9335. 'And the wild animal of the field multiplies against you' means an inrush of falsities arising from the delights of self-love and love of the world. This is clear from the meaning of 'multiplying', when it has reference to a hurried removal of evils and falsities, as an inrush; and from the meaning of 'the wild animal of the field' as falsities arising from the delights of self-love and love of the world. For affections, good and bad, are meant in the Word by different kinds of beasts, 9280, and therefore affections for falsity that arise from the delights of self-love and love of the world are meant by 'wild animals'. These affections are also represented in the next life by wild animals, such as panthers, tigers, boars, wolves, or bears. Such affections furthermore resemble wild animals, for people ruled by those loves are steeped in evils of every kind and in the falsities arising from them. They are like wild animals in the way they see and treat companions. The fact that those loves are the source of all evils and falsities, see 2041, 2045, 2057, 2363, 2364, 2444, 4750, 4776, 6667, 7178, 7255, 7364, 7366-7377, 7488, 7490-7494, 7643, 8318, 8487, 8678.

[2] The reason why a hurried removal of evils and falsities leads to an inrush of falsities arising from those loves is that forms of good and truths, implanted in successive stages, must remove them; for falsities are not removed except by truths, nor evils except by forms of good. If this removal is not done in successive stages and in keeping with proper order, falsities that lend support to those selfish loves enter in, since those loves reign with every person before he has been regenerated; and when the falsities enter in truths cease to be acknowledged any longer. Also a person who is being regenerated is maintained in an affection for truth; and when maintained in this he searches for truths in all directions among factual knowledge in the natural. But at this time illusions of the outward senses, which exist in great abundance in the natural, present themselves there. From those illusions, when the delights of self-love and love of the world hold sway, the person deduces nothing except falsities, which come in and fill his mind if falsities arising from evil are removed suddenly. These are the considerations that are meant in the internal sense by I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest perhaps the land becomes desolate and the wild animal of the field multiplies against you. Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you become fruitful and inherit the land.

[3] The fact that 'wild animal' means falsity and evil arising from self-love and love of the world is evident from places in the Word which mention it, as in Isaiah,

There will be a path there and a way, which will be called the way of holiness. The unclean will not pass through it; the savage of the wild animals will not go up it. Isaiah 35:8-9.

In Ezekiel,

I will send famine and evil wild animals upon you, that they may make you bereft. Ezekiel 5:17.

In the same prophet,

When I cause evil wild animals to pass through the land and they leave it bereft so that ¹ it becomes a desolation, with the result that no one passes through on account of the wild animals ... Ezekiel 14:15.

In the same prophet,

You will fall on the open field; ² to the wild animals of the earth, and to the birds of the air I will give you for food. Ezekiel 29:5.

In the same prophet,

At that time I will make with them a covenant of peace, and I will banish ³ the evil wild animal from the land, in order that they may dwell securely in the wilderness. They will no longer be a prey for the nations, and the wild animals of the field will no longer devour them. Ezekiel 34:25, 28.

[4] In Hosea,

I will lay waste her vine and her fig tree; and I will make them into a forest, and the wild animals of the field will eat them. Hosea 2:12.

In the same prophet,

The land will mourn and every inhabitant will waste away because of the wild animals of the field and the birds of the air. Hosea 4:3.

In David,

The boar of the forest tramples on it, and the wild animal of the fields feeds on it. Return, O God Zebaoth, and visit Your vine. Psalms 80:13-14.

In the same author,

You dispose the darkness to become night, in which every wild animal of the forest comes forth. Psalms 104:20.

In Moses,

If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments and do them, I will banish ³ the evil wild animals from the land. But if you despise My statutes, I will send into you the wild animals of the field, which will lay you waste. Leviticus 26:3, 6, 15, 22.

In the same author,

Jehovah your God will cast out the nations before you little by little, lest perhaps the wild animals of the field multiply against you. Deuteronomy 7:22.

In these places 'the wild animals of the field', 'the wild animals of the earth', and 'the wild animals of the forest' stand for the falsities and evils that belong to self-love and love of the world.

[5] Since 'wild animal' means falsity, and falsity can spring from two different origins, that is to say, it may stem from evil or it may stem from good, 9258, 'wild animal' in the Word also means upright nations or gentiles who, though they are subject to falsity, nevertheless lead upright lives. The term 'wild animal' is used in this sense in David,

Every wild animal of the forest is Mine, and beasts on mountains of thousands; I know every bird of the mountains, and the wild animal of My fields is with Me. Psalms 50:10-11.

