26
Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore.
Ezekiel 37:26
Job 16
2
I have heard many such things: miserable comforters are ye all.
3
Shall vain words have an end? or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest?
4
I also could speak as ye do: if your soul were in my soul's stead, I could heap up words against you, and shake mine head at you.
5
But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should asswage your grief.
6
Though I speak, my grief is not asswaged: and though I forbear, what am I eased?
7
But now he hath made me weary: thou hast made desolate all my company.
8
And thou hast filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness against me: and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face.
9
He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.
10
They have gaped upon me with their mouth; they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully; they have gathered themselves together against me.
11
God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.
12
I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark.
13
His archers compass me round about, he cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the ground.
14
He breaketh me with breach upon breach, he runneth upon me like a giant.
15
I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and defiled my horn in the dust.
16
My face is foul with weeping, and my eyelids is the shadow of death;
17
Not for any injustice in mine hands: also my prayer is pure.
18
O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place.
19
Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high.
20
My friends scorn me: but mine eye poureth out tears unto God.
21
O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour!
22
When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.
Arcana Coelestia # 8093
8093. 'That God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines' means that the Divine saw to it that they should not pass on to the truth of faith that does not spring from good. This is clear from the meaning of 'God did not lead them by the way' as the Divine saw to it that they should not pass on to, for 'leading', when done by God, means providence, and 'the way' means truth, 627, 2333, in this instance passing on to it; and from the representation of 'the Philistines' as those who have a knowledge of the cognitions of faith but do not lead a life of charity, dealt with in 1197, 1198, 3412, 3413, thus those who possess the truth of faith that does not spring from good. The fact that 'the Philistines' and 'the land of the Philistines' have this meaning may be recognized from places in the Word where they are mentioned, in particular in Jeremiah 47:1-end, where they are described, also in Joel 3:5-6, as well as from the historical accounts in the Word referring to wars between the children of Israel and the Philistines, to the subjection of the children of Israel by the Philistines and then of the Philistines by the children of Israel. By 'the Philistines' in these places those who champion separated faith are represented, that is, people for whom the knowledge of cognitions of faith is all-important but not a life led in accordance with that knowledge, consequently people who teach and believe that a person is saved by faith alone.
[2] This particular belief about faith alone or separated faith is not new or something that belongs solely to the present time. It had come to exist in the ancient Churches, growing ever stronger along with evil in life. It is also described in various places in the Word, but by means of names, by Cain' first, in that he killed his brother Abel, 337, 340, 1179. In the internal representative sense of that story 'Cain' is that kind of faith, while 'Abel' is charity. Such faith is also described by 'Ham', when cursed by his father, 1062, 1063; after that by 'Reuben', in that he went up to his father's bed, 3870, 4601, and by 'Simeon and Levi', in that they killed Hamor and the men of Shechem and were for that reason cursed by their father, 3870, 6352. That faith is also described by 'the Egyptians' and by 'their firstborn', in that the latter were killed, 7766, 7778, and the former drowned in the Sea Suph. It is described too by 'the Philistines', 3412, 3413, and also by 'Tyre and Sidon', in various places in the Prophets; there a knowledge of the cognitions of faith is meant by 'the Philistines', and the cognitions themselves, interior and exterior, by 'Tyre and Sidon'. Lastly such faith is represented by 'Peter' when he denied the Lord three times, 6000, 6073(end). But see what has been shown already regarding this faith, in 36, 379, 389, 916, 1017, 1076, 1077, 1162, 1176, 1798, 1799, 1834, 1844, 2049, 2116, 2228, 2231, 2261, 2343, 2349, 2364, 2383, 2385, 2401, 2435, 2982, 3146, 3242, 3325, 3412, 3413, 3416, 3427, 3773, 4663, 4672, 4673, 4683, 4721, 4730, 4766, 4783, 4925, 5351, 5820, 5826, 6269, 6272, 6273, 6348, 6353, 7039, 7097, 7127, 7317, 7502, 7545, 7623-7627, 7724, 7779, 7790, 7950.
