good.
[11] In Ezekiel,
You have desecrated Me among My people for handfuls of barley and for crusts of bread, to kill souls that ought not to die, and to keep alive souls that ought not to live. Ezek. 13:19.
Here ‘killing souls’ plainly stands for taking spiritual life away. Because ‘killing’ had this meaning also, the actions that were cursed on Mount Ebal included killing a companion secretly and taking a bribe to kill an innocent person,***** Deut 27:24, 25.
[12] In Matthew,
At the close of the age they will deliver you up to affliction, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. Matt 24:9.
And in John,
Jesus said to the disciples, The hour will come that everyone who kills you will think that he offers holy worship to God. And these things they will do because they do not know the Father nor Me. John 16:2, 3.
In these places also ‘killing’ means depriving of spiritual life, that is, of faith and charity; for all aspects of the truth and good of faith and charity are meant by ‘the disciples’, 3488, 3858 (end), 6397. The fact that it is not the disciples to whom the Lord was speaking who are meant there is evident from the consideration that in those places the subject is the close of the age, when the Lord is going to come in the clouds of heaven. And the close of the age which the disciples asked Him about means the final period of the Church, at which time the disciples would not be alive, see 3488.
[13] Similarly in Mark,
Brother will deliver up brother to death, and the father his children; the children will rise up against parents and kill them. Mark 13:12.
This too refers to the last times, and again ‘killing’ means depriving of the truths and forms of the good of faith and charity, thus depriving of spiritual life.
[14] In Luke,
I will send them prophets and apostles, but some of them they will kill and persecute. From the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah the prophet it will be required of this generation. Luke 11:49, 51.
‘Prophets and apostles’ stands in the spiritual sense for the Church’s truths and forms of good, ‘killing’ for annihilating them, and ‘the blood of Abel’ for the annihilation of charity. For the meaning of ‘prophets’ as truths contained in teachings derived from the Word, see 2534, 7269; and for ‘the blood of Abel’ as the annihilation of charity, 374.
[15] Similarly in John,
The blood of saints and prophets, and of the killed, was found in Babylon. Rev 18:24.
Here also ‘the blood of saints and prophets’ stands for the annihilation of the good and truth of faith and charity, ‘the killed’ for those who have lost their spiritual life – ‘blood’ being violence done to charity, as well as all evil in general, 374, 1005, and the profanation of truth in particular, 4735, 6978, 7317, 7326.
[16] Since the annihilation of goodness and truth is meant by one who has been ‘killed’ or ‘slain’, and since all that had been established in the Jewish Church was representative of spiritual and celestial realities in the Lord’s kingdom, and in the highest sense of Divine attributes in the Lord, the following procedure to expiate the people was commanded if someone was found slain, lying in the field,
They were to measure the distances to the cities from the one slain, lying in the field. Then the elders of the nearest city were to take a heifer by means of which no work had been done, and on which the yoke had not yet been laid, and to bring it down to a fast-flowing river. The priests, the sons of Levi, were to break its neck there, and then the elders of the city were to wash their hands over the heifer and to say that their hands had not shed that blood, nor had their eyes seen it, and that in this way the blood would be expiated. Deut. 21:1-8.
Could anyone ever know why such a procedure was established on account of someone who had been slain and was lying in the field, unless it were known from the internal sense what is meant by ‘one slain, in the field’, by ‘the nearest city’, by ‘a heifer’, by ‘a fast-flowing river’, by ‘washing the hands’, and by everything else in the procedure? ‘One slain, in the field’ means truth and good that have been annihilated, 4503, ‘the field’ being the Church, 2971, 3310, 3766 ‘The city’ means teachings composed of truth, 402, 2449, 2943, 3216, 4492, 4493, ‘the elders of the city’ meaning truths that accord with what is good, 6524, 6525, 8578, 8585. ‘A heifer on which the yoke had not yet been laid’ means truth that has not yet been corroborated – for what ‘a heifer’ means, see 1824, 1825. ‘Washing the hands over the heifer at a fast-flowing river’ means purification from that evil because the commission of it has been due to the excessive zeal of one who does not know what the truth is.
[17] From these as from all other places one may see what the arcana are, and how great they are, which every part of the Word contains. They will not, it is true, be seen as arcana by a person if he believes that the literal sense is all there is to the Word, and so believes that nothing holier or more heavenly lies inwardly in it. However, the literal sense is for a person in the world, that is, for the natural man, whereas the internal sense is for one in heaven, that is, for the spiritual man. From this one may see what the commandment about not killing holds within it, namely not only that a person’s body must not be killed but that his soul must not be killed either, thus not only that he must not be deprived of life in the world but in particular that he must not be deprived of life in heaven. If that commandment had not at the same time held the latter prohibition within it, ]Jehovah Himself, that is, the Lord, would not have declared it on Mount Sinai in so miraculous a way by an actual voice. For all peoples and nations without direct revelation know, and also their laws decree that a person must not be killed, even as they know that adultery, theft, and false witness are forbidden. Nor should anyone think that the Israelite nation were so stupid that they alone did not know what all throughout the world knew. But because the Word that has been revealed comes from God Himself, it in addition conceals deeper and more universal truths within itself, namely the kind that have to do with heaven; that is, it holds not only truths which concern the life of the body but also those that concern the life of the soul or eternal life. This makes the Word different, far removed from and superior to anything else that has been written.
* Reading ut (so that) for et (and)
** i.e. of the Medes
*** The Latin means your but the Hebrew means my, which Sw. has in another place where he quotes this verse.
**** lit. bloods
***** lit. to kill the soul of innocent blood
[2] Since people nowadays are ignorant of such matters they cannot know what else ‘committing adultery’ means beyond unlawful bodily coupling. Because people nowadays are ignorant of these matters, as has been said, let the reason be stated here why ‘committing adultery’ in the spiritual sense means perverting what belongs to teachings about faith and charity, that is, adulterating forms of good and falsifying truths. That reason, which is deeply hidden at the present day, is that conjugial love descends from the marriage of goodness and truth, called the heavenly marriage. The love existing between goodness and truth in heaven flows in from the Lord and changes into conjugial love on earth; and this happens through correspondence. This explains why the falsification of truth is meant by ‘whoredom’ in the internal sense, and the perversion of good by ‘adultery’. It also explains why those who are not governed by the goodness and truth of faith cannot have genuine conjugial love within them, and why those who experience the delight of life in adulterous relationships can no longer receive anything of faith. I have heard it said by angels that as soon as anyone commits adultery on earth and takes delight in doing so, heaven is closed to him, that is, he refuses to receive any longer from there anything of faith or charity. The reason why at the present day in countries where the Church exists very many people make light of adulterous relationships is that the Church is at its end, and so there is no longer any faith because there is no charity; for the one corresponds to the other. Where no faith exists there is falsity instead of truth and evil instead of good; and from this flows attitudes in which adultery is no longer considered to be an offence. For when heaven has been closed with a person such attitudes flow in from hell. See what has been stated and shown previously on these matters in 2727-2759, 4434, 4835, 4837.
[3] The meaning of ‘committing adultery’ in the internal or spiritual sense as falsifying and perverting the truths and forms of the good of faith and charity, and therefore also lending support to falsity and evil by using statements in the Word wrongly, becomes clear from individual places in the Word in which ‘committing adultery’ and ‘committing whoredom’ are mentioned. That meaning will be plainly evident from places quoted below, as in Ezekiel,
Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations. You committed whoredom because of your renown, and poured out your acts of whoredom on every passer-by. You took some of your garments and made for yourself high places variously coloured, and on them committed whoredom. For your adornment you took vessels made of My gold and of My silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself figures of the male; you committed whoredom with them. You took your sons and your daughters, whom you had borne to Me, and sacrificed them to them. Were your acts of whoredom a small matter? You committed whoredom with the sons of Egypt, your neighbours, great in flesh, and multiplied your whoredom to provoke Me to anger. And you committed whoredom with the sons of Asshur, since you were insatiable; with them you indeed committed whoredom and were not satisfied. And you multiplied your whoredom, even as far as the trading land of Chaldea; and yet you were not satisfied with this. An adulterous woman – though subject to her husband, she takes strangers. To all harlots [men] make payments; but you have made payments to all your lovers, and have bribed them to come to you from all around for your whorings. Therefore, O harlot, hear the word of Jehovah. I will judge you with the judgements of adulteresses and of shedders of blood. Ezek. 16:1ff.
[4] Is there anyone who cannot see that falsifications of truth and adulterations of good are meant here by ‘acts of whoredom’? And is there anyone who can understand a single word here unless he knows that such things are meant by ‘whoredom’, and also unless he knows what is meant by ‘the sons of Egypt’, ‘the sons of Asshur’, and ‘Chaldea’, with whom Jerusalem is said to have committed whoredom? Jerusalem, it is obvious, did not literally commit whoredom with those actual peoples; therefore what the things in this passage mean in the internal sense must be stated. ‘Jerusalem’ is used to mean the perverted Church, ‘its garments’ here being truths that are perverted; and therefore falsities that are accepted are meant by ‘high places variously coloured’. ‘The sons of Egypt’ are factual knowledge, ‘the sons of Asshur’ are reasoning, and ‘Chaldea’ is the profanation of truth. For truths are meant by ‘garments’, see 1073, 2576, 4545, 4763, 5248, 5319, 5954, 6914, 6918; and worship is meant by ‘high places’, so that the worship of falsity is meant here by ‘high places variously coloured’, 796. ‘Vessels for adornment. made out of gold and silver’ are cognitions or knowledge of good and truth – ‘vessels’ being cognitions, 3068, 3079; ‘gold’ being good, 113, 1551, 1552, 5658, 6914, 6917; and ‘silver’ the truth of good, 1551, 2048, 2954, 5658 ‘figures of the male’ means appearances and likenesses of truth, 2046; ‘the sons and daughters whom they had borne’ are the truths and forms of good which they perverted, ‘sons’ being truths, 489, 491, 533, 1147, 2623, 2803, 2813, 3373, and ‘daughters’ forms of good, 489, 2362, 3024. ‘The sons of Egypt’ are factual knowledge, by means of which the perversion is brought about, 1164, 1165, 1186, 1462, 2588 (end), 4749, 4964, 4967, 5700, 5702, 6004, 6015, 6125, 6651, 6679, 6683, 6692, 6750, 7296, 7779, 7926; ‘Asshur’ is reasoning, which by means of factual knowledge has brought about the perversion of the truths of faith and the adulteration of forms of the good of faith, 119, 1186. ‘Multiplying whoredom even as far as the land of Chaldea’ is even to the profanation of truth, ‘Chaldea’ being the profanation of truth, 1368. From all this it is evident why the expressions ‘adulterous woman’ and ‘harlot’ are used.
[5] Something similar is said about ‘Babylon’, in the Book of Revelation,
One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke to me, saying to me, Come, I will show you the judgement of the great harlot who is seated on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed whoredom, and with the wine of whose whoredom the inhabitants of the earth have become drunk. Babylon the great was the mother of whores and of the abominations of the earth. Rev. 17:1, 2, 5; 14:8; 18:3.
‘Babylon’ is those who pervert the Church’s truths and forms of good for the sake of their own dominion and gain, perverting them to the point of profanation, as is clear from the meaning of ‘Babel’ in 1182, 1283, 1295, 1304, 1306-1308, 1321, 1322, 1326, 1327 (end). This explains why Babylon is called ‘a harlot’ and ‘the mother of whores’. People who know nothing about the internal sense will think that ‘the kings of the earth who have committed whoredom with her’ means kings on earth or kingdoms. Neither kings nor kingdoms are meant however, but the Church’s truths of faith; and ‘to commit whoredom’ with these is to pervert them. For the meaning of ‘kings’ as the truths of faith, see 1672, 2015, 2069, 3009, 4575, 4581, 4966, 5044, 6148; and ‘the earth’ as the Church, 566, 662, 1067, 1262, 1413, 1607, 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118 (end), 2928, 3355, 4447, 4535, 5577, 8011, 8732. ‘The inhabitants of the earth have become drunk with the wine of whoredom’ means that those within the Church have been carried away into errors and insane ideas by falsities arising from evil. For ‘being made drunk’ is being led into errors by false reasonings and wrong interpretations of the Word, 1072, and ‘wine’ is falsity arising from evil, 6377, so that ‘the wine of whoredom’ is falsity resulting from the perversion of truth; and ‘the earth’, as shown just above, is the Church. She is said ‘to be seated on many waters’ because she rests on falsities; for ‘waters’ in the genuine sense are truths, and in the contrary sense falsities, 729, 790, 8137, 8138, 8568.
[6] The fact that ‘committing adultery’ and ‘committing whoredom’ mean perverting the Church’s forms of good and its truths is also quite clear from the following words elsewhere in Ezekiel,
Two women, the daughters of one mother, committed whoredom in Egypt. In their youth they committed whoredom. Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem. Oholah committed whoredom under Me and doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbours – clothed in purple, governors and leaders, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding on horses. She bestowed her acts of whoredom on them, the choicest of all the sons of Asshur. But her acts of whoredom brought from Egypt she did not give up, for they kind lab’ with her in her youth. Oholibah corrupted her love more than she, and her acts of whoredom more than her sister ‘s acts of whoredom; she desired the sons of Asshur. She added to her acts of whoredom, when she saw men portrayed on the wall, images of the Chaldeans, painted in vermilion. As soon as her eyes saw them she desired them. The sons of Babel came also to her, into her love-bed; they defiled her through their whoredom. Yet she multiplied her acts of whoredom when she remembered the days of her youth, in which she committed whoredom in the land of Egypt. She desired them more than their concubines did. Ezek. 23:1ff.
Here also no one can fail to see that ‘acts of whoredom’ is used to mean spiritual acts of whoredom, that is, perversions of the good and falsifications of the truth which the Church possesses, and also that what the internal sense contains does not become evident unless one knows what is meant by ‘the sons of Egypt’, ‘the Assyrians’ or ‘sons of Asshur’, ‘Chaldea’, and ‘Babel’. Those nations are plainly not the meaning but such things as belong to falsity; for the inhabitants of Samaria and Jerusalem did not literally commit whoredom with them. But what ‘Egypt’, ‘Asshur’, ‘Chaldea’, and ‘Babel’ mean has been shown and may be seen just above.
[7] From the following passages also it is clear that ‘whoredoms’ and ‘adulteries’ in the internal sense are falsifications and perversions of goodness and truth, thus adulterations of them, as in Hosea,
Contend with your mother, contend, since she is not My wife, and I am not her husband, in order that she may remove her whoredoms from her sight,** and her adulteries from between her breasts. I will not have mercy on her children, for they are children of whoredoms, because their mother committed whoredom saying, I will go after my lovers giving [me] my bread, and my water, and my wool, and my flax, my oil, and my drink. But I will lay waste her vine and her fig tree, about which she has said, These are my harlot’s reward that my lovers have given me. Hosea 2:2-12
‘Mother’ in the internal sense here means the Church, 289, 2691, 2717, 4257, 5581, 8897, and so does ‘wife’, 252, 253, 409, 749, 770; but she is said ‘not to be a wife’ because she is steeped in perverted truths, that is, in falsities. ‘Children’ or ‘sons’ are the Church’s truths, in this instance falsities since they are called ‘children of whoredoms’, 489, 491, 533, 2623, 2803, 2813, 3373, 3704, 4257. What ‘bread’, ‘water’, ‘wool’, and ‘flax’ mean, also ‘oil’ and ‘drink’, and ‘vine’ and ‘fig tree’ too, has been shown in their own places. In these it has been shown that they are forms of the good of love and charity, and also forms of the good and the truths of faith, interior and exterior; but that in the contrary sense they are evils and falsities, since forms of good become evils and truths become falsities when they are perverted. What ‘bread’ means, see 276, 680, 2165, 2177, 3464, 3478, 3735, 3813, 4217, 4735, 4976, 5915, 6118, 8410; ‘water’, 739, 790, 8137, 8138, 8568; ‘flax’ 7601; ‘oil’, 886, 3728, 4582; ‘drink’, 3069, 3168, 3772, 8562; ‘vine’, 1069, 5113, 6376; and ‘fig tree’, 4231, 5113. ‘Harlot’s reward’ is falsity contained in religious teachings which they try to palm off as truth.
[8] In the same prophet,
My people inquire of a piece of wood, and their rod gives them a reply, for the spirit of whoredom has led them astray, and they have committed whoredom beneath their god. They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains and burn incense on the hills, therefore your daughters commit whoredom and your daughters-in-law commit adultery. Shall I not punish*** your daughters because they commit whoredom and your daughters-in-law because they commit adultery? For the men themselves divide with whores and sacrifice with cult-prostitutes. If you commit whoredom, O Israel, do not let Judah become guilty. Hosea 4:11 ff.
‘Committing whoredom beneath their god’ stands for perverting truth; for ‘god’ in the internal sense means truth and in the contrary sense falsity, 2586, 2769, 2807, 2822, 4295, 4402, 4544, 7010, 7268, 7873, 8301, 8867. ‘Mountains’ and ‘hills’ are types of love, at this point self-love and love of the world, 795, 796, 1691, 2722, 6435; ‘a piece of wood’ which is ‘inquired of’ is the good associated with the delight belonging to some desire or other, 643; and ‘a rod which gives a reply’ is the illusory power that one’s own understanding seems to provide, 4013, 4015, 4876, 4936, 7011, 7026. Since truths are meant in the genuine sense by ‘gods’ and falsities in the contrary sense falsifying truths and adulterating forms of good is meant by they went whoring after foreign gods – after baal, after Molech, after idols, Lev. 20:5; Ezek. 6:9; and elsewhere.
[9] From all this one may now recognize what is meant by ‘adultery’ and ‘whoredom’ in the following places: In Isaiah,
Draw nearer, sons of the sorceress, seed of the adulterer, and [of her who] committed whoredom. Whom are you mocking?**** Against whom do you open your mouth wide and stick out your tongue? Are you not those born of transgression, the seed of deceit, who inflamed yourselves among the gods under every green tree? Isa. 57:3-5.
In the same prophet,
It will happen at the end of seventy years, that Jehovah will visit Tyre, so that she may return to her harlot ‘s reward and may commit whoredom with all the kingdoms of the earth on the face of the world. Isa. 23:17, 18.
In Jeremiah,
And a man has put away his wife, and she has gone from him and become another man’s .., .. you***** have committed whoredom with many partners. You have profaned the land with your nets of whoredom and with your wickedness. Have you not seen what estranged Israel has done? Going up onto every high mountain and under every green tree, you have committed whoredom there. Also her treacherous sister Judah, she also has gone and committed whoredom, so much so that with the voice of her whoredom she has profaned the land; she has committed adultery with stone and wood. Jer. 3:1-10.
In the same prophet,
This is your lot, because you have forgotten Me and trusted in a lie. Your adulterous acts and your neighings, the wickedness of your whoredom committed on the hills, in the field – I have seen your abominations. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! Jer. 13:25, 27.
In the same prophet,
Against the prophets: The land is full of adulterers; for because of a curse the land mourns, the pastures of the wilderness have dried up. For both prophet and priest practice hypocrisy. In the prophets of Jerusalem also I have seen a horrible obstinacy, in their committing adultery and walking in a lie; they strengthen the hands of the evil. They speak a vision of their own heart, not from the mouth of Jehovah. Jer. 23:9, 10ff.
In the same prophet,
They have committed folly in Israel, and have committed adultery with their companions’ wives, and have lyingly spoken in My name a word which I did not command them. Jer. 29:23.
[10] From these places it is plainly evident that ‘committing adultery’ means explaining and perverting the truths of the Word because of self-centred desires, that is, the proprium, thus as self-love and love of the world dictate; it is therefore speaking lies, that is, falsities, as is explicitly stated. In addition to those places, in Hosea,
Do not rejoice, O Israel, for you have committed whoredom under your God – you have taken delight in a harlot’s reward on every threshing-floor. Hosea 9:1.
In the same prophet,
Jehovah spoke to Hosea, Go, take yourself a wife of whoredoms, and children of whoredoms; for the land has committed great whoredom by forsaking Jehovah.****** Hosea 1:2.
