4496. When they were in pain. That this signifies cupidities is evident from the signification of the “pain” after circumcision, as being cupidity. The reason why this pain signifies cupidity is that circumcision signifies purification from the love of self and of the world (n. 2039, 2044, 2049, 2632, 3412, 3413, 4462), and all the cupidity of the flesh is from these loves, and is therefore signified by this “pain,” because when a man is being purified from these loves, as is the case when he is being regenerated, he is in pain and anxiety, and it is the cupidities then being removed which are in pain and anguish. When any mystery is being represented by a ritual, each particular of the rite, until it is completed, enfolds something of the mystery. Such is the case with the lancets or knives with which the circumcision was performed, in that they were of stone (n. 2039, 2046, 2799); with the blood shed at the time; with the manner of the operation, and consequently with the state. This may be seen further from the processes of cleansings, inaugurations, and sanctifications, and all the other ceremonies. In the present instance by the “pain” after circumcision is signified the cupidity of Hamor, Shechem, and the men of the city, in their having a desire for the externals in which were the descendants of Jacob (see above, n. 4493).

3412. And all the wells that his father’s servants digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines stopped them up. That this signifies that they who were in the memory-knowledge of knowledges were not willing to know interior truths which are from the Divine, and thus obliterated them, is evident from the signification of “wells,” as being truths (n. 2702, 3096), here, interior truths which are from the Divine, inasmuch as the wells by which truths are signified are said to have been digged by his father’s servants in the days of Abraham his father, for by Abraham is represented the Lord’s Divine Itself (n. 2011, 2833, 2836, 3251, 3305); from the signification of “stopping up,” as being not to be willing to know, and thus to obliterate; and from the representation of the Philistines, as being those who are solely in the memory-knowledges of knowledges (n. 1197, 1198).

[2] Appearances of truth of a lower degree are now treated of, in which they may be who are in the memory-knowledge of knowledges, and who are here meant by the “Philistines.” With interior truths which are from the Divine, and which are obliterated by those who are called “Philistines,” the case is this: In the Ancient Church and afterwards, those were called “Philistines” who applied themselves little to life, but much to doctrine, and who in process of time even rejected the things which are of life, and acknowledged as the essential of the church the things which are of faith, which they separated from life; consequently who made light of the doctrinal things of charity, which in the Ancient Church were the sum and substance of doctrine, and thus obliterated them, and instead thereof vaunted much the doctrinal things of faith, and made the whole of religion to consist in these; and inasmuch as thereby they departed from the life which is of charity-that is, from the charity which is of life-they preeminently were called the “uncircumcised;” for by the “uncircumcised” were signified all who were not in charity, however much they might be in doctrinal things (n. 2049).

[3] Those who thus departed from charity removed themselves also from wisdom and intelligence; for no one can be wise and intelligent in regard to truth unless he is in good, that is, in charity, because all truth is from good, and looks to good; so that they who are without good cannot understand truth, and are not even willing to know it. In the other life, when such persons are far from heaven, there sometimes appears with them a snowy light; but this light is like that of winter, which being devoid of heat produces no fruit; and therefore when such persons draw near to heaven their light is turned into mere darkness, and their minds are plunged into the like, that is, into stupor. From all this it can now be seen what is meant by the statement that those who are in the mere memory-knowledge of knowledges were not willing to know interior truths which are from the Divine, and thus obliterated them.