9013. 'To kill him with guile' means consequent malice intent on depriving the neighbour of eternal life. This is clear from the meaning of 'killing' as taking faith and charity away from one's neighbour and so depriving him of spiritual life, which is eternal life, dealt with in 6767, 8902; and from the meaning of 'guile' as malice owing to prior thought or premeditation by the will, that is, owing to set purpose. Evil deeds are performed as a result either of enmity, or of hatred, or of vengeance; and they are performed with guile or without guile. But those performed with guile are the worst because guile is like a poison which is infectious and destroys with hellish consumption; for it spreads through the entire mind, right through to its inmost recesses. The reason why is that a person full of guile has his mind on evil. He feeds and delights his understanding with it, and in so doing he destroys everything which is human, that is, which composes life belonging to the good of faith and of charity.

[2] Those who use guile while in the world to ensnare their neighbour in regard to worldly and earthly affairs use guile in the next life to ensnare their neighbour in regard to spiritual and celestial matters. And because they do it in a secret way they are banished to the hells behind the back, to a depth in keeping with the malevolence and harmfulness of their guile, and so are separated from those who are in front. These in front are called spirits, but those behind the back are called genii, 5035, 5977, 8593, 8622, 8625. Genii are not allowed near men as spirits are. For they enter affections belonging to the will, by acting in opposition to the good of love and charity, in so surreptitious a manner that it cannot possibly be detected; and in that way they destroy the truth of faith. In their own hells they place themselves out of sight to their companions; for those who have acted in concealment in the world can place themselves out of sight in the next life. When they make their appearance they look to one another like human beings; but when angels examine them they look like serpents. For they have the nature of serpents, and what goes out of them is like poison, indeed is spiritual poison.

[3] For this reason 'poison' in the Word means guile, and 'poisonous serpents', such as asps, adders, or vipers, means people full of guile, as in David,

In heart you work perversities. Their poison is like the poison of a serpent, like that of the deaf asp. Psalms 58:2, 4.

In the same author,

They think evil things in their heart. They make their tongue sharp, like a serpent; the poison of an asp is under their lips. Psalms 140:2-3.

In Isaiah,

They lay eggs of the asp, and weave spider's webs; he who eats from their eggs dies, and when anyone presses it out a viper is hatched. Isaiah 59:5.

In Job,

He will suck the poison of asps, the tongue of a viper will kill him. Job 20:16.

In Moses,

Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel gall of asps. Deuteronomy 32:33.

In Matthew,

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! How, O serpents, brood of vipers, will you escape the judgement of Gehenna? Matthew 23:29, 33.

[4] Guile is called hypocrisy when people speak in godly ways but are ungodly at heart, or when they have charity on their lips but hatred in their heart, or when they express innocence on their face and in their gestures but have cruelty in their soul and breast; consequently they are those who use innocence, charity, or godliness to deceive. It is they who are meant in the internal sense by 'serpents' and 'vipers', because when such people, as stated above, are examined in the light of heaven by angels they look like serpents and also vipers. They are those who conceal evils under truths, that is, who with guile twist truths in order to perform evil deeds; for they hide poison under their teeth, so to speak, and kill by means of it.

[5] But those who are led by the Lord, believing what is true and leading a good life, cannot suffer injury from their poisons, since they live in light received from the Lord, and in that light those full of guile are seen as serpents and their guile as poison. Their preservation by the Lord is meant by the Lord's words to His disciples,

Behold, I give you the power to trample on serpents and scorpions. Luke 10:19.

In Mark,

These signs will follow believers: They will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly it will not hurt them. Mark 16:17-18.

And in Isaiah,

A suckling will play over the viper's hole. Isaiah 11:8.

[6] People inwardly corrupted with spiritual guile, that is, with hypocrisy, are the ones who are meant by those speaking against the Holy Spirit, for whom there is no forgiveness, in Matthew,

I say to you, Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy of the Spirit will not be forgiven people. Indeed if anyone speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but he who speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the one to come. Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad. O brood of vipers, how can you speak good when you are evil? Matthew 12:31-34.

'Speaking a word against the Holy Spirit' means speaking well of things that belong to the Lord, to His kingdom and Church, and also to the Word, but thinking ill of them; and doing well in respect of them while desiring what is ill. For falsity then lies hidden within the truths they speak, and evil in the good deeds they perform, which is the hidden poison. This is why they are called 'a brood of vipers'.