In Nahum,
Woe to the city of blood,******* because of the multitude of the acts of whoredom of a harlot with goodly grace, the mistress of sorceries, the seller of nations through her acts of whoredom, and of families through her sorceries. Nahum 3:1, 4.
In Moses,
Your sons will be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years, and will bear your acts of whoredom; according to the number of days in which you explored the land, each day for a year. You shall bear your iniquities forty years. Num. 14:33, 34
[11] Because falsifications of truth and adulterations of good corresponded to acts of whoredom in the land, adulterers received the death penalty, Lev. 20:10; and the daughter of a priest, if she profaned herself by committing whoredom was to be burned with fire, Lev. 21:9; also no daughter in Israel was to be exposed to whoredom, Lev. 19:29. In like manner one who was illegitimate was not to come into the assembly of Jehovah, down to the tenth generation of his descendants, Deut 23:2; and a harlot’s reward was not to be brought into the house of Jehovah because it was an abomination, Deut. 23:18, 19.
[12] All this now shows fully what ‘committing adultery’ means – that in the external sense it means committing acts of adultery; in the internal representative sense it means worshipping idols and other gods by means of the kinds of things the Church possesses, consequently acts outwardly and inwardly idolatrous; but in the internal spiritual sense it means adulterations of good and perversions of truth. All this shows plainly why it is that adulterous actions are intrinsically disgusting and called abominations; that is to say, they are such because they correspond to the marriage of evil and falsity, which is the hellish marriage. It also shows conversely why genuine marriages are holy – that they are such because they correspond to the marriage of goodness and truth, which is the heavenly marriage. Indeed genuine conjugial love descends from the marriage of goodness and truth, and so from heaven, that is, from the Lord by way of heaven. But adulterous love springs from the marriage of falsity and evil, and so from hell, that is, from the devil.
* Sw. Here mentions two words – adulterari and moechari – each of which describes committing adultery and is so rendered in Scriptural quotations in this paragraph.
** lit. faces
*** lit. visit
**** lit. Against whom do you delight yourselves?
***** The Latin means she but the Hebrew means you, which Sw. has in another place where he quotes this verse
****** lit. from [being] after Jehovah
******* lit bloods
Truly I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the sheepfold but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who is entering by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. I am the door of the sheep. All who were before Me were thieves and were robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door; if anyone enters through Me he will be saved, and will go in and out, and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come in order that they may have life, and may have it abundantly. John 10:1-13.
‘Entering by the door into the sheepfold’ doing so through the Lord, for the Lord is ‘the door’, as He Himself says. ‘The sheep’ are those who have charity and consequently faith, and they enter the fold through the Lord when they acknowledge that He is the source of everything composing faith and charity; for then these flow in from Him. But to attribute them to others, especially to self, is to take them away, which is ‘to kill and destroy’ them. People who attribute entirely to themselves those things which are the Lord’s also assume that merit lies in works and consider themselves righteous; such people are dealt with in 1110, 1877, 2027, 2273, 2340, 2373, 2400, 3816, 4007 (end), 4174, 4943, 6388-6390, 6392, 6393, 6478. This then is ‘stealing’ in the spiritual sense, and it is what comes to mind with angels in heaven when a person reads in the Word about ‘stealing’; for angels understand the Word wholly on a spiritual level.
[2] ‘Stealing’ has a like meaning in Hosea,
When I healed Israel the iniquity of Ephraim was revealed, and the evils of Samaria; for they practiced a lie, and a thief came, a band [of robbers] encircles the house.* Now their own works surround them before My face; they make a king glad through their wickedness, and princes through their lies. Hosea 7:1-3.
And in Joel,
The day of Jehovah comes. Fire devours before him, and behind him a flame burns; like the garden of Eden is the land before him, but behind him there is a desert waste. Its appearance is like the appearance of horses, and like horsemen, so they run. Like the noise of chariots over the peaks of mountains [they leap]. They run about the city, they run on the wall, they climb up into the houses, they go in through the windows like a thief. The earth quaked before him, the heavens trembled. The sun and the moon were darkened, and the stars withdrew their shining. Joel 2:1-10.
This refers to the desolation of the Church, when falsities break in and destroy truths. These falsities are ‘the thieves that climb up houses and go in through the windows’. Will anyone fail to wonder why it says that the day of Jehovah will be ‘like the appearance of horses’, and that at this time ‘like horsemen, so they will run’, ‘they will run about the city, run on the wall, climb up into the houses, and go in through the windows’, and ‘the earth will quake, the heavens will tremble, the sun and moon will be darkened, and the stars will withdraw their shining’? The person who does not know anything about the internal sense and in his heart calls into doubt the holiness of the Word will say that these are simply words without anything of God concealed in them; and he will perhaps call the sayings meaningless. But the person who believes that the Word is most holy because it is Divine, and furthermore knows that there is an internal sense, in which the Church, heaven, and the Lord Himself are the subject, will profess that every word there carries weight. Therefore let a brief explanation be given of what the words and sayings there mean.
[3] ‘The day of Jehovah’ is the final state or final period of the Church, when there is no longer truth but falsity instead. ‘The fire’ which devours before him is the desire for evil, and ‘the fire’ which burns after him is the resulting desire for falsity. ‘The appearance of horses’ is intellectual powers that reason from falsity as if from truth; ‘the horsemen’ who run are reasoners; ‘chariots’ are matters of doctrine that uphold falsity; ‘the city’ is doctrine itself; ‘the wall’ on which they run is a false essential; ‘the houses’ which they will climb up are a person’s will; ‘the windows’ which they will go in through are intellectual concepts; ‘a thief’ is falsity which takes away truth; ‘the earth’ which will quake before him is the Church, and so are ‘the heavens’ which will tremble; ‘the sun’ is love to the Lord, ‘the moon’ faith in Him, which are said ‘to be darkened’ when they are no longer apparent; ‘the stars’ are cognitions or knowledge of goodness and truth which will no longer possess light from faith and love, thus from heaven, meant by ‘withdrawing their shining’. From all this one may recognize what these words in general imply, and also in what sense that day or final state of the Church is called ‘a thief’ who will climb up houses and go in through the windows – falsity which will at that time take possession of the entire person, of both his will and his understanding, and so will take away all truth and goodness. ‘A thief’ has a like meaning in Obadiah,
The Lord Jehovih said to Edom, If thieves come to you, if those who overturn in the night – how you will have been cut off! – will they not steal that which is enough for themselves? Obad. verses 1, 5.
‘A thief’ or ‘one who steals’ has a like meaning in Zech. 5:1-4; Ps. 50:18-20; Matt. 6:19, 20.
[4] As all the regulations which the Lord commanded the children of Israel were founded on the laws of order which exist in heaven, that is, they sprang from the spiritual world and derived their essential nature from there, this was no less so with the laws laid down regarding thefts, such as the law,
Anyone who has stolen an ox and sells it shall repay five, or four if one of the flock. Exod. 21:37.**
Also these laws,
If a thief has been struck while breaking in, no blood [is required] for him; but if the sun has risen, blood [is required]. A thief must pay compensation or be sold. If [what he has stolen] is found in his hand he shall restore double. Exod. 22:2-4.
Anyone who steals a man and sells him – and he is found in his hand – shall surely die. Exod. 21:16.
If there is found a man who has stolen a soul from his brothers, from the children of Israel, and has made profit on him, when he has sold him, that thief shall be killed, so that you remove evil from the midst of you. Deut. 24:7.
‘Men from the children of Israel’ in the internal sense are those who are governed by the truths and forms of the good of faith. Accordingly in the abstract sense they are the truths and forms of good themselves, 5414, 5879, 5951, so that ‘stealing a man from the children of Israel’ means taking these away, and ‘selling him’ means alienating them and also reducing them to a state of servitude. For since truths and forms of the good of faith come from the Lord they exist in a state of freedom, and are subservient to none except the Lord alone; but when they are alienated they come into a state of servitude since they are subservient to some evil of self-love or love of the world, thus to some bodily desire. This is how that law [in Deut. 24:7] was derived and what it corresponds to; and since from being in freedom the Church’s truth and good is reduced to subservience, and so from being living is made dead, the punishment, which is the outcome, is death.
* lit a troop spreads itself out of doors
** Exod. 22:1 in English Bibles
[2] What this implies must be explained briefly. None who are ruled by self-love or by love of the world, that is, whose end in view is either to have high and honoured positrons or to possess wealth and gain, care when they tell and persuade others that something just is unjust or something unjust is just, and by doing this behave as ‘witnesses of a lie’. The reason why they are like this is that their will is in complete subjection to those loves and accompanying desires; it is completely possessed and dominated by them. At the same time the understanding, which is the other part of the mind, indeed has the ability to see what is just or unjust but has no wish to see it. For the will prevails over the understanding; it flows into and persuades it, and at length also makes it blind. Those same people possess no conscience, nor do they know that conscience consists in saying that something just is just, and for no other reason than because it is so, that is, from a love of what is just. People who are like this in the world are also like it in the next life, except for the difference that they do not then say something just is unjust. Instead they call the good of faith evil, and truth falsity, since what is just in dealings with people in the world corresponds to what is good and true in the spiritual world. This is done by them without conscience and also without any shame because it was something they had learned to do during their lifetime and grown accustomed to.
[3] Many times in the Word the expression ‘a lie’ is used, and wherever it occurs the falsity and evil of faith is meant in the internal sense. And ‘the witness of a lie’, who is also called ‘the witness of violence’, means confirming something false, whether before a judge, or before someone else, or before oneself by convincing oneself in one’s inner thinking, as in Exod. 23:1ff; Lev. 19:11, 12ff; Deut. 19:16-20. The fact that ‘a lie’ in the spiritual sense is the evil and falsity of faith is clear from the following places: In John,
You are from your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has not stood in the truth because the truth is not in him. When he speaks a lie he speaks from the things that are his own, for he is the teller of a lie and the father of it. John 8:44.
Here ‘a lie’ stands for falsity of faith, for it refers to the unwillingness of the Jews to acknowledge the Lord. ‘The devil’ in the spiritual sense here is falsity, and ‘the father of it’ is evil; for falsity springs from evil like son from father. The falsity that is the devil’s is the falsity of faith, the evil that is his is the evil of self-love and love of the world.
[4] In Isaiah,
Moab is exceedingly proud; his haughtiness, and his pride, and his anger – his lies are not firm. Isa. 16:6.
‘Lies’ stands for falsities of faith, since ‘Moab’ is those who, ruled by the evil of self-love, therefore falsify truths, 2468, 8315. In the same prophet,
We have made a covenant with death, and with hell we have shaped a vision. We have put our trust in a lie, and we have hidden in falsity. Isa. 28:15.
In the same prophet,
They were a rebellious people, lying sons, sons who did not wish to hear the law of Jehovah. Isa. 30:9.
In Jeremiah,
They deceive one another,* and do not speak the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak a lie Jer. 9:5.
In the same prophet,
Behold, I am against those that prophesy lying dreams** and tell them in order that they may mislead My people by their lies. Jer. 23:32.
In the same prophet,
O sword, [be] against the liars, that they may become foolish. Jer. 50:36.
In Ezekiel,
They have seen vanity and lying divination,*** saying, Jehovah has said! when Jehovah has not sent them. Therefore thus has the Lord Jehovih said, Because you speak vanity and see a lie, therefore behold, I am against you. Ezek. 13:6-9.
In Nahum,
Woe to the city of blood!**** It is all full of lies and plunder. Nahum 3:1.
In Zephaniah,
The remnant of Israel will not do iniquity or speak any lie; nor will a fraudulent tongue be found in their mouth. They will feed and rest. Zeph. 3:13.
In John,
Outside are dogs, and sorcerers, and fornicators, and murderers, and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices a lie. Rev. 22:15.
In these as in many other places ‘a lie’ stands for the falsity and evil of faith.
* lit. They deceive, a man his companion
** lit. dreams of a lie
*** lit. divination of a lie
**** lit. bloods
[2] The world believes that thought is the person. But there are two powers that constitute a person’s life – understanding and will – and thought belongs to the understanding, the affection inherent in love being what belongs to the will. Thought without the affection inherent in love does not in any way at all constitute a person’s life; but thought springing from such affection, that is, the understanding springing from the will, does constitute it. Those two powers are distinct from each other, which is evident to anyone who stops to reflect on the matter from the consideration that with his understanding a person can perceive that that thing is bad which his will desires, and that that thing is good which his will either does or does not desire. From all this it is plain that the will is the real person, not his thought, except so far as anything passes into it from the will. So it is that things which enter a person’s thought but do not pass on through it into his will do not render him unclean; only those which pass through thought on into the will do so. The reason why the latter render a person unclean is that he takes them to himself then and makes them his; for the will, as has been stated, is the real person. The things which become part of his will are said to go into his heart and to go out from there, whereas those which are merely part of his thought are said to go into the mouth and to go out by way of the bowels into the sewer, according to the Lord’s words in Matthew,
Not what enters the mouth renders a person unclean, but what comes out of the mouth, this renders the person unclean. Everything that goes into the mouth departs into the bowels and is cast out into the sewer. But the things which come out of the mouth come out of the heart, and these render a person unclean. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, ravishments, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. Matt. 15:11, 17-19.
[3] From these words as from all the others the nature of the Lord’s manner of speaking becomes clear. That is, its nature was such that internal or spiritual matters were meant, but they were expressed by means of external or natural things and in accordance with correspondences. For the mouth corresponds to thought, and so do all parts of the mouth, such as the lips, tongue, and throat, while the heart corresponds to the affection inherent in love, and so to the will. For the correspondence of the heart to these, see 2930, 3313, 3883-3896, 7542. Consequently ‘entering the mouth’ is entering thought, and ‘going out of the heart’ is going out of the will. ‘Departing into the bowels and being cast out into the sewer (or latrine)’ is going away into hell; for the bowels correspond to the way to hell, while the sewer or latrine corresponds to hell itself. Hell also in the Word is called ‘the latrine’. All this shows what is meant by ‘everything that goes into the mouth departs into the bowels and is cast out into the sewer’, namely that evil and falsity are introduced into a person’s thought by hell and are discharged back there again. Such evil and falsity cannot render a person unclean because they are discharged from him. For a person cannot help thinking what is evil, but he can refrain from doing it. As soon however as he receives evil from his thought into his will it does not go out but enters into him; and this is said ‘to enter the heart’. The things that go out from here are what render him unclean; for what a person desires in his will goes out into speech and action, so far as external restraints do not inhibit him, those restraints being fear of the law, and fear of the loss of reputation, position, gain, or life. From all this it is now evident that ‘you shall not covet’ means that one must take care to prevent evils from becoming present in the will and consequently going out of it.
[4] The fact that ‘covetousness’ is a craving or lusting on the part of the will, and so of the heart, is also clear from the Lord’s words in Matthew,
You have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that if anyone looks at a woman* so that he lusts after her he has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Matt. 5:27, 28.
‘Lusting for’ is used here to mean desiring in the will, and – but for the fears acting as external restraints – also doing. This is why it says that one who looks at a woman so that he lusts after her has committed adultery with her in his heart.
[5] Lusting after what is evil is also meant by ‘the right eye causing one to stumble’, and lusting after what is false by ‘the right hand causing one to stumble’ in the Lord’s words, again in Matthew,
If your right eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it away from you; for it will be better for you that one of your members perish, than that your whole body be cast into gehenna. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away from you; for it will be better for you that one of your members perish, than that your whole body be cast into gehenna. Matt. 5:29, 30.
From these words the Lord’s way of saying things is again clear. That is to say, He was speaking from the Divine, as in every other place in the Word, in such a way that He expressed inward and heavenly matters through outward or natural ones in accordance with correspondences. In this instance He expressed an affection for evil or lusting after it by ‘the right eye causing one to stumble’, and an affection for falsity or lusting after it by ‘the right hand causing one to stumble’. For the eye corresponds to faith, the left eye to the truth of faith, and the right eye to the good of faith, or in the contrary sense to the evil of faith, so that ‘the right eye causing one to stumble’ corresponds to lusting after what is evil, 4403-4421, 4523-4534. But the hand corresponds to the power that truth possesses, the right hand to the power of truth coming from good, or in the contrary sense the power of falsity coming from evil, so that ‘the right hand causing one to stumble’ corresponds to a lusting after it, 3091, 4931-4937, 8281. ‘Gehenna’ is the hell of lusts, cravings, or covetousness. Anyone may see that here ‘the right eye’ was not used to mean the right eye or that it was to be plucked out; also that ‘the right hand’ was not used to mean the right hand or that it was to be cut off, but that something other was meant. What this is cannot be known unless one knows what is really meant by ‘the eye’, in particular by ‘the right eye’, also what is meant by ‘the hand’, and in particular by ‘the right hand’, as well as what ‘causing to stumble’ really means. Nor can the meaning of these expressions be known except from the internal sense.
[6] Lusts, cravings, or covetous desires are what spring from an evil will, thus from a heart that is such; and according to the Lord’s words in Matthew 15:19, murders, adulteries, ravishments, thefts, false witness, blasphemies come out of the heart or will, that is, the kinds of evils contained in the preceding commandments of the Decalogue. In all this lies the reason for saying that this – ‘you must not covet the things which are your neighbour’s’ – means that one must take care to prevent the evils contained in the ”receding commandments from becoming present in the will and consequently going out of it. The reason why ‘you shall not covet the things which are your neighbour’s’ also means that one must be on one’s guard against self-love and love of the world is that all the evils composing covetousness well up from those loves as their source, see 2045, 7178, 7255, 7366 7377, 7488, 8318, 8678.
* Following the version of Sebastian Schmidt Sw. adds a word which implies that the woman is another man’s wife.
* Following the version of Sebastian Schmidt Sw. adds a word which implies that the woman is another man’s wife.
* Following the version of Sebastian Schmidt Sw. adds a word which implies that the woman is another man’s wife.
‘And all the people saw the voices and torches’ means perception of God’s truths that spring from good. ‘And the voice of the trumpet’ means those same truths going through heaven. ‘And the mountain smoking means the good itself of truth, which cannot be perceived except in an outward form. ‘And the people saw and were violently shaken’ means the quivering that takes place when they are received. ‘And stood afar off’ means remoteness from internal things. ‘And they said to Moses’ means complaint. ‘Speak yourself to us, [and we will hear]’ means the reception of truth in an adjusted form, which – in that form – they will obey. ‘And do not let God speak to us’ means truth in an unadjusted form. ‘Lest perhaps we die’ means that this form will destroy the life of heaven with them. ‘And Moses said to the people’ means an informing. ‘Do not fear, for God has come in order to test you’ means that the life of heaven will not be destroyed, [but that they are tested] solely so that the existence and essential nature of that life may be known. ‘And in order that His fear may be before your faces, and you do not sin’ means consequent holy fear of the Divine, and preservation of spiritual life as a result.
* i.e. thunders and lightnings
[2] The expression ‘God’s truths that spring from good’ is used here to mean all the Ten Commandments which were declared from Mount Sinai amid thundering and lightning. These took place at that time because claps of thunder were signs of God’s truths, which are also for that reason called voices, while flashes of lightning were signs of the brilliant flashes that truths from good possess, which are also for that reason called torches or flames, ‘flames’ being Divine Truths emanating from the Lord’s Divine Good, see 6832.
The Lord will send angels with the loud voice of a trumpet, who will gather His elect from the four winds. Matt. 24:31.
People who do not know that all the Lord’s words also have heavenly and Divine things stored within them, that is, that they hold in them an internal sense, will suppose that when the last judgement is imminent angels are going to appear and announce it, and also that they will gather the elect with ‘the voice of a trumpet’. But ‘the voice of a trumpet’ is not used there to mean the sound of a trumpet but God’s truth in its inward form spreading through heaven, and the proclaiming of it, see 4060 (end) as well as 8815 and 8823.
