3116. These three verses deal with the investigation of truth that was to be introduced into good and so joined to it, in particular as regards its origin, for every single thing is dependent on its origin. Derivations take shape from their origin as their own root or seed in the way that a young plant does from its root or seed. These things residing with Him the Lord saw and investigated from the Divine, and from His own wisdom and intelligence introduced them, that is to say, introduced truths into the good of the rational. It is the investigation itself that is described in these verses in the internal sense; yet the things present in that sense can be explained to very few.

[2] Investigation also takes place with everyone who is being reformed, also with anyone who receives remnants. But of this investigation man knows nothing at all. To him it is so shrouded in obscurity that he does not even believe that it exists, even though it is taking place moment by moment. The Lord however, who alone has sight of a person's state, not only as it is at present but also as it will be for ever, is the one who carries out that investigation. Investigation involves a very delicate balancing to prevent even the smallest amount of falsity being joined to good, or the least amount of truth to evil. If falsity were joined to good, or truth to evil, a person would perish for ever, for he would in that case be suspended in the next life between hell and heaven, ejected by hell on account of good, and by heaven on account of evil.

4564. 'And was buried below Bethel under an oak' means cast away for ever. This is clear from the meaning of 'being buried' as being cast away, for that which is buried is cast away; and from the meaning of 'under an oak' as for ever, dealt with above in 4552. 'Below Bethel' means outside the natural, for that which is said to be beneath or below is in the internal sense outside, 2148; 'Bethel' is the Divine Natural 4089, 4539.

[2] The implication of this is that with a person who is being regenerated, neither hereditary evil nor that of his own doing is removed in such a way as to disappear or be eliminated, but is merely separated and through the rearrangement effected by the Lord is cast away to the most outlying parts, 4551, 4552. It accordingly remains with that person, and does so for ever, but he is withheld from evil by the Lord and maintained in good. When this happens it seems as though evils have been cast away and the person has been purified from them or, as it is said, made righteous. All the angels of heaven confess that in their case, insofar as anything originates in themselves it is entirely evil and consequently false, but insofar as it originates in the Lord it is good and consequently true.

[3] People who have adopted any other notion concerning this matter, and who from the teaching they received while living in the world have become convinced that they have been made righteous and are in that case without sins, and so are holy, are taken back to the state where their evils reigned - both those of their own doing and those received through heredity. They are then kept in that state until they know from personal experience that of themselves they are nothing but evil and the good which had seemed to them to be their own came from the Lord, and that therefore it was not theirs but the Lord's. This is the situation with angels, as it is with the regenerate among men.

[4] But in the Lord's case it was different. He entirely removed, cast out, and cast away from Himself all hereditary evil from His mother, for being conceived from Jehovah He had no evil by heredity from His Father, only from His Mother. This is the difference; and this is what is meant by the Lord's being made Righteousness, the Holy itself, and the Divine.