[7] In the next life an evil person is allowed to speak what is evil and also false, but not what is good and true, because all there are impelled to speak from the heart and not to have a divided mind. Those who do other than that are separated from the rest and hidden away in hells from which they can never come out. The fact that people such as these are meant by those speaking a word against the Holy Spirit is clear from the Lord's words there, 'Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad. How can you speak good when you are evil?' The Holy Spirit is Divine Truth emanating from the Lord, thus that which is holy and Divine, which is thereby blasphemed and profaned on an inward level.

[8] The reason why such blasphemy is not forgiven them is that hypocrisy or guile involving things that are holy and Divine corrupts a person inwardly and destroys everything of spiritual life with him, as stated above, at length so completely that there is no soundness anywhere in him. For the forgiveness of sins consists in evil being separated from good and cast away to the sides, 8393. But this cannot be done for someone with whom all good has been destroyed; and this is why it says, 'It will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the one to come'. These are also the kind of people who are meant by the one who was not wearing a wedding garment, who was bound hand and foot and cast into outer darkness, Matthew 22:11-13; see 2132.

[9] The fact that 'guile' in the Word is hypocrisy is clear from the following places: In Jeremiah,

Take heed, a man of his companion, and put no trust in any brother, for every brother supplants wholly. They deceive, a man with his companion, and do not speak the truth; they have taught their tongue to speak a lie. Your habitation is in the midst of guile; on account of guile they have refused to know Me, said Jehovah. Jeremiah 9:4-6.

In David,

You will destroy those speaking a lie; Jehovah abhors the man of blood ¹ and guile. Psalms 5:6.

In the same author,

Blessed is the person to whom Jehovah does not impute iniquity; only let there be no guile in his spirit. Psalms 32:2.

In the same author,

Deliver my soul from lying lips, from a guileful tongue. ² Psalms 120:2.

Like examples occur in Psalms 52:4; Psalms 109:2.

Poznámky pod čarou:

4503. 'The sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and plundered the city' means that all his descendants destroyed that doctrine. This is clear from the meaning of 'the sons of Jacob' as descendants from Jacob, dealt with above; from the meaning of 'plundering' as destroying; and from the meaning of 'the city' as the doctrine of the Church, dealt with above in 4500. Simeon and Levi's going away after they had killed every male in the city as well as Hamor and Shechem, and then Jacob's sons' coming upon the slain and plundering the city, involves an arcanum, the meaning of which is not evident except from the internal sense.

[2] That arcanum is this: After the truth and good of the Church which are represented by 'Simeon and Levi' were wiped out and falsity and evil took their place, further falsities and evils were added, which are meant in the contrary sense by the rest of Jacob's sons. Each son of Jacob represented some general aspect of faith and charity, as has been shown in 2129, 3858, 3913, 3926, 3939, 4060.

Which aspect is represented by each, see the following:

Reuben, 3861, 3866, 3870;

Judah, 3881;

Dan, 3921-3923;

Naphtali, 3927, 3928;

Gad, 3934, 3935;

Asher, 3938, 3939;

Issachar, 3956, 3957;

Zebulun, 3960, 3961.

These general aspects of faith and charity which those sons represented become falsities and evils of that kind once the truth and good of the Church have been wiped out and those further falsities and evils have been added to them; for falsities and evils are constantly on the increase within the Church once it has been perverted and wiped out. It is these added falsities and evils that are meant by the reference to Jacob's sons coming upon the slain and plundering the city after Simeon and Levi had killed every male in the city as well as Hamor and Shechem, and had taken Dinah and gone away.

[3] That 'the slain' in the Word means truths and goods which have been wiped out may be seen from the following places: In Isaiah,

You are cast out from your sepulchre like an abominable branch, a garment of the killed - slain with the sword - who go down to the stones of the pit like a dead body trodden underfoot. Isaiah 14:19.

This refers to Babel. 'Those slain with the sword' stands for those who have profaned the truths of the Church. In the same prophet,

So that their slain are cast out and the stench of their dead bodies rises up. Isaiah 34:3.

This refers to the falsities and evils which infest the Church, 'the slain' standing for these.