Before any further consideration is given to the meaning of ‘afar off’, it should be recognized that ‘afar off’ in the spiritual sense has no regard to spatial distance but to the Divine, and so to goodness and truth. Distance from actual goodness that emanates from the Divine produces appearances of spatial distances in heaven. Angelic communities appear distinct and separate there, indeed at a distance from one another; but this notion of space between them comes about as a result of their distance from goodness and truth which emanate, as has been stated, from the Lord’s Divine. This is bound to seem incomprehensible, indeed as something absurd, to many in the world. The reason for this is that a person’s thoughts and ideas are based on spatial distances and lengths of time, so much so that a person cannot engage in thought without them. Consequently if you take away lengths of time and spatial distances from a person’s thought he can grasp scarcely anything. Yet the thinking of angels in heaven is altogether free from anything temporal or spatial, so completely that their thoughts are a thousand times, indeed ten thousand times superior in intelligence and wisdom to man’s thoughts. And what is astounding, if with them an idea of a temporal or spatial origin intrudes, shadow and thick darkness immediately overtakes their minds, because they then fall from the superior light of heaven into the inferior light of the natural order, which to them is thick darkness.
[2] The fact that there are no spatial distances or periods of time in the next life, but states instead, or that appearances of them exist as a result of variations of state in respect of goodness and truth, see 2625, 2837, 3356, 3387, 3404, 4321, 4882, 5605, 7381. From this one may now see what ‘standing afar off’ means in the spiritual sense, namely remoteness from heaven where the Divine is, at this point remoteness from internal things, because as stated above, that nation which stood at that time a long way off from Mount Sinai was most remote from internal things. They were interested solely in outward things, and considered worship of God to consist wholly in them. That nation was also allowed to do this because they were then able to represent heavenly and Divine realities; for in order that these may be represented an outward form is necessary, and this may exist devoid of anything internal, 3147, 3670, 4208, 4281, 4288, 4307, 8588.
[3] ‘Afar off’ means remote from goodness and truth that come from the Lord, and so remote from internal things, in the following places as well: In Luke,
The rich man in hell lifting up his eyes saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. Abraham said to him, Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass across from here to you cannot, nor can those who are there pass across to us. Luke 16:23, 25, 26.
‘Abraham’ here is not used to mean Abraham, for he is not known in heaven, but in the highest sense to mean the Lord, and in the relative sense to mean those in heaven who are governed by the good of love to and faith in the Lord, 1834, 1876, 1965, 1989, 2011, 3245, 3305 (end), 6098, 6185, 6276, 6804. Those in hell are said ‘to see afar off’ those in heaven because they are in a state extremely remote from goodness and truth. ‘A great gulf’ between them is the actual remoteness from good, which also produces the appearance of a gulf lying in between.
[4] Those who whenever they think rely on spatial ideas, as all people in the world do, inevitably envisage hell, and also heaven, to be a place far away from a person. But the truth of the matter is that hell and heaven are near a person; indeed they are in a person, hell being in a bad person, heaven in a good person. Everyone after death also enters that hell or that heaven he was in when in the world. But after death a change of state takes place, in that the hell which was not recognized in the world becomes recognizable, and the heaven which toe> was not recognized in the world becomes recognizable, the heaven being full of all happiness, and the hell of all unhappiness. The truth that heaven is within us is what the Lord teaches in Luke,
The kingdom of God is within you. Luke 17:21.
In Isaiah,
They are coming from a land far away, from the end of heaven. Isa. 13:5; Jer. 5:15.
In Isaiah,
Hear, you that are afar off what I have done; and know, you that are near, My strength. Isa 33:13.
In the same prophet,
I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Do not withhold. Bring My sons from afar and My daughters from the end of the earth. Bring forth the blind people who have eyes, and the deaf who have ears. Isa. 43:6, 8; 49:12.
In the same prophet,
Listen to Me, O islands, and hearken, O peoples from afar. Isa. 49:1; Jer. 31:10.
In Jeremiah,
Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of My people from a land far away, Is not Jehovah in Zion? Is not her king in her? Jer 8:19.
In the same prophet,
O Jehovah, You have planted them, and they have also taken root. You are near in their mouth but far away from their heart.* Jer. 12:2.
In the same prophet, I am a God near at hand, and not a God afar off. Jer. 23:23.
In all these places ‘afar off’ means remote from good.
* lit. reins or kidneys
[2] As regards truth in an adjusted form, it should be recognized that when God’s truth comes down by way of the heavens to people in the world, as the Word came down, it undergoes adjustment for all on its way down, both for those in heaven and for those on earth. But the form in which God’s truth exists in the heavens is completely different from that in which it exists in the world. In the heavens that truth is as it exists in the internal sense of the Word, in the world it is as it appears in the literal sense. Indeed in the heavens themselves it exists in diverse forms – in one form in the inmost or third heaven, in another in the middle or second heaven, and in yet another in the first or lowest heaven. The form that God’s truth takes – that is, the perception, thought, and utterance of it – in the inmost or third heaven is so superior to the form it takes in the middle or second heaven that it is not comprehensible there; it is so Divine and matchless. It contains countless things which cannot find utterance in the second heaven; it consists of nothing other than the changes of state which the affections inherent in love undergo. Yet the form God’s truth takes in the middle or second heaven is in like manner superior to the one it takes in the first or lowest heaven, and is even more superior to the form God’s truth takes in the world. So it is that the things which find utterance in those heavens are of a kind that no human mind has ever perceived or any ear has heard, as those who have been raised to heaven know from experience.
[3] People who have no knowledge of this suppose that those in the heavens think in the same way and speak in the same way as on earth. But they suppose this because they do not know that the interior aspects of a person belong to a higher level of existence than exterior ones do, or that the thought and speech of those in the heavens is celestial and spiritual, whereas on earth it is natural, the difference between the two being so great that words cannot describe it. But regarding those types of speech, see 1634-1650, 1757-1759, 1876, 2157, 2472, 2476, 3342-3345, 4104, 4609, 5225, 5287, 6040, 6982, 7002, 7089, 7131, 7191, 7381, 8343, 8733, 8734.
[3] From all this also it is evident that unless God’s truth or the Word appeared in an adjusted form it would be unintelligible. For if it were above people’s level of perception it would not pass into understanding or accordingly into faith. This is why God’s truth has been given to mankind in the form taken by the Word in the letter; for if it were to appear in the form in which it exists in heaven, it would be unintelligible to anyone in the world. As soon as anyone glanced at it and saw what was in it, it would be cast aside, since it would not consist in images such as belong to natural light. Furthermore it would be full of arcana which could not possibly find a place in a person’s way of thinking because they would be entirely at odds with the appearances and illusions derived from the world through the outward senses – not to mention the copious chain of deeper arcana which lie hidden within those arcana and cannot be expressed except by variations and changes in the state of heavenly light and flame, by means of which angelic speech and thought are carried on.
[2] Temptations are conflicts with evils and falsities. When a person is victorious in them he is strengthened, for he fights from truths and for truths against falsity and evil. The person is not at the time directly conscious of fighting from truths and for truths because the truths are present on the inner levels of his mind and therefore do not plainly enter his consciousness, which belongs to the outer levels. But truths are indeed what he fights from and fights for, as is evident from the fact that conflict exists, followed by victory, which is not possible except for the clashes of opposites with one another, those opposites being evil and good, and falsity and truth. [3] Yet it should be recognized that the person does not fight, but that the Lord fights on behalf of the person, and indeed against the hells, which endeavour at that time to take over and subdue the person, 840, 1661, 1692, 8159, 8168, 8172, 8175, 8176.
From all this it is evident that ‘Do not fear, for God has come in order to test you’ means that there should be no fear that the life of heaven will be destroyed, but that it happens to them so that they may be taught about and know of the existence of the life of heaven, and also its essential nature. But regarding temptations, see what has been stated and shown already in 2272, 2768, 3318, 3927, 3928, 4249, 4299, 4341, 4572, 5036, 5246, 5356, 6144, 6574, 6611, 6657, 6663, 6666, 6829, 8131, 8273, 8351, 8367, 8370 (end), 8403, 8567.
‘And the people stood afar off’ means remoteness from inner truths. ‘And Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was’ means a joining even of the truth of spiritual good to God’s truth. ‘And Jehovah said to Moses’ means further instruction. ‘Thus you shall say to the children of Israel’ means those belonging to the spiritual Church. ‘You have seen that I have spoken to you from heaven’ means all things in the Word coming through influx from God by way of heaven. ‘You shall not make [to be] with Me gods of silver and gods of gold’ means that they are to avoid completely things which to outward appearances look like truths and forms of good but inwardly are falsities and evils. ‘You shall not make [them] for yourselves’ means that utmost care must be taken to avoid them.
[2] Let those who belong to the spiritual Church be dealt with first. Those who belong to it believe that they are in the light. Yet they are in obscurity, indeed in thick darkness, so far as God’s truth is concerned, as is clear from the consideration that they have no inner perception enabling them to see whether what the Church says is indeed the truth; they know it to be such only because the Church says it. What the Church says they firmly accept, whether it is false or true. And anyone devoid of any inner perception to see God’s truth is in thick darkness, or what amounts to the same thing, Divine Truth is for him thick darkness. Members of the spiritual Church do not know for example, and have no wish to know, of the existence of an internal sense in the Word; and if they do perhaps come to believe in its existence there, it will not be because they perceive it for themselves but because of some other influence inducing them to believe it.
[3] Members of the spiritual Church, to take another example, say that faith is the one and only means of salvation, even without charity and the good deeds of charity. They believe this because the Church says it. They do not arrive at that light of perception in which they may see for themselves that faith does not exist except where charity does, or that the one belongs to the other as one person does to another in marriage, and therefore that charity is the essential element of the Church, because of its coherence with good. This also shows what obscurity or thick darkness the spiritual Church is in. And being in such darkness they divide the Church into many different Churches, as many as the variant doctrines presenting the truths of faith, a situation which would never arise if they were in the light. For one who is in the light never doubts, skill less denies that love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour are the essential elements of the Church, or that all the truths which the Word contains, consequently all the truths of faith, are founded on them. He likewise never doubts any of the other truths which hang on this law and are called the truths of faith. But these matters have been shown more plainly in 2708, 2715, 2831, 2849, 2935, 2937, 3241, 3246, 6289, 6427, 6865, 6945, 7233. Those who belong to the spiritual Church do not arrive at even the outermost threshold of the wisdom or of the light in which those are who belong to the celestial Church, 2718, 3833, 6500.
[4] The second reason why it says that Moses entered thick darkness when he drew near God is that as their leader ‘Moses’ represented the Israelite and Jewish people, who were in darkness regarding internal truths, so thick that they were totally ignorant of them; for they considered all of worship and everything Divine to consist in external things. This is why the Divine was for them thick darkness; for as everyone well knows, the Divine never dwells in thick darkness but in light, since the Divine is light itself. When therefore the Divine is called ‘thick darkness’, it describes what He is so far as those who do not dwell in any light are concerned; for Divine Truths which compose the light of heaven do not appear to them to be anything else than such darkness, because they do not believe them, indeed they deny them. How the Divine appears to anyone is determined by the essential nature of the person’s life and faith. Consequently He appears as light to those who are in the light, and as thick darkness to those who are in thick darkness. The fact that the Israelite and Jewish people were such, see 3479, 3769, 4281, 4293, 4307, 4314, 4316, 4433, 4680, 4825, 4832, 4844, 4847, 4865, 4903, 6304, and that the Lord on Mount Sinai appeared to them in smoke, cloud, and thick darkness, in keeping with the essential nature of that people, 1861 (end), 6832, 8814, 8819.
[2] It should be recognized that heaven does not exist in some fixed and exact location; that is, it is not up on high, as it is commonly thought to be. Rather heaven exists wherever the Divine is present. This being so, it exists with and within everyone possessing charity and faith, since charity and faith are what constitute heaven, because they are what come from the Divine. There also angels live. The truth that heaven is where the Divine, that is, the Lord, is present is evident from the fact that Mount Sinai, from which the Lord spoke, is called ‘heaven’ here. This also is the reason why ‘Mount Sinai’ means heaven, from which Divine Truth Rows, 8805.
[3] The reason why all things in the Word are meant is that Jehovah or the Lord now begins to reveal the Word that is to serve the human race in what they teach and the way they live, first through Moses and later on through the Prophets. In order therefore that people might know that the Word came from the Divine by way of heaven, the Lord Himself was willing to come down and declare the Ten Commandments vocally, and in doing this to show that everything else which comes after them in the law, that is, in the Word, came in the same way through influx from the Divine by way of heaven.
[2] This commandment follows immediately after the Ten Commandments because the Israelite and Jewish people were the sort that held outward things separated from inward realities to be holy and worshipped them as being altogether Divine, 3479, 3769, 4281, 4293, 4307, 4314, 4316, 4433, 4680, 4825, 4832, 4844, 4847, 4865, 4903, 6304, 6832, 8814, 8819. To gain more definite knowledge of what those things are which look to outward appearances like truths and forms of good but inwardly are falsities and evils, and what those things are like, take as examples all the ritual practices of the Jewish Church, such as sacrifices, burning incense, washings, and many other practices. Outwardly they were truths and forms of good, not in themselves but because they were types or images that stood for and represented inward truths and forms of good, which are aspects of love to the Lord and faith in Him. When the outward objects belonging to such practices were held to be holy, and especially when they were worshipped, as they were by the Jews and Israelites when they became idolaters and used them in the worship of strange gods, they no longer had any connection with the truths and forms of good which they stood for and represented, because inwardly they were falsities and evils.
[3] The situation was the same with all other things that were types or representative images of heavenly and Divine realities among that people. For as soon as outward things which represented inner realities were used in the worship of other gods they became idols worshipped by them or ‘gods of silver and gold which they made [to be] with Jehovah God’. For then those things looked to outward appearances like truths and forms of good, but inwardly they were falsities and evils.
[4] In general ‘gods of silver and gold’ are all the falsities and derivative evils in worship which are made to look like truth and good through wrong usages and misinterpretations of the Word, and at the same time through reasonings that are the product of self-intelligence. Such things are meant by ‘gods of silver and gold’ in the following places: In Isaiah,
On that day a person will cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold which they made for themselves to bow down to, to the moles and bats, to go into the clefts* of the rocks and into the fissures of the crags. Isa. 2:20, 21.
‘Moles and bats’ stands for those who are in darkness, that is, are steeped in falsities and derivative evils.
[5] In the same prophet,
On that day a man will cast aside his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which your hands have made for you – a sin. Isa. 31:7.
‘Which your hands have made’ stands for things which are the product of self-intelligence. In the same prophet,
The craftsman casts a graven image, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts silver chains for it. Isa. 40:19.
‘Graven images’ are things which are products of the proprium or self, 8869. ‘Overlaying with gold’ stands for making things look to outward appearances like forms of good, ‘casting silver chains’ stands for making them seem to hang together as if linked to one another with truths, good being meant by ‘gold’ and truth by ‘silver’, see the paragraphs referred to above.
[6] Similarly in Jeremiah,
The customs** of the nations are vanity. Since indeed one cuts out wood from the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, he decorates it with silver and gold; they make it firm with pegs and hammers, so that it is not unsteady. Jer. 10:3, 4.
In Hosea,
The Ephraimites sin more and more, and make for themselves a molten image from silver, idols by their own intelligence, completely the work of craftsmen. Hosea 13:2.
‘Ephraim’ stands for the Church’s understanding, 5354, 6222, 6234, 6238, 6267; ‘a molten image made from silver’ stands for falsity that looks like truth, which is why it says ‘by their own intelligence’; and ‘completely the work of craftsmen’ stands for the fact that it is all brought about through reasonings which are a product of the proprium or self.
[7] In Habakkuk,
Woe to him who says to a piece of wood, Awake! or to a dumb stone, Wake up, this will teach! Behold, this is bound in gold and silver, but there is no spirit in the midst of it. Hab. 2:19.
‘A piece of wood’ stands for evil, ‘a stone’ for falsity. ‘Bound in gold and silver’ stands for applications used to give the appearance of what is good and true. In Daniel,
Belshazzar said, when he had properly tasted the wine, that they were to bring the vessels of gold and silver which his father Nebuchadnezzar had brought from the temple that [had been] in Jerusalem, in order that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines might drink from them. And they would drink wine, and praise the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. Dan. 5:2-4, 23.
‘The vessels of gold and silver from the temple of Jerusalem’ represented the forms of good and the truths which belonged to the Church and to the Lord’s kingdom; ‘drinking wine from them’ meant desecrating them by means of evils and falsities, which are ‘the gods of gold and silver’.
[8] In David,
Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands They have a mouth, but they do not speak; they have eyes but do not see. Ps. 115:4, 5; 135:15, 16.
‘Silver and gold, which are idols’ stands for falsities and evils; ‘the work of human hands’ stands for the fact that they are the product of self-intelligence. In Moses,
You shall burn the graven images of the gods of the nations with fire; you shall not covet the silver and the gold that are on them, so that you take them to yourself; for it is an abomination to Jehovah your God. Therefore you shall not bring an abomination into your house, lest you become*** an accursed thing like it; you shall utterly abhor it. Deut. 7:25, 26.
‘Silver and gold on graven images’ stands for falsities and evils which are worshipped as truths and forms of good because they have been made to look like these.
* Reading scissuras (clefts) for fissuras (fissures)
** lit. statutes
*** Reading fias (you become) for fiat (it becomes)
‘An altar of soil you shall make for Me’ means something which in a general way represents worship that springs from good. ‘And shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your eucharistic offerings’ means worship in particular according to each person’s state of spiritual life. ‘Your flocks and your herds’ means forms of good, internal and external. ‘In every place where I shall put the memory of My name’ means the state of faith in the Lord with each individual person. ‘I will come to you and bless you’ means God’s presence at that time, and influx. ‘And if you make for Me an altar of stones’ means a representative kind of worship in general that is composed of truths. ‘You shall not build it with hewn ones’ means that it must not be a product of self-intelligence. ‘For if you move your chisel over it’ means if a product of the proprium or self. ‘You will profane it’ means that no worship in that case exists. ‘And you shall not go up to My altar by steps’ means not raising themselves to more internal levels, that is, celestial ones. ‘In order that your nakedness may not be revealed on it’ means the mental picture of those things, which in that event is full of falsities, will then be disclosed.
* lit. the ground (humus)
[2] As regards worship inspired by faith and worship inspired by charity, or that which springs from truth and that which springs from good, the situation is that before a person has been regenerated his worship consists of truth, but after he has been regenerated it consists of good. Before a person has been regenerated he is led by means of truth to good, that is, by means of faith to charity; but when he has been regenerated he abides in good and consequently in truth, that is, in charity and consequently in faith, 8516, 8539, 8643, 8648, 8658. These two kinds of worship are what the altars of soil and of stone represent. The reason why the altar is the chief representative of worship of the Lord is that burnt offerings and sacrifices were offered on it; and it was in these that the worship of God by the Hebrew nation, and subsequently by the Israelite and Jewish nation, chiefly consisted, 923, 1343, 2180, 2805, 2807, 2830, 3519, 6405.
[2] The truth that worldly blessing is nothing in comparison with heavenly blessing, which is eternal, is taught in the following way by the Lord in Matthew,
What does it profit a person if he gains the whole world but suffers the loss of his soul? Matt. 16:26.
But the person immersed in worldly and earthly interests does not understand this saying; for worldly and earthly interests have a stifling effect, and cause him not to believe even in the existence of eternal life.
[3] But I can positively declare that as soon as a person dies he is in the next life, living as a spirit among spirits, and that then he seems to himself and to all others there to be altogether like a person in the world, endowed with all the senses, internal and external, 1881. I can say too that therefore death of the body is merely a laying aside of such things as had enabled the person to serve and function in the world, and in addition that death itself is a continuation of life, though in another world which is not visible to the eyes of the earthly body but is visible there in light a thousand times brighter than midday light in the world. Since all this is known to me from actual experience which I have had over so many years and continue to have, I declare it positively. I have spoken to almost all those with whom I was acquainted in the world and who have died, to some two or three days after their decease; and I speak to them still. The majority of them have been extremely displeased that they had had no belief at all in the continuation of life after death. I have talked to those people not just for a day but over months and years. I have also been allowed to witness their succeeding or progressive states of life taking them either to hell or to heaven. Consequently let anyone who wishes to be happy for evermore know and believe that he is going to be alive after death; let him think about it and remember it, for it is the truth. Let him also know and believe that the Word is the one and only teacher of how a person should live in the world in order to be happy for evermore.
