9344. 'You shall not make a covenant with them and their gods' means no contact with evils and falsities. This is clear from the meaning of 'making a covenant' as being joined together, dealt with in 665, 666, 1023, 1038, 1864, 1996, 2003, 2021, 6804, 8767, 8778, thus also being in contact with, for people who communicate with one another are joined to one another; from the meaning of the inhabitants of the land, to whom 'those with whom they were not to make a covenant' refers here, as evils, dealt with just above in 9342; and from the meaning of 'their gods' as falsities, dealt with in 4402 (end), 4544, 7873, 8867, 8941.

1037. That 'and God said' means that it was so has been stated and shown already; for God's or Jehovah's saying, or His having said, means that it was so. Because the most ancient people used to weave together as a historical tale things to do with the Church, they would say, when wishing to assert that something was so, 'God said' or 'Jehovah said'. With them this was a commonplace expression for asserting and confirming something.