8876. 'Visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the sons' means the consequent propagation of falsity from evil. This is clear from the meaning of 'visiting the iniquity of the fathers' as the propagation of evils, the reason why 'visiting' means propagating being that the subject is the state of those who completely reject the Divine, therefore who are receptive no longer of good but of evil, and constantly so since evil is constantly increasing with such people, which is the propagation of it (for the meaning of 'father' as good and in the contrary sense as evil, see 3703, 5902, 6050, 7833, 7834); and from the meaning of 'the sons' as truths, dealt with in 1147, 2623, 3373, and therefore in the contrary sense as falsities In the proximate sense 'visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the sons' does not mean that sons pay the penalty for the iniquity of their fathers, for that is contrary to the Divine, Deuteronomy 24:16. Rather the meaning in that sense is that evil increases with the fathers and so is passed on by heredity to their children, and that consequently the evil mounts up over successive generations, 2910, 3701, 4317, 8550, 8551. In the spiritual sense however 'the fathers' does not mean fathers but evils, and 'the sons' does not mean sons but falsities; therefore those words mean the constant propagation of falsity from evil.

1438. 'And they came into the land of Canaan' means that He attained to the celestial things of love. This is clear from what has just been stated about the land of Canaan. Here the Lord's life at first is described, that is to say, from birth to childhood, during which period He attained to the celestial things of love. The celestial things of love are the essentials themselves, and everything else comes from these. It was with celestial things that He was endowed first of all, for it was from these as from its seed that all else was then made fruitful. With Him the seed itself was celestial, for He was born from Jehovah, and therefore He alone has had that seed within Himself. All others, without exception, have no other seed than what is filthy and of hell, in which their proprium consists and from which it is derived; and this comes with that which is inherited from the father, as is well known to everyone. Consequently unless they receive from the Lord a new seed and a new proprium, that is, a new will and a new understanding, they are inevitably consigned to hell, a place from which all, not only men but also spirits and angels, are being pulled out and constantly withheld by the Lord.