When you cross the Jordan you shall set up for yourself large stones, and coat them with lime. Then you shall write on them all the words of the Law. Afterwards, you shall build there an altar to Jehovah your God, an altar of stones, which you shall not hew with any iron tool.* With whole stones you shall build the altar of Jehovah your God, and present** on it burnt offerings and eucharistic offerings. And you shall write on the stones of the altar the words of the Law, expressing them very plainly. Deut. 27:1-8; Josh. 8:30-32.
[2] The reason why they were to write the words of the Law on stones of the altar was that truths were meant by ‘stones’, and worship that springs from truths by ‘an altar of stones’. This was also the reason why the Ten Commandments, which were a sign of Divine Truths in their entirety, were inscribed on tablets of stone. The reason why it had to be done as soon as they crossed the Jordan was that the Jordan, which was the first and outermost boundary of the land of Canaan on the side where the wilderness lay, meant introduction into the Church or heaven, which is accomplished through cognitions or knowledge of truth and good, thus through truths from the Word, 4255. For all the rivers serving as boundaries of that land meant the first and outermost reaches of the Lord’s kingdom, 4116, 4240. By ‘the stones of the altar’ the truths of faith are also meant in Isaiah,
He will remove sin when He makes all the stones of the altar like chalk-stones scattered about. Isa. 27:9
This refers to the ruination of the Church. ‘The stones of the altar like chalk-stones scattered about’ stands for the truths of faith that inspire worship after something similar has happened to them. As regards altars in general, they were made out of soil, stones, bronze, wood, and also gold – out of bronze, wood, and gold because these materials served to mean good. For an altar of bronze, see Ezek. 9:2; for an altar of wood, Ezek. 41:22; and for an altar of gold, which was the altar of incense, 1 Kings 6:22; 7:48; Rev. 8:3. That ‘bronze’ means good, see 425, 1551; that ‘wood’ does so, 643, 2784, 2812, 3720, 8354; and that ‘gold’ does so as well, 113, 1551, 1552, 5658.
* lit. upon which you shall not strike iron
** lit. cause to come up
8941. ‘You shall not build it with hewn ones’ means that it must not be a product of self-intelligence. This is clear from the meaning of ‘hewn stones’ as the kinds of things which are products of self-intelligence, for ‘stones’ are truths, 8940, and chiselling or shaping them means producing or fashioning truths, or rather notions made to look like truths, out of the self, that is, out of self-intelligence. For the life in anything produced or fashioned by the self or self-intelligence is derived from the person; and such life is not life at all since the human self or proprium is nothing but evil, 210, 215, 694, 874-876, 987, 1047, 5660, 5786, 8480, whereas what is not derived from the self but from God does have life within it, since God is the source of all life. The subject here is worship of the Lord that springs from truth, for that kind of worship is meant by ‘an altar of stones’, 8940. .
[2] Truths that inspire worship of the Lord should be derived from nowhere
other than the Word; for in every single part the Word has life from God. When truths are derived from the self they have as their end in view rank and prominence over everyone in the world, and also earthly possessions and wealth above everyone. Consequently they hold within them self-love and love of the world, thus all evils in their entirety, 7488, 8318. But truths derived from the Word have eternal life as their end in view; they hold within them love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour, thus all forms of good in their entirety. When truths are produced out of the self or self-intelligence they are the masters over the truths which come from God; for they employ the latter to add strength to themselves. But it ought to be the other way round, that is to say, the truths from God ought to be the masters, and those that are products of self-intelligence to be the servants. Products of the self or self-intelligence are called truths, but they are not really truths; they look like truths solely to outward appearances. For the literal sense of the Word is employed, and reasonings are brought in, to make them look like truths; but inwardly they are falsities. What these things are exactly, and what they are like, see above in 8932.
[3] In the world there are two semblances of religion that exist as a result of self-intelligence. One is that in which self-love and love of the world is everything; in the Word this semblance of religion is called Babel. Inwardly it is profane on account of self-love and love of the world, while outwardly it is holy on account of the Word, which people have employed to add strength to their own ideas. The other semblance of religion is that in which the inferior light of the natural order is everything. Those with this kind of religion acknowledge nothing to be true which they do not apprehend. Some belonging to this seeming religion acknowledge the Word, yet they employ it to add strength to their own ideas; thus they treat it as their servant. Others however do not acknowledge the Word; instead they identify the Divine with the natural order. For the light in which they see, being the inferior light of the natural order, shines only within the natural order and cannot be made brighter by the superior light of heaven, because they cast aside the Word, the source of all enlightenment. Those belonging to both the latter and the former semblances of religion are in hell, because they are devoid of heavenly life, which they cannot receive because they have cast the Word aside. And those of them who have employed the Word to add strength to their own ideas have set no value at all on it in their hearts; yet because it has had power and authority among the common people they have used it to serve them in this way, in order that false notions fashioned by their own intelligence might thereby be validated. From all this one may see what is meant in the spiritual sense by the command that no altar of hewn stones was to be built.
[4] ‘Hewn stone’ means that which is a product of self-intelligence in the following places as well: In Isaiah,
In order that [all] the people may know, Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria, on account of pride and arrogance of heart, saying, The bucks have fallen and we will build from hewn stone. Isa. 9:9, 10.
In Jeremiah,
Even if I cry and shout, He has shut out my prayers. He has fenced round my ways with hewn stone, He has overturned my paths. Lam. 3:8, 9.
In Amos,
Because you tread down the crushed, and seize from him the burden of grain, you will build houses of hewn stone, yet you will not dwell in them. Amos 5:11.
‘Hewn stone’ here stands for the kinds of things that self-intelligence produces in matters of faith.
[5] Since those things were meant by ‘hewn stone’, the altar first built in the land of Canaan by the children of Israel after they crossed the Jordan was built of unhewn stones; for crossing over Jordan represented introduction into the Lord’s kingdom, which is accomplished by means of the truths of faith. That altar is spoken of as follows in Joshua,
Joshua built an altar to Jehovah God of Israel on Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of Jehovah had commanded the children of Israel, An altar of whole stones over which no one has wielded any iron tool.* Josh. 8:30, 31; Deut. 27:1-8.
[6] The temple in Jerusalem likewise was built of whole, not hewn, stones. This is referred to in the first Book of Kings as follows,
As regards the house itself, when it was being built it was built of whole stone, as it had been brought [there]; for not a hammer or axe, [nor] any tool of iron, was heard in the house while it was being built. 1 Kings 6:7.
For by ‘the temple of the Lord’ was represented the Lord in respect of Divine Truth. The Lord Himself teaches that He was represented by the temple, in John 2:19, 21, 22; and the reason why He was represented in respect of Divine Truth was that Divine Truth was taught there. This also was why it was built of stones; for ‘stones’ meant Divine Truth, 8940. And it also explains why the Lord was called ‘the Stone of Israel’, 6426.
[7] From all this one may now see what was meant by the stone of the altar, and also what was meant by the stone of the temple, as well as what was meant by the requirement that they were to be whole stones, and not hewn, namely this: Religion should be composed of truths derived from the Lord, thus from the Word, and not from self-intelligence. Products of self-intelligence are also described in the following way in Isaiah,
The craftsman casts a graven image, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts silver chains for it. He seeks a skilled** craftsman to make ready a graven image. Isa. 40:19, 20.
‘A graven image’ stands for some religious fabrication that is a product of the proprium or self, put forward to be venerated as what is Divine, 8869. ‘The craftsman’ stands for those who from self produce and fashion things. Their attempt to make these things look like truths is described by ‘[a goldsmith! overlays it with gold, and casts chains made of silver’ and ‘he seeks a skilled craftsman’.
[8] In the same prophet,
Makers of the graven image, all are vanity. All his companions will be ashamed; and the workmen themselves … He fashions the iron with tongs, and works it with the coals, and forms it with sharp hammers; so he makes it with his strong arm.*** He fashions pieces of wood, stretches out a cord, and marks it off with a ruler. He makes it into its angles, and marks it out with a ring, so that he may make it in the form of a man (vir), according to the beauty of a human being, to dwell in the house. Isa. 44:9, 11-13.
This too describes a religious fabrication that is a product of self-intelligence. Something similar occurs in Jeremiah,
The customs**** of the nations are vanity. Since indeed one cuts out wood from the forest, the work of the hands of the workman using an axe, he decorates it with silver and gold; and they make it firm***** with pegs and hammers. Jer. 10:3, 4.
And also in Hosea,
Nonetheless they now sin more and more, and make for themselves a molten image from silver, idols by their own intelligence, completely the work of craftsmen. Hosea 13:2
A religious fabrication, produced out of self-intelligence and not derived from the Word, is meant in the internal sense by ‘idols’ and ‘strange gods’, by ‘molten images’ and ‘graven images’. Products of the self are nothing else; for in themselves they are dead, even though venerated as living.
* lit. upon which he has not moved iron
** lit. intelligent
*** lit the arm of his strength
**** lit statutes
***** The Latin means he makes firm but the Hebrew means they make firm, which Sw. has in other places where he quotes this verse.
[2] But there are two phenomena that might have placed the mind in doubt so far as this matter is concerned. The first is that people in ancient times who were gentiles nevertheless knew that there is a God, that He is to be worshipped, and that a person as to his soul is immortal. The second is that those things are also known by a large number of nations at the present day among whom no revelation exists. But in the case of the ancients, they did not know those things from the inferior light they received from natural evidence but from revelation that spread from the Church even to them. For the Lord’s Church had existed since most ancient times in the land of Canaan, 3686, 4447, 4454, 4516, 4517, 5136, 6516. From there such things as belonged to the worship of God spread to the nations round about and also to the neighbouring Greeks, and from the Greeks to the Italians or Romans. From the Church all these nations received the things they knew about a supreme deity, and about the immortality of the soul, which their learned men wrote about.
[3] As regards the nations at the present day who also know of God’s existence and of life after death, they have not come to possess that knowledge from the inferior light they receive from natural evidence. They possess it from their religion which has come down to them from ancient times and which was founded on such things as had spread in various ways from the Church, where revelation existed. This happened in the Lord’s Divine Providence. Furthermore those among them who from their religion acknowledge God above all things, and from their religion do what charity requires them to do for their neighbour, on receiving instruction in the next life accept the truths of faith and are saved, 258- 2604.
[2] Let a brief explanation be given of what is implied by raising oneself towards more internal levels, that is, celestial ones, which is meant by ‘going up by steps to the altar’. No one in the next life is allowed to be raised into heaven to a level higher than that of the good which governs him. If he is raised to some higher level the foul things about him are revealed, that is, the evils he loves, and the resulting falsities; for the more internal something is, the purer and holier it is in heaven. Those whose state is not so pure are kept in a lower sphere in which impurities go unnoticed or are not apparent; for such people are governed by grosser good and guided by duller truth.
[3] Sometimes it happens that those coming into heaven have a strong desire to go to a more internal heaven, believing that by doing this they will experience greater joy. To the end that this strong desire which clings to them may be removed, they are indeed raised to a more internal heaven. But when they get there they start to feel anguished, on account of those evils they love which are then perceptible to them; they also become visibly disfigured on account of the falsities that spring from the evils residing with them. Having perceived these things they cast themselves down from the more internal heaven, and do not attain a calm and peaceful state until they return to the position they occupied previously. These are the things that are meant by ‘you shall not go up to My altar by steps, in order that your nakedness may not be revealed on it’.
[4] The same applies to those below heaven, if they have a strong desire to rise to heaven before they have been prepared for it. When they are raised there they feel torment almost hellish and seem to themselves to be like dead bodies. Their life becomes laboured, like that of those in the throes of death. Therefore they cast themselves down headlong from there, and after that no longer have any desire to rise above the state of life in which they live.
[5] It should be recognized that the Lord refuses heaven to no one in the next life, and that people can be allowed in as often as they wish. Heaven consists of communities of angels, who are governed by the good of love towards the neighbour and of love to the Lord. When introduced into heaven people are let into communities of such angels. But when the sphere of their life, that is, the life of their love, is out of agreement, conflict arises, as a result of which they feel anguished and cast themselves down from there. From this experience they learn about the life of heaven, and about the condition of their own life in comparison. They also learn from it that heaven does not become anyone’s simply by his being received or let in, as the common idea is in the world, and also that a person must live in such a way in the world that he becomes fit to be with those in heaven. But see what has already been stated and shown from experience previously regarding these matters, in 3938, 4225, 4226, 4299, 4674, 5057, 5058, 7186, 7519, 8794, 8797. These are the considerations which are meant by the regulation that they must not go up by steps to the altar, in order that their nakedness may not be revealed on it, and also by a similar regulation at Exod. 28:42, 43.
[6] The words ‘going up by steps’ are used because a raising to more internal levels is seen in the world of spirits – where celestial and spiritual realities are presented within forms similar to those in the world – as raising oneself by means of steps. I have often been allowed to see this representative sight. So it was too that in a dream Jacob saw angels going up to the Lord by the steps of a stairway, Gen. 28:12. Therefore also by ‘steps’ in the Word is meant going up to higher, that is, more internal levels, as in Ezekiel 40:6, 22, 26, 31, 34; and in Amos,
The Lord Jehovih Zebaoth builds His steps in the heavens. Amos 9:6.
Spirits from that planet, and also the planet itself, appear out in front, a considerable distance away, on a level with the lower part of the knees. When one’s eye is opened in that direction a great number of spirits, all from that planet, come into view. They are visible on this side of that planet, and over to the right.
People who are being regenerated undergo temptations.
EXODUS 21
1 And these are the judgements which you shall set before them.
2 When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve for six years; and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing.
3 If he comes in his body, he shall go out in his body;* if he is master of a woman,** his woman shall go out with him.
4 If his master has given him a woman and she has borne him sops or daughters, the woman and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out in his body***.
5 And if the slave says plainly, I love my master, my woman, and my children, I will not go out free;
6 His master shall bring him to God, and shall bring him to the door or to the doorpost. And his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him forever.
7 And when a man sells his daughter to be a female slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do****.
8 If she is bad***** in the eyes of her master, so that he does not betroth her, let her be redeemed. He shall have no power to sell her to a foreign people****** – he would be acting treacherously towards her.
9 And if he betroths her to his son, he shall deal with her according to the judgement of daughters*******.
10 If he takes another one for himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, and her marital rights.
11 And if he does not do these three things for her, she shall go out for
nothing, for no silver.
12 Anyone striking a man – and he dies – shall surely die.
13 And one who did not lie in wait, and God caused it to happen at his hand – I will appoint for you a place to which he may flee.
14 And when a man acts from set purpose against his companion, to kill him with guile, you shall take him from My altar to die.
15 And anyone striking his father and his mother shall surely die.
16 And anyone stealing a man and selling him – and he is found in his hand – shall surely die.
17 And anyone cursing his father and his mother shall surely die.
18 And when men quarrel, and a man strikes his companion with a stone or a fist, and he does not die, and lies down in bed,********
19 If he rises up and walks outside on his staff, the striker shall be
innocent; but he shall pay for his cessation [from work]********* and thoroughly cure him.**********
20 And when a man strikes his male slave or his female slave with a rod,
and [the slave] dies under his hand, he shall certainly be avenged.
21 However, if [the slave] stands for a day or two,*********** he shall not be
avenged, since he is his silver.
22 And when men brawl and inflict a blow on a pregnant woman, and
her offspring come out, and no harm is done, [the one inflicting the blow]
shall surely be fined, as the master of the woman************ imposes on him; and he shall pay in accordance with the judges.*************
23 And if harm is done, you shall pay soul for soul,
24 Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
25 Burning for burning, wound for wound, blow for blow.
26 And when a man strikes the eye of his male slave, or the eye of his
female slave, and destroys it, he shall send him away free for his eye.
27 And if he strikes out the tooth of his male slave or the tooth of his
female slave, he shall send him away free for his tooth.
28 And when an ox strikes a man or a woman with its horn, and [the
person] dies, the ox shall surely be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten;
and the owner************** of the ox shall be guiltless.
29 And if the ox has been accustomed to gore in the past,*************** and this has been testified to its owner.************** and he does not keep it in, and it kills a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned, and also its owner************** shall die.
30 If expiation has been imposed on him,**************** he shall pay for the
redemption of his soul according to all that has been imposed on him.
31 Whether it strikes a son with its horn or strikes a daughter with its
horn, according to this judgement it shall be done to him.
32 If the ox strikes a male slave with its horn, or a female slave, [the
owner] shall give their master thirty shekels of silver; and the ox shall be
stoned.
33 And when a man opens a pit, or when a man digs a pit, and does not
cover it, and an ox or an ass falls into it,
34 The owner************** of the pit shall make repayment; he shall give silver to its
owner,************** and the dead [animal] shall be his.
35 And when a man’s ox inflicts a blow on his companion’s ox, and it
dies, they shall sell the living ox, and divide the silver from it; and they
shall also divide the dead one.
36 Or if it is known that the ox has been accustomed to gore in the past,***************** and its owner****************** does not keep it in, he shall surely repay ox for ox; and the dead one shall be his.*******************
37 When a man steals an ox or a member of the flock, and slaughters it or
sells it, he shall repay five oxen for the ox, and four of the flock for the
member of the flock.
* i.e. If he comes in single, he shall go out single.
** i.e. if he is married
*** i.e. alone
**** lit. she shall not go out according to the going out of male slaves
***** i.e. one whom he does not find attractive enough for him to make her his concubine or ‘secondary wife’
****** lit. people of the foreigner
******* i.e. she shall have the same rights as a daughter
******** i.e. is confined to bed
********* i.e. recompense him for the time he has been unable to work
********** i.e. see to it that he makes a full recovery
*********** i.e. does not die within two days after being struck
************ i.e. the woman’s man or husband
************* i.e. as the judges determine
************** lit. lord or master
*************** lit. from yesterday three days ago
**************** i.e. If he must make atonement
***************** lit. from yesterday three days ago
****************** lit. lord or master
******************* In English versions of the Scriptures Exodus 21 ends here.
This chapter deals in the internal sense with those who injure or destroy the truth of faith or the good of charity present with themselves or with others; it states what punishment is incurred, and how restoration is effected. Such matters are embodied in the judgements or laws there regarding slaves; regarding death or harm inflicted on companions, or on slaves; and also regarding oxen accustomed to gore, and regarding a pit.
Everyone within the Church is well aware that the Word is holy, indeed extremely holy. This holiness is not merely acknowledged but also perceived by those people who are guided by the truths of faith and lead a life in keeping with them; for the idea of its holiness is preserved in them all the while that they read the Word. But people who are not guided by the truths of faith and do not lead a life in keeping with them do not even acknowledge, let alone perceive any holiness at all in the Word. When they read it they see nothing more outstanding there than in any other kind of writing. And those of them who in their hearts deny the holiness of the Word also say to themselves, when they read it, that the works of human authors are more elegant, since they have been written, so far as their literal meaning is concerned, in a more elegant style. This has been made plainly evident to me through my actual experience of those in the next life who in their hearts denied that the Word was inspired by God. When they were told that the Word was holy and Divine as to every jot there and as to the smallest tattle of all there, they stood skill and marvelled at how this could come about. And when they were told in addition, and also shown convincingly, that everything in the Word contains a spiritual level of meaning that is not apparent in the letter, and that the angels in heaven see the Word on this level when a person reads the Word, they acknowledged it, because they had been shown it. But they said that they had not known it in the world, and that since they had not known it, they were blameless. However examination of these same people revealed that they had lived just as they liked, totally unchecked by conscience, and that in their hearts therefore they had denied the existence of God, heaven and hell, life after death, and all other matters of faith, and that this was the reason for their failing to acknowledge the holiness of the Word. It was in addition made plainly evident that all those who were guided by the truths of faith and led a life in keeping with them considered the Word to be holy; indeed they could perceive its holiness for themselves when they read it. All this served to convince them that the cause lay not in the Word but in themselves; for the interiors of those who lead a life of goodness are opened towards heaven, from which the holiness of the Word flows from the angels, whereas the interiors of those who lead a life of evil are closed in the direction of heaven and opened towards hell, from which the opposite flows in.
