Les os sont forts et nous soutiennent, ils fournissent un cadre à notre corps et rendent possible le mouvement et l'action. Ils sont également la partie la moins "vivante" de notre corps, une grande partie de leur structure étant constituée d'une matrice minérale. En tant que tels, ils représentent une partie forte, solidaire, fonctionnelle mais intrinsèquement presque morte de notre constitution spirituelle : ce que les Écritures appellent le "proprium".

Le proprium est la partie de nous qui ressent la vie comme la nôtre, qui perçoit nos amours et nos pensées comme provenant de nous-mêmes. C'est un aspect important et puissant de l'être humain ; grâce à lui, nous prenons la responsabilité de réformer nos pensées et de diriger nos actions, et nous nous sentons habilités à nous approcher du Seigneur. C'est la partie "fonctionnelle forte et solidaire". Mais ce sentiment de soi est également erroné et trompeur, car le fait est que notre vie vient du Seigneur, et qu'Il est la source de nos amours et de nos pensées. C'est la partie "intrinsèquement presque morte".

Si nous nous contentons de suivre le proprium sans nous tourner vers le Seigneur, cela nous conduira à un état d'enfer, dans lequel nous nous croyons tout-puissants et nions totalement l'existence du Seigneur. Les os, à eux seuls, deviendront secs, cassants et complètement morts. Mais si nous reconnaissons le Seigneur et le suivons, c'est comme si nous mettions de la chair sur les os et que nous étions vivants. Dans ce cas, les os - forts, solidaires, protecteurs et aussi vivants qu'ils peuvent l'être - représentent le proprium par rapport à l'intellect, la partie de nous qui perçoit nos pensées comme les nôtres mais les tourne vers le Seigneur. La chair sur les os représente l'aspect aimant du proprium, la partie qui ressent nos désirs comme les nôtres, mais qui utilise la structure fournie par les os pour servir le Seigneur.

(Odkazy: L'Apocalypse Expliquée 659 [14]; Arcanes Célestes 149, 3812, 6592, 8005, 10037 [3])

7161. 'Because you have caused our odour to stink in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of his servants' means that because of them ¹ all those who are steeped in falsities feel such a strong aversion to our spirit of obedience. This is clear from the meaning of 'causing to stink' as an aversion, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'odour' as an ability to perceive what is pleasing, dealt with in 925, 1514, 1517-1519, 3577, 4626, 4628, 4748. And meaning an ability to perceive what is pleasing, 'odour' also means an ability to perceive faith and charity since these are pleasing, 1519, 4628, 4748. And since they are pleasing, a spirit of obedience is most pleasing, for a spirit of obedience is the genuine good of faith and charity. This is why 'odour' here means a spirit of obedience.

[2] Just as 'odour' implies everything that is pleasing to the Lord, so 'stink' implies that which is unpleasing to the Lord. Consequently 'stink' means an aversion as well as abomination, and also in actual fact corresponds to an aversion and abomination - an aversion to and abomination on the part of falsity and evil. Since 'stink' is associated with aversion it is therefore also used in the Word to express aversion, as in Samuel,

Israel became stinking to the Philistines. 1 Samuel 13:4.

In the same author,

Achish said of David, He has made himself utterly stinking among his people, in Israel. 1 Samuel 17:12.

In the same author,

When the children of Ammon saw that they had become stinking to David... 2 Samuel 10:6.

In the same author,

Ahitophel said to Absalom, So that the whole of Israel may hear that you have become stinking to your father. 2 Samuel 16:21.

In these places 'stinking' stands for aversion. In Isaiah,

Let the slain of the gentiles be cast out, and the stink of their dead bodies rise up, and the mountains be melted with [their] blood. Isaiah 34:3.

'The stink' stands for abominable evil, as it likewise does in Amos 4:10, and in David, Psalms 38:4-5.

[3] 'In the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of his servants' means in the perception of all those who are steeped in falsities. This is clear from the meaning of 'the eyes' as perception, 4339; and from the representation of 'Pharaoh' as those who are steeped in falsities, dealt with in 6651, 6679, 6683, 7107, 7110, 7126, 7142. The reason why in their eyes their odour is said to stink is that all who are steeped in falsities and evils feel an aversion to all kinds of good; and to them truths stink.

[4] The fact that a stink emanates from those who are governed by evils and are consequently steeped in falsities is plainly evident from the hells that are called the dead-body hells, where assassins are and those ferociously bent on revenge, and from the hells which are called excrementitious, where adulterers are and those who have held foul pleasures as the end in view. When those hells are opened up insufferable stenches emanate from them, 4671; yet they are not detected except by those in whom inner powers on the level of their spirit have been opened. But the inhabitants of those hells find those disgusting smells pleasing and therefore like to live among those stenches, 4628. For they are like those animals which spend their time among dead bodies and excrement, finding the delight of their lives among them. When they come away from the atmosphere filled with those stenches, they find sweet and pleasing odours offensive and extremely displeasing. From all this one may now see how to understand the explanation that those steeped in falsities feel such a strong aversion to anything connected with the law of God and doctrinal teachings derived from it, represented by Moses and Aaron, in reference to whom it says that they made [the people's] odour stink in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of his servants.

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