9058. 'And when a man strikes the eye of his male slave' means if the internal man injures the truth of faith in the external [or natural] man. This is clear from the meaning of 'striking' as injuring, as before; from the meaning of 'a man', here a man from among the children of Israel, as a member of the Church and therefore one in possession of spiritual truth - which is the truth of faith, dealt with above in 9034 - thus as the internal man, since the truth of faith resides in the internal man and composes its life, which is called spiritual life (the term 'internal man' is used by virtue of its relationship to the external, meant by 'male slave'); from the meaning of 'the eye' as the inner part of the understanding and therefore the truth of faith, dealt with in 9051; and from the meaning of 'male slave' as factual truth present in the external man, dealt with in 1895, 2567, 3835, 3849, 8993, 8994, thus also the external or natural man, 5305, 7998, 8974. The literal sense speaks of 'a man' and 'male slave', so that two people are meant; but in the internal sense, in which 'a man' is the internal man and 'male slave' is the external man, they exist in one person. The reason for this is that the internal sense does not focus its attention on persons, only on spiritual realities, 5225, 5287, 5434, 8343, 8985, 9007.

5287. 'A man with intelligence and wisdom' means with regard to inflowing truth and good. This is clear from the meaning of 'a man with intelligence' as truth, and of 'a man with wisdom' as accompanying good. It should be recognized that 'a man with intelligence and wisdom' is not used in the internal sense to mean any actual man such as this but to mean, without reference to any actual person, that which makes someone intelligent and wise - to mean truth and good therefore. In the next life, especially in the heavens, all thought and consequently all language consists of images that do not involve any actual persons, so that thought and language there are universal and, compared with other forms of them, are free of limitations. For insofar as thought and language limit themselves to specific persons, especially to their personal characteristics, and insofar as they limit themselves to names and also to words, that thought and language become less universal; for these then limit themselves to something specific and do not stray from it. Insofar however as they do not focus on such things but on realities quite apart from them, they no longer limit themselves to something specific but spread out beyond themselves, with the result that a superior and therefore more universal picture is obtained.

[2] One may see the truth of this quite clearly in the way a person thinks. Insofar as his thought fixes its attention on the actual words a speaker uses, its attention is not fixed on their meaning. Also, insofar as his attention is fixed on particular ideas imprinted in his memory and remains concentrated on these, he has no perception of the essential nature of things. More than this, insofar as self-regard is present in everything he thinks he cramps his thought and denies himself an overall picture of anything. This explains why, insofar as anyone loves himself more than others, he is lacking in wisdom. From all this one may now see why in the internal sense matters which have no reference to actual persons are meant by those descriptions which in the sense of the letter do limit themselves to such persons. See also 5225.

Various places in the Word draw a distinction between wisdom, intelligence, and knowledge. Wisdom is used to mean that which that which springs from good, intelligence to mean that which springs from truth, and knowledge to mean to both of these as they exist in a person's natural, as in Moses,

I have filled Bezalel with the spirit of God, so far as wisdom, and intelligence, and knowledge, and all workmanship are concerned. Exodus 31:2-3; 35:30-31.

And in the same author,

Choose ¹ wise, and intelligent, and knowledgeable men, according to your tribes, and I will make them your heads. Deuteronomy 1:13.

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