4715. 'And he sent him out of the Valley of Hebron' means going forth from the Divine Natural and Sensory degrees. This is clear from the meaning of 'being sent' as going forth and teaching, dealt with above in 4710; from the meaning of 'a valley' as things that are low, dealt with in 1723, 3417; and from the meaning of 'Hebron' as the Lord's Church as regards good, dealt with in 2909. The words used at this point accordingly mean that it was to teach the lower things of the Church, for the reason that people would not grasp the higher ones. Indeed one who teaches faith and not charity cannot possibly discern the higher and more internal things of the Church since he does not possess the wherewithal that leads him to see and lays down for him whether a particular idea is part of faith or is the truth. But if he teaches charity he is in that case in possession of good. Good lays down the truth for him and leads him, for all truth stems from good and has to do with good; or what amounts to the same, every aspect of faith stems from charity and has to do with charity. The fact that everything taught by doctrine has regard to life anybody can recognize from natural enlightenment alone.

[2] The meaning 'going forth from the Divine Natural and Sensory degrees' carried by the words used here is their higher meaning. For the expression 'lower things of the Church' is used to describe those which have their origin in the Lord's Divine Natural and Sensory degrees. Not that within the Lord these things are lower ones - for within the Lord and within His Divine Human everything is Infinite, indeed He is Jehovah as regards both Essences, 2156, 2329, 2921, 3023. Those things are lower because of what the situation is with man. People who are sensory-minded rely on ideas as grasped by the senses to think of things which exist within the Lord and which go forth from the Lord, and those who are natural-minded rely on natural ideas. The nature of the recipients is the reason for the way any matter is stated. People however who are heavenly-minded and are as a consequence truly rational do perceive interior things. These are the ones of whom it is said that they teach from the Lord's Divine Rational. This, as has been stated, is the higher meaning which these words carry.

[3] The meaning of 'a valley' as the lower things of the Church may be seen from other places in the Word, as in Isaiah,

The prophecy of the valley of vision. What is this, that you have gone up, every one onto the housetops? The Lord Jehovih Zebaoth has a day of tumult and of trampling and of confusion in the valley of vision. Isaiah 22:1, 5.

'The valley of vision' stands for false notions about spiritual things - notions formed from sensory impressions, and so from lower things. In the same prophet,

The choicest of your valleys were filled with chariots, and the horsemen positioned themselves at the gate. Isaiah 22:7.

'The choicest of the valleys' stands for goods and truths within the natural or external man. In the same prophet,

The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way of Jehovah; make plain in the lonely place a highway for our God; every valley will be lifted up. Isaiah 40:3-4.

'Valley' stands for things that are lowly.

[4] In Jeremiah,

How will you say, I have not been defiled, I have not gone after the baalim. Look at your way in the valley; acknowledge what you have done. Jeremiah 2:23.

'The valley' stands for factual knowledge and sensory impressions, which are lower things, by means of which they would pervert truths. In the same prophet,

I am against you, O inhabitant of the valley, O rock of the plain, said Jehovah, you who say, Who will come down against us? Jeremiah 21:13.

'Inhabitant of the valley' and 'rock of the plain' stand for faith which has no charity in it. In the same prophet,

He who lays waste will come upon every city, and no city will escape; but the valley will perish, and the plain will be destroyed. Jeremiah 48:8.

Here the meaning is similar. In the same prophet,

You will not boast of valleys; your valley has flowed away, O perverse daughter. Jeremiah 49:4.

'Valley' stands for the external things within worship which are also the lowest.

[5] In Ezekiel,

I will give to Gog a place for burial in Israel, the valley of those that pass over. There they will bury Gog and all his multitude, from which they will call it the valley of the multitude of Gog. Ezekiel 39:11, 15.

'Gog' stands for those whose worship is external devoid of internal, 1151, which is why the expressions 'his grave', 'the valley of those that pass over', and 'the valley of his multitude' are used. In David,

Even when I walk in the valley of the shadow I will fear no evil. Psalms 23:4.

'The valley of the shadow' stands for lower things which, compared with others, are in shadow.

[6] Because valleys lay between mountains and hills and beneath them, 'valleys' therefore means the lower or more external things of the Church; for 'hills' and 'mountains' mean the higher or more internal things of it, 'hills' things of charity and 'mountains' those of love to the Lord, 795, 1430, 2722, 4210. And because 'the land of Canaan' means the Lord's kingdom and His Church, that Church is therefore called,

A land of mountain's and valleys, on the arrival of the rain of heaven it drinks water. Deuteronomy 11:11.