[4] In Ezekiel,

The violent of the nations will draw the sword against the beauty of your wisdom, and they will profane your loveliness. They will bring you down into the pit and you will die the deaths of those slain in the midst of the seas. Ezekiel 28:7-8.

This refers to the prince of Tyre who means the leading cognitions of truth and good. 'Dying the deaths of those slain in the midst of the seas' stands for those who use facts to hatch falsities and in consequence defile the truths of the Church.

[5] In the same prophet,

They also will go down with them into hell, to those slain with the sword. You will be made to go down with the trees of Eden into the nether world, in the midst of the uncircumcised you will lie with those slain with the sword. Ezekiel 31:17-18.

In the same prophet,

Go down and lie with the uncircumcised; they will fall in the midst of those slain with the sword; the chief of the powerful ones will speak to him in the midst of hell. Ezekiel 32:19-21.

This refers to Pharaoh and Egypt. 'Those slain with the sword' stands for those who by their use of knowledge become insane; by their use of it they destroy all belief in the truth known to the Church.

[6] In David,

I have been reckoned with them going down to the pit; I have become as a man with no strength, neglected among the dead, like the slain lying in the sepulchre whom you remember no more and who have been cut off by your hand.

'The slain' in hell - those in the pit and 'in the sepulchre' - stands for those who have destroyed the truths and goods residing with them by means of falsities and evils. Anyone can recognize that these are not in hell merely because they have been slain with the sword.

[7] In Isaiah,

A city of tumults, an exultant city, [your slain] have not been slain with the sword, and they have not been killed in war. All who have been found in you have been bound together in chains. They have fled from far away. Isaiah 22:2-3.

This refers to the illusions resulting from the evidence of the senses which do not enable the truths of the Church to be seen. It refers therefore to people subject to negative doubt, and these are called 'slain but not with the sword'.

[8] In Ezekiel,

I am bringing a sword upon you and destroying your high places; and your altars will be destroyed, and your statues will be broken; and I will cause your slain to lie before your idols. When the slain have fallen in the midst of you, you will know that I am Jehovah. Then you will acknowledge, when the slain are in the midst of their idols, around their altar. Ezekiel 6:3-4, 7, 13.

'The slain' stands for those who are governed by falsities of doctrine.

[9] In the same prophet,

Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain. They went forth and smote in the city. Ezekiel 9:7.

This is a prophetic vision. 'Defiling the house and filling the courts with the slain' stands for profaning goods and truths. In the same prophet,

You have multiplied your slain in this city, and have filled its streets with the slain. Therefore said the Lord Jehovih, Your slain whom you have placed in the midst of it, they are the flesh, and that is the pot; and he will lead you out from the midst of it. Ezekiel 11:6-7.

[10] Because 'the slain' meant those who have annihilated the truths of the Church by means of falsities and evils, therefore also in the representative Church those who touched one who had been slain were unclean. Such persons are referred to in Moses as follows,

Everyone who has touched on the surface of the field one slain with the sword, or one dead, or a human bone, or a sepulchre will be unclean for seven days. Numbers 19:16, 18.

Inquiry was therefore made and atonement effected by means of a heifer. In the same author,

If one is found slain, lying in the field, and it is not known who smote him, then the elders of the city and the judges shall come out and they shall measure [the distance] to the cities which are around the one slain. It shall be, that in the city nearest to the one slain the elders of that city shall take a heifer by means of which no work has been done, which has not pulled in the yoke, and they shall bring it down to the river or valley, and there they shall break the heifer's neck. And they shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck has been broken and shall say, Our hands have not shed blood, and our eyes have not seen it. Expiate Your people Israel, O Jehovah, and do not set innocent blood in the midst of Your people; and the blood shall be expiated for them. Deuteronomy 21:1-8.

[11] These laws were laid down because one who has been slain means the perversion, destruction, and profanation of the truth of the Church by means of falsity and evil, as is evident from each detail in the internal sense. The expression 'one slain, lying in the field' is used because 'the field' means the Church, see 2971, 3310, 3766. 'A heifer by means of which no work has been done' means the innocence of the external man which is present within ignorance. Without a clear knowledge of these things meant in the internal sense everyone will be surprised that a procedure such as this for making expiation should ever have been ordained.