45. The description of the essence of the Divine Love allows us also to see its opposite, the essence of devilish love. Devilish love is self-love, and it goes by the name of love, but regarded in itself is hatred, for it loves no one other than itself, and has no wish to be linked with others for their happiness, but only its own. Its inmost nature is a continual attempt to rule over everyone, to possess everyone's goods, and finally to be adored like a god. This is why the inhabitants of hell do not acknowledge God, but treat as gods those who are more powerful than others; so they have lower and higher, or minor and major deities, depending on the extent of their power. Because each person there has his heart set on that, he has a burning hatred of his own deity; and he in turn of those who are under his control. He looks upon them as worthless servants, to whom he talks politely so long as they worship him, but is fired with rage against the rest, and inwardly or in his heart against his own followers. Self-love is the same as love among thieves, who hug each other when they are engaged in robberies, but later on they ardently long to murder the others and steal their booty from them.

[2] This love is the reason why its desires in hell, where it is sovereign, look at a distance like various kinds of wild beasts; some like foxes and leopards, some like wolves and tigers, some like crocodiles and poisonous snakes. The deserts where they live consist of nothing but piles of stones or bare gravel, interspersed with marshes full of croaking frogs. Mournful birds swoop over their huts wailing. These are the ochim, tziim and iyim mentioned in the prophetic books of the Word which describe the love of domination arising from self-love (Isaiah 13:21; Jeremiah 50:39; Psalms 74:14).

The Bible refers to the Lord in many different ways seemingly interchangeably. Understood in the internal sense, though, there are important differences. To some degree, the meanings all start with "Jehovah," which is the Lord's actual name. It represents the perfect, eternal, infinite love which is the Lord's actual essence. As such it also represents the good will that flows from the Lord to us and His desire for us to be good. "God," meanwhile, represents the wisdom of the Lord and the true knowledge and understanding He offers to us. The term "the Lord" is very close in meaning to "Jehovah," and in many cases is interchangeable (indeed, translators have a tendency to go back and forth). When the two are used together, though, "the Lord" refers to the power of the Lord's goodness, the force it brings, whereas "Jehovah" represents the goodness itself. In the New Testament, the name "Jehovah" is never used; the term "the Lord" replaces it completely. There are two reasons for that. First, the Jews of the day considered the name "Jehovah" too holy to speak or write. Second, they would not have been able to grasp the idea that the Lord -- who was among them in human form at the time -- was in fact Jehovah Himself. This does ultimately lead to a difference in the two terms by the end of the Bible. Thought of as "Jehovah," the Lord is the ultimate human form and has the potential for assuming a physical human body; thought of as "the Lord" He actually has that human body, rendered divine by the events of his physical life.