[2] Take for example the judgements or laws in this chapter regarding male slaves, female slaves, and oxen. Those who deny the holiness of the Word because they lead a life of evil will say that they do not see anything Divine in those judgements or laws, such as the law that a male slave who does not wish to go out free should be brought to the door or doorpost, and his master should pierce his ear with an awl, so that the slave should serve him forever; or the law that if a slave who has been struck lives a day or two the master who struck him should not be punished, since he is his silver; or else the law that a slave should go free for an eye or for a tooth; or the law that an ox accustomed to gore should be stoned; or any of the other laws there. Those who in their hearts deny the holiness of the Word view these laws as being out of keeping with the Word, and especially out of keeping with a declaration made by Jehovah Himself on Mount Sinai. They view everything else in the Word, in both the historical section and the prophetical part, in the same way. But the reason why they view them in that way is that heaven is closed to them on account of their life of evil, as a result of which they have a contrary perception. It is altogether different with those who lead a life of goodness.
[3] Where the holiness of the Word which flows in from heaven begins is clear from all that has been stated and shown up to now regarding the internal sense of the Word. It has been shown that the Word alone has an internal sense and that this sense deals with such things as belong to heaven, with such as belong to eternal life; and that inmostly it deals with the Lord alone. Thus it deals with holy things, indeed with truly Divine subjects – the most holy of all. It has been shown too that angels, who are present with a person when the Word is being read, possess this sense, consequently that holiness flows out from them, which is also perceived by those who lead a life of faith and charity. So far as the judgements or laws in this chapter regarding male slaves, female slaves, and oxen are concerned, they contain in the internal sense such laws of Divine order as have regard to those who are guided by the truth of faith, and also to those who injure or destroy aspects of faith and charity, or aspects of love to the Lord. And in the inmost sense they contain [matters involving] the Lord Himself. From all this anyone may recognize how holy those laws are within themselves, however much they seem not to be so in the letter.
[2] The laws which the Lord delivered to the children of Israel and commanded them to keep were divided into commandments, judgements, and statutes. The term ‘commandments’ was given to those which were laws of life, ‘judgements’ to those which were laws of the civic state, and ‘statutes’ to those which were laws of worship. As regards judgements specifically, they are the kinds of laws that are contained in the present chapter and also some that follow. They served as laws in a Church in which inner realities, those of heaven and of the Church, were represented by outward things; but they do not serve as laws in a Church in which inner realities are no longer represented by outward things, as in the Christian Church. The reason for this is that inner realities have been revealed to people of this Church, and therefore inner realities are the channel through which contact is made with heaven, not outward things, as had been the situation before the Christian Church. Here is the reason why members of the Christian Church are not bound to adhere to the outward requirements of the laws called judgements and statutes, only to the inward ones. Holiness still remains within them because they hold holy truths within them, as also does every single command in the Word regarding the sacrifices. Although these are no longer prescriptive laws they remain holy constituents of the Word because of the Divine realities which they hold within themselves and which they represented. For when they are read by a Christian the Divine realities which are held within them and which were represented by them are discerned in heaven. They fill the angels with holiness, and at the same time the reader too through influx from the angels, especially if the reader himself is thinking at the same time about the Divine realities within them. From this it is evident that even the Old Testament Word is extremely holy.
[3] The fact that the laws which the Lord delivered to the children of Israel and commanded them to keep were divided into commandments that were laws of life, judgements that were laws of the civic state, and statutes that were laws of worship, is evident in Moses,
Jehovah said to Moses, Go, say to them, Go back into your tents. But you, stand here with Me, that I may tell you all the commandments, and statutes, and judgements which you shall teach them, so that they may do them. Deut. 5:30, 31.
In the same author,
Furthermore these are the commandments, statutes, and judgements which Jehovah your God commanded to teach you. Deut 6:1.
In the same author,
Therefore you shall keep the commandments and the statutes and the judgments which I am commanding you today, to do them. Deut. 7:11.
In David,
If his sons forsake My law and do not walk in My judgements, if they profane My statutes and do not keep My commandments, I will visit their transgression with the rod. Ps. 89:30-32.
[4] Furthermore all the laws, in that they were those of a representative Church, were generally called judgements and statutes, as in Moses,
Now therefore, O Israel, hear the statutes and the judgements which I will teach you, that you may do them. What great nation [is there] that has righteous statutes and judgements, like all this law which I will set before you today? Deut 4:1, 8; 5:1.
In Ezekiel.
Jerusalem has changed My judgements into wickedness more than the nations, and My statutes more than the lands that are around her; for they have repudiated My judgements, and have not walked in My statutes. Ezek. 5:6, 7.
In the same prophet,
Let him* walk in My statutes and keep My judgements – to do the truth. Ezek. 18:9.
In addition to these there are many other places, such as Lev. 18:5; 19:37; 20:22; 25:18; 26:15; Deut. 26:17; Ezek. 11:12, 20; 20:11, 13, 25; 37:24.
* The Latin means them but the Hebrew means him
‘When you buy a Hebrew slave’ means those within the Church who are imbued with the truths of religious teachings and not with the good that accords with those truths. ‘He shall serve for six years’ means a state of labour and some conflict, and of consequent strengthening of truth. ‘And in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing’ means a state of strengthened truth without its works. ‘If he comes in his body’ means truth without delight. ‘He shall go out in his body’ means a state of truth without delight, also after conflict. ‘If he is master of a woman’ means truth together with delight linked to it. ‘His woman shall go out with him’ means a state of truth together with delight joined to it, also after conflict. ‘If his master has given him a woman’ means good attached by the spiritual to truth during conflict. ‘And she has borne him sons or daughters’ means truths and forms of good which are derived from that good. ‘The woman and her children shall be her master’s’ means that the good attached by the spiritual to truth, and the forms of good and the truths derived from that good, must not be assigned to truth as its own. ‘And he shall go out in his body’ means a state after conflict, which is solely one of strengthened and implanted truth. ‘And if the slave says plainly’ means thought then springing from the implanted truth. ‘I love my master, my woman, and my children’ means the delight in remembering forms of spiritual good. ‘I will not go out free’ means the delight of obedience. ‘His master shall bring him to God’ means the state he then enters in keeping with Divine order. ‘And shall bring him to the door or to the doorpost’ means a state in which strengthened and implanted truth communicates with spiritual good. ‘And his master shall pierce his ear with an awl’ means a representative sign of obedience. ‘And he shall serve him forever’ means into eternity.
* i.e. If he comes in single, he shall go out single.
** i.e. if he is married
*** i.e. alone
Since the regulations that come next refer to male slaves and female slaves from the children of Israel, what they hold within them in the internal sense must be stated. Anyone can see that they contain the arcana of heaven, since they were declared and commanded by Jehovah on Mount Sinai to Moses orally, and since they follow very soon after the words of the Ten Commandments. Without such arcana they would be no more than civil and criminal laws like those of other nations on earth, which do not have any arcanum of heaven within them. But the arcana they contain are not evident except to angels in heaven. Consequently they do not become evident to people in the world except through the internal sense, because this sense teaches the way in which angels perceive the Word, and therefore teaches the arcana which the Word holds within itself. What those arcana are, and the nature of them, will be evident below from the explanation of specific details.
[2] So that a person may have a general idea of those things, a brief statement is needed to show what ‘Hebrew slaves’ in particular means in the internal sense. In the spiritual Church, which the children of Israel represented, there are two kinds of people. There are those who are imbued with the truth of faith but not with the complementary goodness of life, and there are those who are imbued with the good of charity and with the complementary truth of faith. Those imbued with the good of charity and complementary truth of faith constitute the truest part of the Church, being members of the internal Church. In the internal sense of the Word they are those called ‘the children of Israel’. They are intrinsically free, because they are imbued with good; for those who are led by the Lord through good are free, 892, 905, 2870-2893. Those however who are imbued with the truth of faith and not with the complementary goodness of life are members of the external spiritual Church. These are the ones who are meant in the internal sense of the Word by ‘Hebrew slaves’. The reason why these people are represented by slaves or servants is that relatively the things which belong to the external Church are nothing other than a body of servants. The same applies also to the relationship of the truth of faith-to the good of charity; for the truth of faith acts like a servant to lead a member of the Church into the good of charity.
[3] In addition it should be recognized that those who think that the all of the Church, thus the all of salvation, consists in the truth of faith and not in the good of charity, and also those who do good solely in a spirit of obedience and not out of love and affection, cannot be regenerated in the way that those people are who are imbued with the good of charity, that is, who do good out of love and affection. They can, it is true, be reformed, but not regenerated. The reformation of them is the subject in the internal sense at this point, in the laws regarding male slaves and female slaves. The arcana of that reformation are not known to anyone at the present day, the reason being that almost everywhere within the Church people are ignorant of what difference the truth of faith can make to salvation, and what difference the good of charity can make. Indeed people are ignorant of what charity is, and also that charity and faith must be married to each other if anything of the Church is to come into being in a person; for the marriage of goodness and truth constitutes the Church itself, because it is heaven within a person, 2173, 2618, 2728, 2729, 2803, 3132, 3155, 4434, 4823, 5194, 5502, 6179.
To him who thirsts I will give from the spring of the water of life for nothing. Rev. 21:6.
In the same book,
Let him who hears say, Come! And let him who thirsts come. And let him who wishes take the water of life for nothing. Rev. 22:17.
And in Isaiah,
Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, I say, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Isa. 55:1.
‘Waters’ stands for truths from the Word, ‘wine’ for the truth of good from there, and ‘milk’ the good of truth.
[2] But those imbued with truth to which delight has been joined are the ones who are meant here in the internal sense by slaves who come with a woman; for ‘woman’ means good when ‘man’ means truth. Here however delight is meant, since this exists in place of good in a member of the external Church. The good which such a person possesses does not spring from a spiritual origin but from a natural origin, for it savours of a delight to do the truth in life and to teach it for the sake of gain or important position, consequently for a selfish reason. This is why the word ‘delight’ is used and not ‘good’. To outward appearance it does indeed seem like good; but because it is natural good, that is, has a worldly origin, not a heavenly one, it is called delight.
[3] Good that springs from a spiritual origin however is meant in the internal sense by the woman whom a master gives to his slave. But it cannot be joined [to truth]; and that was why it was stipulated that when the slave went out the woman was to be the master’s, as also were her sons and daughters. For spiritual good is good not for the sake of gain or important positions but for the sake of the Church and the spiritual welfare of the neighbour. Such good cannot be joined to those confined to the outward things of the Church, since it is the genuine good of charity, springing out of love and affection. Those confined to the outward things of the Church cannot have any affection for the truths of faith without putting themselves first and the Church second. Though such people can indeed act in accordance with truths, thus can do good, they do not act from affection but out of obedience. These are the ones who are meant in the internal sense by those who wish to remain slaves forever.
[4] These are the arcana which the internal sense contains in these regulations regarding slaves, which can be grasped only by those imbued with the good of charity, and not at all by those imbued with the truth of faith without that good. The reason why is that those imbued with the good of charity are in the light of heaven, and from that light see things that exist in the light of the world. But those imbued with the truth of faith and not with the good of charity are in the light of the world, from which light things that exist in the light of heaven cannot be seen; for the light of heaven shines above, that is, on an inward level, whereas the light of the world shines below or on an outward level. Things on a lower or more external level can be seen from a higher or more internal one, but not the reverse; for heaven can flow into the world, but not the world into heaven, 3721, 5119, 5259, 5779, 6322.
[2] To know more about the nature of all this it should be kept in mind that the actions of a member of the internal Church spring from charity, thus from affection and love towards the neighbour, whereas the actions of a member of the external Church do not spring from the good of charity but from the truth of faith, thus not from affection and love towards the neighbour but from obedience because such actions are commanded. Consequently the member of the internal Church is free, whereas the member of the external Church in comparison is a slave; for one whose actions spring from love and affection acts in freedom, 2870-2893. But someone whose actions spring from obedience does not act in freedom, for acting in obedience is not freedom. This is the reason why one whose actions spring from the good of charity is a true member of the spiritual Church; he therefore is represented in the Word by Israel. Someone however whose actions do not spring from the good of charity but from the truth of faith is not a true member of the spiritual Church, but is in comparison one who serves him. He therefore was represented by the slave who was called ‘a Hebrew slave’ because he had been bought from the children of Israel.
[2] Is there anyone who cannot see that this regulation holds an arcanum which no one can know unless it is disclosed to him? For in its outward form it appears contrary to God’s justice, that when a slave goes out of servitude the woman who has been given to him should remain the master’s, when yet a woman should be her husband’s forever. There are many other apparent injustices like these which Jehovah commanded the children of Israel, such as that they were to ask from the Egyptians vessels of gold and silver, and clothes, and in so doing were to plunder them, besides other similar actions, dealt with in their individual places. But although those regulations in their outward form appear, as has been stated, contrary to God’s justice, they are not really so; for they rise out of the laws of Divine order in heaven, and these are perfect laws of justice. But those laws cannot be seen unless the internal sense is used to disengage them from the sense of the letter. The law that this regulation rises out of is this: Spiritual good cannot be joined to those who are confined since early childhood to the external things of the Church; it can only be linked to them for as long as they undergo conflict, after which it departs.
[3] To bring this whole matter out into the open, for it is an arcanum, it must be discussed briefly. There are people who – although they have from early childhood thought little about eternal life, and so about the welfare of their soul, and have thought instead about worldly life and its prosperity – have nevertheless led a morally good life and have also believed the truths taught by their Church. When they reach maturer age there is no other way in which they can be reformed than by the linking of spiritual good during conflict. They do not however retain that good but merely use it to strengthen the truths they have been taught. The reason for this is that in their life before then such people have surrendered themselves to worldly kinds of love, and when these have become deeply rooted they do not allow spiritual good to be joined to truth; for those kinds of love are totally repugnant to this good. Nevertheless spiritual good can take hold in those people’s thinking when those kinds of love subside, as happens during anxiety, misfortunes, or sicknesses, and the like. At this time an affection to do good from charity enters in; but that affection merely serves to strengthen and root more deeply the truths they have been taught. It cannot however be joined to truth. The reason why is that this charitable affection entering in fills only the understanding part of the mind. It does not pass into the will part of it, and what does not pass into the will is not adopted by or accordingly joined to truth. For goodness and truth with a person come to be joined together when truth passes into the will, consequently when the person wills it and because he wills it does it. Then, for the first time, truth becomes good, or what amounts to the same thing, faith becomes charity.
[4] This cannot come about with those who have from early childhood surrendered themselves to worldly kinds of love and yet have been imbued with truth taught by their Church. For the will part of their mind is occupied by such love, which is the complete opposite of spiritual good and repels it. They allow it into solely the understanding part of their mind, that is, into their thought, when those kinds of love have become dormant, which happens, as stated above, during a state of sickness or misfortune, or during anxiety, consequently during labour and some conflict. This is the arcanum that lies concealed within this regulation; and since the regulation was for that reason representative of the law of Divine order regarding those imbued with the truth of religious teachings and not with the complementary good, in the representative Church it was in keeping with God’s justice, even in its outward form.
[2] But between a slave and a woman provided by his master there is no marriage, only a coupling together like that of man and concubine; and this coupling does not correspond to the heavenly marriage. Therefore also it is dissolved when the slave goes out; for then the woman and children become the master’s. The reason why their relationship is only a coupling is that the truth represented by ‘the slave’ exists in the external man, while the good represented by ‘the woman’ exists in the internal man; and the good belonging to the internal man cannot be joined to the truth belonging to the external man unless a joining together has taken place first in the internal man. Till then they cannot be joined together because the slave represents the merely external man, which does not possess compatible good and cannot have such assigned to it. What has been stated about human regeneration in 3321, 3469, 3493, 3573, 3616, 3882, 4353, shows how impossible it is for the good of the internal man to be joined to the truth of the external man unless a joining together has taken place first in the internal man; for regeneration involves the joining together of goodness and truth.
[2] In heaven thinking about a place leads to being present in that place, and their presence in that community would attract towards itself the thoughts of those within the community, and so would disrupt the inflow from the Divine there. It is quite different when they speak in the abstract about some matter; their thought then spreads out in every direction in accord with the heavenly form which the influx emanating from the Divine produces, without causing disruption in any community. For it reaches into communities’ general spheres, yet without having an effect on or unsettling anyone within the community, and so without impairing anyone’s freedom to think in accord with the inflow from the Divine. In short, abstract thought can pass through the whole of heaven without hindrance anywhere; but thought narrowed down to persons or places becomes fixed and static.
* The Latin word translated loving is diligere, which alternatively may be rendered take delight in.
[2] Those who allow themselves to be regenerated act from affection when they act in accordance with the commandments of faith; but those who do not allow themselves to be regenerated, only to be reformed, act not from affection but from obedience. The difference is that those who act from affection do so from the heart, which means that they act in freedom, and also that they do what is true for its own sake, and what is good for its own sake, and in so doing exercise charity for their neighbour’s sake. But those who act from obedience do not act in that way from the heart, or therefore in freedom. If it seems to them that their actions do spring from the heart and are done in freedom, this is due to something of personal glory causing them to feel that way about their actions. Nor do they do what is true for its own sake or good for its own sake, but for the sake of the delight resulting from that glory. Thus they do not exercise charity towards the neighbour for the neighbour’s sake, but in order that they themselves may be seen and receive reward. From all this it is clear who exactly they are, and what they are like, who were represented by ‘the children of Israel’, and who exactly they are, and what they are like, who ho were represented by ‘Hebrew slaves’.
[3] But within the Church at the present day recognition of the difference between them has been lost. The reason for this is that faith, not charity, is declared to be and spoken of as the be-all of the Church at the present day. Yet few know what faith is. Most people think that faith consists in knowing the things taught by the Church and in firmly believing that they are true, but not in leading a life in keeping with them. A life in keeping with them is called by them the moral life, which they set apart from the teachings of the Church and term Moral Theology. The learned however think that faith is the confidence or assurance that they are saved through the Lord’s having suffered for them and redeemed them from hell. And they say that those possessing this confidence are saved, thus by faith alone. But they do not take into account the truth that the confidence belonging to faith cannot exist except with those who lead a charitable life.
[4] These are the reasons for the loss of the recognition of the difference between those imbued with the truths of faith and not with complementary goodness of life and those who are imbued with goodness of life complementing truths of faith. And since that recognition has been lost the things that are being said about those imbued with truths and not with good, who are meant by ‘Hebrew slaves’, inevitably appear to be far-fetched.
[2] The condition however of one who serves the Lord by doing according to His commandments, and by being obedient in that kind of way, is not that of a slave; rather, it is that of one who is free. For perfect freedom consists for a person in being led by the Lord, 892, 905, 2870, 2872. The Lord breathes the good into the person’s will from which his actions spring; and although that good comes from the Lord, the person nevertheless has the feeling that his actions are from himself, that is, he does them in freedom. This freedom exists with all who abide in the Lord; and coupled with it there is indescribable happiness.
[3] The reason why ‘God’ here means Divine order is that in the Word the name ‘God’ is used where truth is referred to, and ‘Jehovah’ where good is referred to, 2769, 2807, 2822, 3921 (end), 4402, 7010, 7268, 8867. Therefore Divine Truth emanating from the Lord’s Divine Good is meant in the highest sense by ‘God’, and His Divine Good from which Divine Truth emanates is meant by ‘Jehovah’. The reason for this is that Divine Good is Essential Being (Esse), and Divine Truth is the Coming-into- Being (Existere) from it, since what emanates from something comes into being from it. The situation with good and truth in heaven or among angels is similar, and that in the Church among men is similar. Good there is the essential being, and truth is the coming-into-being from it. Or what amounts to the same thing love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour is the essential being of heaven and the Church, while faith is the coming-into-being from it. All this makes plain why it is that ‘God’ can also mean Divine order; for Divine Truth emanating from the Lord is what constitutes order in heaven, so completely that it is order itself. For more about Divine Truth’s being order, see 1728, 1919, 7995, 8700.
