Wives Provided for the Men of Benjamin

This final chapter of the book of Judges deals with the wish of Israel to provide the remaining men of Benjamin with wives so that the tribe would not die out, since it was one of the twelve tribes of Israel. Yet the men of Israel had made a vow at Mizpah not to give their daughters to any men of Benjamin.

Providing wives means to add either truth or good to a situation. “In the Word, when ‘husband’ is mentioned, then ‘wife’ stands for truth. But when the husband is called ‘the man’, then ‘wife’ stands for good. This is the way it gets continually used in the Word.” (Arcana Caelestia 1468) In this chapter the men are called ‘the men of Benjamin’ or the Benjamites, so wives stand for good being joined to truth.

The men of Israel wondered who had not come to the gathering at Mizpah and recalled that no one from Jabesh Gilead had come. This meant that they were not under the obligation of the vow. The men of Israel told men to go and kill every man in that city and also any woman who was not a virgin. They found four hundred young virgins and brought them up to the camp at Shiloh.

The name Jabesh-Gilead means ‘arid’ and its spiritual meaning is in this city’s non-participation in dealing with the problem of the tribe of Benjamin. It stands for our refusal and disinclination to act to progress the spiritual life of the Word and our obedience to it.

But in it are four hundred young virgins who are not part of this non-participation and they can be taken to be wives for the men of Benjamin, to provide a future and an offspring.

“Virgins stand for the Lord’s kingdom, for everyone who is a kingdom of the Lord or a ‘church’, those who love the Lord, those who are in the affection for good, in charity to their neighbour, and those who love what is true. All of this is from the conjugial love which is there in chaste virgins.” (Arcana Caelestia 3081)

But even so, this is not enough to provide sufficient wives for the men of Benjamin. They recall that there is a yearly feast at Shiloh at which the young daughters of Shiloh dance. They tell the men of Benjamin to go there at the time of the feast and when the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance, to each seize a girl and take her away to Benjamin. And if anyone complains about breaking the vow made at Mizpah, it will be told them that this does not apply to the men of Benjamin and to be kind to this taking of wives.

The spiritual meaning of this is that it is essential that the tribe of Benjamin who stand for the link or connection between internal and external states, should have a full complement of wives so that truth and good can be together in producing and preserving this connection for our spiritual wholeness and its life. (Arcana Caelestia 5411)

The final verse of the book of Judges, “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in their own eyes”, very much describes the sequence of the stories in Judges to the point where good and truth, love for the Lord and obedience to the Word, are marginalised, and replaced by one wrong action after another, through to the very end.

The spiritual meaning in these wrong doings can be seen to show their purpose in terms of our spiritual life and regeneration. This is the purpose of them being included in the Word, and while the text is at times harrowing, it contains the basis for giving us the truths which lead to eternal life and the Lord.

5411. 'And Benjamin, Joseph's brother' means the spiritual of the celestial, which is the intermediary. This is clear from the representation of 'Benjamin' as the spiritual of the celestial, dealt with in 4592, where it may also be seen that the spiritual of the celestial is the intermediary. In general it should be recognized that what is internal cannot have any communication with what is external, or conversely what is external with what is internal, unless an intermediary exists. Consequently truth from the Divine, which is 'Joseph', cannot have any communication with the truths that exist as a general whole within the natural, which are 'the sons of Jacob', unless the intermediary that is represented by 'Benjamin' and is called the spiritual of the celestial is present. And to be the intermediary it must partake of both, of both the internal and the external. The reason an intermediary is needed is that the internal and the external are utterly distinct from each other, so distinct that they can be separated from each other, just as a person's external or lowest part, which is his body, can be separated when it dies from his internal part, which is his spirit. The external is dead when the intermediary is severed from it but living when the intermediary is in place; also, the amount and the nature of the life that the external possesses depends on the amount and nature of the life that the intermediary present within it possesses. Because Jacob's sons did not have Benjamin, who is the intermediary, with them, Joseph could not therefore reveal who he was to his brothers. He consequently spoke hard words to them, calling them spies and placing them in custody, as a consequence of which they did not recognize him as Joseph.

[2] But the essential nature of this intermediary represented by 'Benjamin' and called the spiritual of the celestial defies any description that is intelligible. For not even any rough ideas exist about the celestial of the spiritual, which is 'Joseph', or about the truths of the Church existing merely as known facts, which are 'the sons of Jacob', and therefore no rough ideas exist either about the spiritual of the celestial, which is 'Benjamin'. But in the light of heaven the nature of this intermediary is seen as if in broad daylight. Its essential nature is revealed by the use of indescribable representatives seen in the light of heaven, which light at the same time holds perception within it. For the light of heaven is essentially intelligence flowing from the Divine which enables every single thing represented in the light of heaven to be perceived. The same is not so with the light of the world, for that light does not hold any intelligence at all within it; yet the understanding is formed by means of it - by means of the inflowing light of heaven into it, and at the same time by means of the inflowing of the power of perception which the light of heaven contains within itself. This being so, a person dwells in the light of heaven insofar as intelligence exists with him, while intelligence exists with him insofar as the truths of faith do so, and the truths of faith exist with him insofar as the good of love does so. Consequently a person dwells in the light of heaven insofar as the good of love exists with him.