6348. 'because you went up to your father's bed' means because when separated from the good of charity faith is involved in a foul liaison. This is clear from the meaning of 'going up to his father's bed' as being involved in a foul liaison; that is to say, faith separated from charity is involved in it. For if faith in doctrine or the understanding, which 'Reuben' represents here, is not introduced to good and joined to it, it is either dissipated or ceases to be anything, or else it is introduced to evil and falsity and joined to them, which is the foul liaison that is meant. For then profanity comes about. The truth of this may be recognized from the fact that faith cannot have a dwelling-place anywhere else than within good; and if it does not have a dwelling-place there, then inevitably it ceases to be anything or is joined to evil. This is plainly evident from those people in the next life who have adhered to faith alone and not at all to charity. Their faith is dissipated in that life; or if it has been joined to evil, a lot among profaners awaits them.

[2] In the internal sense of the Word instances of adultery mean adulterations of good, while instances of whoredom mean falsifications of truth, 2466, 3399. But foul liaisons - which are called the forbidden degrees [of sexual relations], dealt with in Leviticus 18:6-24 - mean various kinds of profanation. Profanation is obviously meant here also since the words used are, 'You went up to your father's bed; at that time you profaned [it] - he went up to my couch'. Regarding the meaning of these words as the profanation of good by separated faith, see 4601, where that unspeakable deed performed by Reuben is dealt with.

[3] The nature of faith alone or faith separated from charity is such that if it is joined to evil - as happens when a person first believes the truth of faith, and especially when initially he leads a life in accordance with it but after that renounces it and leads a life contrary to it - profanity takes place. For the truth of faith and the good of charity first become rooted through doctrine and life in the person's interiors, after which they are called forth from there and are joined to evil. The lot that awaits the person in whom this happens is the worst of all in the next life; for with someone like that, good is incapable of being separated from evil, though they are nevertheless separated in the next life. Nor does someone like that have any remnants of good stored away in him interiorly because they have perished altogether in evil. Their hell is located on the left out in front, a considerable distance away; and those who are there look to the angels like skeletons, possessing scarcely any life. Therefore to avoid the occurrence of the profanation of goodness and truth, the person who - the Lord foresees - is the kind that will not allow himself to be regenerated is held back from faith and charity and is allowed to immerse himself in evil and consequently in falsity. For in this condition he cannot profane anything. See what has been stated and shown already about profanation in 301-303, 571, 582, 593, 1001, 1008, 1010, 1059, 1327, 1328, 2051, 2426, 3398, 3399, 3402, 3489, 3898, 4289, 4601.

3399. The expression 'lying with a wife' means in the internal sense perverting and adulterating truth, here truth that is Divine, because 'a wife' - Rebekah - represents Divine Truth, as shown above. This may be seen from the consideration that instances of lying together, adultery, and prostitution in the Word do not mean anything other than perversions of good and falsifications of truth, as shown in 2466, 2729. The reason why they do so is that all adultery is absolutely contrary to conjugial love, so much so that it is destructive of it; and conjugial love originates in the marriage of good and truth, 2508, 2618, 2727-2759, 3132. Consequently things that are contrary to good and truth, or that destroy them, are in the Word called forms of adultery.

[2] But it should be realized that those who belong to the spiritual Church are not able to adulterate good to such an extent that they profane it, for the reason that they are not able to receive good so far as to perceive it, as those who are celestial do. They are able however to profane truth because they are able to acknowledge it. Yet in the final period of the Church they are not able even to acknowledge truth, because at that time universal disbelief prevails concerning the Lord, concerning life after death, and concerning the internal man. And the disbelief which reigns universally makes it impossible for them to penetrate into the interior truths of faith. That which prevails with everyone universally limits them and keeps them back from entering more deeply into such things, even when the person is unaware of that universal disbelief and also when he supposes that he does believe.

[3] But those who are able to profane good are such as belong to the celestial Church, for they are able to receive it so as to perceive it, as was done by those living before the Flood who have consequently been segregated from everyone else and are kept in a hell separated from the hells of others - regarding which see 1265-1272. The prevention of the occurrence ever again of the profanation of good is meant by the reference to Jehovah expelling man and causing cherubim to dwell away from the east towards the garden of Eden, and the flame of a sword turning this way and that to guard the way of the tree of life, Genesis 3:24. On these matters, see 308, 310.