Therefore when man or angel receives Divine Truth from the Lord within good, there resides with him that order which exists in the heavens. As a consequence he is a heaven or kingdom of the Lord in particular; he is such in the measure that he is imbued with good from truths, and after this in the measure that he is endowed with truths from good. And – what is an arcanum – angels themselves appear in heaven in a human form that accords exactly with the truths present with them within good, together with beauty and brilliance which accord with the character of the good from truths. The souls of members of the Church present a similar appearance in heaven. The Divine Truth itself emanating from the Lord brings this about, as may be recognized from what has been shown at the ends of a number of chapters regarding heaven as the Grand Man, and its correspondence with individual aspects of a human being.
[4] This arcanum is what the following words are used to mean in John, in the Book of Revelation,
He measured the wall of the holy Jerusalem, a hundred and forty-four cubits, which is the measure of a man (homo), that is, of an angel. Rev. 21:17.
Will anyone ever understand these words if he does not know what the holy Jerusalem, its wall, measure, the number 144, and so ‘a man, that is, an angel’ all mean? By the new or holy Jerusalem is meant the Lord’s New Church, which is going to take the place of the Christian Church existing at the present time, 2117; by ‘the wall’ is meant the truths of faith which will defend that Church, 6419; by ‘measuring’ and ‘the measure’ is meant its state in respect of truth, 3104; by the number 144 is meant much the same as by 12, since 144 is the number that is the product of 12 multiplied by itself, and by these numbers all truths in their entirety are meant, see 7973. These meanings make plain what is meant by ‘the measure of a man, that is, of an angel’, namely actual truth emanating from the Lord in the form it assumes, which is that of a man-angel in heaven, as stated above. All this reveals the arcanum which the words quoted above embody; it reveals that they describe the truths of that Church which is going to take the place of the Christian Church existing at the present time. [5] The fact that they are truths from good is described in the very next verse, in these words,
The construction of its wall was jasper, but the city was pure gold, like pure glass. Rev. 21:18.
‘Jasper’ means truth such as that Church’s will be, for truths are meant by ‘stones’ generally, 1298, 3720, 6426, and truths that come from the Lord by ‘precious stones’, 643; and ‘gold’ means the good of love and wisdom, 113, 1551, 1552, 5658. Would anyone ever discern that such meanings are embodied in those words? Yet who can fail to see from them that countless arcana lie concealed in the Word, which are not at all made apparent to anyone except by means of the internal sense, and that this sense, like a key, is the means of opening up God’s truths as they exist in heaven, and therefore heaven and the Lord Himself, who is the All in all of the Word in its inmost sense?
[3] To bring further out into the open the arcana contained in this procedure followed in the case of slaves staying on with their master, something must be said about why it is that ‘the door’ and ‘the doorpost’ mean the means of communication and of linking together. Angels and spirits possess dwelling-places, which are in appearance exactly like those in the world, 1116, 1626-1628, 1631, 4622. And – what is an arcanum – every single thing that appears in their dwelling-places is a sign of something spiritual; it also arises out of spiritual things which exist in heaven, and which are therefore present in their minds. Communication between truth and good is presented visually there as a door, and the linking together of them as a doorpost; and other things are presented as the actual rooms, porches, windows, and different kinds of adornment. Nobody at the present day, least of all one who is merely natural, is able to believe that these things are so, because they are not evident to people’s physical senses; and yet it is clear from the Word that such things were seen by prophets when their inner eyes were opened to see into heaven. I too have discerned and seen the same things a thousand times. I have also on many occasions heard them say, when their thoughts were being communicated to me, that the doors of their rooms were open, or when they were not being communicated, that their doors were shut.
[4] This explains why ‘doors’ are mentioned in the Word in places where communication is the subject, as in Isaiah,
Go away, my people, enter your bed chambers, and shut your door behind you. Hide yourself, so to speak, for a little moment, until the anger passes over. Isa. 26:20.
‘Shutting the door behind oneself, until the anger passes over’ stands for having no contact with evils, which are ‘the anger’, 3614, 5034, 5798, 6358, 6359, 6997, 8284, 8483. In Malachi,
Will He accept you favourably?* said Jehovah Zebaoth. Who even among you would rather shut the doors, and not kindle a light on My altar in vain? Mal. 1:9, 10.
‘Shutting doors’ stands for not communicating with sacred or Divine things. In Zechariah,
Open your doors. O Lebanon, that fire may consume your cedars. Zech. 11:1.
‘Opening doors’ stands for providing access or communication.
[5] In David,
He commanded the skies from above, He threw open the doors of the heavens. Ps. 78:23.
‘Throwing open the doors of the heavens’ stands for providing communication with the truths and forms of good which come from the Lord in the heavens. In the same author,
I have chosen to stand at the door in the house of my God rather than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. Ps. 84:10.
‘Standing at the door’ stands for communicating from the outside with good, which is ‘the house of God’, 3720. In the same author,
Lift up your heads, O gates, and be lifted up, O ancient doors,** so that the King of glory may come in. Ps. 24:7, 9.
‘Ancient doors being lifted up’ stands for opening and raising hearts to the Lord, who is ‘the King of glory’, and so providing communication, that is, enabling Him to flow in with the good of charity and the truth of faith. The Lord is called ‘the King of glory’, by virtue of the truth that radiates from good.
[6] In Isaiah,
Jehovah said to His anointed, to Cyrus – whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him, in order that I may ungird the loins of kings, to open doors before him, and gates may not be shut – I will go before you and make straight the crooked places. And I will give you the treasures of darkness, and the secret wealth of concealed places, that you may know that it is I, Jehovah, who called you by your name, the God of Israel. Isa. 45:1-3.
This refers to the Lord in respect of His Human, He being ‘Cyrus’ in the representative sense. ‘Opening doors before him’ is providing access to the Divine itself, which is why even in respect of His Human He is called ‘God’, in this instance ‘the God of Israel’
[7] In John,
Behold, I have set before you an open door which no one can shut; for you have a little strength, and have kept My word, and have not denied My name. Rev. 3:8.
‘Setting an open door’ stands for communication with heaven. In the same book,
After these things I saw, and behold, an open door in heaven. I heard, Come up here, in order that I may show you things which must take place after this. Rev. 4:1.
‘A door’ there plainly stands for communication, since a revelation which he was going to receive from heaven is the subject. From this it is also evident that communication is represented in heaven by a door, as stated above In the same book,
Behold, I stand at the door and knock If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. Rev. 3:20.
Here also ‘the door’ plainly stands for access to and communication with heaven where the Lord is, thus with the Lord.
[8] Similarly in Matthew,
The bridegroom came, and the virgins went in to the wedding feast and the door was shut. Eventually the remaining virgins came, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But He replying said, Truly, I say to you, I do not know you. Matt. 25:10-12.
What these words mean in the internal sense, see 4635-4638, where it is shown that ‘virgins’ are those within the Church. ‘Having oil in their lamps’ refers to those who have the good of charity within the truths of faith, and ‘not having oil in their lamps’ to those who have the truths of faith and not the good of charity in them. The door is said to be shut to the latter because they do not communicate with heaven, that is, through heaven with the Lord. Communication with heaven and through heaven takes place through the good of charity and love, but not through truths that are called the truths of faith devoid of good within them. This is why the latter are called ‘foolish virgins’, while the former are called ‘wise virgins’.
[9] In Luke,
Many will seek to enter and will not be able. Once the Householder has risen up and shut the door, then you will begin to stand outside and to knock at the door saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But He replying will say to you, I do not know where you come from. Then you will begin to say, We ate in Your presence and we drank; and You taught in our streets. But He will say to you, I do not know where you come from; depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity! Luke 13:24-27.
Here also ‘the door’ plainly stands for access and communication, as above. Those to whom the door is shut and who knock on it but are not let in are people imbued with the truths of faith received from the Word but not with the good of charity. All this is meant by their eating with the Lord and drinking, and by their hearing the Lord teaching in their streets, when yet they do not live the life of faith, for ‘workers of iniquity’ are those who do not live that life.
[10] In John,
Truly, truly I say to you, He who does not enter by the door into the sheepfold but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. I am the door; if anyone enters through Me he will be saved. John 10:1, 2, 9.
‘Entering by the door’ means passing through the truth of faith to the good of charity and love, thus to the Lord. For the Lord is Goodness itself, and the Truth that introduces too, thus also the door; for faith is received from Him.
[11] The use of ‘the door’ to mean the means of communication seems to be a metaphorical way of speaking, or a comparison. But in the Word they are not metaphors or comparisons; rather they are real correspondences. Even the comparisons made there involve the use of such things as are correspondential, as becomes clear from what has been stated regarding a door, namely that actual doors appear in heaven where angels and spirits reside, opening or shutting in accord with states of communication. So also with every other comparison.
* lit. Will he accept faces from you?
** lit. doors of the world
[2] The implications of all this may become clear from matters stated previously, where it has been shown that those imbued solely with truths and not with complementary good, that is, with faith and not with charity, are not free but slaves. Those whose actions spring from good or charity are free. They act from themselves; for actions that spring from good or charity spring from the heart, that is, from the will, and so from what is a person’s own, since what exists in a person’s will is his own and a deed springing from the will is said to go out of the heart. But those who are imbued solely with the truths of faith and not with the good of charity are slaves in comparison. They do not act from themselves since they have no good within themselves for actions to spring from; instead good is outside them, and they base their actions on it as often as they call it to mind. Those who stay like this through to the end of their lives remain permanently in this state after death. They cannot be brought to a state in which their actions spring from charitable affection, that is, from good; they can act only in obedience. In the Grand Man, which is heaven, they constitute those parts that serve more internal ones, like membranes and skins, 8977, 8980.
[3] All this shows what the situation is with faith alone, that is, with those who doctrinally place faith first and the good of charity second, indeed last. Those who place them in this order in the actual lives they lead are ‘Hebrew slaves’ in the representative sense; but those who place charity first, in the actual lives they lead, are free or ‘the children of Israel’ in the representative sense. From all this one may also conclude what the situation is with those who make salvation rest entirely on the truths of faith and not at all on the good of charity, that is to say, not at all on the actual life they lead. One may conclude that they cannot enter heaven; for good reigns in heaven, not truth without good, and truth is not truth, nor is faith faith, except with those imbued with good
[4] That his master’s piercing his ear with an awl, fixing it to the door, is representative of obedience is also evident from the consideration that fixing his ear to the door means causing him to attend to the things commanded by his master who is in the room, that is, to hear him at all times and obey his instructions. At this point the things which good wills and commands are meant in the spiritual sense, for spiritual good is represented by the slave’s master, 8981, 8986. Since ‘the ear’ means the hearing of obedience, there flows into human speech from an origin in the spiritual world the expression to tweak the ear, which stands for causing a person to pay attention and remember, and in like manner the expressions to hear and to hearken to someone, which stands for obeying him. For the inner meaning that very many words possess has sprung from correspondences from the spiritual world, as with expressions such as spiritual light and being enlightened by it which people use when speaking about matters of faith, and also spiritual fire and being animated by it when speaking about matters of love.
[5] The reason why piercing the ear was done with an awl was that ‘an awl’ has the same meaning as a pin or peg, namely affixing and joining onto, and in the spiritual sense pledging something. But an awl was a tool used by a servant, and therefore it served to represent the pledge of everlasting obedience by a slave. The meaning of ‘a pin’ or ‘a peg’ as affixing and joining onto is clear from the places where this object is mentioned, as in Isaiah 22:23; 33:20; 41:7; 54:2; Jer. 10:4; Exod. 27:19; 38:31; Num. 3:37; 4:32.
‘And when a man sells his daughter to be a female slave’ means an affection for truth springing from natural delight. ‘She shall not go out as the male slaves do’ means a state unlike truth devoid of affection. ‘If she is bad in the eyes of her master’ means if the affection for truth springing from natural delight is not in agreement with spiritual truth. ‘So that he does not betroth her’ means so that it cannot be joined to it. ‘Let her be redeemed’ means alienation from those truths. ‘He shall have no power to sell her to a foreign people’ means that it must not pass to those who are not of the Church’s faith. ‘He would be acting treacherously towards her’ means that this would be contrary to the laws of Divine order. ‘And if he betroths her to his son’ means if it is in agreement with some derived truth, so that it can be joined to it. ‘He shall deal with her according to the judgement of daughters’ means that it will then be like a genuine affection for truth. ‘If he takes another one for himself’ means being joined to an affection for truth stemming from some other source. ‘He shalt not diminish her food, her clothing, and [her] marital rights’ means no deprivation of inner life meant by ‘food’, nor of outer life meant by ‘clothing’, thus no deprivation of the joining together meant by ‘right to be married’. ‘If he does not do these three things for her’ means the deprivation of those things. ‘She shall go out for nothing, for no silver’ means alienation from that [spiritual truth], without truth joined to it.
* lit she shall not go out according to the going out of male slaves
** i.e. one whom he does not find attractive enough for him to make her his concubine or ‘secondary wife’
*** lit. people of the foreigner
**** i.e. she shall have the same rights as a daughter
[2] By natural delight one should understand delight emanating from self-love and love of the world. The people with an affection for truth emanating from these kinds of love are those who learn the teachings of the Church, called the truths of faith, either for the sake of gain or for the sake of important positions, and not for the sake of the life they should lead. Since affections such as this do not emanate from spiritual good but from natural delight they are represented by the daughter of an Israelite man sold as a female slave or servant-girl. For whatever owes its origin to self-love or love of the world is not freedom but slavery. What freedom and slavery are, see 892, 905, 1947, 2870-2893, 6205. The nature of affection for truth arising from those kinds of love is described in the internal sense of what follows next.
[3] It should be borne in mind that a genuine affection for truth consists in willing and desiring to know the real truths of faith with a view to putting them to good use and for the sake of the life one should lead. But an affection for truth which is not genuine consists in willing and desiring truths for selfish reasons, that is, in order to acquire important positions and make monetary gain. Those with an affection for truth that has this origin do not care whether the truths they learn are genuine or not, provided that they are such as can be palmed off as truths. This being so, they confine themselves to endorsing the teachings of the Church in which they were born, regardless of whether those teachings are true or not. They are also in the dark so far as real truths are concerned; for worldly ends or gains, and selfish* ends or important positions make people completely blind.
[4] But those with a genuine affection for truth, that is, those who desire to know truths to put them to good use and for the sake of the life they ought to lead, they too keep to the teachings of the Church, until they reach the age when they begin to think for themselves. Then they examine the Scriptures and pray to the Lord for enlightenment; and when they receive it, their hearts rejoice. For they know that if they had been born where the teachings of the Church are different, indeed where the greatest heresy exists, then – if they had not examined Scripture from a genuine affection for truth – they would have remained in it, as for example they would have done if they had been born Jews, or they had been born Socinians. All this shows who exactly those people are, and what they are like, who have a genuine affection for truth, and who they are, and what they are like, who have an affection for truth that is not genuine. Those with a genuine affection for truth are meant in the representative sense by the daughters of Israelite men; but those with an affection for truth that is not genuine are meant in the representative sense by female slaves from among the daughters of Israel, who are the subject at present.
* lit. bodily
[2] The implications of this must be stated briefly. There are those who are imbued with truth and no affection for it, and there are those who are imbued with an affection. The former were represented by male slaves from the children of Israel, the latter by female slaves, also from the children of Israel. But ‘female slaves’ did not represent those with a genuine affection for truth, only those with an affection that is not genuine, as may be seen from what has been shown immediately above in 8993.
[3] The difference between those imbued with truth devoid of affection, who were represented by the male slaves, and those imbued with an affection for truth, who were represented by the female slaves, is akin to the difference between knowing truth and willing truth. Knowing truth belongs solely to the understanding part of the mind, whereas willing truth belongs to the will part; consequently the difference is akin to that between knowledge and affection. Those imbued with a knowledge of truth and good, meant by male slaves or the men in the representative sense, have no affection for truth and good, only for the knowledge of them; consequently they are delighted with truths for the sake of knowing them. But those imbued with an affection for truth and good, meant by female slaves or the women in the representative sense, have no affection for the knowledge of truth and good, only for truths and forms of good themselves, as they hear and perceive them from others. This kind of affection exists generally with good women, but the affection for knowledge of truth exists generally with men.
[4] So it is that those who are spiritually perceptive have a liking for women with an affection for truths, but not for women who concentrate on gaining knowledge. For it is in keeping with Divine order for men to know things and for women purely to have an affection for them, so the women do not love themselves because of their knowledge but love men; and from this springs the desire for marriage. This also is why those of old said that women must keep silent in the Church. All this being so, factual and religious knowledge are represented by men, but affections by women; at this point affection for truth that pours out of the delights belonging to natural kinds of love is represented by female slaves. And because people with this kind of affection are of an entirely different disposition from those with an affection for knowledge, the situation with female slaves is entirely different from that with male slaves. So this is what is meant by ‘a female slave shall not go out as the male slaves do’. It should be recognized however that this is the situation among those who belong to the Lord’s spiritual kingdom, whereas among those who belong to His celestial kingdom the reverse applies. There husbands are the ones with affection, and wives are the ones with knowledge of good and truth; and this is what the desire for marriage springs from among them.
[2] The implications of all this must be stated. ‘A female slave’ is an affection for truth springing from the delights that belong to self-love and love of the world, as stated above in 8993, 8994; and this affection is able to be joined to spiritual truth. This may be recognized from the consideration that an affection for spiritual truth is an internal affection or one that resides in the internal man, whereas an affection for truth springing from natural delight resides in the external man. The internal affection that belongs to the spiritual man is joined unceasingly to the external affection that belongs to the natural man, yet in such a way that the internal affection for truth acts as master and the external affection as slave. For it is in keeping with Divine order that the spiritual man should be master over the natural man, 8961, 8967. When the spiritual man is master the person is looking upwards; this is represented by having the head in heaven. But when the natural man is master the person is looking downwards, which is represented by having the head in hell.
[3] To make this transparently clear something more must be stated. By the truths they learn and the good deeds they perform most people hope to acquire some gain from their country, or some important position. If these are regarded as the end in view, the natural man is the master and the spiritual man the slave. But if they are regarded not as the end, only as the means to the end, the spiritual man is the master and the natural man the slave, as accords exactly with the things stated in 7819, 7820. For when people consider gain or positron as the means to an end and not the end itself, they are not considering gain or position but the end, which is useful service. A person for example who desires wealth, and acquires it for the sake of useful service which he loves above all things, does not delight in wealth for its own sake; he delights in it for the sake of useful service. The spirit of useful service itself constitutes spiritual life in a person, and the wealth merely serves him as means, see 6933- 6938. From this one may also see what the natural man must be like if it is to be joined to the spiritual – it must regard gain and important positions, that is, wealth and eminence, as the means and not the end. What a person regards as the end constitutes the actual life within him, since he loves it more than all things. For what a person loves, that is his end in view.
[4] Anyone who does not know that a person’s end in view, or what amounts to the same thing, his love, constitutes the person’s spiritual life, consequently that a person is where his love is – in heaven if that love is heavenly, in hell if it is hellish – cannot grasp the situation in these matters. He may suppose that the delight belonging to natural kinds of love – self-love and love of the world – cannot be in agreement with spiritual truth and good. He may suppose this because he does not know that when a person is being regenerated he must be turned upside down, and that when he has been turned upside down he is positioned with his head in heaven, whereas before being turned upside down he was positioned with his head in hell. He was positioned with it in hell when he had the delights of self-love or love of the world as his end in view; but he is positioned with his head in heaven when he has those delights as the means to his end. For the person’s end or love, and this alone, has life. The means to the end however have no life of their own but receive life from the end; therefore the means in relation to the final end are called intermediate ends, which have life in the measure that they look to the final end, which is the chief one. So it is that, when a person has been regenerated, consequently when he has loving the neighbour and loving the Lord as his end, he has loving self and the world as the means. When a person is like this, when he looks to the Lord, he rates himself and also the world as nothing. If he does rate himself as something, it is in order that he may be able to serve the Lord. Before this however his attitude had been the opposite. Then he had been full of self-regard and had rated the Lord as nothing; or if had rated Him as something, it had been in order that gain or position might consequently come his way.
