10038. 'You shall burn with fire outside the camp' means that those things must be banished to hell and be consumed by the evils of self-love. This is clear from the meaning of 'burning with fire' as consuming by means of the evils of self-love, for 'burning' means consuming or devouring and 'fire' the evil of self-love (for these meanings of 'burning' and 'fire', see 1297, 5071, 5215, 6314, 6832, 7324, 7575, 9141, 9434); and from the meaning of 'the camp' as heaven and the Church, and in the contrary sense the place where heaven and the Church do not exist, thus where hell exists, dealt with below. The reason why 'being burned with fire' means being consumed by the evils of self-love is that that love consumes every good or truth of faith. Scarcely anyone at the present day knows that self-love does this, nor consequently that this love constitutes hell with a person and that it is what should be understood by hell-fire.

[2] There are two fires of life that exist with a person; one is self-love, the other is love to God. Those in whom self-love predominates cannot be governed by love to God, for those loves are opposites. They are opposites because self-love gives rise to all evils, which are contempt for others in comparison with self, enmity towards those who do not treat oneself favourably, and in the end to hatred, vengeance, brutality, and cruelty; and these evils act in total opposition to Divine influx, consequently annihilate truths and forms of the good of faith and charity, these being the things that flow in from the Lord. Anybody who stops to reflect may know that everyone's love is the fire of his life - for without love there is no life, and the character of the love determines that of the life - and therefore that self-love gives rise to evils of every kind, doing so in the measure that he has only himself in view, that is, self-love reigns in him. The worst kind of self-love is the love of dominion over others for selfish reasons, that is, the love of possessing dominion solely for the sake of position and gain. Those in whom that love predominates may, it is true, make profession of faith and charity, but they do so with their lips, not with their heart; indeed the worst among them look on the things that belong to faith and charity, thus the holy things of the Church, as means to their own ends. But self-love and all the different types of it, also the evils that gush out of it, and the condition of the selfish in the next life, must in the Lord's Divine mercy be stated in detail somewhere else. They have been referred to here to enable people to know what 'being burned with fire outside the camp' means.

[3] The fact that 'the camp' where the children of Israel were encamped represented heaven and the Church, and therefore that 'outside the camp' represented the place where heaven and the Church did not exist, thus where hell was, becomes clear from those places in the Word which mention the camp and the encampment of the children of Israel in the wilderness, such as the following in Moses,

The children of Israel shall camp, [every] man by his own camp, and [every] man by his own standard, according to their armies. And the Levites shall camp around the dwelling-place of the Testimony, that there may be no wrath on the congregation of the children of Israel. Numbers 1:52-53; 2:2.

In addition, Numbers 2:1-end says that the tribes of Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun encamped to the east; the tribes of Reuben, Simeon, and Gad to the south; the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin to the west; and the tribes of Dan, Asher, and Naphtali to the north. But the Levites were in the middle of their camps. The like applied when they set out on their journeys, Numbers 2:17; 10:1-end. The reason why their encampments were arranged in that kind of order was so that they might represent heaven and the Church, 9320 (end). Moreover the tribes according to which the children of Israel set up their camps represented all the forms of good and all the truths in their entirety that belonged to heaven and the Church, 3858, 3926, 3939, 4060, 6335, 6337, 6397, 6640, 7836, 7891, 7996, 7997. This explains why it says that Jehovah dwells in the middle of the camps, Numbers 5:3, and that He walks in the middle of them and they will therefore be holy, Deuteronomy 23:14, and why, in the prophecy uttered by Balaam, when he saw Israel dwelling according to their tribes, he said, How good are your tabernacles, O Jacob, and your dwelling-places, O Israel! Numbers 24:2-3, 5.

[4] Since heaven and the Church was represented by the camp it follows that 'outside the camp' meant the place where neither heaven nor the Church existed, thus where hell was. That is why everyone who was unclean and also anyone who was guilty was sent out there, as may be recognized from the following,

You shall send out of the camp everyone who is leprous, and everyone suffering a discharge, and everyone unclean on account of a soul ¹ . Whether they are male or female ² you shall send them outside the camp, so that they may not defile the camps, in the middle of which Jehovah dwells. Numbers 5:2-3; Leviticus 13:45-46.

A man who is not clean by reason of an accident in the night shall go outside the camp and not come into the middle of the camp. When he has washed himself with water and the sun has set he shall enter the camp. There shall be a space for you outside the camp where you may go out, and you shall cover your excrement by means of a spade ³ , since Jehovah walks in the middle of the camp. Therefore the camp shall be holy. Deuteronomy 23:10-14.

And the stoning of people was done outside the camp, Leviticus 24:14; Numbers 15:35-36.

From all this it is now clear that 'you shall burn with fire the flesh, skin, and dung of the young bull, outside the camp' means that evils, meant by these things, must be banished to hell.

