Arcana Coelestia # 3875
3875. And said, Now this time will my man cleave to me. That this signifies in the supreme sense love and mercy, in the internal sense charity, in the external sense conjunction, and in the present case spiritual love, is evident from the signification of “to cleave.” That in the external or proximately interior sense “to cleave” is conjunction, is evident without explication. That in the internal sense “to cleave” is charity, is evident from the fact that charity, or what is the same thing, mutual love, is spiritual conjunction; for it is a conjunction of the affections of the will, and a consequent agreement of the thoughts of the understanding; thus it is a conjunction of minds as to both parts. That in the supreme sense “to cleave” is love and mercy, is hence manifest, for the infinite and eternal which is predicated of charity or spiritual love, is mercy, which is the Divine love toward the human race, sunk as it is in such great miseries. For as of himself man is nothing but evil, and as that which is in him, so far as it is from him, is nothing else than infernal, and as he is looked upon by the Lord from Divine love, his elevation out of the hell in which he is of himself, and his deliverance, is called “mercy.” Hence, because mercy is from the Divine love, by “to cleave,” in the supreme sense, there is signified both love and mercy.
[2] That in the internal sense “to cleave” signifies spiritual love, or what is the same, charity toward the neighbor, may be seen also from other passages in the Word; as in Isaiah:
Let not the son of the stranger that cleaveth to Jehovah, speak, saying, Jehovah in separating separates me from His people. The sons of the stranger that cleave unto Jehovah, to minister unto Him, and to love the name of Jehovah, shall be His servants (Isaiah 56:3, 6);
“to cleave unto Jehovah” denotes to observe the commandments, which is of spiritual love; for no one observes the commandments of God from the heart, except the man who is in the good of charity toward the neighbor.
In Jeremiah:
In those days the sons of Israel shall come, they and the sons of Judah, going and weeping shall they go, and shall seek Jehovah their God. They shall ask Zion concerning the way, thither shall their faces be, Come ye and let us cleave to Jehovah with an everlasting covenant that shall not be forgotten (Jeremiah 50:4-5); where “to cleave to Jehovah” in like manner denotes to observe the commandments from the heart, that is, from the good of charity.
[3] In Zechariah:
Many nations shall cleave to Jehovah in that day, and shall be My people (Zech. 2:11); where the sense is the same.
In Isaiah:
Jehovah will have compassion on Jacob, and will again choose Israel, and set them in their own land; and the sojourner shall cleave to them, and they shall join themselves unto the house of Jacob (Isaiah 14:1);
“the sojourner cleaving to them” denotes being in a similar observance of the law; “to join themselves unto the house of Jacob” signifies to be in the good of charity, in which they are who are signified by the “house of Jacob.”
In Matthew:
No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will cleave to the one and despise the other (Matthew 6:24); where “to love” denotes the celestial of love; and “to cleave” the spiritual of love; both are mentioned because they are distinct, otherwise it would have been sufficient to mention one.
[4] They who are in spiritual love are on this account called the “sons of Levi,” as in Malachi:
Who may abide the day of His coming, and who shall stand when He appeareth? He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver (Malachi 3:2-3).
That in the supreme sense the Lord is signified by “Levi,” from His Divine love and mercy toward those who are in spiritual love, may be seen in the same prophet:
That ye may know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that My covenant might be with Levi, saith Jehovah Zebaoth; my covenant shall be with him of life and peace. Ye are turned aside out of the way; ye have caused many to stumble in the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi. Therefore I have made you contemptible (Malachi 2:4-5, 8-9).
And as in the supreme sense “Levi” signifies the Lord’s Divine love or mercy, and in the internal sense spiritual love, therefore the tribe of Leviticus was made the priesthood; for in the internal sense of the Word the “priesthood” is nothing else than the holy of love; and the “royalty” the holy of faith (see n. 1728, 2015, 3670).
[5] As by the expression “to cleave,” from which Leviticus was named, there is signified spiritual love, which is the same as mutual love, by the same expression in the original tongue there is also signified a mutual giving and receiving; and in the Jewish Church by mutual giving and receiving there was represented mutual love, concerning which of the Lord’s Divine mercy elsewhere. Mutual love differs from friendship in this respect-that mutual love regards the good which is in a man, and because it is directed to good, it is directed to him who is in good; but friendship regards the man; and this also is mutual love when it regards the man from good, or for the sake of good; but when it does not regard him from good or for the sake of good, but for the sake of self which it calls good, then friendship is not mutual love, but approaches the love of self, and insofar as it approaches this, so far it is opposite to mutual love. In itself mutual love is nothing else than charity toward the neighbor; for by the neighbor in the internal sense nothing else is signified than good, and in the supreme sense the Lord, because all good is from Him, and He is good itself (n. 2425, 3419). This mutual love or charity toward the neighbor is what is meant by spiritual love, and is signified by “Levi.”
