9081. 'If the ox strikes a male slave with its horn, or a female slave' means if the affection for evil destroys truth or good in the natural. This is clear from the meaning of 'a male slave' as truth in the natural, dealt with in 3019, 3020, 5305, 7998; from the meaning of 'a female slave' as an affection for truth there, dealt with in 1895, 2567, 3835, 3849, 8993, 8994; and from the meaning of 'striking with the horn' as destroying. The words 'striking with the horn' in the Word refer to the destruction of falsity by the power of truth, and in the contrary sense to the destruction of truth by the power of falsity. They do so because 'a horn' means the power of truth that springs from good, or the power of falsity that springs from evil, 2832, as in Ezekiel,

You push with side and shoulder, and strike with your horns all the weak [sheep]. Ezekiel 34:21.

This refers to those who with all their force and power destroy the Church's truths and forms of good by means of fallacious reasonings based on sensory evidence, 'pushing with side and shoulder' meaning with all their force and power, 1085, 4931-4937. From this it is evident why the words 'striking with the horn' are used in Moses,

The firstborn of his cattle has honour, and his horns are unicorn horns. ¹ With these he will strike the peoples together to the ends of the earth. Deuteronomy 33:17.

This occurs in Moses' prophetic utterance concerning Joseph, in which 'Joseph' in the internal sense means the Lord's Divine Spiritual, and in the representative sense His spiritual kingdom 'Unicorn horns' means forms of power received from the good and truth of faith; 'striking the peoples' means destroying falsities by means of truths; and 'to the ends of the earth' means on every side where the Church is. In David,

You Yourself are my King. O God; through You we will strike our enemies with the horn. Psalms 44:4-5.

'Striking enemies with the horn' again means destroying falsities by means of the power of the truth and good of faith. Who can fail to see that in these places the words 'striking with the horn' would not have been used, since the action is performed by human beings, but for the meaning of 'horn' as power?

Poznámky pod čarou:

3209. 'The servant told Isaac all the things that he had done' means perception from the Divine Natural showing how real things stood now. This is clear from the meaning of 'telling' as perceiving, for perception is so to speak an internal telling, and therefore perceiving is expressed in historical descriptions in the Word by the verb 'to tell', and also 'to say', 1741, 1815, 1819, 1822, 1898, 1919, 2080, 2619, 2862; from the meaning of 'the servant' here as the Divine Natural, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'the things' as real things, dealt with in 1785. From all this it is evident that 'the servant told all the things that he had done' means that Divine Rational Good perceived from the Divine Natural how real things stood now.

[2] The situation is that the rational part of the mind exists in the degree above the natural, and Rational Good within the Lord was Divine. Truth however which was to be raised up from the natural was not Divine until joined to the Divine Good of the Rational. So that the Good of the Rational might flow into the natural therefore, there had to be a means in between. This means could not be anything else than the natural which was to partake of the Divine. This is represented by the oldest servant of Abraham's house administering all that he had, 3019, 3020, for that servant means the Divine Natural, see 3191, 3192, 3204, 3206.