9401. 'Which Jehovah has made [with you] according to all these words' means that the Lord accomplishes the joining together by means of every single part of the Word. This is clear from the meaning of 'the covenant which Jehovah has made' as the joining together accomplished by the Lord, for 'making a covenant' means joining to oneself, 9396, and 'Jehovah' in the Word is the Lord, 9373; and from the meaning of 'all these words' as every single part of the Word, for in the overall sense the laws declared from Mount Sinai mean the whole of Divine Truth, thus the Word in every single part, 6752. Every jot of the Word is inspired, see 7933, 9094 (end), 9198 (end), 9349, and therefore by means of the Word - by means of every single part of it - people are joined to heaven, and through heaven to the Lord.

[2] The Lord is said to accomplish the joining together because the Lord joins a person to Himself, and not the other way round; for all the good of love and truth of faith flows in from the Lord and is received by a person in the measure that he departs from evil ways, 9399. For reciprocal influx, that is to say, from a person to the Lord, which the learned call physical influx, is not possible, 6322, 9110, 9111, 9216. Furthermore whatever goes out of a person, from his own self, cannot be other than evil and consequent falsity, 210, 215, 987, 5660, 5786. From this it is clear that the joining of a person to the Lord is accomplished by the Lord, not by the person. Any indication to the contrary is misleading.

9094. 'And they shall also divide the dead one' means that the injuring affection as well will be dispersed. This is clear from the meaning of 'that which is dead' as evil and falsity, dealt with above in 9008, so that 'a dead ox' means an affection for evil and falsity in the natural, thus an injuring affection since evil causes injury by means of falsity; and from the meaning of 'dividing' as dispersing, as above in 9093. It is not easy to explain in a way that can be understood the nature of the matters contained in the internal sense of this verse. They are such as can be comprehended by angels, but only to some extent by men. For angels see the arcana of the Word in light that flows from the Lord; and in that light countless things are made visible which cannot be put into words, or even into mental pictures that a person could assimilate while living in the body. The reason for this is that with people in the world the light of heaven flows into the light of the world and so into such things there as either eliminate, reject, or darken and thereby weaken the light of heaven, such things being worldly and bodily cares, especially those that flow from self-love and love of the world. This is the reason why the perceptions belonging to angelic wisdom are for the most part beyond description and also beyond comprehension.

[2] However, a person enters into such wisdom after the body has been cast aside, that is, after death, but only the person who, when in the world, received the life of faith and charity from the Lord. The ability to receive that wisdom is held within the good of faith and charity. Much experience too has allowed me to know that the things which angels see and think about in the light of heaven are beyond description. When I have been raised into that light I have seemed to myself to understand everything the angels spoke there. But when I was brought down from there to the light of the external or natural man and in that light wished to recall the things I had heard there, I could not put them into words or even find ideas in my mind to embrace them, except for a few, and even these few in a dim manner. From all this it is evident that the things seen and heard in heaven are such as eye has never seen or ear heard.

[3] This is what the things that lie concealed inmostly in the internal sense of the Word are like. The situation is similar with the contents of the internal sense in this verse and the next. The things there which are capable of being explained and understood are these: All the truths present with a person possess life from affections belonging to some love or other. Truth without life from that source is like a sound emitted by the mouth without an idea behind it, or like a sound made by a mechanical man. From this it is evident that the life of a person's understanding comes from the life of his will, consequently the life of truth from the life of good, since truth occupies the understanding and good the will. If therefore two truths exist which do not receive their life from the same general affection but from dissimilar affections, they are inevitably dispersed since they clash with each other. And when truths are dispersed, the affections they belong to are dispersed as well. For there is a general affection, which brings all the truths present with a person together under it; and that general affection is good. These are the things that are capable of being stated regarding what is meant in the internal sense by two men's oxen, one of which inflicts a blow on the other ox, which as a result dies, and now by the stipulation that the living ox shall be sold, the silver shall be divided, and the dead ox too.

[4] Is there anyone belonging to the Church who does not know that every detail of the Word is Divine? But can anyone see anything Divine in these laws regarding oxen and asses falling into a pit, and regarding oxen striking with their horn, if they are considered and explained only on the level of the sense of the letter? Yet those laws are Divine, even on this level, if at the same time they are considered and explained on the level of the internal sense, because on this level every detail of the Word refers to the Lord, His kingdom and Church, thus to things that are Divine. For if anything is to be Divine and holy it must refer to Divine and holy subjects; the subject to which it refers makes it such. The worldly and civil regulations, such as the judgements, statutes, and laws declared by the Lord from Mount Sinai and contained in this chapter of Exodus and those that follow, are Divine and holy through inspiration. But inspiration is not dictation; rather it is influx from the Divine. What flows in from the Divine passes through heaven, where it is celestial and spiritual. But when it enters the world it becomes worldly, yet holds within itself what is celestial and spiritual. From this it is evident where the Divinity of the Word springs from and where it resides in the Word, and what inspiration is.