[6] Moreover in the Word both celestial love and conjugial love are in the sense of the letter expressed by the expression “to cleave,” but from a word in the original tongue different from that from which Leviticus was named. This word signifies a still closer conjunction, as in the following passages.
In Moses:
Thou shalt fear Jehovah thy God; Him shalt thou serve, and to Him shalt thou cleave (Deuteronomy 10:20).
Ye shall walk after Jehovah your God, and fear Him, and keep His commandments, and hear His voice, and ye shall serve Him and cleave unto Him (Deuteronomy 13:4).
To love Jehovah your God, and to walk in all His ways, and to cleave unto Him (Deuteronomy 11:22).
To love Jehovah thy God, to obey His voice, and to cleave unto Him; for He is thy life (Deuteronomy 30:20).
In Joshua:
Take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of Jehovah commanded you, to love Jehovah your God, and to walk in all His ways, and to keep His commandments, and to cleave unto Him, and to serve Him with all your heart, and with all your soul (Josh. 22:5).
In the second book of Kings:
King Hezekiah trusted in Jehovah the God of Israel. He clave to Jehovah, he departed not from following Him, but kept His commandments, which Jehovah commanded Moses (2 Kings 18:5-6).
In Jeremiah:
As a girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto Me the whole house of Israel, and the whole house of Judah; that they might be unto Me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for adornment; and they have not obeyed (Jeremiah 13:11).
[7] That conjugial love also is expressed by “cleaving” is manifest from the following passages:
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh (Genesis 2:24).
For your hardness of heart, Moses wrote this commandment; but from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female; for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they twain shall be one flesh; what therefore God hath joined together let not man put asunder (Mark 10:5-9; Matthew 19:5).
The soul of Shechem clave to Dinah the daughter of Jacob; he loved the damsel, and spake to the heart of the damsel (Genesis 34:3).
Solomon loved many strange women; Solomon clave to these in love (1 Kings 11:1-2).
From all this it is now evident that “to cleave” is a term of love, received into use by the churches in ancient times, which churches were in significatives; and that in the internal sense it denotes nothing else than spiritual conjunction, which is charity and love.
Deuteronomy 11
1
Therefore you shall love Yahweh your God, and keep his instructions, and his statutes, and his ordinances, and his commandments, always.
2
Know this day: for I don't speak with your children who have not known, and who have not seen the chastisement of Yahweh your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, and his outstretched arm,
3
and his signs, and his works, which he did in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and to all his land;
4
and what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses, and to their chariots; how he made the water of the Red Sea to overflow them as they pursued after you, and how Yahweh has destroyed them to this day;
5
and what he did to you in the wilderness, until you came to this place;
6
and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben; how the earth opened its mouth, and swallowed them up, and their households, and their tents, and every living thing that followed them, in the midst of all Israel:
7
but your eyes have seen all the great work of Yahweh which he did.
8
Therefore you shall keep all the commandment which I command you this day, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land, where you go over to possess it;
9
and that you may prolong your days in the land, which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give to them and to their seed, a land flowing with milk and honey.
10
For the land, where you go in to possess it, isn't as the land of Egypt, that you came out from, where you sowed your seed, and watered it with your foot, as a garden of herbs;
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but the land, where you go over to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, [and] drinks water of the rain of the sky,
12
a land which Yahweh your God cares for: the eyes of Yahweh your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year even to the end of the year.
13
It shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to my commandments which I command you this day, to love Yahweh your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,
14
that I will give the rain of your land in its season, the former rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, and your new wine, and your oil.
15
I will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full.
16
Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them;
17
and the anger of Yahweh be kindled against you, and he shut up the sky, so that there shall be no rain, and the land shall not yield its fruit; and you perish quickly from off the good land which Yahweh gives you.
18
Therefore you shall lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul; and you shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for symbols between your eyes.
19
You shall teach them your children, talking of them, when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up.
20
You shall write them on the door posts of your house, and on your gates;
21
that your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give them, as the days of the heavens above the earth.
22
For if you shall diligently keep all this commandment which I command you, to do it, to love Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cling to him;
23
then will Yahweh drive out all these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves.
24
Every place whereon the sole of your foot shall tread shall be yours: from the wilderness, and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even to the hinder sea shall be your border.
25
No man shall be able to stand before you: Yahweh your God shall lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you shall tread on, as he has spoken to you.
26
Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse:
27
the blessing, if you shall listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, which I command you this day;
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and the curse, if you shall not listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which you have not known.
29
It shall happen, when Yahweh your God shall bring you into the land where you go to possess it, that you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim, and the curse on Mount Ebal.
30
Aren't they beyond the Jordan, behind the way of the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the Arabah, over against Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh?
31
For you are to pass over the Jordan to go in to possess the land which Yahweh your God gives you, and you shall possess it, and dwell therein.
32
You shall observe to do all the statutes and the ordinances which I set before you this day.