[5] The same thing as was represented by the camp and the area outside it was also represented by the land of Canaan and the lands around it after that land had been divided up as inheritances among the children of Israel. This is why in the Word 'the land of Canaan' or simply 'the land' means heaven and the Church, and 'the children of Israel' those who are in heaven and the Church. For the meaning of 'the land' as heaven and the Church, see the places referred to in 9325; and for that of 'the children of Israel' as those who are there, 9340.

Poznámky pod čarou:

6767. 'Do you intend to kill me . . .' means, Do you wish to destroy my faith ... This is clear from the meaning of 'killing' as destroying, dealt with below; and from the meaning of a Hebrew man, to whom 'me' refers here, as one who belongs to the Church. Faith too is accordingly meant, for faith goes together with the Church, and the two are so bound up with each other that a person who destroys the faith present with someone destroys the Church with him. This is also 'to kill him', for by taking faith away he takes spiritual life away, the life that remains being a life that is called death. From this it is evident that 'Do you intend to kill me?' means, Do you wish to destroy my faith?

[2] The fact that 'killing' is taking away spiritual life is evident from many places in the Word, as in Jeremiah,

Drag them away like sheep for the slaughter, and destine them to the day of killing. How long will the land mourn and the plant of every field wither, on account of the wickedness of those who dwell in it? The beasts and the birds will be devoured. Jeremiah 12:3-4.

'The day of killing' stands for the time that the Church is laid waste, when there is no longer any faith because there is no charity. 'The land which will mourn' stands for the Church; 'the plant of every field' stands for all the facts known to the Church that hold truth within them; 'the beasts and the birds will be devoured' stands for the fact that forms of good and truths will be destroyed. For the meaning of 'the land' as the Church, see 566, 662, 1067, 1262, 1413, 1607, 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118 (end), 2928, 3755, 4447, 4535, 5577. The meaning of 'the plant' as factual knowledge holding truth within it is clear from places in the Word where plant is mentioned. And for the meaning of 'the field' as that which is of the Church, see 2971, 3710, 3766, of 'the beasts' as affections for good, thus forms of good, 45, 46, 142, 143, 246, 714, 715, 719, 1823, 2179, 2180, 3218, 3519, 5198, and of 'the birds' as affections for truth, 5149. From all this one may recognize what the meaning of these words is, and also that the spiritual sense is present in every detail there. Anyone can see that without the inner meaning there could be no understanding of what 'the day of killing' is, or of what is described by the details 'will the land mourn', 'the plant of every field wither, on account of the wickedness of those who dwell in it', and 'the beasts and the birds will be devoured'.

[3] In Zechariah,

Thus said Jehovah my God, Feed the sheep for killing, whose owners kill them. Zechariah 11:4-5.

'The sheep for killing' plainly stands for people whose faith is destroyed by those who are their owners. In Ezekiel,

You have desecrated Me among My people for handfuls of barley and for crusts of bread, to kill souls that ought not to die, and to keep alive souls that ought not to live. Ezekiel 13:19.

Here also 'killing' plainly stands for destroying spiritual life, that is, charity and faith. In Isaiah,

What will you do on the day of visitation and vastation? They will fall beneath the bound and beneath the killed. Isaiah 10:3-4.

Here 'the killed' stands for those who are in hell, thus for those immersed in evils and falsities.

[4] In the same prophet,

You are cast out from your sepulchre like an abominable branch, [like] a garment of the killed, [like] those pierced with the sword. You will not be united with them in the sepulchre, for you have destroyed your land, you have killed your people. Isaiah 14:19-20.

'The killed' stands for those who have been deprived of spiritual life; 'you have killed your people' stands for his destruction of forms of the truth and good of faith. In John,

The thief does not come except in order to steal, kill, and destroy. I have come in order that they may have life. John 10:10.

'Killing' stands for destroying the life of faith, and therefore it says, 'I have come in order that they may have life'. In Mark,

Brother will deliver up brother to death, and the father his children, and the children will rise up against parents and kill them. Mark 13:12.

This refers to the last days of the Church when there is no longer any charity and therefore no faith either. 'Brother', 'children', and 'parents' in the internal sense are the Church's forms of good and its truths; and 'killing' is destroying them.

[5] Because one who had been 'killed' meant a person who had been deprived of spiritual life, and 'the field' meant the Church, it had therefore been decreed in the representative church that if anyone on the surface of the field touched somebody who had been pierced with the sword, or who had been killed, he would be unclean for seven days, Numbers 19:16. 'Slain with the sword' means truth wiped out by falsity, see 4507; for 'the sword' is falsity that wipes out truth, 2799, 4499, 653. It was likewise decreed that if anyone was found killed in the land which was their inheritance, lying on the field, and it was not known who had killed him, the elders and judges were to measure the distances to the cities which were round about. Having found out by doing this which was the nearest city, they were to take a heifer and break its neck at a fast-flowing river, and to do many other things, Deuteronomy 21:1-10.