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.

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1778. Genesis 15

1. After these events ¹ the word of Jehovah came to Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram, I am a shield to you, your exceedingly great reward.

2. And Abram said, O Lord Jehovih, what will You give me, seeing that I go childless, ² and the steward of my house is this Damascene, Eliezer?

3. And Abram said, See, to me you have not given seed, and behold, a son of my house is my heir.

4. And behold, the word of Jehovah came to him, saying, This man will not be your heir, but he who comes out of your own loins will be your heir.

5. And He brought him outside and said, Look, now, towards heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them. And He said to him, So will your seed be.

6. And he believed in Jehovah, and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.

7. And He said to him, I am Jehovah, who brought you forth out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit.

8. And he said, O Lord Jehovih, by what shall I know that I shall inherit it?

9. And He said to him, Take for Me ³ a three year old heifer, and a three year old she-goat, and a three year old ram, a turtle dove and a fledgling.

10. And he took for himself all these, and parted each of them down the middle and laid each part opposite the other; but the birds he did not cut apart.

11. And birds of prey came down on the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.

12. And as the sun was going down a deep sleep came over Abram, and, behold, a dread of a great darkness was coming over him.

13. And He said to Abram, Know for sure that your seed will be strangers in a land not theirs. And they will serve them, ⁴ and these will afflict them for four hundred years.

14. And also the nation which they are going to serve will I judge; and afterwards they will go out with great acquisitions.

15. And you will come to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age.

16. And in the fourth generation they will return from here, for the iniquity of the Amorites has not yet come to a close.

17. And the sun went down and there was thick darkness; and behold, a smoking furnace and a flaming torch which passed between those pieces.

18. On that day Jehovah made a covenant with Abram, saying, To your seed I will give this land, from the river of Egypt even to the great river, the river Phrath. ⁵

19. The Kenite, and the Kenizzite, and the Kadmonite,

20. And the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Rephaim,

21. And the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Girgashite, and the Jebusite.

CONTENTS

Continued here in the internal sense are matters concerning the Lord after He had undergone in childhood the very severe conflicts brought about by temptations - conflicts directed against the love He cherished towards the entire human race, and in particular towards the Church. As He was therefore anxious about the future state of these, a promise was made to Him. But at the same time He was shown what the state of the Church was to become in its final days, when it was beginning to breathe its last, but nevertheless that a new Church would gather strength to take the place of the previous one; and the heavenly kingdom would be vastly increased.

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