10640. 'Take care, lest by chance you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land onto which you come' means that there is to be no attachment to any sort of religion involving evil. This is clear from the meaning of 'making a covenant' as being joined together, dealt with in the places referred to in 10632, thus also becoming attached to; from the meaning of 'the inhabitants of the land' as a sort of religion involving evil, for good is meant by 'inhabitant', 2268, 2451, 2712, and in the contrary sense evil, while 'the land' means the Church and whatever constitutes the Church, dealt with in the places referred to in 9325, thus also some sort of religion; and from the meaning of 'onto which you come' as wherever some sort of religion involving evil exists, for the nations occupying the land of Canaan into which [the Israelites] were about to come mean evils and the falsities arising from them, see just above in 10638. From all this it is evident that 'lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land onto which you come' means that there is to be no attachment to any sort of religion involving evil.

[2] Since this is one of the chief matters that serve to enlighten a member of the Church when he reads the Word, and since it forms the subject in what comes next, something must be said about what is implied by it. The person who wishes to be enlightened by the Lord must take special care not to embrace any matter of doctrine as his own if it lends support to evil. The person makes it his own when he corroborates it in his own mind, for by doing so he makes it part of his own beliefs, and all the more so if he lives by it. When this happens the evil remains inscribed on his soul and on his heart; and after that has happened he cannot possibly receive any enlightenment from the Lord through the Word. For his whole mind is permeated with a belief in and love of the fundamental idea he has made his own; and anything that goes against that idea he either fails to see, rejects, or falsifies.

[3] Take for example a person who believes that he is saved by faith alone, irrespective of the kind of life he leads, and who has corroborated this idea in his own mind and linked it to all the other teachings he has adopted, to such an extent that he then gives no thought at all to life, only to faith. Afterwards, no matter how much that person reads the Word, he does not see anything in it that has to do with leading a good life. At length he is unaware of what good, charity, and love are; and if they are mentioned he says that they consist altogether in faith alone. Yet faith alone, or faith without them, is like an empty vessel or like something without a soul. The spiritual life of such a person may be compared to lungs breathing without blood flowing into them from the heart, which is not life at all, apart from being like that of an effigy or robot. These things have been stated in order that people may know what the situation is with a person who reads the Word - that he cannot receive any enlightenment at all from it if he has become attached to any sort of religion that lends support to evil.

2451. 'And all the inhabitants of the cities' means that all goods were severed from them so that they might possess nothing but evils. This is clear from the meaning of 'the inhabitants' when they are those of a city, as goods - as may be confirmed from many examples in the Word. This meaning is also evident from the fact that when 'a city' means truth, as has been shown, 'inhabitant' means good, for it is truth that good inhabits. But truth in which there is no good is like an empty or uninhabited city. That in addition to this all goods as well are separated from the evil so that they possess nothing but evils, see above in 2449.