In the same author,

Praise Jehovah, wild animals and all beasts! Psalms 148:7, 10.

In Isaiah,

All wild animals of My fields - come to eat, all wild animals in the forest. Isaiah 56:9.

In Ezekiel,

In the branches of the cedar, which was Asshur, all the birds of the air made their nests, and under its branches every wild animal of the field brought forth, and in its shadow dwelt all great nations. Ezekiel 31:6.

Poznámky pod čarou:

997. That the way of the kings from the rising of the sun might be prepared, signifies that the Divine truth from the Lord might flow in. This is evident from the signification of "the way of the kings," as being the influx of Divine truth, "way" signifying influx, and "kings" truths. The influx of Divine truth is meant because it is called "the way of the kings from the rising of the sun," for "ways" signify influx, since all influx from one society to another, thus from the Lord, is through ways opened in the spiritual world. And since "the rising of the sun" signifies where the Lord is, so "from the rising of the sun" means from the Lord. That the Lord is the sun of heaven, and therefore the "sun" means in the Word the Lord as to love, may be seen above (n. 401, 412, 527). (That "the east" and "the rising of the sun" mean where the Lord is, see n. 422; that "kings" signify Divine truths 29, 31, 553, 625.) What these words mean in the nearest sense has been told above, namely, that a way might be opened from the land of Canaan, which signifies the spiritual of the church, to Assyria, which signifies the rational of the church. The river Euphrates separated and bounded these countries. So "the way of the kings from the rising of the sun" signifies a passage from the church; and that this was opened is meant in that sense by "the water of the Euphrates was dried up."

[2] Something shall now be said about the influx into men of Divine truth from the Lord. From the Lord as a sun both heat and light proceed; but the heat is Divine good, and the light is Divine truth. The light, which is Divine truth, flows into and enters into every angel of heaven, and also into every man in the world, and gives internal sight, which is the sight of the understanding. For every man, not as to his body but as to his spirit, has a faculty for receiving that light, that is, for understanding the Divine truth. And that faculty is opened as the man grows up, and cultivates and forms his rational according to order, by the knowledges [scientifica] and by the cognitions [cognitiones] of good and truth. But the heat, which is Divine good, does not flow into an angel or a man as the light, which is Divine truth, does, for the reason that man is born into evils of every kind, and evils obstruct; consequently evils must first be removed before the heat, which is Divine good, can flow in; and evils are removed by looking upon them as sins against God and shunning them, by praying to the Lord for help; and so far as a man thus receives Divine good so far he comes into the light of understanding Divine truth. For the way of Divine truth into a man who is reformed is through the good of the will, and of the life therefrom with him.

[3] But when a man is not in Divine good, but in evil, he has nonetheless the faculty for receiving light, that is, for understanding Divine truth; and yet only so far as he is in a state separate from evil; if he is not in a state separate he has no such understanding of truth. A man is in a state separate when he is held solely in the thought that belongs to his understanding and not at the same time in the affection that belongs to his will. But in this state a man is not reformed, because the light does not then affect his life, that is, Divine truth is not then implanted. But man is in a state not separate when he is held in thought from the understanding and at the same time in affection from the will; and in that state man does not receive light, that is, does not understand Divine truth, unless he is at the same time in Divine good as to the affection of the will, for in that state the evils that belong to the will and the consequent falsities that belong to the thought obstruct and extinguish the light. But of these two states of man more will be said hereafter.

(Continuation respecting the Sixth Commandment)

[4] Since conjugial love in its first essence is love to the Lord from the Lord, and thus is innocence, conjugial love is also peace, such as the angels in the heavens have. For as innocence is the very being [esse] of all good, so peace is the very being [esse] of all delight from good, consequently is the very being [esse] of all joy between the marriage pair. As then, all joy is of love, and conjugial love is the fundamental love of all the loves of heaven, so peace itself has its seat chiefly in conjugial love. Peace is happiness of heart and soul arising from the conjunction of the Lord with heaven and the church, as well as from the conjunction of good and truth, when all conflict and combat of evil and falsity with good and truth has ceased, as may be seen above n. 365. And as conjugial love descends from such conjunction so all the delight of that love descends and derives its essence from heavenly peace. Moreover, this peace shines forth in the heavens as heavenly happiness from the faces of a marriage pair who are in that love, and who mutually regard each other from that love. But such heavenly happiness, which inmostly affects the delights of loves, and is called peace, can be granted only to those who can be joined together inmostly, that is, as to their very hearts.