9314. And I will act as an adversary against thine adversaries. That this signifies that He will avert all evils from which are falsities, is evident from the signification of “acting as an adversary,” when said of Jehovah or the Lord, as being to avert (of which just above, n. 9313); and from the signification of “adversaries,” as being the evils from which are falsities, because in the spiritual sense these evils are adversaries against the goods from which are truths. That by “adversaries” are signified the evils from which are falsities, is because by “enemies” are signified falsities derived from evil. For wherever falsity is treated of in the Word, evil is also treated of, just as when truth is treated of, good also is treated of (n. 683, 793, 801, 2173, 2516, 2712, 3132, 4138, 5138, 5502, 6343, 7945, 8339). From this it is plain that one thing is signified by “acting as an enemy against enemies,” and another by “acting as an adversary against adversaries;” and that this is not merely a repetition for the sake of emphasizing the matter.

8878. Of them that hate Me. That this signifies who absolutely reject the Divine of the Lord, is evident from the signification of “them that hate God,” as being those who are in evil and thence in falsity, for these are they who reject the Divine of the Lord; and so far as they are in evil and thence in falsity, so far they not only reject it, but also hold it in hatred. That it is the Divine of the Lord which they reject, is because they who are in evil are not in heavenly light, but in natural light, and finally are in sensuous light which is from the corporeal. From this light they cannot possibly see the Human of the Lord otherwise than as human, for they cannot perceive what the Divine Human is, because they have an idea about the Divine that is utterly empty and worthless. If they are told that the Divine Itself is Divine love, that the Divine love is the being of all life, and that from conception the Lord was this love, which was thus the inmost being of His life, thus was Jehovah, and that He glorified His Human to the likeness of this, that is, made it Divine, all this may indeed be in some measure apprehended by those who are endowed with some intellectual penetration; but still they do not believe it, for when they descend from the intellectual light in which they then are, into their own natural and sensuous light, they fall into mere thick darkness in respect to this truth, and from this into denial.