[5] All this makes clear the nature of the arcanum concealed in these regulations regarding female slaves from among the daughters of Israel, that is to say, the regulations that although they were slaves they were, if ‘good’, betrothed to their master who had bought them, or to his son; but if they were ‘bad’ they were not betrothed but either redeemed or sold, according to the contents of these verses. Betrothing even female slaves, or having them as concubines, was permitted in the representative Church, particularly in the Jewish and Israelite, because a wife represented the affection for spiritual truth, whereas a female slave represented the affection for natural truth, so that a wife represented the internal aspect of the Church with a person, but a female slave the external aspect. The latter was represented by Hagar who was betrothed to Abraham, and also by the two female slaves betrothed to Jacob.
[6] All this now shows what is meant in the internal representative sense by the regulation that ‘if she is bad’ a female slave cannot be betrothed. That is to say, ‘if she is bad’ means if the affection springing from natural delight – ‘a female slave’ – is not in agreement with the spiritual man. This lack of agreement is brought about primarily because that affection wishes to be the master and is of a disposition and mind that cannot be bent towards a love of the Lord. Furthermore the agreement or disagreement of the affection springing from natural delight with the spiritual is determined by the essential nature of them both; but a division of them into their numerous categories would be too long and tedious. A female slave or servant-girl may also mean an affirmative means that serves to join together the external man and the internal man, see 3913, 3917, 3931.
[2] This is made even more plainly evident by the origin of conjugial love; that is, it springs from the marriage of goodness and truth, 2727-2759. Descending from this marriage, conjugial love is heaven itself within someone. But this is destroyed when the hearts and faith of two married to each other are not alike. This then is the reason why a female slave from among the daughters of Israel, that is, from the Church, was not to be sold to a foreign people, that is, to those outside the Church. For the latter would then betroth her, that is, be joined to her, and in so doing would profane things of the Church, which explains why doing such a thing to her is called ‘acting treacherously’.
[2] An idea of what an affection from some other source is may be gained from the consideration that every affection belonging to love is very broad and wide indeed, so broad that it extends far beyond all human understanding. Human understanding cannot go so far as to know even the genera of the varieties of such affection, still less the species making up the genera, and least of all the particular aspects and individual details of those aspects. For all that exists within the human being, especially that which belongs to affection or love there, is infinitely varied. This becomes perfectly clear from the consideration that the affection for what is good and true, an affection that belongs to love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour, constitutes the whole of heaven, and yet in respect of good those in the heavens, where millions live, are all different from one another. And they would still all be different even if multiplied into countless millions of millions. For it is not possible in the universe for one thing to be exactly like another and have separate existence. It must vary, that is, be different from another, if it is to be something by itself, see 684, 690, 3241, 3744, 3745, 3986, 4005, 4149, 5598, 7236, 7833, 7836, 8003. All this gives some idea of what one should understand by an affection from some other source, namely an affection which is different from another but can nevertheless be joined to the same spiritual truth. Such affections, which are represented by female slaves betrothed to the same man, belong to the same genus but different species, the difference between them being called a specific difference. Various examples could be used to illustrate these matters; but the general idea conveyed by the things that have just been said is better.
[3] So that the joining of such affections to the same spiritual truth, and their subordination to it, might be represented, it was permissible within the Israelite and Jewish nation for men to have a number of concubines. Abraham had them, Gen. 25:6, and so did David, Solomon, and others. For anything permitted among that nation existed because of what that thing represented; or to be more precise, it existed so that by means of outward things that nation might represent the inner realities of the Church, 3246. But when the inner realities of the Church were disclosed by the Lord, representations of inner realities through outward things came to an end; for now it was the inner realities – forms of faith and love – that were to be apprehended by a member of the Church and to be the means by which he worshipped the Lord. For this reason they were no longer permitted to have a number of wives, or concubines as well as wives, see 865, 2727-2759, 3246, 4837.
[2] The situation here is that a natural affection joined to a spiritual truth, which is meant by ‘a female slave betrothed to a son’, unceasingly needs to be sustained with life from the spiritual truth to which it has been joined; if the affection is not sustained from there it perishes. The situation with a person’s affection is just the same as with the person himself; if he is not sustained by food he dies. Interiorly furthermore a person is nothing other than affection, one who is good being interiorly an affection for good and consequently for truth, and one who is evil being an affection for evil and consequently for falsity. This is especially evident in a person when he becomes a spirit; the sphere of life which then wells out of him is either one of affection for good or one of affection for evil. Now he is nourished or sustained not with natural food and drink but with spiritual, which for an evil spirit is falsity arising from evil, but for a good spirit is truth springing from good. The nourishment that people’s minds receive in the world during their life in the body is nothing other. So it is that all kinds of food – bread, flesh, wine, water and many others – mean in the spiritual sense within the Word the kinds of food that constitute spiritual nourishment.
[3] All this also shows what one is to understand by the Lord’s words in Matthew,
Man does not live by bread only but by every word that goes out of the mouth of God. Matt. 4:4.
Also what one should understand by His words in Luke,
You will eat and drink at My table in My kingdom. Luke 22:30.
And in Matthew,
I tell you that I shall not drink from now on of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom. Matt. 26:29.
The Lord spoke these words after He had instituted the Holy Supper, in which the bread and wine are elements which denote love and faith, in the same way as flesh and blood do. From this it can be clearly seen what the Lord’s flesh and blood mean in John 6:49-58, especially in these words there,
My flesh is truly food, and My blood is truly drink. John 6:55.
In the Word ‘flesh’ means the good of love, see 3813, 7850, ‘blood’ the good of faith, 4735, 6978, 7317, 7326, 7846, 7850, 7877; and ‘bread’ and ‘wine’ have the same meanings, 2165, 2177, 3464, 3478, 3735, 3813, 4211, 4217, 4735, 4976, 5915, 6118, 6377.
‘Anyone striking a man – and he dies’ means injury done to the truth of faith, and consequent loss of spiritual life. ‘Shall surely die’ means damnation. ‘And one who did not lie in wait’ means when it was not contemplated beforehand by the will. ‘And God caused it to happen at his hand’ means appearing as something happening by chance. ‘I will appoint for you a place to which he may flee’ means a state of blamelessness and so of freedom from punishment. ‘And when a man acts from set purpose against his companion’ means prior thought by a wicked will. ‘To kill him with guile’ means consequent malice* intent on depriving the neighbour of eternal life. ‘You shall take him from My altar to die’ means damnation even though he flees to worship the Lord, pleads for forgiveness, and promises to repent. ‘And anyone striking his father and his mother’ means blaspheming the Lord and His kingdom. ‘Shall surely die’ means damnation.
* The Latin adds the two words et aestum (and firey passion). Possibly et astum (and cunning) is intended.
[2] The reason why ‘a man’ means the truth of faith is that in heaven they do not focus their attention on the person or anything of the person, only on things in the abstract, that is, without envisaging any actual person, 4380 (end), 8343, 8985. Consequently they do not think of ‘a man’ when this expression is used in the Word, for a man is a person; instead they think of his power of mind which makes him a man, namely the power of understanding. And when they think of this they think of the truth of faith, since it belongs to that power of mind and not only enlightens it but also shapes it. Just as in heaven they think of someone’s power of understanding when ‘a man’ (vir) is used, so they think of his power of will when ‘a human being’ (homo) is used; for a human being is a human being by virtue of the will, whereas ‘a man’ is such by virtue of the understanding. And as the will is really the human being, ‘human being’ therefore means the good of love, since it belongs to the will, perfecting and composing it. For the meaning of ‘a man’ as the power of understanding and consequently the truth of faith, see 158, 265, 749, 1007, 2517, 3134, 3309, 3459, 4823, 7716; and for ‘a human being’ as the good of love, 768, 4287, 7523, 8547, 8988.
[2] Evils that come forth from one part of the mind and not at the same time from the other, such as those from the understanding part and not at the same time from the will part, do not take root and become the person’s own. That alone takes root and becomes his own which passes from the understanding part into the will part, or what amounts to the same thing, from thought belonging to the understanding into affection belonging to the will, and from there into action. Things that enter the will are those which are said to enter the heart.
[3] Evils however which come forth solely from the will, thus not from prior thought about them, are those such as a person is prone to owing to heredity or owing to some previous activity resulting from hereditary inclinations. These evils are not ascribed to the person unless he has established them firmly in the understanding part of his mind, 966, 2308, 8806. But when they have been firmly established there they have been inscribed on the person, becoming properly his own; then they are attributable to him. But those evils cannot become firmly established with a person in the understanding part of his mind until he reaches adult life, that is to say, when he starts to think for himself and be wise. Till then he trusts not in himself but in teachers and parents.
All this shows what the meaning is of ‘one who did not lie in wait’, namely when it was not contemplated beforehand by the will.
The Lord’s providence is in every single thing, see 1919 (end), 4329, 5122 (end), 5155, 5195, 5894 (end), 6058, 6481-6487, 6489, 6491, 7004, 7007, 8478, 8717.
Contingencies or chance occurrences are providential, 5508, 6493, 6494.
Evil is attributed to the Lord, when in fact it originates in man, 2447, 5798, 6071, 6832, 6991, 6997, 7533, 7877, 7926, 8197, 8227, 8228, 8282, 8284, 8483, 8632.
[2] The fact that they were represented [by those] who fled to places of refuge is clear in Moses,
You shall select suitable cities, which are to be cities of refuge for yourselves, so that one who strikes and kills a soul accidentally may flee there. If without premeditation, without enmity, he pushes him; or throws at him some implement without forethought; or [strikes him] with any stone from which he may die, while not seeing him, so that he causes it to fall onto him and he dies, though he was not his enemy and did not seek to harm him … Num. 35:11, 12, 22, 23.
And in the same author,
This is the case* with one who kills, who shall flee there so that he may live, when he has struck his companion unwittingly, when he did not hate him previously** – as when he goes with his companion into a forest to cut down timber, but when his hand with the axe in it is swung to cut down wood, the iron flies off the handle and hits his companion so that he dies,*** he shall flee to one of these cities so that he may live. Deut. 19:4, 5.
[3] This describes the state of one blameless and freed from punishment, who through the falsities of faith which he had believed to be truths, or through factual knowledge based on the illusions of the senses, has injured someone, and so has done harm to his internal or spiritual life. To convey this meaning such an accident or chance is described by an implement of some kind, and by a stone which he causes to fall onto his companion so that he dies, and also by the axe or iron coming off its handle, while both were cutting down timber in the forest. The reason why such details are used to describe the matter is that ‘an implement’ means some known fact, and ‘a stone’ a truth of faith or in the contrary sense a falsity; and in like manner ‘the iron of an axe’ and ‘cutting down timber’ means to argue about what is good, using what one’s religion teaches.
[4] Anyone may see that but for some hidden reason a killing that occurred accidentally would not have been described by the iron of an axe coming off its handle in a forest, for such an accident happens rarely, scarcely once in many years. But that accident has been described in such a way for the sake of the internal sense, which describes the harm done to a soul by another through the falsities of faith which, because his religion teaches them, he has believed to be truths. For anyone who causes harm through falsities which he believes to be truths does not do harm from set purpose or in spite of knowing better, because he acts in accord with his religious faith and therefore out of zeal. So that these things might be meant in the internal sense they are described, as has been stated, by those who kill companions accidentally, and by ‘a stone’, by ‘cutting down wood in a forest’, and by ‘the iron of the axe coming off its handle onto a companion during the process’. For ‘a stone’ is a truth of faith in the natural man, and in the contrary sense a falsity, see 643, 1298, 3720, 6426, 8609, 8941, and so is ‘iron’, 425, 426. ‘The iron of the axe coming away from its handle’ is truth separated from good, good being meant by ‘handle’ or ‘wood’, 643, 2812, 3720, 8354; ‘cutting down wood’ means placing merit in works, 1110, 4943, 8740; but ‘cutting down timber in a forest’ means discussing these and like matters, and also calling them into question; for ‘a forest’ means a religious system.
[5] Like matters are meant by ‘cutting down timber in a forest with axes’ in Jeremiah,
The mercenaries will go with strength, and they will come to her with axes, like those who cut down timber. They will cut down her forest, said Jehovah. Jer 46:22, 23.
Here ‘cutting down timber in a forest’ stands for acting in accord with false religious practices and destroying such things as constitute the Church. For the Church is called ‘a forest’, ‘a garden’, and ‘a paradise’; it is called ‘a forest’ by virtue of its knowledge, ‘a garden’ by virtue of its intelligence, and ‘a paradise’ by virtue of its wisdom, 3220, ‘trees’ being perceptions of goodness and truth, and also cognitions or knowledge of them, 103, 2163, 2722, 2972, 4552, 7690, 7692. And since ‘a forest’ means the Church in respect of its knowledge, thus of its external aspects, it also means religious practices.
[6] The Church in respect of its knowledge or external aspects is also meant by ‘a forest’, or ‘a wood’, in David,
The field will be exultant and everything in it; then all the trees of the wood will sing. Ps. 96:12.
In the same author,
Behold, we heard of Him in Ephrathah; we found Him in the fields of the wood. Ps. 132:6.
These words refer to the Lord. In Isaiah,
The light of Israel will be a fire, and his Holy (One a flame. It will burn the glory of his forest, and his Carmel; it will consume from the soul even to the flesh. As a consequence the remaining trees of the wood will be [so small] a number that a child may write them down. He will cut down the entangled boughs of the forest with an axe,**** and Lebanon will fall by a majestic one. Isa. 10:17-20, 34.
‘The forest’ stands for the Church in respect of its cognitions of truth, and ‘Carmel’ for the Church in respect of its cognitions of good, in the same way as ‘Lebanon’ and ‘Hermon’ do. ‘The trees of the wood’ stands, as above, for cognitions, and ‘being a number that a child may write down’ stands for the fewness of them, ‘entangled boughs of the forest’ standing for factual knowledge, 2831.
[7] In the same prophet,
You said, By the multitude of my chariots I will go up [to] the height of the mountains, the sides of Lebanon, where I will cut down the tallness of its cedars, the choice of its fir trees, After that I will come to its remotest height,***** the forest of its Carmel. Isa. 37:24.
In Jeremiah,
I will visit on you according to the fruit of your works, and I will kindle a fire in its forest. Jer. 21:14.
In Ezekiel,
Prophesy against the forest of the field towards the south, and say to the forest of the south, Behold, I will kindle in you a fire, and it will devour every tree. Ezek. 20:46, 47.
In Micah,
Guide****** Your people with Your staff, the flock of Your inheritance inhabiting alone a forest in the midst of Carmel. Micah 7:14.
Does anyone fail to see that in these places a forest is not meant by ‘a forest’, nor Lebanon and Carmel, which were forests, by ‘Lebanon’ and ‘Carmel’, but that some aspect of the Church is meant? What aspect of the Church it is however has lain hidden up to now because the internal sense has lain hidden. But how astonishing that in a world so learned as Europe – more learned than all the other continents – where the Word exists, in every detail of which the internal sense is present, there is no awareness of that sense! Yet it was known to the ancients in Chaldea, Assyria, Egypt, and Arabia, and from them in Greece, in whose books, symbols, and hieroglyphics such matters are still met with. The reason why awareness of that matter has perished is lack of belief that what is spiritual has any real existence.
* lit. word or matter
** lit. when he was not a hater of him yesterday and three days ago
*** lit. the iron is struck off the wood and finds his companion so that he dies
**** lit. iron
***** lit. the height of its end
****** lit. Feed or Pasture
[2] Those who use guile while in the world to ensnare their neighbour in regard to worldly and earthly affairs use guile in the next life to ensnare their neighbour in regard to spiritual and celestial matters. And because they do it in a secret way they are banished to the hells behind the back, to a depth in keeping with the malevolence and harmfulness of their guile, and so are separated from those who are in front. These in front are called spirits, but those behind the back are called genii, 5035, 5977, 8593, 8622, 8625. Genii are not allowed near men as spirits are. For they enter affections belonging to the will, by acting in opposition to the good of love and charity, in so surreptitious a manner that it cannot possibly be detected; and in that way they destroy the truth of faith. In their own hells they place themselves out of sight to their companions; for those who have acted in concealment in the world can place themselves out of sight in the next life. When they make their appearance they look to one another like human beings; but when angels examine them they look like serpents. For they have the nature of serpents, and what goes out of them is like poison, indeed is spiritual poison. [3] For this reason ‘poison’ in the Word means guile, and ‘poisonous serpents’, such as asps, adders, or vipers, means people full of guile, as in David,
In heart you work perversities. Their poison is like the poison of a serpent, like that of the deaf asp. Ps. 58:2, 4.
In the same author,
They think evil things in their heart. They make their tongue sharp, like a serpent; the poison of an asp is under their lips. Ps. 140:2, 3.
In Isaiah,
They lay eggs of the asp, and weave spider’s webs; he who eats from their eggs dies, and when anyone presses it out a viper is hatched. Isa. 59:5.
In Job,
He will suck the poison of asps, the tongue of a viper will kill him. Job 20:16.
In Moses,
Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel gall of asps. Deut. 32:33.
In Matthew,
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! How, O serpents, brood of vipers, will you escape the judgement of Gehenna? Matt. 23:29, 33.
[4] Guile is called hypocrisy when people speak in godly ways but are ungodly at heart, or when they have charity on their lips but hatred in their heart, or when they express innocence on their face and in their gestures but have cruelty in their soul and breast; consequently they are those who use innocence, charity, or godliness to deceive. It is they who are meant in the internal sense by ‘serpents’ and ‘vipers’, because when such people, as stated above, are examined in the light of heaven by angels they look like serpents and also vipers. They are those who conceal evils under truths, that is, who with guile twist truths in order to perform evil deeds; for they hide poison under their teeth, so to speak, and kill by means of it.
[5] But those who are led by the Lord, believing what is true and leading a good life, cannot suffer injury from their poisons, since they live in light received from the Lord, and in that light those full of guile are seen as serpents and their guile as poison. Their preservation by the Lord is meant by the Lord’s words to His disciples,
Behold, I give you the power to trample on serpents and scorpions. Luke 10:19.
In Mark,
These signs will follow believers: They will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly it will not hurt them. Mark 16:17, 18.
And in Isaiah,
A suckling will play over the viper’s hole. Isa. 11:8.
[6] People inwardly corrupted with spiritual guile, that is, with hypocrisy, are the ones who are meant by those speaking against the Holy Spirit, for whom there is no forgiveness, in Matthew,
I say to you, Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy of the Spirit will not be forgiven people. Indeed if anyone speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but he who speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the one to come. Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad. O brood of vipers, how can you speak good when you are evil? Matt. 12:31-34.
‘Speaking a word against the Holy Spirit’ means speaking well of things that belong to the Lord, to His kingdom and Church, and also to the Word, but thinking ill of them; and doing well in respect of them while desiring what is ill. For falsity then lies hidden within the truths they speak, and evil in the good deeds they perform, which is the hidden poison. This is why they are called ‘a brood of vipers’.
[7] In the next life an evil person is allowed to speak what is evil and also false, but not what is good and true, because all there are impelled to speak from the heart and not to have a divided mind. Those who do other than that are separated from the rest and hidden away in hells from which they can never come out. The fact that people such as these are meant by those speaking a word against the Holy Spirit is clear from the Lord’s words there, ‘Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad. How can you speak good when you are evil?’ The Holy Spirit is Divine Truth emanating from the Lord, thus that which is holy and Divine, which is thereby blasphemed and profaned on an inward level.
[8] The reason why such blasphemy is not forgiven them is that hypocrisy or guile involving things that are holy and Divine corrupts a person inwardly and destroys everything of spiritual life with him, as stated above, at length so completely that there is no soundness anywhere in him. For the forgiveness of sins consists in evil being separated from good and cast away to the sides, 8393. But this cannot be done for someone with whom all good has been destroyed; and this is why it says, ‘It will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the one to come’. These are also the kind of people who are meant by the one who was not wearing a wedding garment, who was bound hand and foot and cast into outer darkness, Matt. 22:11-13; see 2132.
[9] The fact that ‘guile’ in the Word is hypocrisy is clear from the following places: In Jeremiah,
Take heed, a man of his companion, and put no trust in any brother, for every brother supplants wholly. They deceive, a man with his companion, and do not speak the truth; they have taught their tongue to speak a lie. Your habitation is in the midst of guile; on account of guile they have refused to know Me, said Jehovah. Jer. 9:4-6.