The reason Joseph is said at this point of have been sent out of the Valley of Hebron is that he was sent to those who taught about faith, 4705.

Those who are governed by faith, not by charity, adhere to lower things, for with them faith exists merely in the memory and consequently on the lips, not in the heart and consequently in action.

3603. 'That you will break his yoke from above your neck' means that good would now be the means through which any joining together was effected - and that truth would be the truth of good. This is clear from the meaning of 'breaking the yoke from above the neck' as release. For 'the neck' means influx and communication and consequently a joining together, while 'a yoke above the neck' means a blocking and cutting off, see 3542; so that 'breaking the yoke from above the neck' means release from such blocking and cutting off, and consequently a joining together through good. It also means that truth becomes the truth of good, for when there is no longer any blocking or cutting off, good flows in and joins itself to truth.

[2] What is implied in all this may be seen from what has been stated and shown so far. But because few understand what is meant by the apparent priority of truth, and by the inferiority for the time being of good - the chief reason for their not understanding being that few stop to reflect on such matters, indeed they do not even reflect on the idea that good is distinct and separate from truth - [let some explanation be offered here]. None of those who pursue a life of self-love and love of the world are aware of what good is, for they do not believe in the existence of any other kind of good than that which is a product of that life. And being unaware of what good is they are also unaware of what truth is, for truth is the companion of good. They do, it is true, know from revelation that good consists in loving God and the neighbour, and truth in matters of doctrine drawn from the Word. But because they do not live according to those things they have no perception of that good and truth; for these are known to them but are not actually present in them. Indeed even those persons who are in the process of being regenerated do not know what good is until they have been regenerated. For prior to their regeneration they have supposed that truth is good and that acting in accordance with truth is good, when in fact it is not good that they are doing at that time but truth. While a person is passing through this state he is passing through that state which is described as Jacob and the blessing conferred on him. But once he passes on into the state in which he performs a good action from an affection for good, that is, once he has been regenerated, he passes into that state which is described in the blessing conferred on Esau.

[3] This may be illustrated from what happens to a person in the first and second stages of life, and after that in the third and fourth stages. During the first stage nothing more than his memory is involved in his knowing things in the Word and likewise matters of doctrine regarding faith. During this stage also he believes he is good when he knows many things from the Word and from doctrine and is able to apply some of them not to his own life but to the lives of others. During the second stage when he is more grown up he is not content to know only with his memory things in the Word and matters of doctrine but now begins to reflect on these with his own ability to think, and insofar as he adds anything to these from his own thought he is pleased by it. Consequently he is moved by an affection for truth which originates in some worldly love, which is also a means to his learning further things which would be neglected by him but for that worldly love. During the third stage however, if he is among such people as are able to be regenerated he starts to think about use, and in that case to reflect on what he reads in the Word and absorbs from doctrine for the sake of the use these serve. While he is passing through this state order is reversed; that is to say, truth is no longer placed first quite so much. But during the fourth stage, when it is the stage of his regeneration, because now the state is complete, dealt with in 2636, he loves the Word and matters of doctrine drawn from the Word - that is, he loves truth - for the sake of the good of life, and therefore loves them from a desire for the good of life. Thus good, which up to that time has apparently taken second place, now comes to occupy the first.

[4] The reason why good has apparently taken second place is that it has lain concealed inmostly within the person's entire affection. Nor has it been able to show itself because it has been surrounded by such things as those with which it could not accord, that is to say, by vain and worthless things like those that constitute worldly glory and self-glory. But once he has been regenerated these things depart and the good that has lain inmostly comes so to speak out of prison and enters into those things which are outside, and takes truths to itself, makes them the truths of good, and in this way manifests itself.

[5] During all this time the good present with a person is something which so to speak he does not consciously will, yet is present within his will - present in every detail of his thought and consequently in every detail of his activity. He is not aware of possessing this which he does not consciously will because he does not perceive anything present with himself apart from that which is his own, that is, which he does will. That which he does not will is twofold: on the one hand there is that which he has inherited from father and mother, on the other that which flows in from the Lord by way of heaven. While a person is growing up that which he has inherited from parents manifests itself more and more, if he is such that he does not allow himself to be regenerated. For he draws on evils from his heredity and makes them properly his own. But that which is not consciously willed yet flows from the Lord by way of heaven manifests itself in adult years with those who are being regenerated. With the latter this activity has in the meantime arranged and governed every single detail of thought, and also of will, though that activity has not been apparent.