4845. 'Until Shelah my son is grown up' means until the time. This is clear from the meaning of 'growing up' as being of that age, and so as until the time; and from the representation of 'Shelah my son' as idolatry, dealt with above in 4825, 4826, and so as the Jewish religion which, compared with others, was idolatrous, 4825. Consequently the words 'until my son Shelah is grown up' mean until the time that the Jewish religion was able to accept internal things willingly, that is, the spiritual and celestial things of the representative Church, meant by 'Tamar', 4829, 4831, 4843.

4500. 'And came with confidence upon the city, and killed every male' means that they utterly destroyed the truths of doctrine of the Church among the Ancients. This is clear from the meaning of 'the city' as the doctrine of the Church, dealt with in 402, 2449, 2943, 3216, 4478, in this case of the Church among the Ancients, for that Church is represented by Hamor and Shechem whose city it was; from the meaning of 'with confidence' as with trust, in this case with trust in falsity and evil; and from the meaning of 'a male' as truth, dealt with in 749, 2046, 4005. From these meanings it is evident that 'they came with confidence upon the city, and killed every male' means that with a trust in falsity and evil they utterly destroyed the truths of doctrine of the Church among the Ancients.

[2] It was the Church among the Ancients, a descendant of the Most Ancient Church, that was going to be established among the descendants from Jacob, because the Ancient Church had begun to perish. But the fact that they utterly destroyed every truth of faith and good of charity, and thus every internal aspect of worship among them, and so the fact that no Church could be established among Jacob's descendants, is described at this point in the internal sense. This explains how it came about that, because of their stubborn insistence, that which was merely a representative of the Church was established among them 4281, 4288-4290, 4293, 4307, 4314, 4316, 4317, 4429, 4433, 4444.