8365. For I am Jehovah thy healer. That this signifies that the Lord alone preserves from evils, is evident from the signification of “to heal,” as being to cure, and also to preserve from evils, for when “diseases” signify evils, “to heal” signifies a remedy and preservation from them, as also frequently in the Word, thus in Moses:

I kill, and I make alive; I smite and I heal (Deuteronomy 32:39).

Heal me, O Jehovah, that I may be healed; save me that I may be saved (Jeremiah 17:14).

I will make healing to go up unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy plagues (Jeremiah 30:17).

Thou hast turned all his bed in his disease; I said, O Jehovah, have compassion on me: heal my soul because I have sinned to Thee (Psalms 41:3-4).

Besides in many other passages, as Isaiah 6:10; 53:5; 57:18-19; Jeremiah 3:22; 17:14; Hosea 6:1; 7:1; 11:3; 14:4; Zech. 11:16; Psalms 30:2; and elsewhere. And as “healing” has this signification, the Lord also calls Himself a “physician”:

Those who are strong have no need of a physician, but those who are ill; I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance (Matthew 9:12-13; Mark 2:17; Luke 5:31-32).

1581. Separate, I pray, from me. That this signifies that the good cannot appear unless what is discordant is made null is evident from what has just been said; namely, that the internal man desires that which disagrees, in the external man, should separate itself; for until it has been separated, the good which continually flows in from the internal man, that is, from the Lord through the internal man, cannot appear. But as regards this separation, it is to be known that it is not separation, but quiescence. With no one, except the Lord, can the evil that is in the external man be separated. Whatever a man has once acquired, remains; but it seems to be separated when it is quiescent, for thus it appears to be none. Neither does it become quiescent so as to appear as none, except from the Lord; and when it does thus become quiescent, then for the first time do goods flow in from the Lord, and affect the external man. Such is the state of the angels; nor do they know otherwise than that evil has been separated from them; whereas there is only a withholding from the evil, thus a quiescence, so that it appears as none; consequently this is an appearance, as also the angels know when they reflect.