Like so many common verbs, the meaning of "know" in the Bible is varied and dependent on context. And in some cases -- when it is connected to ideas or objects -- its spiritual meaning and natural meaning are essentially the same. When the Bible talks about people knowing each other and especially when it talks about the Lord knowing people, the meaning has more to do with the states of love within people than it does with any factual knowledge. This makes sense if you think about it. When we really "know" somebody, what we mean is that we know what kind of person they are, what their motivations are, what they love, what they hate, what makes them tick. Those things are far more important than knowing their parents' names, where they were born or what year they graduated from school. Most often then, especially applied to people, "knowing" has to do with the perceptions we have about other people's loves and the conjunction that can exist between those with similar loves, not just a collection of facts.

4517. 'To the Canaanite and the Perizzite' means those who are governed by good and truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'the Canaanite' here as those who are governed by the good of the Church, and 'the Perizzite' those who are governed by the truth of the Church. Canaanite and Perizzite have these meanings because the Ancient Church continued to exist in that land among those people, as stated just above in 4516. For in that land there were people who belonged to the Most Ancient Church, see 4447, 4454. There were also those who belonged to the Ancient Church, in particular the one called the Hebrew Church, which was why people from the land of Canaan were in general called the Hebrews, Genesis 40:15, and had altars and offered sacrifices, and why after they had become idolaters the command was frequently given for their altars to be destroyed. Therefore so long as the Church or something like the Church remained with them 'the Canaanites' meant the good of the Church and 'the Perizzites' the truth of the Church. But once everything of the Church with these had reached its end 'Canaanite' means evil and 'Perizzite' falsify, 1573, 1574.