In David,
You will destroy those speaking a lie; Jehovah abhors the man of blood* and guile. Ps. 5:6.
In the same author,
Blessed is the person to whom Jehovah does not impute iniquity; only let there be no guile in his spirit. Ps. 32:2.
In the same author,
Deliver my soul from lying lips, from a guileful tongue.** Ps. 120:2.
Like examples occur in Ps. 52:4; Ps. 109:2.
* lit. bloods
** lit. from the lip of the lie, from the tongue of guile
[2] The implications of all this may be recognized from what has been shown in paragraph 9013 above, to the effect that guile in spiritual things, that is, hypocrisy, is not able to be forgiven. The reason why is that guile is like poison that penetrates right through to the inward parts; it kills all of the faith and charity there, and destroys remnants, which are the truths and forms of the good of faith and charity stored away by the Lord in a person inwardly. And when these have been destroyed no spiritual life at all survives any longer. Regarding remnants, see 468, 530, 560-563, 660, 661, 798, 1050, 1738, 1906, 2284, 5135, 5342, 5344, 5897, 5898, 6156, 7560, 7564. Consequently when people full of guile plead with the Lord to be forgiven and promise to repent, meant by ‘fleeing to the altar’, their pleas and promises do not come at all from the heart but are made only with the lips. Therefore they are not heard, for the Lord looks on the heart, not on words separated and isolated from the heart. So it is that there is no forgiveness for them, because they are not capable of any repentance.
[3] The majority within the Church think that the forgiveness of sins involves wiping and washing them away, like the removal of dirt by water, and that after forgiveness people go about clean and pure. This idea reigns especially with those who attribute all of salvation to faith alone. But let it be known that the situation with the forgiveness of sins is altogether different from that being Mercy itself, the Lord forgives everyone their sins. Nevertheless they do not come to be forgiven unless the person sincerely repents, refrains from evils, and after that leads a life of faith and charity, doing so to the end of his life. When this happens the person receives spiritual life from the Lord, called new life. Then when with this new life he looks at the evils of his former life, turns away from them, and abhors them, his evils have for the first time been forgiven. For the person is now maintained in truths and forms of good by the Lord and held back from evils. This shows what the forgiveness of sins is, and that it cannot take place within an hour, nor within a year. The Church knows this to be so, for it says to those who attend the Holy Supper that their sins are forgiven if they begin a new life by refraining from evils and abhorring them.
[4] All this now shows what the situation is with hypocrites who through guile are inwardly eaten up by evils – they are incapable of repenting. For the actual remnants of goodness and truth present with them have been destroyed and lost, and everything of spiritual life with them. And being incapable of repenting they cannot be forgiven. This is meant by the law that those who kill their neighbour with guile must be taken from the altar to die.
[5] Their damnation was described by the following prophetic utterance made by David regarding Joab, who had killed Abner with guile,
There will always be in the house of Joab* one who suffers from a discharge, or is a leper, or supports himself with a rod, or falls by the sword, or lacks bread. 2 Sam. 3:27, 29.
‘One suffering from a discharge’ means profanation of the good of love; ‘a leper’ means profanation of the truth of faith, 6963; ‘one supporting himself with a rod’, or a person who is lame, means those with whom all good has been lost, 4302, 4314; ‘one falling by the sword’ means those constantly dying through falsities, 4499, 6353, 7102, 8294; and ‘one lacking bread’ means those deprived of all spiritual life, for ‘bread’ is the sustainment of spiritual life by means of good, 6118, 8410. Because such people were meant by ‘Joab’ he was killed by the command of Solomon at the altar to which he had fled, 1 Kings 2:28-32.
* lit There will not be cut off from the house of Joab
‘And anyone stealing a man and selling him’ means applying the truth of faith to evil, and alienating it. ‘And he is found in his hand’ means though there is still an acknowledgement of it. ‘Shall surely die’ means damnation. ‘And anyone cursing his father and his mother’ means complete rejection of the Lord and of His kingdom by those belonging to the Church, and so profanation of the Church’s goodness and truth. ‘Shall surely die’ means damnation.
‘And when men quarrel’ means contention among them regarding truths. ‘And a man strikes his companion with a stone or a fist’ means the weakening of one [particular truth] by some factual truth or by some general truth. ‘And he does not die’ means, and it is not wiped out. ‘And lies down in bed’ means separated in the natural. ‘If he rises up and walks outside on his staff’ means strength of life in that truth. ‘The striker shall be innocent’ means being not guilty of evil. ‘But he shall pay for his cessation [from work]’ means making good again. ‘And thoroughly cure him’ means restoration. ‘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. ‘And [the slave] dies under his hand’ means so that it is wiped out under his contemplation. ‘He shall certainly be avenged’ means the punishment of death. ‘However, if he stands for a day or two’ means a state of life remaining until it is full. ‘He shall not be avenged’ means no punishment of death. ‘Since he is his silver’ means that which has been acquired from the self.
* i.e. is confined to bed
** i.e. recompense him for the time he has been unable to work
*** i.e. see to it that he makes a full recovery
**** i.e. does not die within two days after being struck
[2] In Jeremiah,
A clamour is coming even to the end of the earth, because Jehovah’s quarrel is against the nations. Judgement will come in with all flesh; He will hand the wicked over to the sword. Behold, evil will go out from nation to nation, and a great tempest will be raised up from the sides of the earth. Jer 25:31, 32.
In these prophetic statements a perverted state of the Church is described. ‘A clamour’ is contention in support of falsities against truths and in support of evils against forms of good, ‘the earth’ being the Church. ‘Jehovah’s quarrel is against the nations’ is contention by the Lord in support of truths against falsities, and in support of forms of good against evils, thus also defence, ‘the nations’ being falsities and evils. ‘The sword’ is falsity engaged in conflict and conquering, ‘a great tempest’ is falsity reigning, and ‘the sides of the earth’ are the place where falsities arising from evil burst out.
[3] In the same prophet,
Jehovah will act for them in their quarrel*, that He may give rest to the land. Jer. 50:34.
‘Acting for them in their quarrel’ stands for defending truths against falsities and delivering, ‘the land’ standing for the Church, which has ‘rest’ when it is governed by good and consequently guided by truths. In the same prophet,
O Lord, You have acted for my soul in its quarrels,** You have delivered my life. Lam. 3:58.
‘Acting for the soul in its quarrels’ stands for defending and delivering from falsities. In David,
Act for me in my a, quarrel*** and redeem me; give me life according to Your word. Ps. 119:154.
Here also ‘acting in the quarrel’ stands for delivering from falsities. In Micah,
Quarrel with the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. Micah 6:1.
‘Quarrelling with the mountains’ stands for contending and defending against the haughty, and also against the evils of self-love. ‘The hills which will hear the voice’ are the humble and those who have charity. In Isaiah,
I will not quarrel eternally, nor will I be angry forever. Isa. 57:16.
‘Quarrelling’ stands for contending against falsities. In Hosea, Jehovah has a quarrel wit Judah. Hosea 12:2
Here the meaning is similar. There are other places in addition to these.
* lit. will quarrel their quarrel, i.e. will plead their cause
** lit. You have quarrelled my soul’s quarrels
*** lit. Quarrel my quarrel
Behold, you fast for quarrel and contention, to strike with the fist of wickedness. Isa. 58:4.
‘Striking with the fist of wickedness’ stands for doing so with full force exerted through falsities arising from evil.
[2] What it is to weaken some truth that the Church possesses by means of factual truth or general truth must be explained. The expression ‘factual truths’ is used to mean truths derived from the literal sense of the Word. General truths derived from there are those which have been accepted by ordinary people and as a result occur in everyday conversation. Such truths are very many, and prevail with much force. But the literal sense of the Word is for simple people, for those who are being introduced into more internal truths of faith and for those who do not understand internal ones. For that sense accords with what a person ruled by the senses sees, that is, it accords with that level of understanding. This explains why statements that are dissimilar, seemingly contradicting one another, appear many times there. In one place, for example, it may say that the Lord leads into temptation, in another that He does not; in one that the Lord repents, in another that He does not; in one that in His actions the Lord is moved by anger and wrath, in another by pure forbearance and mercy; in one that souls are presented for judgement immediately after death, in another at the time of the last judgement; and so on. Because such statements are derived from the literal sense of the Word they are called factual truths; and they are different from the truths of faith that compose the teachings of the Church. For the truths of faith arise out of the literal statements through explanation of them; for when they are explained a member of the Church is taught that such statements occur in the Word on account of people’s level of understanding and in accordance with the appearance. So it is also that in very many instances the teachings of the Church depart from the literal sense of the Word. It should be realized that the genuine teachings of the Church are what the expression ‘internal sense’ describes at this point; for the internal sense contains truths such as angels in heaven possess.
[3] Among the priests and the members of the Church there are those who teach and learn the Church’s truths from the literal sense of the Word, and there are those who teach and learn them from teachings drawn from the Word, called the Church’s doctrine of faith. The perception of the second group is very different indeed from that of the first; yet ordinary people cannot tell them apart because both groups speak from the Word in almost the same way. However those who teach and learn solely the literal sense of the Word without guidance from the teachings of the Church grasp no more than matters that concern the natural or external man, whereas those guided by genuine teachings drawn from the Word understand in addition the matters that concern the spiritual or internal man. The reason for this is that the Word in the external or literal sense is natural, but in the internal sense it is spiritual. In the Word the first is called ‘the cloud’, but the second ‘the glory in the cloud’, 5922, 6343 (end), 6752, 8106, 8781.
[4] From all this one may now see what is meant by contention among them regarding truths, and by a weakening of one [particular truth] by some factual truth or some general truth. A factual or a general truth is a truth derived from the literal sense of the Word, as has been stated; and since they are dissimilar and seemingly contradictory, sometimes they cannot do other than weaken the spiritual truths that constitute the teachings of the Church. They are weakened when doubt enters a person’s thinking because places in the Word say the opposite of one other. This state regarding the truths of faith as they exist with a person is the subject here in the internal sense.
[2] A person who probes into the inner contents of the Word can see that there was some hidden reason – a reason beyond human understanding unless this is enlightened by the light of heaven – why the Lord stipulated that the striker should be guiltless if the one who had been struck rose from his bed and walked outside on his staff; and especially why the Lord stipulated that no vengeance should be taken on someone if he strikes his slave but the slave does not die within a day or two, because he is his silver (in spite of the fact that it is the taking of human being’s life, for one who is a slave is still a human being). But the hidden reason why the Lord made these stipulations is not evident except with the aid of the internal sense, in which the Church’s truths derived from the Word are the subject. What can happen to these truths is similar, for by a man quarrelling with and striking his companion, and also by a man striking his male or female slave, are meant the kinds of things to which those actions correspond in the spiritual sense, which are being explained here. Among the Israelite nation it was a representative Church that was established, that is, a Church in which the inner realities of heaven and the Church were to be represented by means of outward things. Therefore things were stipulated, indeed commanded, such as would cease to have any validity as laws once the Lord had disclosed and revealed the inner realities of the Church. Since then people have been required to lead an inward life, which is a life of faith and charity, as well as an outward life shaped by inner realities.
They confronted me on the day of my ruin, but Jehovah was my staff and brought me out into a broad place. Ps. 18:18, 19.
‘The day of ruin’ stands for a state when the belief in truth is weak; ‘Jehovah was a staff’ stands for power then; and ‘bringing out into a broad place’ stands for leading into the truths of faith, for which meaning of ‘bringing out into a broad place’, see 4482. In Isaiah also,
The Lord Jehovah Zebaoth is taking away from Jerusalem and Judah rod and staff, the whole rod of bread, and the whole rod of water. Isa. 3:1.
‘Taking away rod and staff’ stands for removing the power and strength of life received from truth and good, ‘the rod of bread’ standing for the power received from good, and ‘the rod of water’ for the power received from truth. In the original language the noun ‘staff’ is derived from a verb meaning to lean on and be supported by, which is done in the spiritual world by means of truth and good.
[2] The situation is just the same with every truth that belongs to the literal sense. In natural light, which a person who perceives things on a sensory level possesses, that truth is seen as it is actually stated in the Word. For the literal sense is natural and is for those who perceive things on a sensory level. But when the same truth is presented in the light of heaven it is seen according to the internal sense; for this sense is spiritual and is for those whose perception lies on a heavenly level, because the things that belong to natural light vanish in the light of heaven. Natural light is like gloom or like a cloud, but heavenly light is like the glory and brightness after the cloud has been removed. Therefore also the literal sense of the Word is called ‘a cloud’ and the internal sense ‘the glory’, see Preface to Genesis 18, and 4391, 5922, 6343, 8106, 8443, 8781.
[3] The reason why ‘thoroughly curing’ means restoring in the spiritual sense is that ‘sickness’ and ‘illness’ mean poor health of the internal man. The internal man is in poor health when its life, which is spiritual life, is sick, that is, when the person turns aside from truth to falsity and from good to evil. When this happens that life is sick; and when the person turns away completely from truth and good that life dies. But its death is called spiritual death, which is damnation. This being the situation with the life of the internal man, such things as constitute sicknesses and death in the natural world refer, when spoken of in the Word, to sicknesses of spiritual life and to the death of that life. So too with curings or healings from sickness, as in Isaiah,
Jehovah strikes Egypt striking and curing, as a consequence of which they turn themselves towards Jehovah; and He will be entreated by them, and He will cure them. Isa. 19:22.
In the same prophet,
But He was pierced because of our transgressions, bruised because of our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are cured.* Isa 53:5.
These words refer to the Lord.
[4] In Jeremiah,
Return, O perverse children, I will cure you of backsliding.** Jer. 3:22.
In the same prophet,
Behold, I will bring curing and remedy to it;*** and I will cure them and reveal to them the abundance of peace, and truth. Jer. 33:6.
In the same prophet,
Go up to Gilead, and take balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt! In vain you have multiplied medicaments; there is no curing for you. Jer. 46:11.
And in Ezekiel,
Beside the river there is rising up upon its bank, on this side and on that, [every] tree for food, whose leaf does not fall, and whose fruit does not fail it is reborn monthly, for its waters flow out from the sanctuary, wherefore its fruit is for food, and its leaf for medicaments. Ezek. 47:12.
‘Fruit for food’ stands for the good of love and charity, which serves to nourish spiritual life, and ‘leaf for medicaments’ for the truths of faith which serve to refresh and restore that life. For the meaning of ‘fruit’ as the good of love and charity, see 3146, 7690; and for the meaning of ‘leaf’ as the truth of faith, 885.
[5] Since sicknesses and illnesses, also curings and medicaments, mentioned in the Word do not refer to natural life but to another kind of life distinct and separate from natural life, it is evident to anyone who ponders on the matter for a while that a person possesses another kind of life, which belongs to his internal man. Those who think materialistically of the life a person has do not believe that he has any life other than that of the body which is the life of the external or natural man. They wonder what the life of the internal man may be, indeed what the internal man may be. If they are told that this life is the life of faith and charity, and that the internal man is the person’s spirit which lives after death, and which in essence is the real person, they wonder all the more. And those of them who live solely for the body and not for the soul, thus who are altogether natural people, understand nothing of what they are told about the life of faith and charity or about the internal man. For when they think, they see things altogether in natural light and not at all in spiritual light, on account of which also after death their thought remains materialistic. They live then ‘in the shadow of death’, that is, steeped in falsities arising from evil; they are in utter darkness and are blind to the light of heaven.
* lit. and in His wound curing has been given to us
** lit. cure your turnings away
*** lit. I will cause curing and remedy to go up to it
[2] Let the Lord’s words in Mark about faith serve as an illustration.
One who believes and is baptized will be saved; but one who does not believe will be condemned. Mark 16:16.
Because these words refer to faith and not at the same time to love the mind may hesitate and have doubts about the truth it has been taught, which is that heavenly love instilled through the truths of faith makes the Church. But when this factual truth – that is, truth as it is stated in the literal sense of the Word – is looked at on a more internal level, it is seen to be in agreement nevertheless with the truth as religious teachings present it. For in the internal sense ‘being baptized’ means being regenerated, 4255, 5120 (end), and being regenerated is being led into the good of love and charity by means of the truths of faith, 8548-8553, 8635-8640, 8742 8747 From this it is clear that the truth as stated in the literal sense of the Word agrees with the truth as presented in religious teachings, provided that what is meant spiritually by ‘being baptized’ is understood. And the reason why it says that ‘one who does not believe will be condemned’ is that an unbeliever cannot be baptized, that is, be regenerated, nor therefore be introduced into the Church, let alone become a Church. For baptism is the symbol of regeneration, and so of introduction into the Church, which is accomplished [by introduction] into good by means of truths from the Word.
[3] From all this it is now evident how to understand the things that are meant in the internal sense when it says that a man striking his companion with a stone or a fist – and the companion does not die, but lies down in bed – shall be innocent if the companion rises up and walks on his staff, but that he must pay for his cessation [from work], and thoroughly cure him. The meaning in the internal sense is that if a truth contained in the teachings and belief of the Church has been weakened by a factual truth which is derived from the literal sense of the Word, weakened but not wiped out, it is to be made good again and restored, which is accomplished by right explanation.
Do not fear those who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather, fear Him who is able to destroy both body and soul in Gehenna. Matt. 10:28.
Here it says that God should be feared because He is able to destroy body and soul in Gehenna, when in fact He destroys no one; but it is still a truth. Therefore it must not be dispensed with, that is, denied, because if it is denied, faith in the Word perishes. And if that perishes a person cannot have any spiritual life within himself, for spiritual life comes to a person from the Word through faith.
[2] The truth of the matter is this: It is a law of Divine order that good holds within itself its own reward, which is heaven. So too evil holds within itself its own punishment, which is hell. The first law begins in the Lord, since the Lord intends good to all; but not so the second, since the Lord intends ill to none. It nevertheless comes about, not because of the Lord but because of the person immersed in evil, thus because of evil itself. Yet such ill is attributed to the Lord in the literal sense of the Word, because He appears to be the cause of it. Therefore since it is an apparent truth it must not be denied, that is, must not be disposed of; for faith in the Word, simple people’s faith, would thereby be disposed of, see 2447, 6071, 6991, 6997, 7533, 7632, 7643, 7679, 7710, 7877, 7926, 8197, 8227, 8228, 8282, 8483, 8631, 8632, 9010.
[2] The reason why ‘a male slave’ means truth belonging to the literal sense of the Word is that in general ‘a slave’ means lower or more external things, because these things serve higher or more internal ones, 2541, 5161, 5164, 5936, 7143. From this general meaning ‘a slave’ means the natural, because this serves the spiritual, 3019, 3020, 5305, 7998; and following on from this it means factual truth belonging to the literal sense of the Word, for this truth serves spiritual truth belonging to the internal sense. Truth belonging to the internal sense of the Word is the same as genuine truth contained in the teachings that compose the Church’s faith.
[3] In what way truth belonging to the literal sense of the Word serves spiritual truth must be stated briefly. A member of the Church first of all learns truth from the literal sense of the Word. This is general truth suited to the understanding of the external man, who dwells in natural light. That truth is received by an external route, which is that of hearing, and is stored in the external man’s memory, where there are also various pieces of knowledge gained from the world, 2469-2494. Later on matters stored in this memory come under the vision or gaze of the internal man, who sees things in the light of heaven. The internal man selects and summons from among them truths that are in agreement with the good which flows in from the Lord by way of the soul and which the person has accepted. There the Lord joins the truths to the good. The truths joined in that way in the internal man are called spiritual truths, and the good to which the truths have been joined is called spiritual good. This good, given form by the truths, constitutes the person’s spiritual life. The actual truths there are called the truths of faith, and the good is called the good of charity. The good in which the truths have been implanted in that way is the Church with that person.
[4] From all this one may see how truths belonging to the literal sense of the Word serve to give form to spiritual truths, in general to give form to faith and charity which compose spiritual life – life which consists in being fired by an affection for truths because they lead to good, then by an affection for the good that the truths lead to, and finally by an affection for truths that flow from that good.